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Thick as a Brick is the fifth studio album by the British rock band Jethro Tull, released on 3 March 1972. The album contains one continuous piece of music, split over two sides of an LP record, and is intended as a parody of the concept album genre. The original packaging, designed as a 12 page newspaper, claims the album to be a musical adaptation of an epic poem by fictional eight year old genius Gerald Bostock, though the lyrics were actually written by the band's frontman, Ian Anderson. The album was recorded in late 1971, featuring music composed by Anderson and arranged with the contribution of all band members. The album was the band's first to include drummer Barrie "Barriemore" Barlow, replacing the band's previous drummer Clive Bunker. The live show promoting the album included the playing of the full suite, with various comic interludes. Thick as a Brick is considered by critics to be the first Jethro Tull release to entirely consist of progressive rock music. It received mixed reviews upon its release, but was a commercial success and topped various charts in 1972. Today it is regarded as a classic of progressive rock, and has received several accolades. Anderson produced a follow up to the album in 2012, focusing on the adult life of the fictional Gerald Bostock, and being released as Anderson's solo album instead of as Jethro Tull's album.

Jethro Tull's frontman and songwriter Ian Anderson was infuriated when critics called the band's previous album, Aqualung (1971), a "concept album". He rejected this, thinking it was simply a collection of songs, so in response decided to "come up with something that really is the mother of all concept albums". Taking the surreal British humour of Monty Python as an influence, he began to write a piece that would combine complex music with a sense of humour, with the idea it would poke light hearted fun at the band, the audience, and the music critics. He also intended to satirise the progressive rock genre that was popular at the time. His wife Jennie was also an inspiration, whom he credited to have devised the character and lyrics to "Aqualung". She had written a letter to Anderson while he was away touring the album, ten lines from which Anderson used as inspiration for the new material. Anderson has also said 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 and later remarked that it was a "bit of a satire about the whole concept of grand rock based concept albums". Although Anderson wrote all the music and lyrics, he co credited the writing to a fictional schoolboy named Gerald Bostock. The humour was subtle enough that some fans believed that Bostock was real. Reviewing the 40th anniversary reissue, Noel Murray suggested that many listeners of the original album "missed the joke".

The group ran through two weeks of rehearsals using the Rolling Stones' basement studio in Bermondsey. They had not intended to record a single continuous piece; the band came up with individual song segments, then decided to write short pieces of music to link them together. Recording started in December 1971 at Morgan Studios, London. Unlike previous albums, where Anderson had generally written songs in advance, only the initial section of the album had been worked out when the band went into the studio. The remainder of the suite was written during the recording sessions. To compensate for a lack of material, Anderson began work early each morning to prepare music for the rest of the band to learn during that day's session. The lyrics were written first, with the music constructed to fit around them. Anderson recalls the album took about two weeks to record and another two or three for overdubs and mixing. The final work spanned the entire length of an LP record, split over two sides. The group remembered the recording being a happy process, with a strong feeling of camaraderie and fun, with numerous practical jokes. They were fans of Monty Python, and this style of humour influenced the lyrics and overall concept. Guitarist Martin Barre recalls the whole band coming up with various ideas for the music. Some parts were recorded in a single take with every member having an input, including significant contributions from keyboardist John Evan.

The original LP cover was designed as a spoof of a 12 page small town English newspaper, entitled The St. Cleve Chronicle and Linwell Advertiser, with articles, competitions and advertisements lampooning the typical parochial and amateurish journalism of the local English press. The band's record company, Chrysalis Records, complained that the sleeve would be too expensive to produce, but Anderson countered that if a real newspaper could be produced, a parody of one would also be practical. The mock newspaper, dated 7 January 1972, also includes the entire lyrics to "Thick as a Brick" (printed on page 7), which is presented as a poem written by Bostock, whose disqualification from a poetry contest is the focus of the front page story. This article claims that although Bostock initially won the contest, the judges' decision was repealed after protests and threats concerning the offensive nature of the poem, along with the boy's suspected psychological instability. The front cover includes a piece where Bostock is accused without foundation of being the father of his 14 year old friend Julia's child. The inside of the paper features a mock review by "Julian Stone Mason BA", a pseudonym of Anderson. The contents of the newspaper were written mostly by Anderson, bassist Jeffrey Hammond and keyboardist John Evan. While some of the pieces were obviously silly, such as "Magistrate Fines himself", there was a lengthy story entitled "Do Not See Me Rabbit" about a pilot in the Battle of Britain being shot down by a Messerschmitt Bf 109. The overall layout was designed by Chrysalis' Roy Eldridge, who had previously worked as a journalist. Most of the characters in the newspaper were members of the band, their management, road crew, or colleagues; for instance, recording engineer Robin Black played a local roller skating champion. Anderson recalls that the cover took longer to produce than the music. The satirical newspaper was heavily abridged for conventional CD booklets, but the 25th Anniversary Special Edition CD cover is closer to the original, and the 40th anniversary boxed version contains most of the content from the original newspaper.

Following the album's release, the band set out on tour, playing the entire piece with some extra musical additions that extended performances to over an hour. At the start of the show, men wearing capes appeared onstage and began sweeping the floor, counting the audience and studying the venue; after a few minutes, some of them revealed themselves to be members of the band and began to play. During some shows, the entire band stopped mid performance when a telephone rang on stage, which Anderson would answer, before carrying on performing. News and weather reports were read halfway through the show, and a man in a scuba diver outfit came onstage. The tour's humour caused problems in Japan, where audiences responded to the changes with bewilderment. Barre recalls these first live performances being "a terrible experience" as there was a lot of complex music with a variety of time signature changes to remember. Anderson performed the entire album live on tour in 2012, the first complete performances since the original tour. In August 2014, Anderson released the CD/DVD/Blu ray Thick as a Brick – Live in Iceland. The concert was recorded in Reykjavík, Iceland, on 22 June 2012, and featured complete Thick as a Brick and Thick as a Brick 2 performances by the Ian Anderson Touring Band. Some of the humour and stage antics were maintained—especially the telephone ringing in the middle of a song, which was replaced by a cell phone and a Skype call.