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This song deals with our reaction to the homeless population. Jethro Tull vocalist and flute player Ian Anderson wrote the song and called it "a guilt-ridden song of confusion about how you deal with beggars, the homeless." Elaborating in the 40th anniversary reissue of the album, he said, "It's about our reaction, of guilt, distaste, awkwardness and confusion, all these things that we feel when we're confronted with the reality of the homeless. You see someone who's clearly in desperate need of some help, whether it's a few coins or the contents of your wallet, and you blank them out. The more you live in that business-driven, commercially-driven lifestyle, you can just cease to see them.
In this song, Aqualung is a homeless man with poor hygiene. Ian Anderson wrote it about a character he made up based on actual photographs of transient men. Ian's wife at the time, Jennie, was an amateur photographer and had brought the pictures for Ian to look at. Many of the lyrics are Ian describing the men in the pictures.
Jennie also wrote a few lyrics to go with the pictures, which earned her a songwriting credit, so she receives half the royalties from the song. She and Anderson divorced in 1974.
This is Jethro Tull's most famous song, but it was not released as a single.
Ian Anderson told us why: "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 a 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."
An "Aqualung" is a portable breathing apparatus for divers. Anderson envisioned the homeless man getting that nickname because of breathing problems. He got the idea from watching a TV show called
Sea Hunt, where there was a lot of heavy underwater breathing, and where the main character wore an Aqualung. What Anderson didn't know is that Aqualung was a brand name, and the Aqualung Corporation of North America took legal action after the album came out. The case was eventually dropped, but the threat of a lawsuit was troubling to Anderson. For more about the Aqualung and how it relates to diving, check it out in
Song Images.
The album cover was a watercolor painting of the character Aqualung created by the artist Burton Silverman. Jethro Tull's manager Terry Ellis commissioned him after seeing his work in Time magazine. Burton took some photos of Ian Anderson wearing his old overcoat before he painted the cover, and the resulting work looked a lot like a haggard version of Ian, who was not pleased with the painting. Despite Anderson's objections, the cover became an iconic image in Rock, but it also resulted in another lawsuit over where the image could be used - Burton felt the band didn't have the rights to use it on T-shirts and other promotional materials.
The unusual audio effect you hear in this song is called "telephone burbles" where you remove all frequencies except for a narrow band around the 1,000 hertz mark. This is to reproduce the sound of a telephone. As Ian Anderson told us: "It's also like when you're addressing a crowd through a megaphone. Or even perhaps the tinny sound of a voice trumpet, which is a non-active megaphone. It's a form of address. It's the sound that woke up young pilots in 1941 and sent them into the skies to battle the Hun. This is the sound of the Tannoy, the calling to arms of young men going up in their Hurricanes and Spitfires. It's something that's very much part of the blood of an Englishman."
Like most songs on the album, this one has a cold ending. That's because Anderson knew he would have to perform these songs on stage, where he liked to have a definitive ending to a song rather than a fade out.
The character Aqualung is mentioned in another song on the album, "Cross-Eyed Mary," which is also a character Anderson created.
Martin Barre's solo in this song was rated #25 in Guitar World's 100 Greatest Guitar Solos reader's poll. (thanks, Mark - Madison, WI)
This song is mentioned in the movie Anchorman after Will Ferrell plays a riff from it on his Jazz flute and says, "Hey, Aqualung." (thanks, Brad Nash - Rochester Hills, MI)
Comments (66):
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each song a different snapshot of this basic concept, of how we live in a throw-away world, abandoning those things we don't have time for or interest in.
picture the one in this song in this light, and it changes the feel of the album IMHO.
I have enjoyed reading all these comments. It is a great song, but has probably become a millstone around the necks of the band who have had to perform it at every gig for 40 years now.
Ian Anderson has also had to deny it was a concept album for 40 years, claiming it was just a bunch of songs, some of which were about god, but this did lead to them producing the mother of all concept albums, Thick as a Brick, and a year later A Passion Play, which to me are still their greatest work.
I was interested to catch up with what Jenny Franks is doing now, the revelation that she appeared in the tv comedy Sorry has completely fazed me.
Life's a Long Song etc...
Ta ta for now...
the great unwashed as witnessed by the elite.
not only do they suffer physically degradation, but are perceived by all to be immoral also.
he experiences life internally like the rest of us in Plato's Cave
the regrets of old age and the persistent dog of loneliness; exposed to the elements, weathered, unclean and physically wrecked; claiming our refuse as his treasures and using our toilets for his meagre comfort.
the Sally Ann is his only life's anchor
yet he cannot avoid his social condition even there
suddenly, another appears who accepts him without repulsion and seems to know him well
he reassures him. who could this be? who is your only friend when you depart to where no friends can go?
this winter was harsh and it took him down; he is dying...
it is December - the Christmas Tide... see the irony of life
in a hospital room - the pumping apparatus by the bed is the only sound
- pumping air into his broken lungs
as for the rest of us - the passing parade; spring returns...
and life goes on as it always will
and no matter our present condition, we will go as he did - and take nothing with us but our experience.
if i died tonight, what would i think of my life in the morning?
how did i play my part? did i do my bit?
when the homeless in england's feet would freeze they would urinate on the to keep them warm, thats what that line means
I have no clue. But can it be, that this is
a piece of art and that we all have our own
connections and feelings about it. Whatever
you say friends, for me it is something which
followed me my entire life. As a young boy I was
rocking and dancing to it. Now, no spliff or alc
is needed and I still love it. You English have
Wilde, Byron, Shakespeare, and so many more.
Jethro Tull is just another piece of your beautiful culture.
berniwenig@yahoo.de
don't start away uneasy
you poor old sod, you see, it's only me.
I believe this is Death talking to the wanderer. He is his friend and guide for the sick old man who is feeling sick and alone here at the time of his death, the Reaper figure easing his way to the Other Side. No more agonizing Decembers and bitter winters to endure. A few last rattling breaths and it's over.
"Do you still remember
December's foggy freeze [The frost that kills him]
when the ice that
clings on to your beard was
screaming agony. [frostbite]
And you snatch your rattling last breaths
with deep-sea-diver sounds, [he's dying]
and the flowers bloom like
madness in the spring" [buried in the ground that "pushes up daisies" the next season; also an analogy of life & the fact that even after death, new life continues to flourish]
Another thought: "you poor old sod, you see it's onl me" -- could mean the singer speaking to the "poor old sod" (either "Aqualung" or "the listener" as a third party w/ some connection to Aqualung), OR, to himself (You poor old sod [As in, his own dead self] OR [the listener], you see it's [the character in the song/Aqualung is] only me.
May be time to retire and count fish.
Sorry
Andy from Rockaway.
rattling last breath has long been associated with the sound your throat makes before dying.
It is a sound of a rattle. I heard this rattle with my father, and my grandmother.
Mike, Calif.
Anonymous
C.C.,TX
When the Aqualung album was first released, the song name as printed was:
Aqualung (Jennie Anderson)
Indicating sole authorship
Then when it was released on the Greatest Hits it was listed thusly:
Aqualung (Anderson/Anderson)
Now we see them sharing authorship. Perhaps things are not going well in the Anderson home?
And finally when release on DVD:
Aqualung (Ian Anderson)
Post divorce. I suppose he got it in the settlement.
IMHO-
A Seminal Rock album. Incredible imaginative unique songwriting and superb musicianship. As close to a romanticized middle ages rock as you'll find.
A TRUE orgininal!
This took place in December 1970 when Led Zeppelin was recording their masterpiece "Stairway To Heaven."
"'Aqualung': It's about a rather pathetic character, someone socially degraded. There's something marvellous about that situation. I would like to see the concept of God put into that situation."
* Ian Anderson in Disc and Music Echo, 20th March 1971.
The title song portrays an old and homeless, asthmatic man, who wanders the streets in a big city. Ian drew his inspiration from a project his first wife Jennie was working on. See: http://www.cupofwonder.com/aqua4.html ).
She had been photographing homeless people, living their harsh lives in the streets of London near Thames river. From an interview with Ian in 'Guitar World' magazine, November 1996:
- "sitting on a park bench, eyeing little girls with bad intent..."
Ian Anderson's likeness appears on alot of their albums covers, songs from the wood, heavy horses, broadsword & the beast, stand up. To Josef your right they should never have got the award for best metal album, they should have got it for being the greatest and nicest people in music. It was an honor to meet and share the stage with them.
He sounded and looked like alot of the transients I see on the streets each day...I can't believe they beat Metallica out on the best metal record that one year. Ian Anderson is now making more money as a Salmon Farmer... Thank goodness.
The line
"the army's up the rode
salvation à la mode and
a cup of tea."
Refers to the Salvation Army, who used to give beggars and bums tea and coffee in the winter to warm up.
The line
"December's foggy freeze
when the ice that
clings on to your beard is
screaming agony.
And you snatch your rattling last breaths"
Refers to the beggars asthma, due to the foggy freeze of December.
Also, contrary to common misconception, Ian has always claimed that Aqualung was not a concept album, rather just "a collection of songs."