Up the 'Pool by Jethro Tull

Album: Living In The Past (1971)

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The "'Pool'" is Blackpool, a holiday seaside town in England where Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson spent much of his youth. The lyrics describe his memories of the place, including it's landmark 510-foot Victorian iron tower, which he said would "awaken things in a young man." Anderson is not a big fan of the town, sometimes telling audiences, "I would advise you not to go to Blackpool because it's not a great place, really."
This acoustic song first appeared on the 1971 EP Life Is a Long Song, and was included on the 1972 album Living In The Past.
The British folk music legend Roy Harper (subject of a Led Zeppelin song, covered this for the 1996 Jethro Tull tribute album To Cry You A Song – A Collection Of Tull Tales. In a Songfacts interview with Ian Anderson, he cited this as his favorite Jethro Tull cover (Harper also lived in Blackpool for a while, but not at the same time as Anderson).

Comments: 2

Craig from CaliforniaThe opening lines can be somewhat cryptic if you don't know your British slang. "I'm going up the pool" (going up to Blackpool) "from down the smoke below" (from London, known as "the smoke") "to taste my mum's jam sarnies" (jam sandwiches). "Candyfloss" is the British name for cotton candy.
Subourbon from Southern CalIt occurred to me today that Ian here is singing about Arnold Schwarzenegger! At the time this song was written, he had won Mr. Universe competition three times, and once as an amateur (1967-1970). That has to be who he is referring to.

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