Song Details
- Album Release Date: 2012
- Genre: hard-rock
Song Meaning of “Aqualung” by Jethro Tull
Aqualung by Jethro Tull is a song about man’s struggle with finding salvation. The song starts with the ominous lines “Sitting on a park bench, eyeing little girls with bad intent”. This paints a picture of someone, possibly a homeless man, searching for solace in a world that doesn’t seem to care. He is hopeless, and there is a sense of despair in these lines.
The next verse speaks of “feeling the icy fingers clawing my soul”. This imagery further illustrates the idea of being forsaken, as if something or someone is actively taking away the hope this downtrodden figure had.
In the chorus, there is the phrase “Can you help me occupy my soul?”. This desperate plea further strengthens the idea of an individual, tired of society, looking for salvation and meaning in a world that seems to offer none.
The song culminates with “Aqualung my friend, don’t you start away uneasily”. Here, Aqualung is a metaphor for hope and faith. The songwriter is telling his “friend” not to give up, and not to abandon those who are searching for something more than a life on a park bench or life without meaning and hope.
Overall, Jethro Tull’s Aqualung tells an uncomfortable story of hopelessness and despair. All through the song, there is a searching for salvation, not from a higher being, but from a fellow human. In this sense, Aqualung serves as a call to action, a reminder that one should not give up, especially when those in need of help are our fellow man.