Aqualung (song)
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| "Aqualung" | ||
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| Song by Jethro Tull | ||
| from the album Aqualung | ||
| Released | March 19, 1971 | |
| Recorded | December 1970 - February 1971 at Island Studios, London | |
| Genre | Progressive Rock | |
| Length | 6:31 | |
| Label | Reprise(original US) Chrysalis/Capitol (US re-issue) |
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| Writer(s) | Ian Anderson/Jennie Anderson | |
| Producer(s) | Ian Anderson and Terry Ellis | |
| Aqualung track listing | ||
| None | "Aqualung" (1) |
"Cross-Eyed Mary" (2) |
"Aqualung" is a song by English progressive rock band Jethro Tull, featured as the first track on their 1971 album Aqualung, and written by the bands' frontman, Ian Anderson, and his then-wife, Jennie Franks. The original recording runs for 6 minutes and 32 seconds. The song has a famous guitar riff replicated by many other bands at the beginning and later parts[citation needed]. Like many of Jethro Tull's songs, "Aqualung" tells a story —in this case, the story of a homeless man. The opening lyrics are "Sitting on a park bench / Eyeing little girls with bad intent".
The song is the title track from Jethro Tull's first U.S. Top 10 album, which reached #7 in June of 1971.[1]
In an interview with Ian Anderson in the September 1999 Guitar World interview he says:
Aqualung wasn't a concept album, although a lot of people thought so. The idea came about from a photograph my wife at the time took of a tramp in London. I had feelings of guilt about the homeless, as well as fear and insecurity with people like that who seem a little scary. And I suppose all of that was combined with a slightly romanticized picture of the person who is homeless but yet a free spirit, who either won't or can't join in society's prescribed formats.
So from that photograph and those sentiments, I began writing the words to 'Aqualung.' I can remember sitting in a hotel room in L.A., working out the chord structure for the verses. It's quite a tortured tangle of chords, but it was meant to really drag you here and there and then set you down into the more gentle acoustic section of the song.[2]
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[edit] Trivia
- The song (and Ian Anderson) were briefly parodied by Will Ferrell playing jazz flute in the comedy film Anchorman.
- Aqualung is mentioned in the Jethro Tull song "Cross-Eyed Mary."
- The up-tempo guitar solo, played by guitarist Martin Barre, ranked 46th in digitaldreamdoors.com's '100 Greatest Rock Guitar Solos' list.
- Steven Colbert said on The Colbert Report that he gets out of jury duty by dressing up as a wizard and demanding to be sworn in on a copy of Aqualung by Jethro Tull.
- The song is used in an episode of King of the Hill
[edit] Recorded appearances
- Aqualung (1971)
- Bursting Out (1978)
- Slipstream (1981)
- A Classic Case (1985)
- Original Masters (1985)
- 20 Years of Jethro Tull (1988)
- 20 Years of Jethro Tull: Highlights (1988)
- The Very Best of Jethro Tull (2001)
- Living with the Past (2002)
- A New Day Yesterday (2003)
- Ian Anderson Plays the Orchestral Jethro Tull (2005)
- Aqualung Live (2005)
[edit] References
- ^ Rock Movers & Shakers by Dafydd Rees & Luke Crampton, 1991 Billboard Books.
- ^ http://www.tullpress.com/gwsept99.htm
[edit] External links
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