Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Sitting on a park bench
Eying little girls with bad intent
Snots 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, 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 a bog and warms his feet
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
It was screaming agony
Hey 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 a bog and warms his feet
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 sot, you see it's only me
Aqualung my friend don't you start away uneasy
You poor old sod, you see it's only me
Sitting on a park bench
Eying up little girls with bad intent
Snots 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, hey Aqualung
Oh Aqualung
Eying little girls with bad intent
Snots 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, 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 a bog and warms his feet
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
It was screaming agony
Hey 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 a bog and warms his feet
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 sot, you see it's only me
Aqualung my friend don't you start away uneasy
You poor old sod, you see it's only me
Sitting on a park bench
Eying up little girls with bad intent
Snots 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, hey Aqualung
Oh Aqualung
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
Indigo
Of Mice & Men
Of Mice & Men
This track is about is about questioning why the sky would choose to be blue if it had the choice to be anything else, “blue also meaning sad,” states frontman Aaron Pauley. “It's about comforting a loved one in a time of loss by telling them you feel blue, too.”
In my opinion, he first and last verses are the harsh, loud view of the casual passerby or society. Note the very different volume and style used to play verses 1 and 4, as opposed to the intimate, acoustic sound of 2 and 3. Only verses 2 and 3 tell the truth. It is the unsympathetic among us that assume he is a pervert (eying little girls with bad intent, watching as the frilly panties run), simply by his presence in a public park where kids play. If we assume he is a child molester, we don't have to feel sorry for not helping him. But in verses 2 and 3, we understand the truth- he is just an old man wandering lonely, sick, in pain, and about to die. Since the singer calls him "my friend" and is sympathetic in verses 2 and 3, it is clear that the songwriter does not view him as a pervert or child molester. Once you get up close to the homeless man, you realize his humanity. I have read that Ian Anderson's wife was taking pictures of the homeless at the time she inspired the song. Her subjects might start away uneasy, but it's doubtful she would feel sympathetic if somehow she truly knew her subject was a molester. This is a song about the unfortunate and misunderstood, it does not celebrate a real molester. Ironic, because without the shock value of the child molester "eying little girls with bad intent," this song would never have been so popular. This is absolutely one of the best rock and roll songs of all time, even though it has been misunderstood forever. Jethro Tull was my first rock concert back in 1973. Thanks, Ian Anderson.
@pieguy3 I read Ian Anderson actually admitted to this interpretation of the song.
@pieguy3 Ill be a monkey's uncle. I think you nailed it.
@pieguy3 That is what I love about this song. It shifts back and forth between the subject just being some gross pervert, the perception at a glance, and the sympathetic look at a lonely old man dying slowly in the gutter.
@pieguy3 That is what I love about this song. It shifts back and forth between the subject just being some gross pervert, the perception at a glance, and the sympathetic look at a lonely old man dying slowly in the gutter.
This is an excellent post. Has Ian Anderson every commented on this post. It would be great for him to clarify this ambiguity - since obviously it is important to garner empathy for people who happen to be homeless, but to not glorify being a "child molester."
@pieguy3 Great interpretation! I think that nails it.
@pieguy3 Any word from Ian Anderson on this? I think he should clear this up since I assume he would not want to glorify molesting type behavior.
I understand the pieguy3 says he read Ian admist this interpretation, but where can I read that?
I've been thinking about the second line "eyeing little girls with bad intent." Maybe it's not Aqualung with the bad intent, but the girls. I got the idea from looking at the lyrics in the next song on the track "Cross-Eyed Mary:" "Laughing in the playground-gets no kicks from little boys; would rather make it with a letching grey; Or maybe her gaze is drawn by Aqualung; who watches through the railings as they play." It would definitly fit the image of Mother Mary (the Church) taking advantage of the downtrodden in society (Aqualung) while he watches it happening.
@SuperusSophia Actually, the lyrics go, "who'd rather make it with electric trains...."
I think the first and last verses of this song refer to how society generally views this old homeless guy, but the middle part takes a softer approach.
This interpretation is of just a part of the lyrics: "Screaming agony. And you snatch your rattling last breaths With deep-sea diver sounds, And the flowers bloom like Madness in the spring."
To me, this sounds exactly like a deep sea diver who had something serious go wrong with his dive and had divers bends. The symptoms - agonizing bends and visual hallucination is exactly what happens. And Divers Bends or the Cassion Disease is incurable. Once you have it, you live the rest of your life out in agony.
In fact, this is one of the first songs of Tull that I heard and to me the imagery of a deep sea diver who's career was ended abruptly by divers bends was very very strong - it came out both in the lyrics and the title.
This song is a prelude to the concept album Aqualung. Being the first song, we are shown a man named Aqualung. He has been alienated from society, and people think he is a dirty old man, but the following lyrics cast him in a different kind of light. What the album Aqualung is about is how organized religion, specifically the "bloody Church of England" as Ian put it, reflects on our society and alienates people that society doesn't want, thus making those in religious power their own gods. The album is a very pro-god anti-religous establishment album. Men create this all powerful god in their image and give him what they deem to be his powers, and then twist it around all the time. Since organized religion creates god, the can twist it every which way. The lyrics on the album are preluded by this message
1 In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him.
2 And Man gave unto God a multitude of names,that he might be Lord of all the earth when it was suited to Man
3 And on the seven millionth day Man rested and did lean heavily on his God and saw that it was good.
4 And Man formed Aqualung of the dust of the ground, and a host of others likened unto his kind.
5 And these lesser men were cast into the void; And some were burned, and some were put apart from their kind.
6 And Man became the God that he had created and with his miracles did rule over all the earth.
7 But as all these things came to pass, the Spirit that did cause man to create his God lived on within all men: even within Aqualung.
8 And man saw it not.
9 But for Christ's sake he'd better start looking.
@BrainDamage One problem: Word of God says Aqualung isn't a concept album.
@BrainDamage Yes.<br /> <br /> I just had a flash on something, and came here to make a comment... and find that you've come pretty close to what I had to say.<br /> <br /> I'll add this tweak: Yes, Aqualung is a misunderstood homeless person; suspect and untrusted, but ultimately harmless (as per pieguy3).<br /> <br /> But I think Anderson raises him to the realm high metaphor. And the metaphor is this: In a world ruled by religious jackasses, those who choose to hew toward reason and free inquiry are held suspect. There's an old syllogism--sort of on the wane these days, but you can still find it around--that would have us believe that the irreligious can't be trusted, as they lack the "fear of God" that controls men's appetites and makes them "fit" for civil society.<br /> <br /> Aqualung, besides being a homeless guy, is also a mocking representation of these unaffiliated reprobates. And in the end, the voice saying, "Ya poor ol' sod/You see it's only/Me" is the voice of quiet, calm, even arguably compassionate, Reason.<br /> <br /> One thing that fascinates me about Anderson in this period is how he managed to have stumbled upon a narrow window in pop culture, in which he was able to slip through a product that downright assaults pop culture's number one cardinal rule: Plan to unstintingly flatter the common man's conceits that his true glory is his capacity to feel, ... or there's the door.<br /> <br /> Anderson, here in Aqualung and later in "Thick as a Brick", attacks the very idea. In a society apparently seriously strewn with religious miniature Mussolinis, he pushed the idea that people can and in fact need to think their way out of our collective paper bag.
No it's not specifically about a peadophile, I think it's about the stereotypic image a lot of people have of tramps/bums. A lot of them do aye pretty girls as they go past. It's only human nature really, they have hormones like the rest of us, and not much to do but watch people going by, drink cheap booze, search for dog-ends etc. Stuck in a rut.
This song is about a bum who dies.
Feeling alone - the army's up the road salvation à la mode, and a cup of tea.
This part refers to the Salvation Army handing out free food to people, like the bum in this song.
And you snatch your rattling last breaths with deep-sea-diver sounds, and the flowers bloom like madness in the spring.
This refers to the bum dying. The flowers bloom like madness in the spring refers to life going on as if nothing happened after the bums death.
A great song. The best song I've ever heard about a bum:)
The Bands "Hobo Jungle" is apretty good bum song as well
Yes, a song about an indigent soul has made a rock legend. In fact the singer(who's FIRST wife who wrote the song) felt he had to instill even more meaning to it's simple theme of "a bum who dies" by portraying himself, Ian Anderson as the bum on stage or video. On stage he'd say things like "you poor ol sod you see it's only, a me......" A powerful image of the poor destitute homeless man woven throughout many of the bands commercial offerings. But you see, his FIRST wife made the song work to the teenage adolescent types with "snot is running down his nose, greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes...." At that time, snot was as bad as Slip Knot today. ga
@ganthony1 I once witnessed a compassionate Christian colleague (who I went to lunch with one afternoon) buy a pizza for an elderly begging homeless guy in an olive green army surplus jacket. This unfortunate chap stood in line at the counter with yellow-green snot oozing out all over his bushy gray mustache when ordering his food, and I felt the deepest regret for my inability to right this collective wrong.<br /> <br /> Homeless people are typically exposed to the elements, disheveled, dirty, smelly, and often visibly ill and/or lame, sometimes using mobility props or wheelchair-bound, covered in degenerative diabetic wounds or contagious/infectious/insect sores etc. from medical neglect.<br /> <br /> The depiction of Aqualung in the song is brutally accurate and has nothing to do with appealing to thrill-seeking teens. Anderson wrote raw lyrics that strike deep into the soul with penetrating honesty, and his target audience for marvelously broad-minded baroque-loving classical jazz rock folk fusion synthesis is artistic intellectuals like himself that bore easily and want to suck the marrow of life to become one with the universe while revealing all of its dirty secrets to/about everyone regardless if they understand or appreciate his efforts to mix it all up and paint it on like plaster.<br /> <br /> Anderson was capturing the sense of disgust at the sight of homeless people that is triggered in right-wing germophobic OCD people of means who lack empathy. It snot about marketing albums to kids lol but it could have that effect in thrill-seeking kids who aren’t educated or sophisticated enough to appreciate the deeper meaning. For example, when I first heard this song and eventually bought the album as a teen, I had zero experience with homeless people, and I had to muster some imaginative effort to relate and understand the lyrics. It wasn’t vulgar fascination but it wasn’t penetrating insight that I exhibited either. I had just about zero experience with popular rock music and even less with intellectual poetic fusion that was making the rounds. My fascination was with the rawness and complexity of it, not the disgust it evoked.
AllOnMiOwn, Your a retard, Jethro Tull is a band, and he was a farmer back in the old days in England, Ian Anderson is the flute player/lead singer
i absolutely love the riff of this song
Martin Barre is such a great guitarist. One of the best solos ever in Aqualung.