In 1972, the band Jethro Tull released their only true masterpiece, Thick as a Brick, a nominal concept album, which in a post-modern twist poked fun at the entire idea of concept albums.
According conventional interpretations, Thick as a Brick was a complete lark, a send-up of the pretentiousness of art rock groups like Yes, ELP, and King Crimson, who devoted entire albums to highfalutin and often half-baked concepts.
Fans and critics have generally accepted that Thick as a Brick was an entirely tongue-in-cheek affair; that Gerald Bostock, the 8-year old child prodigy who supposedly supplied the poem that Thick as Brick was based upon, was nothing more than the fictional alter-ego of that mad-cap musical genius, Ian Anderson, the driving force of Tull.
Now, some 42 years later, the truth behind Thick as Brick can be told. This truth might never have surfaced, but for the fact that Ian Anderson has recently released the follow-up to Thick as a Brick, TAAB2, which allegedly imagines the possible life trajectories of Gerald Bostock, had he been real and was now grown up. In fact, Gerald Bostock was and is the real inspiration behind the Thick as Brick trilogy (the third installment is scheduled to be released on the occasion of Ian Anderson 96th birthday in 2043, shortly before the commencement of a Tull reunion tour). Let me explain.
In the 1970s, record companies routinely employed creative child prodigies to concoct concepts which dim-witted and often drug-addled rock groups could claim as their own. The concept behind Tales from Topographic Oceans, for instance, was dreamt up by one very precocious 3-year old, who also supplied the lyrics. This practice was later outlawed, on the grounds that it amounted to an exploitation of child labor, which may go a long way to explaining why there has been such a dearth of substantive music since the mid 70s.
To make a long story short, an eight-year old named Gerald Bostock really did supply Ian Anderson with the Thick as Brick concept, which he envisioned as a three-part trilogy. However, rather than split the royalties with young Master Bostock as agreed, Mr. Anderson did what many rock stars of his era did; he bought himself a private island where he is lord and master. Gerald Bostock, feeling swindled and betrayed, had a nervous breakdown at the age of nine.
Gerald Bostock suffers from what clinical psychologists refer to as multiple-personality disorder. In the intervening years, Mr. Bostock has drifted and wandered aimlessly in life; he has been a televangelist, a stockbroker, and music executive. In each of these careers, he has skirted the law and ignored morality. In this regard, he is not unlike many of his successful peers. However, despite outward success, Mr Bostock lacks the one true ingredient necessary for a good life; a solid psychological core. As a result, Mr. Bostock has subsequently gone into the one field where a stable mind is not essential: literary criticism.
Many of Mr. Bostock’s parallel lives are depicted in TAAB2. It is a shame that he is written off as a fictional character when the truth is that his life – or multiple life paths – are the real inspiration for the Thick as a Brick concept pilfered by Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull.
All this said, the music on the new album is quite good. Indeed, I would describe it as fresh, exciting, but also very much in the proud tradition of Jethro Tull. It’s a worthy successor to the original Thick as Brick album. Tull fans should be pleased, but the music deserves to win new converts too. Ian Anderson may not be the genius behind the Thick as a Brick concept; that distinction lies with Gerald Bostock, who currently resides in an asylum of sorts somewhere outside of London. However, there little doubt that Anderson is the only front man both zany and talented enough to sell the Thick as Brick concept to a public that is quite literally as thick as a brick.
4/3/2012 Professor G.B
