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"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.[1]
Recording The original recording runs for 6:34. The first six notes of "Aqualung" may well demonstrate Anderson's clear interest in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.[2][3] The song also contains what might be Martin Barre's most stunningly melodic guitar solo in his entire career. 20 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: 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.[4] 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 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."[5] Recorded appearances Personnel In popular culture Fiction - The character Aqualung in Matt Jarpe's science fiction fantasy novel, Radio Freefall (2007), may be a reference to this song.
Films and TV Music Video games References External links cs:Aqualung (p se ) es:Aqualung (canci n) it:Aqualung (brano musicale) ka:Aqualung ( )
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