Liberal Arts Blog — The Darkness of Jethro Tull — “Locomotive Breath, “ “Aqualung,” “Cross-eyed Mary”
Liberal Arts Blog — Thursday is the Joy of Music Day -
Today’s Topic: The Darkness of Jethro Tull — “Locomotive Breath, “ “Aqualung,” “Cross-eyed Mary”
Last time, Canned Heat, the Mamas and the Papas, and Van Morrison. The time before that three classic Neapolitan songs featuring Luciano Pavarotti. Before that a two part series on Joseph Haydn. Before that Miley Cyrus. And before that the beloved “Butterfly Song” from Vietnam.
Today, three songs by Jethro Tull, a band founded in Blackpool, Lancashire in 1967.
“The group’s lead vocalist, bandleader, founder, principal composer and only constant member is Ian Anderson, who also plays flute and acoustic guitar.”
Oddly, the band’s name comes from an 18th century agriculturist Jethro Tull (1674–1741), who “perfected the horse-drawn seed drill in 1701 that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows, and later developed a horse-drawn hoe.” The agricultural revolution that Tull pioneered led to the population explosion that Anderson laments in our first song, “Locomotive Breath” which likens human population growth to a runaway train.
The second song, “Aqualung” was inspired by a photograph Anderson’s wife took of a “tramp in London. I had feelings of guilt about the homeless, as well as fear and insecurity with people like that who seem a little scary.”
The third song, “Cross-Eyed Mary” is about a school-girl prostitute and makes me think of the last verse of William Blake’s “London.” (See footnote) Fan? not a fan?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
LOCOMOTIVE BREATH (1971) — a metaphor for runaway population growth — “Old Charlie stole the handle”
1. “In the shuffling madness Of the locomotive breath Runs the all-time loser Headlong to his death Oh, he feels the piston scraping Steam breaking on his brow Old Charlie stole the handle And the train it won’t stop Oh no way to slow down
2. “He sees his children jumping off At the stations one by one His woman and his best friend In bed and having fun Oh, he’s crawling down the corridor On his hands and knees Old Charlie stole the handle And the train it won’t stop going No way to slow down
3. “Hey He hears the silence howling Catches angels as they fall And the all-time winner Has got him by the balls Oh, he picks up Gideons bible Open at page one I think God he stole the handle And the train it won’t stop going No way to slow down. No way to slow down. No way to slow down. No way to slow down.”
NB: “It was my first song that was perhaps on a topic that would be a little more appropriate to today’s world. It was about the runaway train of population growth and capitalism.
It was based on those sorts of unstoppable ideas. We’re on this crazy train, we can’t get off it. Where is it going? Bearing in mind, of course, when I was born in 1947, the population of planet earth was slightly a third of what it is today, so it should be a sobering thought that in one man’s lifetime, our planetary population has more than tripled. You’d think population growth would have brought prosperity, happiness, food and a reasonable spread of wealth, but quite the opposite has happened.
And is happening even more to this day. Without putting it into too much literal detail, that was what lay behind that song.” (Ian Anderson) For a much more positive, fact-based account of human population growth, see Hans Rosling’s Factufulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World and Things Are Better Than We Think (last link below).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSUdlUmtg3Q
AQUALUNG (1971) — “Snot’s running down his nose, Greasy fingers, smearing shabby clothes”
1. “Sitting on a park bench Eyeing little girls with bad intent Snot’s running down his nose Greasy fingers, smearing shabby clothes Hey, Aqualung Drying in the cold sun Watching as the frilly panties run Hey, Aqualung Feeling like a dead duck Spitting out pieces of his broken luck”
2. Oh, Aqualung Sun streaking cold An old man wandering lonely Taking time the only way he knows Leg hurting bad As he bends to pick a dog-end He goes down to the bog and warms his feet
3. Feeling alone The army’s up the road Salvation a la mode and a cup of tea Aqualung, my friend Don’t you start away uneasy You poor old sod You see, it’s only me Do you still remember December’s foggy freeze When the ice that clings on to your beard Was screaming agony?
NB: “And you snatch your rattling last breaths With deep-sea diver sounds And the flowers bloom like madness in the spring Sun streaking cold An old man wandering lonely Taking time the only way he knows Leg hurting bad As he bends to pick a dog-end He goes down to the bog and warms his feet.”
Jethro Tull — Aqualung (Official Music Video)
CROSS-EYED MARY — the “Robin Hood of Highgate” — link to the last stanza of William Blake’s “London”
1. “Who would be a poor man A beggar man, a thief If he had a rich man in his hand? And who would steal the candy From a laughing baby’s mouth If he could take it from the money man?
2. Cross-eyed Mary goes jumping in again She signs no contract But she always plays the game She dines in hampstead village On expense accounted gruel And the jack-knife barber drops her off at school
3. Hey, laughing in the playground Gets no kicks from little boys Would rather make it with a letching gray, yeah Or maybe her attention is drawn by aqualung Who watches through the railings as they play Hey, cross-eyed Mary finds it hard to get along She’s a poor man’s rich girl and she’ll do it for a song
NB: “She’s a rich man stealer but her favour’s good and strong She’s the Robin Hood of highgate Helps the poor man get along,
FOOTNOTE — William Blake’s “London”
1. I wander thro’ each charter’d street, Near where the charter’d Thames does flow. And mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
2. In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear,In every voice: in every ban, The mind-forg’d manacles I hear
3. “How the Chimney-sweepers cry Every blackning Church appalls, And the hapless Soldiers sigh runs in blood down Palace walls
NB: “But most thro’ midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlots curse Blasts the new-born Infants tear And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jethro_Tull_(band)
Jethro Tull (agriculturist) — Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotive_Breath
Jethro Tull — Locomotive Breath (Rockpop In Concert 10.7.1982)
Jethro Tull — A Song for Jeffrey
London (William Blake poem) — Wikipedia
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
Updating PDFs: 2023 — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
YOUR TURN
Time to share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to music.
Or the coolest thing you learned in your life related to music. Say your favorite song or songs. Or your favorite tips for breathing, posture, or relaxation. Or some insight into the history of music….Or just something random about music… like a joke about drummers. jazz, rock….or share an episode or chapter in your musical autobiography.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. And perhaps to cement in your memory something important you would otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than you otherwise would about something that matters to you.
