Bungle In The Jungle

This "homosexual" explanation is outrageous. What planet are you from? The song is from a whole collection of stuff written around the Passion Play period (as a matter of fact all of War Child / Passion Play ideas were conceived at the time of this ill - fated project that Ian refers to as the Chateau D'Isaster Tapes - the original album wasn't released until 20 some odd years later - Passion Play and War Child were recorded and released INSTEAD). All the material is reflective of a George Orwell (Animal Farm) and Sinclair Lewis (The Jungle) sort of analogy. "Bungle in the Jungle" is a clever song that simply says, "look at it all - this is us". My favorite existential line being..."and he who made kittens put snakes in the grass..." (He = God). And, by the way, ...Bungle means to mess something up as in, " he bungled the whole deal."

How the do you get gay sex among men of different races from this? Crack kills.

This song is all about the way the city thrives and the people in it live. The word "jungle" that is used to represent the city is not new to Jethro Tull. There is a famous book called "The Jungle" which details the lives and work habits of certain people living in cities during the industrial age. I believe this song is almost a summery of this book.

P.S. "Jethro Tull" Is the name of the man who invented the Seed Drill.

If there is anything gay in this song, I'm not seeing it. I've always viewed this song as a modernized version of something William Blake would have written.

If it was mentioned above, forgive my repetitiveness. But I must mention that there is plenty of reference to William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience here.

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes!
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? And what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile, his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? 

See more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Innocence_and_Experience

In other words, God and Life (and according to Blake, men's souls) are dichotomous - sometimes the creator and provider and sometimes the thief and the destroyer.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this and really think that he is talking about the Garden of Eden. A bungle is a mistake (picking the fruit from the tree of Knowledge). He says that its all right by him, which means that he'd rather have emotions (tiger wanting love, snake when angry). He is debating whether it is a bungle at all. He mentions God and says that He put snakes in the grass with kittens which goes against the perfection and peace in the Garden.

"He" and "His" is capitalized mid-sentence, which is grammatical standard for pronouns referring to God. I assume these capitalizations appear on the original liner notes, as most of the online lyric reproductions have them capitalized too.

The rivers are full of crocodile nastiest And He who made kittens put snakes in the grass He's a lover of life but a player of pawns Yes, the King on His sunset lies waiting for dawn To light up His Jungle as play is resumed

The song is likely pointing out the irony of "He" (God) who made [cute] kittens also made [mean, ugly] snakes. We are entertainment for the King in his jungle.

The line "I'll write on your tombstone, 'I thank you for dinner' " likely refers to survival of the fittest. Kill or be killed.

The tiger in the jungle?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night.

Ah, any song that references Blake is all right by me :)

and He who made kittens put snakes in the grass. He's a lover of life but a player of pawns ---

has a touch of Blake's

Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

amazing that a song with such lyrics and depth of meaning/thought was a hit on the pop charts.

I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade here, but this song is quite definitely NOT about the US-Vietnam War, or at least, I'm sure Ian Anderson never had that idea in mind. For starters, Tull is a British band and the UK were not involved in that war so it seems like an unlikely topic to choose, especially given the Brit-focus of most Tull lyrics. Not everything revolves around the good ol' US of A, folks.

As various commenters have suggested, this is pretty transparently an allegory for nightlife in the big city (the concrete jungle). The monkeys in their dark tents (and probably the kittens mentioned later) are the innocent members of the urban populace who stay at home at night, while the wilder animals (lions and tigers) hang out in pubs or nightclubs (waterholes) lurking in shadows at night in search of a bit of action. These wild ones are "fast but lazy", as they spend their days asleep while the good people of the city work, and come out at night to take what they can.

The singer self-identifies as one of these wild types, part of a gang ("the boys") who are clearly a bit on the scary side ("is it so frightening to have me at your shoulder?"). The song concludes with a reflection on the apparently dichotomous nature of God ("He"), who has made both snakes and kittens (a clear allusion to Blake's "Tyger, Tyger", as somebody else here noted), which in turn is a reflection of the dichotomous nature of the city (pretty and ordered by day, wild and dangerous by night).

And finally, "bungle" is certainly not a made up word, but perhaps it's more common to UK English than US English. It refers to make a clumsy mess of things, and in the song I think it alludes to the clumsy, semi-destructive behaviour of the wild denizens of the urban nightlife, which, according to Mr. Anderson, "is alright by me".

I also like the line "he who made kittens..." and I find the entire end of the song interesting, portraying God as a "player of pawns" who watches the interaction between humans -- no better than "monkeys" -- and probably sits laughing at their foolishness.

According to Ian Anderson (you can find an intersting list of answered questions at j-tull.com) the song is about modern life in a kind of fierce "dog eat dog"-society. About the gay thing: that's absurd. Stay away from drugs. ;-)