Aqualung (song)

"Aqualung"
Song by Jethro Tull from the album Aqualung
Released	19 March 1971
Recorded	December 1970 - February 1971 at Island Studios, London
Genre	Progressive rock, hard rock, folk rock
Length	6:34
Label	Island (UK) Reprise (US) Chrysalis/Capitol (US re-issue)
Writer	Ian Anderson/Jennie Anderson
Producer	Ian Anderson and Terry Ellis
Aqualung track listing
"Aqualung" (1) "Cross-Eyed Mary" (2)

"Aqualung" is a song by the English progressive rock band Jethro Tull, and the title track from their Aqualung album. The song was written by the band's frontman, Ian Anderson, and his then-wife Jennie Franks.

Like many of Jethro Tull's songs, "Aqualung" tells a story; in this case, it appears to tell the story of a dirty, paedophilic, homeless man.

Aqualung was Jethro Tull's first American Top 10 album, reaching #7 in June 1971.

Recording

The original recording runs for 6 minutes and 34 seconds. The first six notes of "Aqualung" may well demonstrate Anderson's clear interest in Beethoven and his fifth symphony. The song also contains what might well be considered Martin Barre's most stunning and melodic guitar solo in his entire career. Twenty years after recording the track, Barre reminisced:

The only thing I can remember about cutting the solo is that Led Zeppelin was recording next door, and as I was playing it, Jimmy Page walked into the control room and waved to me. How I didn't stop playing I don't know, but I carried on somehow.

In an interview with Ian Anderson in the September 1999 Guitar World, he said:

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.

The Aqualung character is also mentioned in "Cross-Eyed Mary", the next song on the album.

"Aqualung" was named the 90th greatest hard rock song by VH1 in 2009.

An alternative mix of "Aqualung", with echo on Anderson's vocals and the opening guitar riff played twice instead of once, appears on the compilation M.U. - The Best of Jethro Tull. This version also has different acoustic guitar and vocal parts during the second part of the song ("sun streaking cold"), but then reverts to the regular mix starting with "Aqualung my friend."

This is one of Jethro Tull's most famous songs, but it was not released as a single. Ian Anderson explained why during an interview with Songfacts. He said: "Because it was too long, it was too episodic, it starts off with a loud guitar riff and then goes into rather more laid back acoustic stuff. Led Zeppelin at the time, you know, they didn't release any singles. It was album tracks. And radio sharply divided between AM radio, which played the 3-minute pop hits, and FM radio, where they played what they called deep cuts. You would go into an album and play the obscure, the longer, the more convoluted songs in that period of more developmental rock music. But that day is not really with us anymore, whether it be classic rock stations that do play some of that music, but they are thin on the ground, and they too know that they've got to keep it short and sharp and cheerful, and provide the blue blanket of familiar sounding music and get onto the next set of commercial breaks, because that's what pays the radio station costs of being on the air. So pragmatic rules apply."

Recorded appearances

• Aqualung (1971)
• M.U. - The Best of Jethro Tull (1976)
• 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)

Personnel

• Ian Anderson - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Flute
• Martin Barre - Electric Guitar
• Clive Bunker - Drums, Percussion
• John Evan - Piano
• Jeffrey Hammond - Bass Guitar

In pop culture

In gaming

• The rendered character of Icarus in God of War 2 was inspired by Aqualung found on the cover of the album.^{[citation needed]}
• A few parts of the song comprise the theme of the critiques of independent game reviewer, "Aqualung".[1]
• This song is a playable song in the music video games Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, Rock Band 2, and Rock Band Unplugged.
• Bob Rivers made parody Christmas version, called "Aquaclaus", on his 2002 album, White Trash Christmas.

In literature

• The character Aqualung in Matt Jarpe's science fiction fantasy novel, Radio Freefall (2007), may be a reference to this song.

Onscreen

• The song was featured on the November 18, 2010, episode of 30 Rock, titled "College".
• The song is referenced in the 2004 film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy: Burgundy (Will Ferrell) plays a jazz flute solo, during which he plays the beginning of the song and shouts, "Hey Aqualung!"
• The song can be heard in "The Incredible Hank" episode of King of the Hill, while Hank Hill is lifting weights in his garage.
• The opening lyric and riff of Aqualung are muttered by Tony Soprano as he comes into the kitchen in episode #71 ("Live Free or Die" ) of The Sopranos.

External links

• Aqualung at Allmusic
• Aqualung Lyrics
• Songfacts "Aqualung" entry