Jehtro Tull- Thick as a Brick Sequel
 

Ian Anderson (not under the moniker of Jethro Tull) is putting out "Thick as a Brick" part 2 for release this Spring. He is also going to tour-- playing the original "Thick as a Brick" in its entirety for the first time in 40-years, plus the entire sequel as well. For Tull fans, like myself, this is fantastic.

Here's two links. The first has video and audio samples of the new "TAAB," and they sound good.



A Message from Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick 2 (Blog) | CONCERT BLAST!

Oh hell, not a sequel to this album!

:laughing:

Man, Tull certainly gets no love here...

I rank TAAB and APP as two of my favorite albums of all time, so I'm counting down the minutes to the release. I just hope Ian Anderson's voice can hold up. It has never been the same since his throat surgery in the late 80's, and the last time I saw him live he was really struggling, but he sounds good in the clip. I guess we'll see.

Or, I guess *I'll see* and let everyone else know :wave:

I'm sort of neutral about them. I was just chuckling because US was just knocking TAAB yesterday in the album wars thread.

Just saw that thread and chimed in... my vote obviously went to TAAB

He put out Thick as a Brick as a joke almost, taking the piss out of Prog bands by releasing a big double album and I am not a fan of it too much but I do like Tull 75% of the time.

Would have loved to have seen Tull in their prime though.

You're right, but he said that publicly from day one. He was unhappy that Aqualung was labeled a concept prog album. Anderson didn't want Tull labeled as anything except for Jethro Tull, so he took the biggest stab he could at the Prog genre by creating the first single song album, and claiming the lyrics were written by the fictions 10-year old character Gerald Bostock, but in the process, he created one of the seminal prog albums of the original wave of progressive rock.

For me, Tull's output from '71 starting with Aqualung through '79's Stormwatch is almost completely flawless, and during that period (71- 79), they were more prolific than most any other band, releasing 9 studio albums and 1 live album.

Songs From The Wood and Heavy Horses are almost perfect for me.

I would say that period is Tull's best as well, RMR. I don't know about the sequel, you saw what happened with Operation Mindcrime II. Disappointment. I guess I'll just have to wait untull I hear it, I'm still going to give it a try even if it might turn out to be a letdown.

Do we have a title yet...?

Sweet as Concrete

Content as Cement

Shorter as Mortar

Drab as a Slab

Bangkok as a Cinder Block

Thick as a Brick 2: Electric Boogaloo?

If the sequel doesn't rhyme I'm gonna flip a bitch.

Fat as a matt.

If it's an Ian Anderson solo record and not a reformation of Jethro Tull, then a good title could be "Outdated as I am Overrated".

Hirsute with a flute.

Good call and analogy on Operation Mindcrime II. I was actually thinking the same thing. I loved the first one, and I had high hopes for the sequel. I will say that I thought Mindcrime II was the best album Queensryche had released since Mindcrime-1, and I enjoyed it for about a month, but I have not pulled it off the shelf since then.

I'm not expecting TAAB2 to be nearly as good as the original, but I'm hoping for a solid Tull/ Anderson release that is memorable and spends an extended time in my listening rotation. I really think Anderson still has the musical prowess; I just don't know if his voice has enough power to carry the album. TAAB is such an important album to me, so I can only hope.

i thought there was already a Thick as a Brick Part 2

shouldn't it be Thick as a Brick 3?

anyways, about sequels, i quite enjoyed Tubular Bells 2 - i know lots of people hate it, but a synthy-poppy version of it is nice (to me, at least)

Looking forward to this! The original TAAB was great so hopefully Anderson can put out a quality album that does justice to the original masterwork.

I already know you love A Passion Play which is even more painful than the brick, but do you actually think War Child, Minstrel in the Gallery and the dire Too Old To Rock`n`Roll-Too Young To Die to be good albums?

i'm not really bothered to trifle with any of that, but Crest of a Knave is quite good

and despite what people say about it, of coz it's "metal", it's power metal lite

Yep, it certainly was proto power metal with a flute.

Crest of a Knave sounds like Jethro Tull trying to make a Dire Straits album.

Anyways, I'm quite fond of Thick as a Brick and so will look forward to this with interest. I'm not sure it's going to be flawless, but so what? It's the first time during my lifetime I can remember that Ian Anderson has done a musical project that I was personally interested in and I consider that a good thing.

^^don't get me started on Dire Straits

suffice to say I like them

I love Dire Straits, just not Jethro Tull's imitation of them.

I think the Dire Shits are just dire.

because they kicked you out of the band just as they were getting famous?

Can't say I've been a fan of Jethro Tull, but when someone reuses the name of something that has been popular for them in the past it makes me wonder if they are just trying to cash in on their past success.

doesn't every baby boom band do that?

what has the current Yes got to do with the classic Yes (they're using a guy from a tribute band as their vocalist now)?

or the current Who? (besides 2 original surviving members, and one whose larynx is shot to hell)

To me, it seems Ian was always quite proud of that album so it does not surprise me that he'd want to do a follow-up. I don't think it's a style of music that will be particularly sellable today so I doubt he's only doing it for financial reasons.

I'd say the same about others too.

Note... I mentioned *almost* flawless, but I do love all those albums...

Minstrel takes some time to warm up to, but I rank it as one of my favorite Tull albums. The title track is one of their best. I love how it switches back and forth between acoustic and electric doing the the same verses both ways. Then you have Ian's divorce songs that are just bursting with emotion. Plus, you have the the epic 16+ minute "Baker Street Muse," which is not only an underrated Tull epic, but an underrated Prog epic that is rarely mentioned anywhere.

Warchild is the most subtle of the Tull albums in that period, especially side-1, but I like all the songs.... "Sea Lion," "Skating away"... and all the songs eventually grow on you. Too Old is definitely the weakest of Tull's 70's output, but it is still great. For me, Ian's vocals are just so confident during this period that if you like his vocals, every song just sounds like a winner, and his stage presence during live shows is almost unmatched. I rank him as one of the all time best front men, along with Jagger and Freddie Mercury. Here's a clip from Minstrel, Warchild, and Too Old

The Crest of a Knave Dire Straits comparison always comes up. Ian had his throat surgery right before the album, and as a result he never sounded the same to me... but he did sound almost just like Mark Knopfler, which is where I think all the Dire Straits comparisons come from. Musically, I don't think Crest sounds that similar to Dire, but Anderson could certainly do voice overs for Knopfler at that time.

Crest is also commonly hailed as Tull's comeback album, but it never did much for me, and although I own the post 70's Tull albums, their peak really ended for me after 82's Broadsword and the Beast, which I think is a solid album.