Aqualung
by Jethro Tull
- 123
- BPM
- G minor
- Key
- 6A
- Camelot
- 48
- Danceability
- 7
- Acousticness
Martin Barre was recording the guitar solo for "Aqualung" when Jimmy Page walked into the control room. Led Zeppelin were working on their fourth album in the same studio, and Barre had not seen Page at all. Page waved at him through the glass, and Barre, who knew that in those days a solo not nailed in one or two takes might turn into a flute solo, could not wave back without risking the take.
The idea for the song came from a photograph that Ian Anderson's wife at the time, Jennie Franks, took of a tramp in London. Anderson felt guilt about the homeless, along with fear and insecurity around people who seem a little scary, and a slightly romanticized picture of a free spirit who will not or cannot join society's formats. He worked out the chord structure for the verses in a hotel room in Los Angeles. He described it as a tortured tangle of chords meant to drag the listener here and there before setting him down in the gentler acoustic section.
Jethro Tull never released it as a single. Anderson said it was too long and too episodic for radio. The album Aqualung, from 1971, reached number seven in June of that year and was the band's first American top 10 album.
Aqualung runs at 123 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.95 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 488 ms. It is in G minor, Camelot 6A, which shares its notes with Bb major and mixes cleanly with C minor and D minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.