Some additional thoughts: 1) I didn't really have time to get into the bass in the intro, but it's doing a cool thing: For the second half of the progression, it's largely playing the 5th of the chord while the lead guitar fills in the root. This puts the chords in what's called second inversion, where the lowest note is the 5th, and second inversion chords are a lot less stable than root position ones, so this choice helps accent the atonality of the section by making sure nothing really feels resolved. 2) Also, I briefly mentioned the song structure, but seriously it's so weird. You've got this crazy rock section, then you flip to a really laid back, folky thing, which then transitions into high-energy folk which slowly becomes more rock-y, then we pull a hard turn back into that laid back folk section before jumping back to the rock intro. It's also really hard to nail down specific sections from a functional perspective: Is anything the chorus? Are there verses? It's not just looping but it's also not following a consistent pattern. It's really interesting how it all fits together. 3) I expected some pushback on the atonality analysis, so here's a short explanation I wrote about it for the folks in my discord: I did consider the Gmi analysis for the intro, but I felt that too many of the chords didn't really make sense in that key. At different times it seems to tonicize Db, F, and debatably even Eb. Most notably, it includes a fairly prominent Gb major triad, and while there's ways to analyze that in G minor, its behavior doesn't really seem to jive with any of those analyses. I don't know, it's just hard for me look at a section with 7 different major triads as belonging to a single key, even if the riff itself could be explained as G minor blues. That said, analysis is obviously subjective so I don't think any of y'all are wrong either, I just figured I'd explain my thoughts a bit. 4) Also, if you're wondering what my reasoning is for viewing the "verse" melody in F, I wrote about that over on twitter: twitter.com/12tonevideos/status/1082377343132491776

I don't always get Jethro Tull stuck in my head. But when I do, I'm sitting on a park bench

In my high school, we had a mural over the art classroom entrance with a bunch of bands from the 40's through 2010's or so. One day, I asked my art teacher why there was nothing up there for Jethro Tull. He looked at me and said "You know, I have been looking for something to put in the drum, where the clock used to be. And this might make me seem old, but Jethro Tull's Aqualung was the first record I ever bought." A few days (and a good conversation later), we put up Jethro Tull's logo on the wall :)

I know this probably won't get seen by anyone, but my dad passed away today and seeing this in my recommended made me happy because this was one of his favourite songs. He practiced it a lot and would even sing along and it would always make me happy seeing how much he enjoyed playing it.

Cross Eyed Mary would also be interesting to analyze, but then again so would everything else on the album

Frigging love Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull, and this just backs up how frigging smart that man is. Prog is one of the greatest genres out there.

I'm just... I'm just so happy. Really, I'm a hardcore Tullhead, and having a video about my favourite band, by one of my favourite youtubers is really perfect. Thanks

We the People demand Thick as a Brick!!

"We're just a little Blues band from England, and then we added a flute and it all went from there" - Ian Anderson; My mental recollection of one of the many interviews I watched

Next: Thick as a Brick.

From what I hear in the lyrics, I don't think the repetition of the intro at the end means another day for Aqualung. I think it more closely resembles the views of the public who think Aqualung is a vile man, and even after his death they don't change. People still don't care. The softer part of the song is from the perspective of a friend of Aqualung, who wants to see him get his life on track. But, the line "As you snatch your rattling last breath/with deep sea diver sounds/and the flowers bloom like madness in the spring" implies that Aqualung doesn't make it through the winter. Despite this, and the friend that he had, the people still view Aqualung as a creepy old man with little value in his life. But your analysis of the song was still great, and I love watching your vids. This is just how I always saw the song (definitely more sad, but still)

Hey!! I know you said that the song structure came off a bit mysterious to you but I think it may work best when you consider it derived from sonata form (Intro, exposition, development, recapitulation, coda). Tull's lead man and songwriter, Ian Anderson, has said that it was around this time that he *exclusively* started listening to Beethoven - I guess it would make sense that he would borrow from the composer's celebrated style. Beethoven's influence definitely becomes more apparent with Aqualung's successor 'Thick as a Brick' in 1972 and even MORE so with 'A Passion Play' in 1973. This same sonata form is also clearly used on other popular Tull tracks like "Songs from the Wood", "Minstrel in the Gallery", "Hunting Girl"!

This is an awesome video, thanks! I will say, I don’t hear the F as the I in the “verse” part-I hear that final F as wanting really badly to bring us back to the G. I love that it’s so ambiguous though. God this song is cool

I’m glad I found your channel. I remember sitting around with friends, and trying to figure out just what “Aqualung” was about. This album had just been released. This takes me back, Thank You.

At the age of 14 I finally listened to my mother's old records. This LP was one of the first ones... This track the first... Blew my mind

Bookending the song, looping back to the beginning - two things come to my mind: one is Waiting for Godot, a high-concept absurdist play about waiting for answers that never seem to come. The other is Pink Floyd's "The Wall", the begins with the end of a question and ends with the beginning of that question, because it's not ultimately about a sequence of events, it's about a cycle of feelings and attitudes.

Tull, before they became prog, was a blues-rock band. That's why the major riff is simply G-blues-scale. The root in the "verse" is not F but Gmi, which is indicated through the Cmaj - Cmi change which, as we know, is common in pop music on the IV, not on V. F is not the root but substitutes the dominant, as in many blues-rock songs. edit: I see Aaron Clift beat me to this.

Thanks for the great analysis. I came away with a real appreciation of how this song was built. The 70's were a strange time when quirky and ambitious songs could still be commercially successful.

I love your channel and all your videos, but this time, I completely disagree with your harmonic analysis. The first section of "Aqualung" is not atonal - it's modal with chromatic features. The riff, harmony, and vocal line are built around a G minor blues scale (G, Bb, C, Db, Eb, F), as are the vocal lines. Chords like Gb major and B major and weird chord movement like Db major, Eb major, and F major are non-functional harmony that adds color and chromatic movement to the section. That doesn't change the fact that for the most part, the harmony is built around the G minor blues scale. Calling this section atonal implies that there's no tonal center of gravity at all, which doesn't make sense. The second part of the song ("feeling alone . . .") is in G dorian, not F major. Listen to the vocal melody in that section, and you'll hear that all of them are centered around the G minor tonality, and the presence of the C major chords and the constant movement from the Gm to F chords indicates dorian harmony.

Happy New Year, do you still remember the December's foggy freeze?

More prog rock analysis! I'd love to see a video dissecting a Yes or Genesis song!

Aqualung has been one of my favorite albums for a long time. The way it plays off the ideas of God and religion and the tones it uses are phenomenal. The religious (anti-religion?) theme makes sense considering it was recorded in an old church. Great work for a future salmon farmer.

Hi! Usually I don't comment but I guess critics like to be heard. Great video as always but I'd look at some things a little differently. The gm section I feel is much more modal; implying a Dorian mode with an emphasis on b7 to 1. I know you said that you could see how it's a m1 to b7 but I think the reason it's so rocking and the guitar solo sounds so good are Dorian note choices. The other thing is just an interpretation thing. Aqualung could be slang for pneumonia and lyrics like "feeling like a dead duck" and "spitting up pieces of his broken luck" could imply early symptoms of pneumonia! I like to imagine the first riff being the hand of death creeping up on aqualungs shoulder (like a cough). An actual aqualung is a breathing apparatus for divers which could mean he's almost drowning? Awesome video on an awesome song :)

They are expressing the weight of the world on the man's shoulder's through the increasing tempo in this song.

This album is underrated. Glad you covered it

I prefer Thick as a Brick for obvious reasons (a Prog masterpiece, imo), but damn if I don't love that opening riff on Aqualung.

I’ve been waiting to see an actual theoretical analysis video about jethro Tull on KZfaq for years. I was actually thinking of doing on myself at this point. Glad someone beat me to it though!

That was completely & totally awesome! I first saw Jethro Tull perform live in June 1972, about a week after I graduated high school. They were touring in support of Thick as a Brick but they played nearly all of the Aqualung album as well. They were frightfully good. They won a prog rock fan for life.

The key of the verse (and the whole song for that matter) IS in fact Gm. However, though it is never played in the verse, it might be better to think of it as the relative major - Bb. Thinking of it this way immediately makes the F much more relatable as the V chord, explaining why it feels solid yet unresolved. And allowing ourselves to be in the relative major and minor keys simultaneously also presents a much easier explanation of the C-Cm progression in that it is IV to IVm - a tried and true pop chord change device and far more common and user friendly than your suggested V to Vm. Also, I must agree with others on this thread that the song is not atonal, per se, but for different reasons than previously presented. If you've ever played this song on guitar you quickly discover that it is not about the seemingly unrelated chords and all about the hand movement - running up and back the neck in whole steps while skipping from A string power chords to E string power chords and back again. It's really about shapes. While your video is cool and WAY fun, it is FAR too over analyzed, which I guess is the point of it. Ian Anderson loves himself an angular chord change and is firmly in touch with deeper theory. But at the beginning and end of the day he is rooted in the blues, and this song is just a wacky blues tune in Gm cum Bb. Thanks.

Absolutely, amazing; video, analysis, presentation, augmented with the visual arts (drawing sequences),; et , everything!😊 I had to keep re-starting because, I was trying to follow your drawings, and would lose the narrative, restart, lose the visuals, restart...! Your depth is such, that I still feel I have yet to ‘consume’ your production!😉.....and...nearing the end..,; Yes! Listening, and learning by ear, helps; thank you for the post! I originally thought you were reviewing the whole album; great post!

What do you call a band of condemned serial killers, one of whom is carrying a dangerous metal instrument? Deathrow Tull. Sorry.

Producer: "So Ian, how many chords do you want?" Ian Anderson: "Yes."

Wow, I always just played the bass part and enjoyed listening. I never really knew how intricate this song is, thanks :)

I absolutely LOVE Jethro Tull. I saw them in concert a number of times in the 1970's - including the Aqualung tour in the summer of 1971. However; PINK FLOYD - Dark Side of the Moon blows Aqualung away in terms of a 'Best Album' contest - in my mind. Ian Anderson is/was the most energetic and an extremely entertaining 'Front Man' for any band - bar none.

I was just listening to the album a couple a week ago, so this was timely. It was one of my favorite albums way back when it first came out. I even recommended it two a couple of my younger friends after listening to it again - timeless.

I love when songs use that intro-at-the-end thing. One of my favorite uses of it is the second movement of Dvorak’s 9th symphony. It’s a beautiful way to end the the movement by reprising the opening chorale.

Good reference to "in a nutshell"

New Characters!! I love the ant farm, the bowling pins, the cannon, and the sandwich. I saw Tull in concert in the 70s. Ian Anderson was amazing, you couldn't take your eyes off him. I have been a fan of their music since I was quite young. Great video and thanks for doing this. Cheers.

You finally gave a name to two of my favorite songs' best parts. Starship Trooper's Wurm section and La Villa Strangiato's main solo both make great use of progressive layering and it makes the payoff of each of those parts so much better.

I’d love to see you do an analysis of Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush

I love this album, I was in a convolute time of my life when I discovered it, and stirred me like a cocktail while giving me the feeling that everything fit like a puzzle. ''Be Yourself'' was the conclusion i found, you can have traditional folk roots and rock like a storm, you can shred with a flute.

Great video!!!! I love this song and I've been curious about the theory behind that atonal riff for a long while now, and it's definitely one of my fav prog rock albums too.

Love this. Hope you have some more prog analyses in the future, would love to see some King Crimson or Yes

LOVED this episode. Progressive rock is misunderstood and underrated. It encompasses so much, but I don't think most people can appreciate it fully without some level of musical training or at least exercise (playing) - even when prog musicians don't know what they're doing, they're (hopefully) pushing at the boundaries of their knowledge and ability to *explore* music, rather than merely playing whatever comes easy. And let me tell you, nothing is easy...

Freaking love this, this is the album my dad showed me on vinyl when I was 8 and we saw them in 2003

One of my favourite bands of ALL time! Aqualung is great song/album, but Benefit is definetly my favourite one

Absolutely fascinating, creative and incredibly instructive. Thank you

Nice video, man. One thumb up was added ;). A brief question here though : did Ian Anderson create this knowing all of this stuff?

This made my day. Thank you!

well done, great video I've subscribed with a lot of pleasure, Ian Anderson is a great storyteller and you got the "musical story" that lies underneath this piece of music extremely well! super!

This always humbles me by making me realize that no matter how much I think I know, or how good I sound, I am truly an infant

MORE PROG ROCK PLEASE!!!!! Thanks dude

I'm glad I found this. Not just because Jethro Tull is my favorite band, but also because I'm taking music theory next year and I think your channel will be helpful to me getting a good grade in it as you explain it really well.

I've always thought that Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day is a perfect song.

Locomotive Breath is my favorite track on that album, but its a tough decision

Wicked good presentation and analysis for folks like me who are marginally musically literate. I did not recognize all of the plot twists in the score until you pointed them out so effectively.

This is the first video you made that made my head spin. I had to take a pause half way though, ha. It is not surprising why this album, especially this song is one you love. It is like Tull went out of the way to make something nuts to analyze.

This video inspired me to bust out my guitar along to the song and see whether "the key" feels more like G or F. F feels more like the "home base" resolution to me, especially at the ending, so gonna have to go with that.

Nice Kurzgesagt reference. :-)

This one really caught me off guard; I've heard every studio album and every unreleased track I could get from Jethro Tull. My dad's a huge fan and even when I was a little kid I remember him playing Tull in the car. Lol but I never knew through high school or college anyone who really liked them (if they even knew about em) and then you say Aqualungs your favorite album. I commend you sir!....lol I clicked on this with the quickness...

I saw "Ian Anderson Presents Jethro Tull" this summer. Aqualung was the climax of the show. I won't spoil what they did with it; suffice to say the narrative was chilling. Ian was in great form and it was wonderful to see him again almost 50 years since I attended the infamous "tear gas" concert at Red Rocks, Denver, during the original Aqualung tour. Thanks very much for posting, I think you're really on to something with presentations like this.

I realized this just the other day. Before seeing this video. I play by ear but do understand theory. I decided for the first time ever to play along with Aqualung, learn the song. I quickly realized that there's no root note and memorizing this one by ear ain't going to be too easy. I'll get it figured out.

Thanks for your analysis. I’ve always loved JT, and this album in particular, and still find it both satisfying and perplexing, musically.

I don't really know anything about music theory and a lot of the stuff you're saying went over my head but I'd never thought about note progression as a story before and I want to thank you for introducing me to that concept.

Excellent analysis. Jethro Tull is one of the few progressive rock bands from the 70s that I like. Reason is, I feel more connected emotionally to their output. Another such band is King Crimson.

The thing I love about this track is the fact that it does so much with just major chords in its opening. It's one of my favorite things to do in my own music because it allows you to have this shifting lydian/whole tone sound while retaining internal consonance because of having everything as a major chord. There are so many cool ideas you can do with this, like the Spanish or Arabic sounding I bII bIII bII progression, or, as this song goes, planing major chords by whole steps for that very triumphant sound.

I must admit that i don't understand anything that you are speaking of but i still enjoy listening to you explain it and your drawings rock. A+ entertaining

I appreciate your effort . There is another way to look at it . Imagination and talent . I remember once reading " if it sounds good , it is good " . I only have a very limited amount of training . Every time I try to make sense of things , I get more confused and a headache . I am told they borrow the chord from another key . Which brings me back to what I've already stated . If 1 and 1 doesn't always equal two , then I am done with it .

Thick As A Brick was a concept album. From the album cover being a newspaper with stories about the denizens of a fictitious village, to the interweaving of the music, it was a force majeur.

It's definitely right up there on my desert island discs. Grew up with it on my mum's record collection, still absolutely adore it.

For those asking for "Thick As A Brick", there is a book available - "Thick as a Brick" and "A Passion Play Inside Two Long Songs", written by Tim Smolko. Excellent book for people into musical analysis. This book is not for the average fan of these albums, you have to have (at the very minimum) a basic understanding of music theory, but it's beneficial to have a better understanding.

I'm a big Tull fan and this has got to be one of the most amazing videos I've ever seen. It made me fall in love with the song all over again! Liked and subscribed. Thanks for posting this!

I love that this is (possibly) your favourite album ever! Great video 😃😃👍

i had the intro to cross eyed mary stuck in my head for years, without knowing what it was. now that ive found it a couple months back, listening to more jethro tull songs, i think ill be sitting on a park bench from now on.

I understand about 4% of your videos but you still make it so fascinating

I can't help but hear the 'verse' at 5:00 as pretty solidly G minor, in a [i VII IV, iv i VII] progression, with the major IV chord just temporarily doing that Dorian feel thing that rock often has, and then just dangling the VII chord resolution when it loops. Plus it just feels like there's more tension during the F chords than during the Gminor

I guess all this analysis proves 1 thing. ******TRUE GENIUS ****** That will last many a lifetime! Probably to the end of time! So unique, so original, So TULL!

The main riff is played in the G minor blues scale (1 b3 4 b5 5 b7 / G Bb C Db D, F), basically the minor pentatonic plus the b5.

I love the comments about Martin Barre's wonderfully built solo section. He's not thinking "How many notes can I fit in here?" or "What's the coolest guitar trick I know?" He's constructing a melodic line using a series of motifs that he pulls away from and back to leading up to a well-deserved high point. Barre is humble about it, though, saying that all he was doing was trying to get it right on this take or it might turn into a flute solo!

Thank you for bringing back this music into my life

I once opened the tab book,closed it 5 minutes later when I realised that the guitarist wasn't human,made me appreciate tull even more,unique video man,pretty cool👍

I'm a huge Jethro Tull fan, have been since I had a 45 minute ride to high school and a CD player in 2004, so seeing you analyze this just makes my day.

I sung locomotive breath for choir finals the teacher loved it.

If it wasn't for this video I wouldn't have discovered this album and I am so grateful for it because this has quickly become one of my top 10 albums of all time.

Great video and choice for a favourite album! When I first heard it I was mind blown by how good it was!

Tull's my absolute favorite band, Aqualung is one of my favorite Tull song's, tho have others I like more. My band does Aqualung and as interesting as this was if I presented it to the guy's they would look dumbfounded. Sometimes I feel breaking a song down like this kinda ruins it. A lot of Tull stuff start's on the two with one being a rest. Throws some people when they try to count it, (like my band). I gotta explain stuff a lot. I have been told we do the song very well, tho I'm never quite satisfied.

I can't help but hearing this song in Gm in all the parts starting from the "verse", justifying C as a simple modal interchange, the oldest trick in the book (but certainly far from bad) giving it an uplifting feeling, later dropping that E to Eb to let you know that it should really be a IVm as well as giving it motion, regularly changing the chord every bar.

Thanks for introducing many to the majesty that is Jethro Tull. Enjoy friends.

“It’s a huge dramatic shift in tone, breaking up the hard rock vibe with something incredibly folky. It’s Jethro Tull in a nutshell.” Wow. Just incredible, man.

Ooo I very much approve! Love the video!

Ian Anderson is a level 20 bard. Period. We’re listening to a master here.

lol, sounds like me trying to explain humor as a result of logic in my intro science class. Some kids get it.

I just took an interest in Jethro Tull and have watched a couple documentaries online and Ian Anderson states that Auqualung is not a concept album, it is an album of individual songs, just happens one may reference another. They followed it with Thick As A Brick to make an actual concept album because so many were saying Aqualung was one.

Awesome... It takes a genius to interpret another genius' work. Well done, sir!

"We start on a high note, fall down pretty far, then try to walk back up to where we started but the steps keep getting smaller." It really does tell a story even if you have to delve in this deep.

this explained music to me better than anything i ever have heard, not that i understood it all that fast, good video

Pretty cool... I had no idea what was going on with the song. Great viewing - thanks!

And to think Jethro Tull won best metal song over Metallica in 1988. WOW!!!!

Dogs next please man

It's been entirely too long since I've listened to Jethro Tull, thanks for reminding me how great this album is.