Jethro Tull – “A Passion Play (Edit #8)” (1973) Review | I Am the Overseer Over You

Kronomyth 7.01: Good afternoon tea.

I won’t tell you that A Passion Play is an easy album to parse. Chrysalis did radio stations the kindness of releasing promotional copies that divided the album into a series of edits. Anderson had conceived both this and Thick as a Brick as a collection of songs fused into an overarching story, which for all intents and purposes describes Aqualung as well. A Passion Play #8 was selected as the first single from the album, although I don’t recall it getting much airplay. For those familiar with the album but not the edit, it’s the section that starts “Colors I’ve known…” That’ll be enough to get you started singing the whole thing. The song is otherwise notable for the heavy use of synthesizers, which were used sparingly by Tull up to this point. The B side is A Passion Play Edit #9 (“I’d trade in my halo for a horn, and a horn for the hat I once had”), which I suppose was chosen to keep a sense of continuity. The devil’s got all the good tunes, indeed.

The Product

A1. A Passion Play (Edit #8) (Ian Anderson) (3:04)
B1. A Passion Play (Edit #9) (Ian Anderson) (3:29)

The Plastic

Released on 7-inch single in May 1973 in the US (Chrysalis, CHS 2012), Australia (Reprise, CHS 2012) and Portugal (Chrysalis, 6155 009) with regional picture sleeve. Also released as promotional 7-inch single in 1973 in the US (Chrysalis, CHS 2012) feat. A only. Reached #80 on the US charts (charted on 5/19/73 for 5 weeks).