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Aqualung (album)
 
 
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Aqualung is the fourth studio album by the rock
Rock music

Rock music is a loosely defined genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the mid 1950's. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rhythm and blues, country music and other influences....
 band Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (band)

Jethro Tull are a United Kingdom rock music group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the songs, vocals and flute work of Ian Anderson , who has led the band since its founding, and guitarist Martin Barre, who has #Lineups....
, released in 1971
1971 in music

Events*February 5 - Eric Burdon & War disband. They never performed together again until April 21, 2008 at the Royal Albert Hall in London.*February 8 - Bob Dylan's hour-long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New York's Academy of Music....
. It was their first album with new bassist Jeffrey Hammond and last album featuring Clive Bunker on drums. The first side of the LP contains a series of six character sketches, including two sketches of people of questionable repute (title character Aqualung and Cross-Eyed Mary) and two autobiographical tracks including "Cheap Day Return", written by band leader Ian Anderson
Ian Anderson (musician)

Ian Scott Anderson, Order of the British Empire is a Scotland singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work as the head of British rock and roll band Jethro Tull ....
 while returning from a visit to his critically ill father.






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Aqualung is the fourth studio album by the rock
Rock music

Rock music is a loosely defined genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the mid 1950's. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rhythm and blues, country music and other influences....
 band Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (band)

Jethro Tull are a United Kingdom rock music group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the songs, vocals and flute work of Ian Anderson , who has led the band since its founding, and guitarist Martin Barre, who has #Lineups....
, released in 1971
1971 in music

Events*February 5 - Eric Burdon & War disband. They never performed together again until April 21, 2008 at the Royal Albert Hall in London.*February 8 - Bob Dylan's hour-long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New York's Academy of Music....
. It was their first album with new bassist Jeffrey Hammond and last album featuring Clive Bunker on drums. The first side of the LP contains a series of six character sketches, including two sketches of people of questionable repute (title character Aqualung and Cross-Eyed Mary) and two autobiographical tracks including "Cheap Day Return", written by band leader Ian Anderson
Ian Anderson (musician)

Ian Scott Anderson, Order of the British Empire is a Scotland singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work as the head of British rock and roll band Jethro Tull ....
 while returning from a visit to his critically ill father. The overall message of the lyrics on the second side is said to be "pro-God but anti-church", and makes the statement that organized religion can actually restrict a person's relationship with his God instead of enhancing it. Anderson was not intending to make Aqualung a concept album.

Production

The album was one of the first to be recorded at the newly opened studios of Island Records
Island Records

Island Records was a record label that was founded by British record producers in Jamaica. It was based in England for many years, but is now owned by Universal Music Group and is operated in the United States through The Island Def Jam Music Group and in the UK through Island Records Group ....
 in Basing Street, London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
. Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin were an English rock music band formed in 1968 by Jimmy Page , Robert Plant , John Paul Jones and John Bonham . With their heavy, guitar-driven sound, Led Zeppelin are regarded as one of the first heavy metal music bands....
 were mixing their untitled fourth album
Led Zeppelin IV

The untitled fourth album by English Rock band Led Zeppelin was released on 8 November 1971. It has no official title printed anywhere on the album, and is generally referred to as Led Zeppelin IV after the band's previous three numbered albums....
 (Led Zeppelin IV
Led Zeppelin IV

The untitled fourth album by English Rock band Led Zeppelin was released on 8 November 1971. It has no official title printed anywhere on the album, and is generally referred to as Led Zeppelin IV after the band's previous three numbered albums....
) at the same time. In an interview on the 25th anniversary edition of the album, Anderson reportedly said that trying to record in their studio was very difficult. There were two recording studios at the location; Led Zeppelin worked in the smaller studio while Tull got the larger, which was probably the original chapel based on Anderson's description of its "orchestral" feeling.

Many of the songs are primarily acoustic
Acoustic music

Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses musical instrument s which produce sound through entirely Musical acoustics means, as opposed to electronic means....
. "Cheap Day Return", "Wond'ring Aloud" and "Slipstream" are short, completely acoustic "bridges", and "Mother Goose
Mother Goose (song)

Mother Goose is a song by the British multi-genre band Jethro Tull . It's the 4th overall track from their album Aqualung released in 1971....
" is also mostly acoustic.

In an interview on Aqualung Live
Aqualung Live

Aqualung Live is a live album by Jethro Tull ,a live performance of Aqualung before an audience of 40invited guests at XM Satellite Radio in Washington, D.C.....
 (2005) (track 16) Ian Anderson claimed that:
I always said at the time that this is not a concept album; this is just an album of varied songs of varied instrumentation and intensity in which three or four are the kind of keynote pieces for the album but it doesn't make it a concept album. In my mind when it came to writing the next album, Thick as a Brick
Thick as a Brick

Thick as a Brick is a concept album by the British rock and roll band Jethro Tull . This was their first album featuring new drummer Barriemore Barlow....
, was done very much in the sense of: 'Whuh, if they thought Aqualung was a concept album, O-O-K, we'll show you a concept album.' And it was done as a kind of spoof, a send-up, of the concept album genre. ... But, Aqualung itself, in my mind was never a concept album. Just a, just a bunch of songs.


Cover

The album's original cover art by Burton Silverman
Burton Silverman

Burton Silverman is a noteworthy and prolific American painter.A 1949 graduate of Columbia University, Silverman's work has concentrated on, as he put it, "the landscape of the human face." As a portrait artist, he has completed commissions for hundreds of noteworthy patrons....
 features a portrait of the title character, Aqualung, which many have considered to be inspired by Ian Anderson, though Anderson denies it. The rear cover shows a less-lecherous looking portrait of the same character sitting on a street-curb with a dog, a scene reminiscent of the band's photographic portrait with age make-up and a pack of dogs on their first album, This Was
This Was

This Was is the first album by the rock and roll band Jethro Tull . Recorded at a cost of only ?1200 pound sterling, the album received generally favourable reviews and sold well upon its release....
. The inner art on the fold-out cover showed portraits of the five band members in typical stage attire performing irreverent acts in a chapel--perhaps simultaneously depicting the theme of the second side of the LP while commemorating the band's recording-studio environment.

Release

Aqualung peaked at #7 on the Billboard Music Charts' North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
n pop albums chart and number 4 on the UK Album Chart. The single "Hymn 43" hit #91 on Billboard's pop singles chart. In 2003, the album was ranked number 337 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J....
 magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time is the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone magazine published in November 2003.Related news articles:* The list was based on the votes of 273 rock musicians, critics and industry figures, each of whom submitted a weighted list of 50 albums....
. The orchestrals were also arranged by Dee Palmer
Dee Palmer

Dee Palmer is a United Kingdom arranger and keyboardist best known for having been a member of the rock and roll group Jethro Tull . Palmer is a transwoman who was known as David Palmer for many years, including her stint with Jethro Tull....
 (named David Palmer at the time).

Aqualung was one of only two Jethro Tull albums which were released in quadraphonic sound, the other being War Child
War Child (album)

War Child is the seventh studio album by Jethro Tull , released in October 1974.Originally meant to accompany a film project , it was reinstated as a ten-song, single-length rock album after failed attempts to find a major movie studio to finance the film....
. This version featured several differences from the stereo release. "Wind Up" (included in the CD reissue of album) is in a higher key (three semitones), and "Aqualung" begins with two solo repetitions of the opening riff instead of one.

Personnel

  • Ian Anderson: Vocals
    Singing

    Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the human voice, which is often contrasted with regular speech. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist....
    , acoustic guitar, flute
    Flute

    The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge....
  • Martin Barre
    Martin Barre

    Martin Lancelot Barre is an England rock music musician.Barre has been the guitarist for Rock music Musical ensemble Jethro Tull since 1969....
    : electric guitar
    Electric guitar

    An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickup to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker....
    , descant recorder
    Recorder

    The recorder is a woodwind instrument musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes — whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle and ocarina....
  • John Evan
    John Evan

    John Evan played Keyboard instrument for Jethro Tull from April 1970, to June 1980. He was educated at King's College London.He changed his name when his first band , The Blades changed their name to The John Evan Band....
    : piano
    Piano

    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
    , organ
    Organ (music)

    The organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard played either Manual or Pedal clavier. The organ is one of the oldest musical instruments in the European classical music....
    , mellotron
    Mellotron

    The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphony keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin, which was the world's first sampling keyboard....
  • Jeffrey Hammond
    Jeffrey Hammond

    Jeffrey Hammond was a bass guitar player for the progressive rock band Jethro Tull .Hammond adopted the name "Hammond-Hammond" as a joke, since both his father's name and mother's maiden name were the same....
     (as "Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond"): bass guitar
    Bass guitar

    The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
    , alto recorder
    Recorder

    The recorder is a woodwind instrument musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes — whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle and ocarina....
     and odd voices
  • Clive Bunker
    Clive Bunker

    Clive Bunker was a drummer for the United Kingdom band , Jethro Tull , between 1967 and 1971. Bunker left after Tull's release of their album, Aqualung , to get marriage....
    : drums
    Drum kit

    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbell s, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single drummer....
     and percussion
    Percussion instrument

    A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration....


Track listing

All songs written by Ian Anderson except where noted.

Side one

  1. "Aqualung
    Aqualung (song)

    "Aqualung" is a song by England progressive rock band Jethro Tull , the title track from their first U.S. Top 10 album, Aqualung , which reached #7 in June 1971 ....
    " – 6:31 (Ian Anderson, Jennie Anderson)
  2. "Cross-Eyed Mary
    Cross-Eyed Mary

    "Cross-Eyed Mary" is a song by the England progressive rock band Jethro Tull from their album Aqualung . The song is about "Cross-Eyed Mary", a schoolgirl prostitute who prefers the company of "leching greys" over her schoolmates....
    " – 4:06
  3. "Cheap Day Return" – 1:21
  4. "Mother Goose
    Mother Goose (song)

    Mother Goose is a song by the British multi-genre band Jethro Tull . It's the 4th overall track from their album Aqualung released in 1971....
    " – 3:51
  5. "Wond'ring Aloud" – 1:53
  6. "Up to Me" – 3:15


Side two

  1. "My God" – 7:08
  2. "Hymn 43" – 3:14
  3. "Slipstream" – 1:13
  4. "Locomotive Breath
    Locomotive Breath

    "Locomotive Breath" is a song by the England progressive rock band Jethro Tull from their 1971 in music album, Aqualung . One of the song's highlights is its flute solo by rock flute virtuoso Ian Anderson ....
    " – 4:23
  5. "Wind Up" – 6:01


Bonus tracks

The 1996 and 1999 remastered CDs added six bonus tracks and extensive liner notes:
  1. "Lick Your Fingers Clean" – 2:46
  2. "Wind Up (Quad Version)" – 5:24
  3. "Excerpts From the Ian Anderson Interview" [Mojo Magazine] – 13:59
  4. "Songs For Jeffrey" (BBC) – 2:51
  5. "Fat Man" (BBC) – 2:57
  6. "Bourée" (BBC) – 3:58 (Ian Anderson, Johann Sebastian Bach
    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and organ whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque music period and brought it to its ultimate maturity....
    )


See also

  • Ian Anderson Plays the Orchestral Jethro Tull
    Ian Anderson Plays the Orchestral Jethro Tull

    Ian Anderson Plays the Orchestral Jethro Tull is an album and DVD by Jethro Tull frontmanIan Anderson , featuring the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt, conducted by John O'Hara....


External links

(25th anniversary) (gold
Gold CD

A gold CD is one in which gold is used in place of the super purity aluminiumcommonly used as the reflective coating on ordinary Compact discs....
) (bonus tracks
Hidden track

In the field of Sound recording and reproduction, a hidden track is a piece of music which has been placed on a CD, Compact Cassette, Gramophone record or other recorded medium in such a way as to avoid detection by the casual listener....
) (live)
  • (Progressive World)