''Aqualung'' is the fourth studio album by the British rock band
Jethro Tull, released on 19 March 1971, by
Chrysalis Records
Chrysalis Records () is a British record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ellis-Wright Ag ...
. It is widely regarded as a
concept album
A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...
featuring a central theme of "the distinction between religion and God", though the band have said there was no intention to make a concept album, and that only a few songs have a unifying theme.
''Aqualung'' success signalled a turning point in the career of the band, which went on to become a major radio and touring act.
Recorded at
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...
'
new London recording studio, it was their first album with keyboardist
John Evan
John Evan (born John Spencer Evans; born 28 March 1948, in Derby, Derbyshire.) is a British musician and composer. He is best known for having played keyboards for Jethro Tull from April 1970 to June 1980. Evans' father was headmaster at a De ...
as a full-time member, their first with new bassist
Jeffrey Hammond
Jeffrey Hammond (born 30 July 1946), often known by his former stage name Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, is an artist and retired musician best known for being the bassist of progressive rock band Jethro Tull from 1971 to 1975. With Jethro Tull, Ha ...
, and last album featuring
Clive Bunker
Clive William Bunker (born 30 December 1946) is a British drummer. Bunker is best known as the original drummer of the rock band Jethro Tull, playing in the band from 1967 until 1971. Never a self-professed technical drummer, Bunker engaged ...
on drums, who quit the band shortly after the release of the album. Something of a departure from the band's previous work, the album features more acoustic material than previous releases; and—inspired by photographs of homeless people on the Thames Embankment taken by singer
Ian Anderson
Ian Scott Anderson (born 10 August 1947) is a British musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work as the lead vocalist, flautist, acoustic guitarist and leader of the British rock band Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist w ...
's wife
Jennie—contains a number of recurring themes, addressing religion along with Anderson's own personal experiences.
''Aqualung'' is Jethro Tull's best-selling album, selling more than seven million units worldwide. It was generally well-received critically and has been included on several music magazine best-of lists. The album spawned two singles, "
Hymn 43
"Hymn 43" is a song by British progressive rock group Jethro Tull. It is off their '' Aqualung'' album and was released as a single by Reprise Records. The song reached 91 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.
Background
Songwriter Ian Anderson des ...
" and "
Locomotive Breath
"Locomotive Breath" is a song by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull from their 1971 album, '' Aqualung''.
Written as a comment on population growth, "Locomotive Breath" was meant to replicate the chugging rhythm of a train. In addition to ...
".
Production
"My God" was recorded on 11–12 April 1970, followed by "Wond'ring Aloud" on 21 June, both at
Morgan Studios
Morgan Studios (founded as Morgan Sound Studios) was an independent recording studio in Willesden in northwest London. Founded in 1967, the studio was the location for recordings by such notable artists as Jethro Tull, the Kinks, Paul McCartney, ...
.
After an American tour, bass player
Glenn Cornick
Glenn Douglas Barnard Cornick (23 April 1947 – 28 August 2014) was an English bass guitarist, best known as the original bassist for the British rock band Jethro Tull from 1967 to 1970. ''Rolling Stone'' has called his playing with Tull as " ...
was fired from the band, and was replaced with
Jeffrey Hammond
Jeffrey Hammond (born 30 July 1946), often known by his former stage name Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, is an artist and retired musician best known for being the bassist of progressive rock band Jethro Tull from 1971 to 1975. With Jethro Tull, Ha ...
, an old friend of Ian Anderson. ''Aqualung'' would be Hammond's first album with the band. It would also mark the first time
John Evan
John Evan (born John Spencer Evans; born 28 March 1948, in Derby, Derbyshire.) is a British musician and composer. He is best known for having played keyboards for Jethro Tull from April 1970 to June 1980. Evans' father was headmaster at a De ...
had recorded a full album with the band, as his only prior involvement was to provide several keyboard parts on the previous 1970 album, ''
Benefit''. In December, the album became one of the first to be recorded at Island Records' newly-opened recording studios on Basing Street in London.
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...
were recording their
untitled fourth album at the same time. In an interview on the 25th anniversary edition of the album, Tull's bandleader
Ian Anderson
Ian Scott Anderson (born 10 August 1947) is a British musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work as the lead vocalist, flautist, acoustic guitarist and leader of the British rock band Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist w ...
said that trying to record in that studio was very difficult, because of its "horrible, cold, echoey" feel.
There were two recording studios at the location; Led Zeppelin worked in the smaller studio downstairs, while Tull got the larger studio,
which was the main body of a converted church. The orchestral segments were arranged by
Dee Palmer
Dee Palmer (formerly David Palmer; born 2 July 1937) is an English composer, arranger, and keyboardist best known for having been a member of the progressive rock group Jethro Tull (band), Jethro Tull from 1976 to 1980 (although she had worked wi ...
, who had worked with the band since 1968's ''
This Was
''This Was'' is the debut studio album by the British rock band Jethro Tull, released in October 1968. Recorded at a cost of £1200, it is the only Jethro Tull album with guitarist Mick Abrahams, who was a major influence for the sound and music ...
'', and would later join as a keyboard player. The master reels were assembled at
Apple Studios
Apple Studios is an American film and television production company and a distributor that is a subsidiary of Apple Inc. It specializes in developing and producing television series and films for Apple's digital video streaming service Apple TV+ ...
on 2 March 1971. ''Aqualung'' would be the last Jethro Tull album to include
Clive Bunker
Clive William Bunker (born 30 December 1946) is a British drummer. Bunker is best known as the original drummer of the rock band Jethro Tull, playing in the band from 1967 until 1971. Never a self-professed technical drummer, Bunker engaged ...
as a band member, as he retired shortly after recording to start a family.
Musical style
The songs on the album encompass a variety of musical genres, with elements of
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fol ...
,
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
,
psychedelia
Psychedelia refers to the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic ...
, and
hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
. The "riff-heavy" nature of tracks such as "
Locomotive Breath
"Locomotive Breath" is a song by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull from their 1971 album, '' Aqualung''.
Written as a comment on population growth, "Locomotive Breath" was meant to replicate the chugging rhythm of a train. In addition to ...
", "
Hymn 43
"Hymn 43" is a song by British progressive rock group Jethro Tull. It is off their '' Aqualung'' album and was released as a single by Reprise Records. The song reached 91 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.
Background
Songwriter Ian Anderson des ...
" and "Wind Up" is regarded as a factor in the band's increased success after the release of the album, with Jethro Tull becoming "a major arena act" and a "fixture on FM radio" according to
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
.
In a stylistic departure from Jethro Tull's earlier albums, many of ''Aqualungs songs are
acoustic. "Cheap Day Return", "Wond'ring Aloud" and "Slipstream" are short, completely acoustic "bridges", and "
Mother Goose
The figure of Mother Goose is the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales and later of English nursery rhymes. As a character, she appeared in a song, the first stanza of which often functions now as a nursery rhyme. This, howeve ...
" is also mostly acoustic. Anderson claims his main inspirations for writing the album were
Roy Harper and
Bert Jansch
Herbert Jansch (3 November 1943 – 5 October 2011) was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s as an acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter ...
.
Themes
''Aqualung'' has widely been regarded as a
concept album
A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...
, featuring a central theme of "the distinction between religion and God".
The album's "dour musings on faith and religion" have marked it as "one of the most cerebral albums ever to reach millions of rock listeners".
Academic discussions of the nature of concept albums have frequently listed ''Aqualung'' amongst their number.
The initial idea for the album was sparked by some photographs that Anderson's wife
Jennie took of homeless people on the
Thames Embankment
The Thames Embankment is a work of 19th-century civil engineering that reclaimed marshy land next to the River Thames in central London. It consists of the Victoria Embankment and Chelsea Embankment.
History
There had been a long history of f ...
. The appearance of one man in particular caught the interest of the couple, who together wrote the title song "Aqualung". The first side of the LP, titled ''Aqualung'', contains several character sketches, including the eponymous character of the title track, and the schoolgirl prostitute
Cross-Eyed Mary
"Cross-Eyed Mary" is a song by the British progressive rock band Jethro Tull from their album '' Aqualung'' (1971).
The song is about "Cross-Eyed Mary", a schoolgirl prostitute who prefers the company of "leching greys" over her schoolmates. ...
, as well as two autobiographical tracks, including "Cheap Day Return", written by Anderson after a visit to his critically ill father.
The second side, titled ''My God'', contains three tracks—"My God," "
Hymn 43
"Hymn 43" is a song by British progressive rock group Jethro Tull. It is off their '' Aqualung'' album and was released as a single by Reprise Records. The song reached 91 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.
Background
Songwriter Ian Anderson des ...
" and "Wind-Up"—that address religion in an introspective, and sometimes irreverent, manner. However, despite the names given to the album's two sides and their related subject matter, Anderson has consistently maintained that ''Aqualung'' is not a "concept album". A 2005 interview included on ''
Aqualung Live
''Aqualung'' is the fourth studio album by the British rock band Jethro Tull, released on 19 March 1971, by Chrysalis Records. It is widely regarded as a concept album featuring a central theme of "the distinction between religion and God", ...
'' gives Anderson's thoughts on the matter:
Drummer Clive Bunker believes that the record's perception as a concept album is a case of "
Chinese whispers
Chinese whispers (some Commonwealth English) or telephone (American English and Canadian English) is an internationally popular children's game. It is also called transmission chain experiments in the context of cultural evolution research, and ...
", explaining "you play the record to a couple of Americans, tell them that there's a lyrical theme loosely linking a few songs, and then notice the figure of the Aqualung character on the cover, and suddenly the word is out that Jethro Tull have done a concept album".
The thematic elements Jethro Tull explored on the album—those of the effects of urbanisation on nature, and of the effects of social constructs such as religion on society—would be developed further on most of the band's subsequent releases. Ian Anderson's frustration over the album's labelling as a concept album directly led to the creation of ''
Thick as a Brick
''Thick as a Brick'' is the fifth studio album by the British rock band Jethro Tull, released on 3 March 1972. The album contains a continuous piece of music, split over two sides of an LP record, and is intended as a parody of the concept alb ...
'' (1972), intended to be a deliberately "over the top" concept album in response.
Other songs
"Lick Your Fingers Clean" was recorded for ''Aqualung'', but was not included on the album. The song was drastically re-worked as "Two Fingers" for Tull's 1974 album, ''
War Child''. "Lick Your Fingers Clean" was eventually released in 1988 on the ''
20 Years of Jethro Tull
''20 Years of Jethro Tull'' is a 1988 boxed set which spans the first twenty years of Jethro Tull. It was issued as five LPs: ''Radio Archives'', ''Rare Tracks'', ''Flawed Gems'', ''Other Sides of Tull'', and ''The Essential Tull''. It was s ...
'' collection. It was then released as a bonus track on the 1996 and 2011 reissues of ''Aqualung''.
Another song, "Wond'ring Again" was recorded on 21 June 1970 together with the original version of "Wond'ring Aloud" (included as one single seven-minute song on the Steven Wilson remaster of associated recordings 1970–1971, titled "Wond'ring Aloud, Again"), and was considered for release on the album before Anderson decided to drop it from the final track listing. "Wond'ring Again" was subsequently released on the compilation album, ''
Living in the Past'', in 1972. A re-recording of "Wond'ring Aloud" was included on ''Aqualung''. Glenn Cornick played bass on the song and says it is his favourite song he recorded with the band.
Cornick also played bass on early studio recordings of "My God" and "a couple of other songs", though he did not say which they were.
Album cover
The album's original cover art by
Burton Silverman
Burton Silverman is an American artist.
Education
Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1928, Silverman received a BA from Columbia College and studied at the Art Students League and the Pratt Institute. Now entering his sixth decade as an artist, S ...
features a watercolour portrait of a long-haired, bearded man in shabby clothes. The idea for the cover came from a photograph Anderson's wife took of a homeless man on Thames Embankment, and Anderson later felt it would have been better to have used the photograph rather than commission the painting. Ian Anderson recalls posing for a photograph for the painting, though Silverman claims it was a self-portrait.
The artwork was commissioned and purchased by
Chrysalis Records
Chrysalis Records () is a British record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ellis-Wright Ag ...
head
Terry Ellis
Terry is a unisex given name, derived from French Thierry and Theodoric. It can also be used as a diminutive nickname for the names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence or Terrier (masculine).
People
Male
* Terry Albritton (1955–2005), Am ...
in 1971.
Silverman was paid a flat fee of $1,500 for the painting.
There was no written contract.
The artist says the art was only licensed for use as an album cover, and not for merchandising; he approached the band seeking remuneration for the additional uses, such as printing it on T-shirts and coffee mugs.
The original artwork for both the front and back covers are missing. They were apparently stolen from a London hotel room,
or perhaps from Chrysalis' office during a robbery.
The original artwork for the interior gatefold painting was not taken during the robbery and is held by Terry Ellis.
Release
In April 1971, ''Aqualung'' peaked at number four on the UK Album Chart; when the CD version was released in 1996, it reached number 52.
It peaked at No. 7 on the
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
' North American pop albums chart;
the single "
Hymn 43
"Hymn 43" is a song by British progressive rock group Jethro Tull. It is off their '' Aqualung'' album and was released as a single by Reprise Records. The song reached 91 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.
Background
Songwriter Ian Anderson des ...
" hit No. 91 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart.
The album would go on to sell over seven million copies, and is the band's best-selling album.
''Aqualung'' was one of only two Jethro Tull albums released in
quadraphonic sound
Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...
, the other being ''
War Child'' (1974). The quadraphonic version of "Wind Up", which is in a slightly higher key, is included on the later CD reissue of the album as "Wind Up (quad version)".
The single "
Hymn 43
"Hymn 43" is a song by British progressive rock group Jethro Tull. It is off their '' Aqualung'' album and was released as a single by Reprise Records. The song reached 91 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.
Background
Songwriter Ian Anderson des ...
" was released on 14 August 1971, and reached number 91 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 charts, spending two weeks in the chart.
The song was the first single to chart by the band in the United States.
It was later included in the video game ''
Rock Band 2'' as downloadable content;
which also featured the album's title track.
The album was re-released in a 40th anniversary edition on 31 October 2011. The release contains a new stereo and 5.1 surround remix of the album by British musician and producer
Steven Wilson
Steven John Wilson (born 3 November 1967) is an English musician. He is the founder, guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield, Storm Corrosio ...
, and comes in three different editions—a "collector's edition" containing the album on LP and two CDs, as well a DVD and a Blu-ray disc (with better sound quality than the DVD) and a hardback book; a "special edition" containing the two CDs and an abridged version of the book; and an "adapted edition" containing two CDs (with 2 extra songs not included in the other two 40th anniversary editions) and 2 DVDs in a hardcover book (written content is the same as in the Collector's Edition book, only the Chronology differs slightly).
Justifying the remix, Steven Wilson said: "Jethro Tull's ''Aqualung'' is ... a masterpiece, but was sonically a very poor-sounding record. So, some didn't rate it as highly as they should have. What we did with ''Aqualung'' was really make that record gleam in a way it never gleamed before. I think a lot of people, including myself, have come around to thinking that the album is a lot better than they even gave it credit for previously. So, there is certainly something very gratifying about being able to polish what was already a diamond and making it shine in a way it never has before". Additionally, according to mastering engineer
Steve Hoffman there were tape stretching problems with the original session mixdown master, implying that many editions of the album used multigeneration copies as their source.
Critical reception
''Aqualung'' received mixed to favourable reviews from contemporary music critics. ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' magazine's Ben Gerson lauded its "fine musicianship", calling it "serious and intelligent", although he felt that the album's seriousness "undermined" its quality.
''Sounds'' said that its "taste and variety" made it the band's "finest" work.
''Aqualung'' was voted the 22nd best album of 1971 in ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
''s annual
Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abse ...
critics' poll.
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
, the poll's creator, was more critical of the album in a 1981 review, and described Anderson's undeveloped cultural interests and negative views on religion and human behaviour as both boring and pretentious.
In retrospective reviews the album is generally lauded and viewed as a classic.
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
's Bruce Eder called ''Aqualung'' "a bold statement" and "extremely profound".
In a review of the album's 40th anniversary re-release, Sean Murphy of
PopMatters
''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...
said that ''Aqualung'' "is, to be certain, a cornerstone of the then-nascent prog-rock canon, but it did—and does—exist wholly on its own terms as a great rock album, period". Murphy also praised the additional material featured on the release, finding that the new content was "where a great album gets even better".
Paul Stump's ''History of Progressive Rock'' was more measured in its praise, saying that ''Aqualung'' made little advancement over the group's previous album, ''
Benefit''. He identified the improvements as the deeper, wider arrangements, and the diversions of the melody from the bassline accompaniments. He found the side two song cycle rambling but added that "if the lyrics were now tending towards the provocatively obscure, they were none the less possessed of some style, not least in their Blakean allusions".
Steve Harris, the bass player for the heavy metal band
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harri ...
, has called ''Aqualung'' "a classic album", lauding its "fantastic playing, fantastic songs, attitude
ndvibe". Iron Maiden would go on to cover "
Cross-Eyed Mary
"Cross-Eyed Mary" is a song by the British progressive rock band Jethro Tull from their album '' Aqualung'' (1971).
The song is about "Cross-Eyed Mary", a schoolgirl prostitute who prefers the company of "leching greys" over her schoolmates. ...
" as the
B-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...
of their 1983 single "
The Trooper
"The Trooper" is a song by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It was released as the second single on 20 June 1983 from the band's fourth studio album, ''Piece of Mind'' (1983). It was one of only a few songs to get much radio airplay in ...
".
Accolades
''Aqualung'' has also been appraised highly in retrospective listings, compiled by music writers and magazines. Martin Barre's solo on the album's title track was included in
''Guitarist'' magazine's list of "The 20 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time" at number 20.
Track listing
1971 original release
Original North American
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels.
Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael ...
pressings of ''Aqualung'' contained a slightly edited version of the title song, with its first three seconds (i.e., the first repetition of the song's signature riff) removed. These pressings correspondingly list the song's length at 6:31.
[Reprise catalogue number MS 2035, released March 1971.]
1996 CD reissue
2011 40th anniversary special edition
The 2011 version was remixed by Steven Wilson and remastered by Peter Mew.
CD 1: Original Album
2016 40th anniversary adapted edition
The 2016 edition was remastered by Steven Wilson of his 2011 remixed material as he did not like Peter Mew's mastering.
Personnel
;Jethro Tull
*
Ian Anderson
Ian Scott Anderson (born 10 August 1947) is a British musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work as the lead vocalist, flautist, acoustic guitarist and leader of the British rock band Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist w ...
–
lead vocals
The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...
,
acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
,
flute
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
, production
*
Martin Barre
Martin Lancelot Barre (; born 17 November 1946) is an English guitarist best known for his longtime role as lead guitarist of British rock band Jethro Tull, with whom he recorded and toured from 1968 until the band's initial dissolution in 201 ...
–
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...
, descant
recorder
Recorder or The Recorder may refer to:
Newspapers
* ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper
* ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US
* ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...
*
Jeffrey Hammond
Jeffrey Hammond (born 30 July 1946), often known by his former stage name Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, is an artist and retired musician best known for being the bassist of progressive rock band Jethro Tull from 1971 to 1975. With Jethro Tull, Ha ...
(as "Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond") –
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
, alto recorder, odd voices; backing vocals on "Mother Goose"
*
John Evan
John Evan (born John Spencer Evans; born 28 March 1948, in Derby, Derbyshire.) is a British musician and composer. He is best known for having played keyboards for Jethro Tull from April 1970 to June 1980. Evans' father was headmaster at a De ...
–
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
,
organ
Organ may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a part of an organism
Musical instruments
* Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone
** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument
** Hammond ...
,
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...
*
Clive Bunker
Clive William Bunker (born 30 December 1946) is a British drummer. Bunker is best known as the original drummer of the rock band Jethro Tull, playing in the band from 1967 until 1971. Never a self-professed technical drummer, Bunker engaged ...
–
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
and
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
;Additional personnel
*
Glenn Cornick
Glenn Douglas Barnard Cornick (23 April 1947 – 28 August 2014) was an English bass guitarist, best known as the original bassist for the British rock band Jethro Tull from 1967 to 1970. ''Rolling Stone'' has called his playing with Tull as " ...
– bass guitar (played with the band at rehearsals for the album in June 1970, some of which may also have been recording sessions – particularly early versions of "My God" and "Wondring Again/Wondring Aloud" – although he is not credited on the album)
*
John Burns
John Elliot Burns (20 October 1858 – 24 January 1943) was an English trade unionist and politician, particularly associated with London politics and Battersea. He was a socialist and then a Liberal Member of Parliament and Minister. He was ...
– recording engineer
*
Dee Palmer
Dee Palmer (formerly David Palmer; born 2 July 1937) is an English composer, arranger, and keyboardist best known for having been a member of the progressive rock group Jethro Tull (band), Jethro Tull from 1976 to 1980 (although she had worked wi ...
– orchestral arrangements and conducting
*
Burton Silverman
Burton Silverman is an American artist.
Education
Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1928, Silverman received a BA from Columbia College and studied at the Art Students League and the Pratt Institute. Now entering his sixth decade as an artist, S ...
– album artwork
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Terry Ellis
Terry is a unisex given name, derived from French Thierry and Theodoric. It can also be used as a diminutive nickname for the names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence or Terrier (masculine).
People
Male
* Terry Albritton (1955–2005), Am ...
– producer
Charts
Album
Singles
Certifications
Footnotes
References
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External links
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My dad painted the iconic cover for Jethro Tull's ‘Aqualung,’ and it's haunted him ever since
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aqualung (Jethro Tull Album)
Jethro Tull (band) albums
1971 albums
Chrysalis Records albums
Island Records albums
Reprise Records albums
Albums produced by Terry Ellis (record producer)
Albums produced by Ian Anderson
Concept albums