Hee hee. It's a thing of beauty. But you knew that.
Oh yeah, the song is, too. I probably listen to "Thick as a Brick" a couple of times a year, on average. I don't know if that's a lot or what. When I do, I listen to the entire song, because that's how it's meant to be heard.
Kev, since you didn't go into a lot of detail regarding the background of this song, I guess I will, because I think it's important to get it out there (seriously). Aqualung, probably the band's most well-known album, was not a concept album. Ian Anderson himself has stated this, and he should know, since he wrote the whole thing. However, because it was something kinda cool to do, there is one lyrical reference to Aqualung, the person who is the subject of the title track, in the song which follows it, "Cross-Eyed Mary". Also, he gave the two LP sides "titles". For no apparent reason, it says "Aqualung" above the track listing for Side One, separate from the title of the album and the title of the first song (which are both "Aqualung") and it says "My God" above the listing for Side Two, again separate from the title of the first song on that side, which is "My God".
This led people to conclude that the album was a concept album, or that at the very least, the songs on each of the two sides went together in some conceptual way. Side One does contain mostly character studies, and religion does crop up a few times on side two. But Ian Anderson insists that these are just things that came up in the lyrics because they're what he was writing about at the time, and yeah, it made a certain amount of sense to "group" the songs somehow, but that was it. There were no underlying concepts anywhere.
But the idea that Aqualung was a concept album caught fire and could not be avoided, and Ian was actually a bit annoyed by it because he thought he'd set the record straight. He thought concept albums and prog in general often deserved every bit of the scorn and ridicule they received from some critics and non-fans. It's just rock and roll. So he basically said "Okay, you want a concept album? This is a concept album." And he created Thick as a Brick. One song, the entire album (both sides of an LP, which was standard album length at the time), recurring musical and lyrical themes, the same musical theme recurring but venturing off into different directions at various times, a ridiculous and out-of-place sudden appearance by a symphony orchestra, and a concept behind the concept, that the lyrics themselves were written by a young poet named Milton Bostock. Milton had an entire backstory which was fleshed out in a newspaper article in a fictitious newspaper, and the newspaper itself was filled out with other articles, puzzles and games, and other things you might find in a local newspaper, and the newspaper served as the jacket to the album Thick as a Brick.
It was absolutely ludicrous. Every possible effort was taken to make it completely absurd, completely obvious that this was not serious. And the people ate it up. Another concept album! And this one is incredible! The music, the package, the concept, everything!
And I think it's brilliant. Ian Anderson, because he is an immensely talented musician and composer, had "accidentally" created what I really believe is a masterpiece. I love "Thick as a Brick" and probably listen to it a few times a year, on average. I don't know if that's a lot or what.