Aqualung

​May as well start at the beginning, right? I wish I knew the date I bought this album so I could know exactly how long I've been doing this. It still blows my mind how much music is contained within Toad Hall. Sure, the other stores I've been to have plenty to choose from, but Toad Hall feels like an endless maze filled with anything you could want. Of course, I shot straight for the rock section. At the time, I was beginning to discover how much I loved Jethro Tull. Even now, I still love Ian Anderson's stage presence, his chaotic flute playing, Martin Barre's dirty guitar tones, and how tight that whole band played in their hey-day. At the end, there is some excellent footage of them playing at Madison Square Garden in 1978 that I highly recommend everyone watch if you want to see how impressive those guys really were.

I remember, once I found the section of all the used Jethro Tull albums, I was blown away by how many copies of each record there were. Apparently a lot of people aren't searching for used, 1970's prog folk rock when they visit a record store. Either way, I dug through the mass of albums they had and found the only copy of Aqualung they had. I'm pretty sure I only knew one song on the album. I'm not even sure I checked the condition of the album because I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I probably only paid $7 for it, and just like that, my record collection began. So I eagerly returned home so I could finally hear how this thing sounded. So I asked my mom if she could show me how to work the record player we had. First of all, my mom was probably wondering why I just came home with a record, and second, she told me we got rid of our record player. Perfect. So now I have this album that I'm never going to be able to play. My dad, however, decided that since I had gotten a record, he was going to get back into listening to his old records. So maybe a week or two after I bought my first album, I finally got to listen to it. My dad went to Barnes and Noble and bought one of those awful little Crosley Cruisers with the built-in speakers because we assumed we wouldn't need a high quality record player because  it's not like I was going to buy hundreds more records, right? 

So, finally, my mom showed me how to use a record player correctly so I wouldn't completely screw up. So I took out my album, put it on, set the stylus down, and eagerly awaited to hear my first album. And of course, since I acted like an idiot and didn't check the condition of the album before I bought it, it turned out the album had a huge scratch on the first side. Normally, the first track, Aqualung, starts off with the main riff twice, and then the verse starts. Well my copy only played a few notes of the second time through the riff because of that scratch. Thankfully, the rest of the album sounded fantastic. The whole album is filled with absolutely incredible songs besides just the title track. Two of Jethro Tull's other biggest hits, "Cross-Eyed Mary" and "Locomotive Breath" came off of that album as well. Listening to Ian Anderson play the flute on those two songs still blows my mind, especially on "Locomotive Breath." I can't even begin to describe what he is doing. Of course part of that is because I don't know how to play the flute, but still, even from a general music background, his playing leaves me speechless. The solo goes from 2:47 to 3:26 so you can hear what I'm trying to talk about. Another song that I came to love from listening to this album over and over was "Up to Me." I absolutely love how the acoustic guitar and flute play the main riff together at the beginning. It has such a dark tone. It's almost menacing in some odd way. And then right after, they play this light little verse which will quickly change back into that awesome riff. Even better, the whole time, Martin Barre throws in these short, sharp guitar stabs with a blistering tone that just completely rip through the song. 

Alright I need to go off and rant about how great of a guitarist Martin Barre is. I can almost guarantee that, unless you're a big prog rock fan, you've never heard of him. He featured on most of Jethro Tull's albums  starting with "Stand Up" which was released in 1969 after he replaced guitarist Mick Abrahams. Being on most of Jethro Tull's albums is no small feat either considering that they have had well over twenty total members through their existence. Barre's guitar tone is different than a lot of early prog artists. Most early prog guitar had clean tones or a little bit of fuzz, but Barre used much more distortion than many of the prog guitarists of the time. Just listen to "My God" by Jethro Tull. It starts off with a dark acoustic intro like many Tull songs, but once he kicks in with main riff, the tones sound more like Tony Iommi than Steve Howe or Greg Lake. Those guys still played with overdrive now and then, but Barre applied it much more frequently, and it worked so well. I think it's a huge part of the reason why Jethro Tull sounds so much darker than the other early prog bands.

So "Aqualung" was definitely a great album to start my collection off on. There is truly not a bad song on the record, and it's one of those albums that never gets old. This album definitely helped fuel my love for other concept albums as I began to listen to more and more prog music. Without this album, I honestly don't think my love for music would be where it is today. I could not recommend this album enough times. I would easily consider it a top ten favorite of mine. If progressive folk rock isn't your thing (which I can completely understand), next time you're at a store that sells any kind of music, take the time and find something you only have a little familiarity with and want to learn more about or just buy something that you have never heard of before. Who knows, it could lead somewhere completely unexpected.

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