Jethro Tull's Ridiculously Elaborate Album Cover 

I found Thick as a Brick in vinyl in great shape at a thrift shop a few years ago for $.30 and the puzzles are even untouched.

It is very surprisingly how hard it is to find good digital scans of the full album art. I only got to read the whole thing after I got my own copy. Collecting vinyls has made me appreciate album art even more than I did before, and honestly the insides that most will never see are often my favorite parts.

I don't like being old...65...but am glad I lived through this era. I still listen to the full TAAB album at least once a month. It has stood the test of time.

In 30 years of collecting records, finding a near mint copy of this back in the 90's with the crossword NOT completed is still a highlight. This album and the artwork is the epitome of how to present an album.

I've never clicked on a video so fast lol. I've been WAITING for you to do a Tull video!❤❤

The layered quality of this satire can't be overstated. Not only did Ian make a prog concept album by creating its own universe around his album. He also satirised the prog movement by making it in universe writer a cynical upper class 9 year old constantly being lost in profound sounding metaphors. And to top it off it's musically amazingly complex yet very easy to listen to.

In a recent conversation with a pal, he seemed quite surprised when I mentioned that the album cover was probably the last great gasp of Pop Art and due to the shrinking from LP to CD, we will likely never see its like again. It had never occurred to him that an album cover would be literal Art. That said, I love watching this series, and hope you continue to enjoy what you are doing, and may you be financially secure (as much as one can be in this era as of this post).

I’ll never forget when I first found this in a record store, only having listened to it and seen the front cover on streaming. It was an instant buy for me

I never really "got" Thick As A Brick in spite of being a huge Tull fan until just last year when they reissued the Newspaper edition in its entirety and I sat down to listen to the album and read the paper. I dunno why that "unlocked" the music for me, but holy crap it's brilliant. And I *think* I detect specific movements in the work aping King Crimson, Yes, and Genesis's style. I've never seen anyone write about this though, so I may be imagining it. :D

I dead ass spent the entire album just looking at the album cover, it’s that elaborate.

Thick As A Brick actually released less than a year after Aqualung Aqualung released on March 19, 1971 Thick As A Brick released on March 3, 1972

Music experience was always the vinyl cover. I miss going to store, unwrapping, needle down and combing every inch of art, liner and lyrics. You became part of the musician's story and something bigger than yourself.

I'm SO glad you made a video on this one. It's easily some of the most unique album artwork/packaging ever made. On a side note, is the crossword possible? Doesn't seem like it.

I have this original album, some of the puzzles are filled in but still has all the pages. My dad bought it when he was younger. By far one of my favorite albums

In all these decades I've known the music, I was never aware of the ambitious album packaging. Thanks for a unique look at a unique bit of art - a timely meditation on the ongoing disappearance of both physical media and community-based news media

Holy fuck, I've heard of Thick as a Brick, but didn't know about the actual album art... that's so amazing. This is why I was so inspired by album art as a graphic design major in the mid 00's. I wanted to design album art so bad, but sadly the industry changed and album art is an afterthought nowadays. Yes vinyl album art is better cuz it's bigger, but there were some really good album art for CDs back in the day.

I love the cover stories section. You should do more.

“Hey Aqualung!” -Ron Burgundy

I bought my copy of "Thick As A Brick" when the album first hit the market. 50 years later and I still have, and listen, to it. It's truly a classic!

Shout out for the square aspect ratio, to match album artwork.

Awesome video! I was just really hoping to hear some of that brilliant song/ album alongside the video.

What I think is incredible and also quite fitting is that it took way more time for Ian Anderson, John Evans and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond to make the cover art than it did for the band to record the incredible piece of music...

I saw Jethro Tull Thick as a Brick anniversary tour back in 2013. Even if Anderson does not have the same vocal range nowadays, i must say... Their live presentation shocked me. Such a powerfull performance, and his flute is killer as ever was!

Great video! Just went and checked out nebula as well. Cant wait for all that new content

So glad you're finally talking about one of my favorite bands 💕

Incidentally I found a vinyl copy of this album in a thrift store about a year back. Much easier to read the cover on it, haha.

Oh man I have had a rough day but that made it all better! I've always loved the creativity and cross-referenced jokes within the fake articles. You're absolutely right that half the experience is lost in streaming, having an entire experience with the music and the artwork was foundational to how I discovered music.

Please do more Jethro Tull!!!!!!!!!

Yea, I still have that Newspaper LP. We lost all of that with the advent of CDs. Pink FLoyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" came with Two Posters inside it, and "Wish you were here" came with Stickers.

One of my favorites…. cheers for highlighting this great lp and cover. Radiohead’s King of Limbs did a similar newspaper with the 45 rpm release.

I've spent untold hours in the last 40+ years since this album came out entertained by it and have always thought it was one of the best covers ever.

There was a CD special release of the album that had the newspaper printed as a newspaper on newsprint. The CD also came with an interview recording with Ian Anderson. Olias of Sunhillow next please.

I actually want a video on how you create a video, even with how you visualize the editing and realize how to craft a video around a certain topic. Its grabs my attention and just never lets go

I always wanted to read more about Julia, "Gerald's chum with whom he writes poems"

Back when I thought it was a good idea to submit elaborate demos to record labels, I tried some pretty wild stuff 😆 I made a smell box for Thrill Jockey. A smell box is when you get one of those aluminum shortbread cookie tins that usually end up full of sewing items, and you forage and scavenge for things with a strong smell... pine needles, orange peels, french fries, cinnamon bark... you're basically making ramshackle potpourri. Then you seal it up and mail it. I sent a few of them. The only feedback I got was from the band Cerberus Shoal. They'd been on tour so their box sat around at the house marinating a while after it was delivered. I think they enjoyed it? Thrill Jockey was mum 🤐 Maybe i should try again?

This album is a masterpiece.. My favorite Tull album. If you want it on vinyl, get a 1st UK pressing though.. It blows everything else away, including the new 50th anniversary pressing.

I own a copy of this, purchased from a used vinyl shop in my town. It appears to be complete and is in surprisingly great quality.

The Newspaper parody angle of Thick as a Brick is just genius. Jethro Tull is just awesome. I also love physical media in Vinyl and CDs and also got a recent Criterion of Moonage Daydream. You should do a video on the Brett Morgan David Bowie film at some point.

Wow amazing that you made a square video for a video about album arts.. i didn't even know it was possible to make a square video..

I bought this album when it first released. I read the album/newspaper as I listened. 👏👏👏👏

Thanks. Always a treat.

I love this! As a massive fan of genesis could you do more on prog on this series… hinting at selling England by the pound and other genesis albums !!!

Would be sicc to get a full in depth analysis of this album

I'm a wee 33 year old bloke, so I didn't get to experience the peak of music that was 1966 to about 1974. Thick As A Brick stands to me like an obelisk of British prog, amd it is one of my very favourite albums ever. I've must have heard the entire thing hundreds of times. I even know the entire lyrics by heart (too bad this is rarely featured on karaoke bars). The song is such a perfect blend of British folk and that early 70s heavy metal, and wrapped up in this elaborate abstract universe, being both naive and cynical at the same time. It's perfect music. Too bad my entire generation is incapable of appreciating, yet understanding this masterpiece. What's so great about the strives for constant gratification through a safe key-progession of synthetic noises that is all modern mainstream music. And don't get me started on lyrics. They really are thick as a brick. Music needs a bit of contrast, elements of dull and ugly wowen into the facric of exciting and beautiful. That's why old Leo didn't put bikini-models and Lambos in the background of Mona Lisa. That's something these old prog bands understood perfectly well. But I guess that's also why it is considered a genre that is a bit of an acquired taste. Could you imagine if they swapped Kayne West and Ed Sheeran with Gentle Gigant and King Crimson on today's lists? I think I would even consider going to the trouble of curating a radio for myself then. Probably not. As the last one I had got an unfortunate encounter with an axe when they cut Since I've Been Loving You by Led Zeppelin in half just to play more idiotic commercials. Right before my favourite guitar bit. True story. I was a bit drunk and in my workshop, but I don't regret my spontaneous yet passionate decision. I bloody hate commercials.

One of my favorite albums from the 70’s, still looking for an original pressing with the cover

ooohh i love this album so much!! i ran to watch this video immediately when I had the timee❤❤❤❤

I saw this vid in my feed yesterday and hadn't watched it yet. Today, I came across an original copy of the album at a record shop, complete with the full newspaper! Needless to say, I snatched it right up!. I haven't seen this album in years, and was really quite surprised to find an intact copy. For $10 no less!

The most extreme version of the "album disguised as print media" phenomenon is The Guess Who's Artificial Paradise, which was packaged in a parody of a Publisher's Clearinghouse-style junk mail envelope, complete with multiple pages of coupons, ads, etc. That might make for a good episode of Cover Story!

I have the original vinyl thanks to my father, who bought it back in 1972. I remember I took it for the first time when I was 12 years old, in 1997, because I was fascinated by that cover. I used to listen to it every day, and while listening I read that newspaper. As a young Italian boy who had studied some English at school, it was one of the ways I got into the English language. And that album was my introduction to Jethro Tull and to the music I have been loving through all my life. And now I feel so old writing this stuff, am I taking stock of my life already? Well anyway...

I wish so much I could find this album with the original complete newspaper as the cover on my country, I love this album so much, it's one of my all time favorites

I got the 25th anniversary CD edition of TAAB and it came with a copy of the newspaper in the slipcase.

I was fortunate enough to see the Thick as a Brick concert back in 72 when I was in college. It still ranks as one of the greatest concerts I have ever seen in my life. I still listen t Thick as a Brick quite often although my original album has been lost many years ago.

Physical media is amazing. Last album I bought was A Tribes Called Quest "We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service" when it was new. It had more images on the album that is lost on online media.

I never even knew it had all that stuff inside when you opened it! I don't have a physical copy so I've just been looking at the cover as a jpeg lol

Reminds me of the Framley Examiner!

Please do a video on Tales from Topographic Oceans! Or maybe even Van Der Graaf Generator

Jethro Tull's Masterpiece!! PLAY LOUD

wasn't Stand Up by Tull also a popup book within an album?

I actually own a first press of this I got from my grandfather. Incredible album

Richard Wagner had a nice term for this concept: Gesamtkunstwerk ("the entire artwork"), which means integration of different artistic media to support and enhance a piece of music. Also, Anderson did something similar, although on a much smaller scale, for his solo album TAAB 2 (a sequel to Thick as a Brick, as you might have guessed). While the second album is not as good as the original, due in no small part to Anderson's dramatically reduced vocal range, it's still very much worth a listen.

YESSSSSS ! as a guy who has the album and recently took it out to listen and ready the stories, this is fukkin great!!!

What about the second part of the album Tull made - "TAAB 2" - on the back cover there is an internet address for a second part of the newspaper, but the site doesn't function.

Never thought I would see Jethro Tull on the channel so I was pleasantly surprised today.

Where the hell was Biggles when you needed him last Saturday I only had the cassette, with the front cover. I didn't know about the rest of the package for years.

Ever considered doing a video about the Frank Zappa song Billy the Mountain? (album: Just Another Band from LA) It's a hilarious, elaborate 24 minute track performed live and it definitely deserves a deep dive and some attention.

I remember reading the cover of my Dad's copy of this when I was a kid 🤣👌

I loved the video, especially since I'm a Frank Zappa, i never knew the extent of Jethro Tull's satire A similar album that I would love to see you cover is The Mothers's album We're Only In It For The Money, the album being a parody of hippie culture, and the packaging being a complete parody of Sergent Peppers

It’s so classic. So perfect for the times. The days of really good music.

I have a vinyl copy of this album. It’s still in good condition. The puzzles haven’t been filled in, although the cover is a bit yellowed. The one funny thing about my copy though is a previous owner drew a mustache on Little Milton. 😂

Perhaps the most continuously read newspaper in the world.

Lennon's Some Tine In NYC was another really good marriage of an art and music album concept, where Lennon not only showed the topical ripped from newspaper articles but sang about them on the record. A bit more serious, but a great concept none the less.

A random suggestion would be The Return of the Durutti Column by the Durutti Column. It was sandpaper lol

Albums were RELEASED in those days not DROPPED, young whippersnapper!!!!!!

When I saw Jethro tall's name and just an album mentioned. I thought it was gonna be thick as a brick. Because that album within itself is pretty trippy. Not just musically, but concept wise. In the way that cover was laid out as well. And the story about the kid and all that. I haven't watched this whole video yet. But man hilarious. I used to have that album. I had the newspaper and everything and I bought it long after the 70s. I've been a tull fan since I was a kid in the 80s. Now im gibna watch the video

6:54 Holy f*ck...I grew up in Hicksville!

Thanks!

I saw Tull perform Thick As A Brick in Virginia before the album was available to purchase so it was all new material for the entire audience. We were all in a kind of shock and were fairly quiet while our brains tried to figure out what was happening to us. Then Tull played the oldies and we could all get back to being a normal rock audience again. Don't get me wrong, it was all great but TAAB was very different from what was expected. I still have the "newspaper album" that I bought shortly after the concert.

Don´t forget The 4 Seasons "The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette" cover (1969)

Had this lp since its release and i've actually never red the cover, hmm, i guess next yime i take it out i'll take a read

I really want you to do a cover story on Exile on Main Street by The Rolling Stones. I’ve always thought it was an awesome album cover but never knew what it meant.

I bought this album in 1972 and still have it. Knew it was special but could not grasp the full meaning. Spent hours trying to interpret the lyrics. How was a teenager in Seattle supposed to know what "queueing for sarnies at the office canteen" meant? I understood the context of queueing at a canteen and I just now googled "sarnies". Full circle, 50 years later!

This is my favorite Tull album and NOT because of the newspaper. That is in itself something to write home about.The music has ultra-unusual & changing time signatures, as well as great melodies throughout fluid musical segments. It connects the end of side 1 with the beginning of side 2. As a musician the complexity intrigues as well as impresses me, while it's musical context holds up for the ear as an extremely feel-good sound fest. Yes, I'm considering Aqualung and Songs from The Wood and my second favorite---War Child. And oh yes,the lead in Aqualung's title track could be the best in rock history.Give it a focused listen.Jimmy Page walked into the studio while Martin Barre was laying it down. Still, it was Barre's baby.

I just got this record in a box of vinyls that my friend had given me, the puzzles are untouched but there is a doodle on it, but the condition is great nonetheless.

why we loved Albums. especially this one. wb

I should check if my CD copy has all the pages in its booklet.

Purchased 2 copies when this was released so that I could stack them on the record changer and let side B drop without needing to stumble 'cross the room, many other albums were purchased the same way...Moody Blues, It's A Beautiful Day, E.L.&P., Pink Floyd...

6:51 “HICKS-VILLE LOVES J. Tull” huh, I’m guessing the concert that’s from happened close by to where I am! I wonder what concert the photo is from and happened to that banner ?

1:09 I refuse to believe that Ian Anderson was oblivious to Aqualung being a concept album, unless the packaging of the album was entirely out of his hands. Between the tracks themselves, the fake bible passages on the back cover, and the fact that the sides of the LP had their own titles, Aqualung is not regarded as a concept album by accident.

I found a copy in Spain years ago, so bought it. When we were drunk one day someone found it and did the dot to dot.

I had this one, and I read it cover to cover. Even did the crossword and the "join the dots" puzzle 😂 It's such a shame that the advent of CDs spelled the end of these kinds of album covers. There were also Led Zep's covers for "Led Zeppelin III" and "Physical Graffiti" which had movable inserts, and their "In Through The Out Door" album which came in a brown paper bag like a dirty magazine (a proper protective cardboard sleeve was inside). The Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers" album had a working zipper on the front, and Emerson Lake and Palmer's "Brain Salad Surgery" album had two front panels which opened outwards to reveal a different picture underneath (panels and interior artwork both by H. R. Giger). I'm sure there were other examples which I've forgotten about.

Check out The Greatest Story Ever Told by The Lawrence Arms. Not as elaborate as Thick As A Brick, but worth sifting through.

Its one of Tulls best albums. A great listen - all the way through of course.

Thick As A Brick is the only album where I never skip any tracks

I have this album, my former step-dad stole my mom's record collection but he left them all behind at a house he was staying at and the landlord asked me to clean out everything left behind. The paper is really cool, the album is like nothing else.

I still have my copy

You can still buy the CD, which probably doesn't include the non-rabbit fur.

This is essentially the analog version of an ARG

This is why vinyl is the best. Artists are able to make ambitious projects like making a damn news paper.

Minstrel in the gallery...... Listen to it once again.

can you please make a video about charlie parker and how he impacted music forver and how he shined so bright and burnt out too quick😢