Song 114 ( Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick )

For my third Sunday of 'Tull eras I am choosing Thick As A Brick.
In my opinion the third era consists of their 4th through their 7th albums. Some Tull fans would include albums 7 through 9 as well, but I find these albums to be different artistically and lyrically as well as in feeling.
During to this era Glenn Cornick left for personal reasons and Ian's friend Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond replaced him on bass starting on the Aqualung album. Clive Bunker also left the band after the Aqualung album because he did not like the touring lifestyle and he had to get married. He was replaced by arguably their best drummer to date: Barriemore Barlow.
Aqualung, on side one is more of a normal album with most songs that have little to do with each other. Side two is mostly is an attack on organized religions' and how they mistreat God. Thick As A Brick was written because critics referred to Aqualung as a concept album, which it was not. He decided to release 'the mother of all concept albums' and make a 45 minute rock opera.
Funny enough, Ian made up a story about a child prodigy named Gerald 'Little Milton' Bostock co-writing the album with him, which a lot of people thought it was true; even to this day he gives credit to Gerald Bostock to continue the joke. Also another piece to note is that the newspaper that was the album's cover took more time to make than writing and recording the music. Also from an interview that I heard with Ian Anderson he told the story behind the album and also thought that it would be fun making a newspaper as an album cover. He also said that the same year John Lennon made the album Sometime in New York City with a newspaper as the cover art, but it came out slightly after Thick As A Brick. When John Lennon found out about Thick As A Brick he wanted to change his album cover, but I guess it was too late in the process.
The album Living In The Past is an anomaly in this era, it consists of previously unreleased material, live material, and some new material; the new material was also released as an EP as well. However, the new material is very similar to this era, so I add it as part of it.

The radio edit of this song is probably one of their most famous, the whole album is very good as well. All of the musicians are incredible on this album, which makes it quite a treat to listen to.

Someone actually posted the entire song/album.
Here is the first section of the piece on YouTube.
Here is the second section of the piece on YouTube.
Here is the third section of the piece on YouTube.
Here is the fourth section of the piece on YouTube.
Here is the final section of the piece on YouTube.
Here is their live performance of the song from Madison Square Garden '78.

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