Aqualung (song)

"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.^[1]

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.^[2]

Reportedly, Jimmy Page entered the studio, while Martin Barre was recording the guitar solo. It was during the first take, Martin didn't know Jimmy much, and was a little ashamed. Jimmy waved to Martin from the control room while he was playing, and Martin stopped playing for a short second, and waved with his right hand, while still sustaining the sound with the left hand. The solo on the record is actually this first take. Indeed, there is a short sustain with feedback during the solo. Anderson once joked that if you turn up the volume you can even hear Martin waving.^{[citation needed]}

The Aqualung character is later mentioned in "Cross-Eyed Mary", which follows this song on the album.