hello all! this week, we’re back with what might be Jethro atull’s most well-known record, 1971’s Aqualung!
Aqualung, the title track and opener of the record, paints a picture of a sick, older homeless man in a park – theres a lot of the first part of the record that focuses on him and the social forces around him. its got a swelling and incredible instrumental component – i feel like the lyrics are a tad stereotypical and voyeuristic of folks on the streets (this song was inspired by photographs of the homeless by Ian Anderson’s spouse at the time), but there is an attempt to humanize and empathize with folks in that place, if a lil clumsy. cannot overstate that this is really really good instrumentally tho. Cross-Eyed Mary, the next track, flips the camera around to the schoolgirls that the character described in Aqualung has been looking at in the park, and describes a particular young girl who goes out with older men for her own reasons. Mother Goose is an interesting connecting thread here – the speaker in this song is an observer, moving from place to place, and may be observing the characters from these songs.
and on the other hand, there’s also a strong religious theming on the back half – i love the slow rise to a fevered pitch on My God that leads into the intermission in the middle of the track built around the flute solo – very neat. Hymn 43 immediately follows it up with some more direct gospel influences. Wind-Up criticizes the ritual of religion taking the place of any actual religious actions, over some really fun guitar work.
for the other tracks – Cheap Day Return seems a more personal track – Anderson seems to have written this after visiting his father in the hospital and being recognized as someone famous, and he wonders here if that’s the only reason they may be treating his father well. Wond’ring Aloud is a short and incredibly sweet, romantic track – i love this one a lot. Up to Me is another track that i really like the performance of the whole band on – Anderson’s giving a great vocal performance, and there’s a ton to like here instrumentally. Not sure i agree with the stated population growth metaphor for Locomotive Breath, but i think its still a good metaphor for unchecked planetary exploitation.
on the whole, a very good record – some really excellent performances with clean thematic throughlines, and you can absolutely feel them coming into their own musically after the experimentation on Benefit.
faves – Aqualung, Wond’ring Aloud, Up To Me, Locomotive Breath
dislikes –
Aqualung – 8/10
next week, we’re checking out Thick as a Brick!
first: This Was | previous: Benefit | next: Thick as a Brick
all my reviews for Jethro Tull