Robert Plant The Principle of Moments released

The Principle of Moments Robert Plant

Released: July 11, 1983 Peak: 8 US, 7 UK, 6 CN, 10 AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.1 UK Genre: rock

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Other Arms (7/23/83, 1 AR) In the Mood (7/30/83, 39 US, 36 CB, 35 RR, 4 AR, 81 UK, 37 AU) Messin’ with the Mekon Wreckless Love Thru’ with the Two Step Horizontal Departure (10/15/83, 44 AR) Stranger Here…Than Over There Big Log (7/16/83, 20 US, 21 CB, 15 RR, 6 AR, 11 UK, 23 CN, 23 AU) Total Running Time: 38:50

Rating: 3.415 out of 5.00 (average of 18 ratings)

About the Album: Robert Plant’s second solo album was a platinum seller which went top ten in the United States and UK, just like previous album Pictures at Eleven. It’s actually surprising that it didn’t outperform its predecessor considering the performance of the songs. Pictures produced two top-10 album rock cuts, but its highest charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 was “Burning Down One Side,” which only reached #64. By contrast, The Principle of Moments gave Plant two top-40 hits with “In the Mood” and Big Log. Those were also top-10 hits on the album rock chart, where “Other Arms” also gave Plant a #1 hit. Soundwise, Plant was still making a conscious attempt to distance himself from his Led Zeppelin years. Q magazine said this was “one for fans of Peter Gabriel” Q and that it “was full of ‘80s quirks and production tics.” Q They also said “Big Log” “sounded curiously like Dire Straits.” Q Plant also brought Phil Collins in for drums on six of the eight songs (they’d also worked together on Pictures at Eleven). Jethro Tull’s drummer Barriemore Barlow took the sticks for the other two cuts. “Because Plant’s voice is so compelling in any state, the convolution of his writing tends to take a back seat to his singing in most of his solo work, which is definitely the case in most of the songs here.” AMG “In the Mood” is the album’s “finest offering, proving that Plant could roam freely with his voice and still have it work effectively.” AMG Wreckless Love, Stranger Here…Than Over There, and Other Arms offer “an equal amount of curt abstractness and rock appeal.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Mike DeGagne Q Mark Blake, Q magazine, Sept. 2010, p. 133. DMDB encyclopedia entry for Robert Plant WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 9/27/2010; last updated 5/20/2022.

Jethro Tull Thick As a Brick hit #1 in the U.S.

Thick As a Brick Jethro Tull

Released: March 3, 1972 Peak: 12 US, 5 UK, 11 CN, 111 AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, -- UK Genre: progressive rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Really Don’t Mind / See There a Son is Born [5:00] The Poet and the Painter [5:29] What Do You Do When the Old Man’s Gone? / From the Upper Class [5:25] You Curl Your Toes in Fun / Childhood Heroes / Stabs Instrumental [6:48] See There a Man Is Bon / Clear White Circles [5:58] Legends and Believe in the Day [6:34] Tales of Your Life [5:24] Childhood Heroes Reprise [2:56] Total Running Time: 43:46 The Players: Ian Anderson (vocals, acoustic guitar, flute, etc.) Martin Barre (electric guitar, lute, flute) John Evan (piano, organ, harpsichord) Jeffrey Hammond (bass, spoken word) Barriemore Barlow (drums, percussion, timpani)

Rating: 3.834 out of 5.00 (average of 18 ratings) Quotable: “A masterpiece in the annals of progressive rock.” – Bruce Eder, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “The follow-up to that FM staple, Aqualung, 1972’s Thick as a Brick demonstrated that Ian ‘Don’t call me Jethro’ Anderson had so much on his mind that even the previous record’s side-long suites would not suffice.” AZ “Jethro Tull’s first LP-length epic is a masterpiece in the annals of progressive rock, and one of the few works of its kind that still holds up decades later.” AM “The group created a dazzling tour de force, at once playful, profound, and challenging, without overwhelming the listener.” AM “Ian Anderson has been quoted as stating that Thick as a Brick was written ‘because everyone was saying we were a progressive rock band, so we decided to live up to the reputation and write a progressive album, but done as a parody of the genre.’” WK It was “a send-up of all pretentious ‘concept albums’. Anderson also stated in that interview that ‘the album was a spoof to the albums of Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer much like what the movie Airplane! had been to Airport’.” WK “The album features only one song, lasting nearly 45 minutes. To accommodate the album on LP vinyl and cassette, the seamless track was split on both sides of the record.” WK The “stream-of-consciousness lyrics [are] so dense with imagery that one might spend weeks pondering their meaning – assuming one feels the need to do so.” AM The lyrics were reportedly based on “a poem by an intelligent English boy (named Gerald) about the trials of growing up.” WK In reality, Ian Anderson “wrote the lyrics himself.” WK The newspaper-style album cover includes an article about the “fictional 8-year-old literary prodigy, Gerald ‘Little Milton’ Bostock, …[and his] disqualification from a poetry contest.” WK “This article claims that although Bostock initially won the contest…the judges’ decision was repealed after a multitude of protests and threats concerning the offensive nature of the poem, furthered by allegations of the boy’s psychological instability.” WK “The epic is notable for numerous time signature and tempo changes (which is not uncommon in the then-emerging progressive rock subgenre of rock)” WK and “mixing hard rock and English folk music with classical influences.” AM There are also “a large number of themes throughout the piece, resembling a typical classical symphony in this regard, rather than a typical rock song.” WK “Not only was the musical structure complex, but many instruments uncommon in rock music were added. Whereas in prior numbers the band were content with guitars, drums, piano, Hammond organ, and Ian Anderson’s signature flute, Thick as a Brick included harpsichord, xylophone, timpani, violin, lute, trumpet, saxophone, and a string section.” WK “The original LP was the best-sounding, best-engineered record Tull had ever released, easily capturing the shifting dynamics between the soft all-acoustic passages and the electric rock crescendos surrounding them.” AM “The record was packaged in the popular fake-newspaper style of the day (John & Yoko’s Some Time in New York City of the same year, the Jefferson Airplane’s Volunteers, and the Four Seasons’ bid for hipness, Genuine Imitation Life Gazette).” AZ “Jethro Tull’s official website states about the mock-newspaper, ‘There are a lot of inside puns, cleverly hidden continuing jokes (such as the experimental non-rabbit), a surprisingly frank review of the album itself, and even a little naughty connect-the-dots children’s activity.’” WK “Subtly scattered throughout the articles are references to the lyrics, to Bostock and Jethro Tull, and to other peculiar parts of the newspaper itself. The spoof newspaper had to be heavily abridged for conventional CD covers, but the 25th Anniversary Special Edition CD includes a partial facsimile.” WK Notes: A 25th anniversary reissue added a 1978 live recording of part of Thick As a Brick and in interview with Jethro Tull.

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by Bruce Eder AZ Amazon.com review by David Wolf WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 8/10/2011; last updated 9/4/2025.