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.
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.
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.
I'll add this tweak: Yes, Aqualung is a misunderstood homeless person; suspect and untrusted, but ultimately harmless (as per pieguy3).
I'll add this tweak: Yes, Aqualung is a misunderstood homeless person; suspect and untrusted, but ultimately harmless (as per pieguy3).
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.
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.
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.
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 tothink their way out of our collective paper bag.
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 One problem: Word of God says Aqualung isn't a concept album.
@BrainDamage Yes.
@BrainDamage Yes.
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.
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.
I'll add this tweak: Yes, Aqualung is a misunderstood homeless person; suspect and untrusted, but ultimately harmless (as per pieguy3).
I'll add this tweak: Yes, Aqualung is a misunderstood homeless person; suspect and untrusted, but ultimately harmless (as per pieguy3).
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.
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.
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.
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.