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About This Track
“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 band’s frontman, Ian Anderson, and his then-wife, Jennie Franks. The original recording runs for 6 minutes and 32 seconds. 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.
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 song is the title track from Jethro Tull’s first U.S. Top 10 album, which reached #7 in June of 1971.
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.
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Albums featuring this track
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Aqualung
Jethro Tull
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Original Masters
Jethro Tull Buy- Download Album
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The Very Best Of
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Live in Den Haag 1980
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Shouts
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maxlharris wrote:
Hey Aqualung... I'm Chris Hanson and you're on To Catch a Predator...
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h1970s wrote:
flutetabulous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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LunaLunchen wrote:
soooo good rythmen!
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crazzyd77 wrote:
SHRED IT
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Bought_New_Soul wrote:
feeling alone...
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JTULLDOTCOM wrote:
absolute classic
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frankh069 wrote:
Eating Connie Chung out.
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JeckylnHyde2010 wrote:
I don't like this version >=(
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xtwntraphq wrote:
A little sloppy I agree with Bigchoup
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LunaLunchen wrote:
so nice...the rythmus always take me away ^^
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escarabat94 wrote:
(:-)
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msjbean wrote:
Agreed...this is a classic.
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Majest1c_ wrote:
This song is amazing. Loving it!
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BigChoupique wrote:
uuuuhhhhh, No. Sorry, this version sucks wads.
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chlorres wrote:
*classic , never gets old or boring xoxox * epic ...
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BEATLES77709 wrote:
..klassiker pur ...KULT!!!!!! K
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pepworth wrote:
aqualung rules. lazy but true
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aglocust wrote:
Snot running down his nose!
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BamBino1951 wrote:
This is one of my all time favorites. But the live version that I'm listening to isn't very good. Try the original from the album by the same name.
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mostfass wrote:
sauguat
Track Stats
1,062,449 Scrobbles
246,967 Listeners
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Recent Activity
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michaeldobrowsk, escutorocknroll, johnnyxpo and 4 other people loved Jethro Tull – Aqualung. 8 hours ago
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oldstonersrock added Aqualung to oldstonersrock’s library. yesterday afternoon
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tnedwards tagged Aqualung with ‘progressive rock’. Wednesday evening
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