JETHRO TULL - ‘A Passion Play’ [An Extended Performance]

Jethro Tull‘s 1973 album ‘A Passion Play’ is returning to stores, with a fresh remastering job and loads of bonus material in tow. Originally released in July 1973, ‘Passion’ served as the proper follow-up to 1972's smash hit ‘Thick as a Brick,’ and found the band working overtime to come up with new material before a scheduled tour. The pressure was on after initial attempts to record a double LP at the Chateau d’Herouville in France ended in ruin.

“Our original plan was not to make another concept album,” explained frontman Ian Anderson. “The project started off as a collection of songs, including two that ended up going onto our next album ‘War Child’: ‘Bungle in the Jungle’ and ‘Skating Away (On the Thin Ice of the New Day).’ A certain theme had begun to emerge among the songs — how the animal life is mirrored in the dog-eat-dog world of human society — but the project just wasn’t working out. So we abandoned what we’d done and went back to England.”

After “almost completely rewriting” that material, Anderson sensed a unifying theme. “The concept grew out of wondering about the possible choices one might face after death. It was a dark album, just as we had intended, but it was missing some of the fun and variety that was in ‘Thick as a Brick,’” he admitted. “The critics savaged us. … We got a fair old pasting for that one. On reflection, the album is a bit one-dimensional. It’s certainly not one of my favorites, although it has become something of a cult album with some fans.”

DISC 1 - A Passion Play (A new Steven Wilson stereo mix):
01. Lifebeats/Prelude
02. The Silver Cord
03. Re-Assuring Tune
04. Memory Bank
05. Best Friends
06. Critique Oblique
07. Forest Dance #1
08. The Story Of The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles
09. Forest Dance #2
10. The Foot Of Our Stairs (+ 2 extra verses found on end of multi-track reel)
11. Overseer Overture.
12. Flight From Lucifer
13. 10.08 to Paddington
14. Magus Perde
15. Epilogue

DISC 2 - The Chateau d'Herouville Sessions (A new Steven Wilson stereo mix):
01. The Big Top
02. Scenario
03. Audition
04. Skating Away
05. Sailor
06. No Rehearsal
07. Left Right
08. Solitaire
09. Critique Oblique (Part I)
10. Critique Oblique (Part II)
11. Animelee (1st Dance) [Instrumental]
12. Animelee (2nd Dance) [Instrumental]
13. Law Of The Bungle (Part I)
14. Tiger
15. Law Of The Bungle (Part II)                                                                                                              http://fp.io/m351cf9d/