My God

At one point I started laying tracks to cover this song and then thought better of it. I thought that it might be misunderstood.

My take on it is that Anderson was referring to how we try to make God bend to our wants and needs, likes and dislikes. In other words, 'if you don't like what this part of the Bible says, create your own religious sect or denomination'. Twist what the scriptures say.... dupe and manipulate in the name of God.

Here's a classic example of the aforementioned and also supports what Anderson had to say about the Church of England. in order to achieve anullment of marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII took advantage of the Reformation to kick the Catholic church out of England and then appointed himself as head of the Church of England. The ruling monarch til this day still holds that position. What followed under his daughters Mary and Elizabeth I shows how bloody the Church of England's history is.. Of course, that's no different than how the Romans killed the Jewish Christians and then the Catholics hijacked Christianity and made it into the unholy Roman empire.

So I think that Anderson is saying that religion is man-made but that he is pro God, pro Jesus and anti-religion--especially abusive religion.

To me...this song isn't about religion or politics...rather the politics of religion. The way man has corrupted the pure and simple message of Christ. Used that "adaptation" to build an empire based of fear, not love.

Ian always introduced this song as "A blues for the man upstairs". Its very pro-god, but it criticized the corrupt organized religeon that fixes his image in a way that believing anything else is impossible. people can't formulate thier own opinions about god because they are brought up in thier specific religeon and are taught that "this is the way it is, no ifs, ands, or buts. If you don't agree, you are wrong, and you are going to be nice and warm in hell for all eternity." Ian felt that god was inside of all of us, and we should communicate with Him how we see fit, not how the church tells us.

Kick ass song, second best flute work in any of their songs behind the solo in Locomotive Breath. This one may even be better. Ian plays the flute so well, that I wish i had known about them about 6 years ago when i had a chance to learn an instrument in grade school.

Just a tinny little fact, Ian only learned how to play the flute 6 months before the bands 1st album came out.

PREACH IT YO! Jethro Tull..was before my time...my dad liked them alot. I started getting really into them not too long ago. This song is probably one of my favs. My band wants to cover LOCOMOTIVE BREATH!

good luck with that...two years later.. anyhow...this song is great..apparently about their discontent with religion as it was in england and everything it was based on....look it up...interesting history...

I think it's about how people have manipulated the concept of god to gain power and control people. The "God" and "He" in this song sounds more like a Deistic god.

My God is a very touching and personal song. Good music and message on the group's part.

The Aqualung album is a great achievement. It's kinda ironic how it is Jethro Tull's best album musically and commercially, yet frontman Ian Anderson though that it was a very immature and technically flawed album by his standards. Go figure.

A friend of mine had a bootlegged tape of a concert that Jethro Tull did prior to the release of "Aqualung." It included this song and instead of "you know who" Ian said "Catholics." This makes sense as it rhymes with crucifix. I have always been anti-catholic because they have many man-made rules that Ian was very much against. He did not want people to stand between him and "His God." Think about it...

I write this today, the 1,646th anniversary of the Edict of Thessalonica, 380 AD, the most vile, filthy statement ever released, the legal creation of Romanism, hence both Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Roman Catholicism.

On this day, 1,646 years ago, murderous Roman emperors enforced a syncretic religion that melded Greco philosophy, Roman polytheism and co-opted standalone Christian churches residing within the Roman Empire:

"We the three Emperors will that all our subjects follow the religion taught by St Peter to the Romans, professed by those saintly prelates Damasus, Pontiff of Rome, and Peter Bishop of Alexandria, that they believe the one divinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit of majesty, co-equal in the Holy Trinity. We will that those who embrace this creed be called Catholic Christians." ~ Gratian, Valentinian II and Theodosius

Anderson's song attacks this filth, this pollution of the mission of the Son of Man (mortal) and Son of God, a created human in whom God was well-pleased.

Here, Anderson is charging men with having corrupted the life, death, resurrection, ascension and lordship in the Kingdom of Heaven of Jesus the Nazarene, a man, with their sinful, man-made religion:

People, what have you done? Locked Him in His golden cage, golden cage Made Him bend to your religion Him—resurrected from the grave, from the grave

He is the god of nothing if that's all that you can see.

This is a harder part to know, perhaps it is zeitgeist, new age stuff. Perhaps he is being sincere about God rather than Jesus:

You are the god of everything He's inside you and me.

Here, Anderson is calling them hypocrites:

So lean upon Him gently and don't call on Him to save you From your social graces and the sins you used to waive.

The bloody Church of England in chains of history Requests your earthly presence at the vicarage for tea.

This likely is a reference to Satan and not to Jesus:

And the graven image you-know-who With his plastic crucifix He's got him fixed Confuses me as to who and where and why As to how he gets his kicks.

Again Anderson attacks churchianity's hypocrisy:

Confessing to the endless sin The endless whining sounds. You'll be praying till next Thursday To all the gods that you can count.

We have all packaged God into a nice neat worshipping place This song reminds us that He is in all people, places and things and the we dont have to be in a particular place to worship Him. Part of the "Aqualung" conceptual album.