Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung” Lyrics Meaning

by Amanda London· Published November 2, 2021· Updated November 2, 2021

“Aqualung” is the title track to a project that Jethro Tull did not intend to be a concept album, but many listeners have come to interpret so anyway. And the reason why is because a number of the tracks thereupon were inspired by more serious, thought-provoking issues, such as in this case the plight of the homeless in England.

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Needless to say, seeing people who are totally assed out pretty invariably causes some type of mental/emotional reaction in practically all of us, whether we decide to take action or not. And so it was in the case of singer Ian Anderson and his wife at the time, Jennie, both of whom wrote these lyrics.

“Aqualung”

For starters, “Aqualung” is actually a name given to the subject of the song, i.e. this homeless guy. The reason he is referred to as such is because he suffers from some type of breathing issue.

And in the hook, first off he is depicted as – and we’re using simplified language here – a pervert. Secondly he is in fact dirty, as to be expected from a homeless person we may say. But more to the point would be the implication that he doesn’t truly care.

Furthermore Ian may be putting forth, in an artistic way, that “Aqualung” has mental problems. Or he is trying to say that “Aqualung” is one of those types of homeless dudes who tend to curse innocent people who may cross his path. Or at least that’s one way of interpreting the assertion that he’s “spitting out pieces of his broken luck”, i.e. being more inclined to bicker as opposed to doing something constructive to improve his lot.

A “Poor Old Sod”

And whereas during the early goings the vocalist definitely doesn’t come off as being sympathetic, the chorus that follows the hook is a bit more considerate as to what “Aqualung” may actually be going through.

This time around Ian doesn’t judge him, if you will. Rather the subject is portrayed as a ‘lonely old man’ who is severely down on his luck and therefore is dependent on charity from entities like the Salvation Army. And the vocalist concludes the passage by referring to this man as a “poor old sod”.

Now as many of you already know, places like the UK can and often do get hella cold during the winter. And in the only part of this song that is actually classified as a standard verse, it is revealed that such is the source of Aqualung’s breathing issues, i.e. being forced to brave the winter without shelter to shield himself from it. Or put more bluntly, being victimized by the cold has messed up his lungs

Aqualung, My Friend

Meanwhile the bridge consists primarily of harmonizing. But one interesting aspect of it is that the vocalist actually refers to “Aqualung” as his “friend” in this part of the song. And he doesn’t mean that literally, as in being a personal acquaintance of the subject. But rather, going back to the first paragraph of this post, this piece does a masterful job of illustrating what we will refer to as a common reaction to the plight of the homeless.

Initially, there is often this feeling of disgust or disdain, like why won’t they get a job or something. But as human beings, we are often compelled to feel sorry for such individuals also.

And this is especially true as far as people like “Aqualung” (who is visibly sick as a result of his hardship) is concerned.

The conclusive sentiment of this track would be that the vocalist, all frustration and disgust aside, does in fact consider the titular character to be an unfortunate soul.

Jethro Tull

Jethro Tull is a band that traces its origins back to the late-1960s and achieved their professional peak during the early 1970s. And “Aqualung” is the title track from the group’s fourth album which. Being released on 19 March 1971, the album was their breakthrough project. It currently stands as the band’s biggest commercial success. That is to say Aqualung is the only album in Jethro Tull’s catalog to have gone triple-platinum stateside. It also achieved gold status in the UK. The latter accomplishment is more along the lines of their standard recognition.

Jethro Tull was inactive for about half of the aughts but reactivated in 2017. Actually they are still in the game as of the writing of this post (2021).

Ian Anderson, the lead vocalist of the outfit, is the only member of the crew that participated in Aqualung who is still presently active therein. And at that time, he was joined by the following:

guitarist Martin Barre
drummer Clive Bunker
keyboardist John Evan
multi-faceted musician Jeffery Hammond

Writing Credits for “Aqualung”

Ian Anderson is credited with writing this song alongside Jennie Anderson, who is now known to some as Jennie Franks. At the time “Aqualung” came out, she and Ian were married but have since divorced. And as the story goes, she was into photography back then. And it was pictures of the homeless she had taken as a student, in conjunction with a project hosted by the Salvation Army, that served as the inspiration behind this track and album. Moreover, she penned some of the lyrics to this particular song.

More Facts about “Aqualung”

Ian Anderson produced this track with Terry Ellis, i.e. the co-founder of Chrysalis Records. And besides Chrysalis, the other labels involved in the issuance of “Aqualung” are Island Records and Reprise Records.

“Aqualung” is considered Jethro Tull’s signature song. But the reason we haven’t mentioned its chart history is because it doesn’t possess any. That is to say that this track was never released as a single. And the reason being, according to Ian, that it’s relatively lengthy and complex. It actually clocks in at over 6 minutes and 30 seconds in length.

“Aqualung” has made its way onto a number of movie and television shows throughout the years. The most notable in the latter regard being the following:

The Simpsons (1995)
The Sopranos (2006)

It has been pointed out that there is an actual company called Aqualung Corporation of North America. And as implied they specialize in scuba equipment and furthermore have the name “Aqualung” trademarked. While writing this song, Ian was aware of the existence of the apparatus that bears that moniker. However, apparently he didn’t know that the name was protected. This resulted in him getting into a bit of legal drama with said company.

As far as the argument as to whether or not Aqualung is a concept album, it appears that half of songs are in fact based on somewhat of a religious theme. And Jethro Tull, back in those days, definitely looked like straight-up British hippies. In fact they turned down a gig at the legendary 1969 Woodstock Festival. And why? Because they didn’t want to be pigeonholed into such a classification.

Cover Art

The eye-catching cover art to the Aqualung album was rendered by Burton Silverman, an American painter who went on to have a highly decorated career. And whereas it was inspired by some of Jennie Anderson’s aforementioned photographs, he also decided to use pics of Ian Anderson himself, dressed like a homeless person, as a model. But unfortunately for Ian, it resembled him more than he preferred. However, they ended up still using the painting, which again is pretty striking, nonetheless.

And by the looks of things, Jethro Tull may have even used it for promotional purposes outside of the scope of the album per se.

As fate would have it, considering that Aqualung has reportedly sold in excess of 7,000,000 copies, on top of the aforenoted cover art proving to be one of the most recognizable in industry history, Burton Silverman was grossly underpaid for his work.

One of the labels behind this song, Chrysalis Records, paid Silverman a flat, handshake fee of $1,500 for the painting. As of 2021, that would come out to about $10,000 in today’s money.

According to Burton Silverman’s daughter, he tried taking legal action. However, when that didn’t work, he contacted Ian directly concerning the matter. And to make a long story short, he was disappointed. At the end of the day, Burton basically went through the last five decades pissed off. He never understood why he received such a relatively-paltry compensation for what is actually one of his most popular works.

Music Video

Apparently an official music video to Aqualung didn’t get around to coming out until 2021, a solid 50 years after the song. The occasion was actually in recognition of the 50^th anniversary of the issuance of the album. And said video, which is an animated affair, employed Sam Chegini as its director.