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Aqualung [Original recording reissued, Extra tracks]

Jethro Tull, AqualungAudio CD
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (229 customer reviews)

Price: $12.69 & FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Aqualung + Thick As A Brick + Stand Up
Price for all three: $34.57

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Product Details

  • Audio CD (February 9, 1999)
  • Original Release Date: 1971
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: Original recording reissued, Extra tracks
  • Label: Capitol
  • ASIN: B00000GAIW
  • Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (229 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,777 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

1. Aqualung
2. Cross-Eyed Mary
3. Cheap Day Return
4. Mother Goose
5. Wond'ring Aloud
6. Up To Me
7. My God
8. Hymn 43
9. Slipstream
10. Locomotive Breath
11. Wind-Up
12. Lick Your Fingers Clean
13. Wind-Up (Quad Version)
14. Excerpts From The Ian Anderson Interview
15. Songs for Jeffrey
16. Fat Man
17. Bouree

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

After veering sharply from the blues inluences of their debut, This Was, Jethro Tull's sound quickly coalesced around jazz-tinged English folk influences and the antics of frontman/flautist Ian Anderson. But it was guitarist Martin Barre's swaggering riff off the title track of the band's fourth album that would become Tull's indelibly clichéd trademark--and the band's entrée into a long reign as arena-rock perennials. But there's a lot more to Aqualung than the riffage of that cut and its cousins, "Cross-Eyed Mary" and "Locomotive Breath." In an era when pseudo-Christian spirituality was a de rigueur, if cheap, musical commodity (from the overblown operatics of Jesus Christ Superstar to one-hit pop wonders such as "Spirit in the Sky" and "Put Your Hand in the Hand"), Anderson and company openly challenged the value of organized religion with a thematic album savvy enough to layer its thought-provoking lyrics between heavy strata of FM-friendly guitar bedrock. A cliché, perhaps; a landmark, no doubt. And a record many maintain is still Tull's finest hour. --Jerry McCulley

Product Description

JETHRO TULL AQUALUNG.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
80 of 86 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Genuine Treasure March 29, 2002
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Aqualung is a wonderful, superlative, essentially perfect album. From the day it was released right up to now the record is fresh, exciting, compelling, intelligent, forcefully rhythmic, melodic, brilliantly played, brilliantly sung, and has one of the best ever cover illustrations to boot. After nearly thirty years of wearing out various copies of it, I have yet to tire of this phenomenal artistic tour de force.
I had the great good fortune of seeing Jethro Tull live when they were doing the original Aqualung tour - they were hardly known at the time - and as great as the album is, their performance was even more electrifying. It was at Madison Square Garden and I was up front, a few feet from the performers.
As the show started the house lights went down and the stage went black. Silence. Long pause. Then, hobbling out of the blackness a single spotlight caught Anderson dressed extravagantly like the old man on the album cover, bent over and leaning on his flute, which he used as a cane. Leering maliciously, slowly creeping up front, he finally stopped, silently grinning out at the house as the audience howled with delight. Then he threw his flute straight up, high, and the spotlight went up with the flute, shining and sparkling as it twisted its way up and then down, the only thing visible in the darkness.
When the flute came back down it was met by Anderson's upraised hand, and at the instant he clutched it all the stage lights came up and the band struck the thunderous opening notes of the album. And it got better and better and better as the show went on, Anderson leaping and snarling and playing flute at the same time, a truly athletic performance. Whew! I can still see it.
If you've somehow denied yourself owning this remarkable work of art and music, get it now! I wish you many hours of enjoyment listening to this treasure.
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103 of 114 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Landmark, milestone, high-water mark . . . January 7, 2003
Format:Audio CD
. . . or choose your own favorite cliche. Whatever you call it, this album was and is of historical importance, for Tull and for 1970s rock.

In part, that's because it was misdescribed. No sooner was it released than the rock press started hailing it as a "concept album" (prompting Ian Anderson to go to work on the surreal and Pythonesque _Thick as a Brick_ so as to give everybody, tongue firmly in cheek, a _real_ "concept album").

"Concept albums" are frowned on these days (although I like them just fine); nevertheless this isn't one of them. Sure, there's a lot of thematic unity; the first half ("album side") involves homelessness and lechery, and the second Anderson's reflections on the religious upbringing of his adolescence. But a "concept album"? Not really.

But it does reflect a critical stage in the development of Jethro Tull. Bassist Glenn Cornick had just departed and been replaced by Anderson's boyhood friend Jeffrey Hammond; as of the next album (TaaB) Barrie Barlow would replace Clive Bunker on drums and percussion. And crucially, two things were happening on this album that would affect Tull's direction for the remainder of its still-ongoing career: Anderson was developing both his songwriting and his acoustic guitar chops, and Martin Barre was successfully finding his "voice" as a guitarist.

It's something of a cliche among Tull fans that Anderson's songwriting had taken a darker, more cynical turn as of _Benefit_ (the album preceding this one). Well, on _Aqualung_ that bitter fruit is really starting to ripen. There's the title track, of course, for which Anderson credits the lyrics to his first wife Jennie (he lifted many of them from her notes on the back sides of her photographs of homeless people). There's "Cross-Eyed Mary". And there's all the stuff about Anglican-and-perhaps-other Christianity. This sort of thing was to continue through _Minstrel in the Gallery_ (especially "Baker Street Muse"), roughly until Anderson moved to the country.

Anderson was also developing what we now know as "his" acoustic guitar style. There was a bit of it on _Benefit_ but it's really here that we started hearing his acoustic tunes ("Wond'ring Aloud," etc.); we heard some more early acoustic tunes on _Living in the Past_, but that album hadn't been released yet when _Aqualung_ came out.

And Martin Barre had turned himself into the Tull lead guitarist we all know and love. The opening blast of "Aqualung" is quintessential Tull; the guitar solo on that song ranks among rock's greatest; and I don't know about you, but when I listen to "Locomotive Breath," I have to remember to breathe myself.

Now, for all that, this is not my favorite Tull album (or even my favorite _early_ Tull album). But I don't think a month goes by that I don't listen to _something_ from it.

The remastered version is clean and crisp, and to my ear somewhat anechoic. The extra tracks are notable mainly for the inclusion of "Lick Your Fingers Clean" (an earlier version of "Two Fingers," released on _WarChild_ but originally intended for this one). There are also extended excerpts from an interview and remastered versions of "Song for Jeffrey," "Fat Man" and "Bouree", all of which are now available on the remastered _Stand Up_ anyway (where I think the remastering is done better), and a "quad" version of "Wind Up".
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35 of 38 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Aqualung and Ian Anderson's take on organized religion October 20, 2002
Format:Audio CD
"Aqualung" is certainly the rawest of Jethro Tull's albums, as far from the artistic pretensions of "Thick as a Brick" and "Passion Play" as you can get in terms of their albums. This might have something to do with the album's mission statement, which is printed in old fashioned type on the linear notes: "In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him....But as all these things did come to pass, the Spirit that did cause man to create his God lived on with all men: even within Aqualung. And man saw it not. But for Christ's sake he'd better start looking." Ironically, this is one of the few Jethro Tull albums where the lyrics are not printed despite the fact this is arguably the album where the lyrics mattereth the most.

The first "side" of the album, entitled "Aqualung" after the first and title track, offers nothing overt other than the idea of dismissing organized religion as "salvation à la mode and a cup of tea." However, the second side, "My God," makes its argument in earnest from the opening verse: "People - what have you done/locked Him in His golden cage/Made Him bend to your religion/Him resurrected from the grave." The Church of England is explicitly condemned for having supplanted the authenticity of the Christian religion with plastic crucifixes. "Hymn 43" continues this line of argument by suggesting that: "If Jesus saves - well, He'd better save Himself from the gory glory seekers who use His name in death." "Slipstream" offers a metaphorical look at sinners trying to save themselves at the last moment: "And you press on God's waiter your last dime/as he hands you the bill." That "Slipstream" comes right before "Locomotive Breath" makes sense when you look at the latter's lyrics in light of the former.

But Ian Anderson's diatribe against the organized religion of his country does not extend to God, as is amply proven by the concluding song, "Wind Up." To underscore the importance of what is being sung at this point, the music tends to get out of the way of the lyrics, especially the final lines: "I don't believe you/you had the whole damn thing all wrong/He's not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays." When the teachings of the church consist of nothing more than "half-assed smiles and the book of rules," this necessitates a more personal dialogue with God. In Anderson's world God replies with a firm answer. When Anderson declares "I'd rather look around me - compose a better song/`cos that's the honest measure of my worth," he is staking a claim to more piety and sanctity than the edifices he is indicting.

The second side of "Aqualung" aspires to being much more than mere rock `n' roll. The message is simplistic, but still compelling. "Aqualung" represents Ian Anderson speaking in relatively clear words; from here on the will cloak his lyrics in metaphors and his own brand of mysticism. But for me it is ultimately the clarity of the lyrics and the intended message that makes this the strongest of Jethro Tull's albums. There are certainly more pleasing melodies down the road, but that does nothing to diminish the raw power of this effort.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Aqualung is great!
I haw been a follower of Jethro Tull since the early 70's. I have the original vinyl. My CD version got borrowed by my son so I thought I would order another one for me. Read more
Published 7 days ago by alanna pasquale
5.0 out of 5 stars just what I was looking for
This is a great record from an excellent group, what can I say...it's art! And it's in great condition. seriously?
Published 27 days ago by David Garcia
5.0 out of 5 stars Jethro Tull Aqualung DCC VInyl
I my opinion this is the next to best pressing you can purchase of this recording. The Classic Record recording is also great if you can find one that is not dished (warped). Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mick Vinyl
5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic
This is a fluid album with one song flowing right into the next. Obviously AQUALUNG and LOCOMOTIVE BREATH are the best songs on this album, however, the rest of the album is... Read more
Published 1 month ago by George Mauger
5.0 out of 5 stars Love it!
Have been a Huge Tull fan for years and years and this album is my favorite. not a bad song on it.
Published 1 month ago by Patricia Cameron
5.0 out of 5 stars Blast from the past.
Bought this for a friend that used to listen to this in album form many years ago, was thrilled to have a CD. Great memories
Published 2 months ago by Kim C
5.0 out of 5 stars You cant beat tull
What can you say about tull, he was super cool in concert and aqualung was the best there ever was. He actually hung out with led zeppelin all the time.
Published 3 months ago by texasex
5.0 out of 5 stars In my top ten of all time classic rock albums.
I had to donate the vinyl version of this album last week and was heartbroken to do so. I downloaded the MP3 version of this record and was again blown away by the sheer power... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Greenie
5.0 out of 5 stars 25th aniversary digital remix a+!
A great classic rock album. This remix is as good as it gets. Music that is over 25 years old and sounds this good is a treat.
Published 3 months ago by carbonz
5.0 out of 5 stars Must Have!
This is one of the Must Have albums of all time! To say "timeless" is an understatement. many of the songs would not sound out of place is a mid evil castle nor blasting... Read more
Published 4 months ago by B. Koenig
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JETHRO TULL AT GOOSE LAKE PARK, AUGUST 9,1990
The Goose Lake Festival was in 1970, not 1990. Jethro Tull definitely performed but I have no idea how you might fossick up a recording of it. If you google Goose Lake Music Festival, you'll find a Wikipedia link that has more info.
Dec 3, 2007 by Bernard C. Hafeli |  See all 5 posts
Hey Jethro Tull fans, please help me ....
Bass Boy, I don't know if this is still an issue for you, but I will add my 2 cents worth. I have been purchasing most of the J. Tull remasters for the past year and can give some insight into the sound quality of these releases. Most of the JT catalog has been actually "remastered"... Read more
Apr 30, 2009 by Richard Thompson |  See all 14 posts
Is this newly remastered, the gold CD remaster or the 25th anniversary...
It's the same master that Peter Mew did for the 25th Anniversary Edition.
Jul 14, 2009 by Wayne Klein |  See all 2 posts
JETHRO TULL AT GOOSE LAKE PARK, AUGUST 9,1990 Be the first to reply
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