An
introduction to "A Passion Play"
In 1972 Jethro Tull went to France to record the
follow-up to 'Thick As A Brick' at the Château
d'Hérouville studios. After working for months on a new
double album, Ian called the sessions off, being
unsatisfied with the way the recorded tracks sounded. The
album was never completed. Some musical ideas and bits of
lyrics were recycled for 'A Passion Play'. (Only two
songs from these sessions appeared two years later on the
'Warchild' album. About fifty minutes of these so called
'Château d'Isaster' tapes were released on 'Nightcap' in
1993).
In the 17 days, that were left before the next US-tour
would start, Jethro Tull in 1973 recorded and released
their most disputed and controversial album: 'A Passion
Play'. Anderson has been quoted as saying that that album
is about the dichotomy of good and evil. It is an
exceedingly complicated album to understand: music and
lyrics ask a real effort from the listener. The music is
so complex because - though presented as one long piece
of music - the album consists of a series different,
rather laboured, artificial pieces. The lyrics are
difficult to interpret as Ian uses imagery from c.q.
refers to classic literature like Dante's Inferno and the
Book Of Revelation from the New Testament. Like 'Thick As
A Brick' this is a concept-album.
- The lyrics tell the story one Ronnie Pilgrim who
dies, experiences judgement and afterlife -
visits heaven and hell - and then is reborn
(reïncarnation?). 'A Passion Play' is a passion
play: only here not Christ is the principle
person, but modern man, who as a pilgrim in a
complex society steers a course between good and
evil as a "voyager into life".
Like a real medieval play, the story consist of
several acts:
Act 1: Ronnie Pilgrim's Funeral: a winter's
morning in the cemetery
Act 2: The Memory Bank: a small but comfortable
theatre with a cinema-screen (the next morning)
Act 3: The business office of G. Oddie & Son
(two days later)
Act 4: Magus Perde's drawing room at midnight
- He meets up with Peter Dejour or Peter of the Day
or St. Peter of the day. Then he is led to a
movie theater where he is shown his life. Since
the album is presented as a play complete with a
program, we have an interval: The Story Of The
Hare Who Lost His Spectacles. After the interval,
the play resumes in the business office of G.
Oddie and Son or God. From there Ronnie goes to
Hell and meets Lucifer and finally Magus Perde in
his drawing room. The album ends with Ronnie
Pilgrim facing impending rebirth/reïncarnation.
- So what does this all have to do with good and
evil? Well, we see that both God and Lucifer are
present. So our character Ronnie would seem to be
a metaphor for humanity. He steers a course
between good and evil. He accepts neither God nor
Lucifer: "Here's the everlasting rub:
neither am I good nor bad I'd give up my halo for
a horn and the horn for the hat I once had."
Man is neither wholly good nor wholly bad but
both at once. This human paradox informs all of
our lives. The three previous albums were
critiques of modern society. This album mostly
avoids this (although God has a business office!)
in favor of an extended commentary on one aspect
of human nature.
- Although the album would eventually chart at #1
in the U.S., critics lambasted it and the band.
This resulted in the announcement that they would
stop touring and relations with the press were
cut off. This situation lasted only a short time
but the rift that developed between the band and
the press has never been bridged since. But it
was not the press alone who could not cope with
Ian's ingenuity: I want to state that is has been
this album that divided even the core of
Tull-fans. For many fans of the early days, who
would stick more to the blues and rock idiom,
this album just was too much, as it transcended
the musical and lyrical conventions of rock.
* Jan Voorbij &
"Songs from the wood : the music and lyrics
of Ian Anderson" (1994 - John Benninghouse).
Annotations
- A Passion
Play
A passion play (or passionate play) is a
non liturgical drama depicting the life of Jesus
Christ (especially the crucifixion, the death,
the resurrection). They were popular in the 15th
century, before the Renaissance - and they could
require three days for performing, but are still
performed today. Bach - of whom Ian is fond of -
wrote Passion Music - the liturgical counterparts
of the Passion Plays: two Passions (St. John
Passion, and St. Matthew Passion) which were the
central part of the liturgy for the Holy Week.
They consist of recitatives, arias, polyphonic
choirs ("All the old familiar choruses
come crowding in a different key: Melodies
decaying in sweet dissonance."),
and there are various characters who represent
the 12, Mary, Jesus etc. I remember that at that
time there was a problem - whether Jesus should
be a bass, or a tenor. Eventually, in Bach's
music Jesus was a tenor. Every ten years, in
Oberammergau, Germany, the most traditional
passion play is presented. This tradition goes
back to the year 1634.The lyrics could have been
taken out of the gospels - as Bach did - or
written by various poets.
- Ian may have thought of writing a modern Passion,
in which Christ could be the modern man. (think
of what James Joyce did with Ulysses). C.G.Jung
said that Jesus is an archetypal every one of us
has inside of him/her and that may be what Ian
though of. But I really don't know what's the
connection between Jethro Tull's album and that
time's music. It's right religion is considered
and you hear all kind of biblical references.
Until I have discovered this history of Passions
- I've considered "A Passion Play" a
kind of an ode to the Passionate man - to the one
that is really enthusiastic about something.
Etymologically, enthusiasm means "having the
god into the worshipper" - so here we come
to religion again. Well - I think that you can
happily enjoy "A Passion Play" without
so many references to Jung's psychology, James
Joyce, history or who knows what other cultural
stuff - but I think this kind of looking to the
thinks makes Ian Anderson the modern artist - in
the classic sense of the word - the one that
integrates the cultural history in the present
day.
* Victor Ciofoaia, Joao
Viegas (SCC volume 9 nr. 14, 3/30/1998)
- I
go escorted by a band of gentlemen in leather
bound
I'm pretty sure Ronnie is on his own,
but carrying a Bible. Beautiful phrasing! The
angel has directed him to the viewing room, but
he crosses the icy wastes to get there.
'Icy wastes' conjures up a bleak, lonely image in
my mind. The line immediately following
'...band of gentlemen...' might be in intentional
reinforcement of the riddle - a band of
gentlemen, but NO-ONE? A very Anderson
concept!
* Neil Thomason
- The Silver
Cord
Traditional in the language of out-of-body
experiences, whether induced by hypnosis or by
near-death experience, is the silver cord that
binds the soul to the flesh.
- Over the
Hill
Two possible readings of this line are: The hill
in question is Calvary. The hill is an elfmound.
Interestingly enough, both these hills are
crowned with "trees", the one with the
Rood (as it was called in Medieval times; the
Cross), the other with the blackthorn tree of
Faerie. The more obvious reference is that you
can't get much more "over the hill"
(ie, old) than being dead.
- Fulham
Road
A long street in London, running from near Putney
Bridge to South Kensington. Maison Rouge
Recording Studios, where the band occasionally
recorded, is at 2 Wansdowne Pl., Fulham.
- A
sweetly-scented angel
Possibly a reference to the angelic Beatrice, who
appears in Dante's Divina Commedia, first to the
poet Vergil in Inferno, to encourage him to
rescue Dante (Canto 2, Terzettas 54-117), then
later to Dante himself.
- Icy Wastes
This line refers to Canto 32, Terzettas 21-72, of
Dante's Inferno. In the lowest circle of Hell,
Dante finds those who had been traitors in life,
consigned to suffer in a lake of solid ice up to
their necks.
- The old dog
From Dante's Inferno (John Ciardi's translation):
"Here monstrous Cerberus, the ravening
beast, howls through his triple throats like a
mad dog over the spirits sunk in that foul paste.
... And they, too, howl like dogs in the freezing
storm, turning and turning from it as if they
thought one naked side could keep the other
warm."
* Leigh-Ann Hussey (The
Annotated Passion Play)
I'd also like to suggest a second
interpretation for "the old dog".
Though you equated it with Cerebus, I think a
simpler reference might be meant: perhaps to the
superstition that hearing a dog howl foretells
death.
* Christine Hoff
- The Story
of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles
Within A Passion Play, this fable-like story has
the function of relativizing everything and
preventing it from getting too serious. I think
the drift of the story is "much ado about
nothing" and contains a mild criticism on
people who meddle with of kinds of things that
are not there business at all, while in the mean
time they neglect the things that really matter
in the end.
* Jan Voorbij
- The cynical absurdism of the piece is in keeping
with the cynical and absurd tone of the majority
of the lyrics. It functions as a bridge between
the two "movements" of A Passion Play,
like the wind & bell/gong-like sounds at the
center of 'Thick As A Brick'. It is a lampooning
of "children's" cherished orchestral
pieces like Prokofiev's 'Peter and the Wolf'. At
the same time, the whole album can be viewed as a
lampooning of traditional christian thought on
life, death and morality. Both 'Thick As Brick'
and 'A Passion Play' can be seen as attempts to
deflate societal and institutionalized pomposity
and irrational conservatism. The jabs seemed
aimed more specifically at British culture than
any other. It can be viewed as
"flashback" or metaphorical review of
the life of the afterlife-traveler, the
"moral" being that what the society
around the traveler found of utmost importance
was really inconsequential. It deals with the
theme of alienation from the surrounding society
due to an irreconcilable difference in moral
perspectives. This particular type of alienation
is explored extensively throughout both TAAB and
APP. It is the most traditionally
"western" of any of the music on APP.
The afterlife is depicted musically with pagan
and folk overtones, while this possible
"flashback" is depicted with music of
the "establishment". This further
highlights the contrast between the conflicting
moralities, expectations, realities, and
priorities of the dominant society vs. the
alienated individual.
* Jay Thomas
- D.A. Scocca points out all the animal
puns lurking in "The Story of the Hare Who
Lost His Spectacles". "_Bee_ wanted
to help.... answer _BE_gan..." "all the
time _Owl_ had been sitting on the fence
sc_OWL_ing" "You _CAN, GURU_, you
can!" "Newt _KNEW T_oo much to be
stopped..." A lot of these are lost on
the reader who hasn't actually heard the
recording; Jeffrey Hammond's narrative style
makes the puns really obvious.
* Leigh-Ann Hussey (The
Annotated Passion Play)
|