LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

In the early 1970s, the Billboard Top 200 was Jethro Tull's oyster: they started the decade with Benefit going to #11 in 1970, took Aqualung to #7 the following year, and by '72, they'd made it all the way to the top spot with Thick as a Brick. Today, though, we're here to talk about their second chart-topping album, which followed immediately on the heels of their first: 1973's A Passion Play, released on July 6 in the UK and July 23 here in the States.

The process of recording A Passion Play was a bit unique for Tull, starting with the fact that it was the first time they'd recorded a new album with the same lineup as they'd had on the previous album. (To say that the band's membership had a tendency to fluctuate a bit is rather like saying, "Spinal Tap had a few drummers.") There was also a problem in the studio in which they'd begun recording the album - the Chateau d'Herouville near Paris, home to such classic albums as Elton John's Honky Chateau and Pink Floyd's Obscured by Clouds - which led the band to give up the ghost and shift locations, setting aside the hour or so of music they'd recorded and start anew elsewhere.

In the end, A Passion Play turned out rather well, but if you know the saga of the album and have always wanted to hear what might've been as well as what ultimately was, then you'll want to pick up A Passion Play (Extended Performance), now in stores, which features two CDs and two DVDs packaging in a case-bound book and includes the original album and the Chateau d'Herouville sessions, both mixed to 5.1 surround sound and with new stereo mixes by Steven Wilson.

And, yes, LP lovers, we've got your back: there's also a 180-gram vinyl edition featuring the new stereo mix of the original album.

A heavyweight vinyl edition of Steven Wilson's 2014 stereo mix of Jethro Tull's most ambitious conceptual release.

Presented in a gatefold cover with a 24 page 12" x 12" booklet featuring notes on the mix by Steven Wilson and an article by the Rev Godfrey Pilchard.

Side 1:

1. Lifebeats/Prelude
2. The Silver Cord
3. Re-Assuring Tune
4. Memory Bank
5. Best Friends
6. Critique Oblique
7. Forest Dance #1

Side 2:

1. The Story Of The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles
2. Forest Dance #2
3. The Foot Of Our Stairs (+ 2 extra verses found on the end of the multi-track reel)
4. Overseer Overture.
5. Flight From Lucifer
6. 10.08 to Paddington
7. Magus Perde
8. Epilogue