Jethro Tull – Locomotive Breath

The song hits you like a sack of bricks when the piano intro concludes. It’s powerful, strong, and perfectly pieced together. It reminds me a little of Band On The Run (or the other way around)… as the song is in sections.

I’ve been posting songs, movies, and pop culture posts since 2017 but somehow I’ve missed posting anything about Jethro Tull. I thought today would be the day to correct that…the voice, guitar, and the flute…yea rock and roll flute. Ian Anderson wrote the song but it took a few tries to record it. Anderson explained to the band to imagine a boiler building up pressure until it explodes or a train going off the tracks after gaining speed. He said he wrote it about the overpopulation on Earth.

The song was released in 1971 on the album Aqualung. The song didn’t chart. It was re-released in 1976 and this time it was a different story. The song peaked at #62 on the Billboard 100 and #85 in Canada and has come a classic radio staple. The album Aqualung was huge… it peaked at #7 on the Billboard Album Charts, #5 in Canada, and #4 in the UK.

The song was recorded in pieces and put together and everything fell into place. I feel very safe in saying that it contains one of the best flute solos in rock…of course, that list is not long.

I will say this about Ian Anderson. Like David Byrne, Van Morrison, Freddie Mercury, Neil Young, and a few more…you know when Anderson opens his mouth to sing that it’s him…and very distinctive voice…and the best rock flute player ever!

Ian Anderson:  “When I wrote it, I wasn’t deliberately setting out to write a piece of music on a particular subject. But it evolved during the writing process into being not terribly specific but about the issues of overcrowding – the rather claustrophobic feel of a lot of people in a limited space. And the idea of the incessant unstoppable locomotive being metaphor for seemingly the unstoppable population expansion on planet Earth.

When I look at it today, it does, for me, become very crystallized in being a song about unmanageable population expansion. It’s something that concerns me even more today than it did back when I wrote it, when the population of planet Earth was only about two thirds of what it is today. So in my lifetime alone, we’ve seen an enormous increase in population, and an enormous increase in the degree to which we devour our limited resources. So the idea of population planning and management is something that I think we ought to be thinking about a lot more than we do. Does that mean I think we should sterilize everybody after the age of 30? No, of course not. The size of the family you want to have is going to be your choice. But, you should make that choice knowingly, wisely, and responsibly.”

Locomotive Breath

In the shuffling madness
Of the locomotive breath
Runs the all-time loser
Headlong to his death

Oh, he feels the piston scraping
Steam breaking on his brow
Old Charlie stole the handle
And the train it won’t stop
Oh no way to slow down

He sees his children jumping off
At the stations one by one
His woman and his best friend

In bed and having fun
Oh, he’s crawling down the corridor
On his hands and knees
Old Charlie stole the handle
And the train it won’t stop going
No way to slow down
Hey

He hears the silence howling
Catches angels as they fall
And the all-time winner
Has got him by the balls
Oh, he picks up Gideons bible
Open at page one
I thank God he stole the handle
And the train it won’t stop going
No way to slow down

No way to slow down
No way to slow down
No way to slow down
No way to slow down
No way to slow down
No way to slow down
No way to slow down

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball fan, old movie and tv show fan... and a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

38 thoughts on “Jethro Tull – Locomotive Breath”

  2. Nice to revisit a gem in classic rock. Other than just a few songs I don’t know much, but I do feel that they never get the recognition they deserved. I don’t think even Aqualung is on the Rolling Stone Greatest Songs list.

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    1. I thought it was time I covered them…they are unique to say the least. Some call progressive, heavy metal, hard rock, rock, or rock pop…

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  3. Interesting piece! I’ve heard it a few times in passing & never gave the meaning much thought. I did like their two hits (in Canada at least) ‘Bungle in the Jungle’ and ‘Living in the Past’.

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    1. Wow…I’ve heard this song as much as some Steve Miller songs! But I still like these…this and Aqualung has been played a lot here. Still like them though.

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  4. My favorite local band of the early 70s featured a flautist/vocalist, so Ian Anderson wasn’t the only one. I saw Jethro Tull in about 1972 (probably when “Thick as a Brick” was released). My favorite albums are still the first two. The huge balloon in the video reminds me of the British TV show “The Prisoner” from 1967. (A larger-than-human-sized – and apparently self-directed – balloon was used to prevent prisoners escaping.)

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    1. Oh…I just saw the Prisoner around 5-7 years ago….I have them and love it. The last episode I still havent’ figured out all of the way.

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      1. Let me know if you do. I watched it again in the mid-80s and was going to be gone for the last episode so I asked a neighbor to record it for me. He wondered about my sanity when he tried to watch it.

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  7. I had no idea the song was about population control (he called that one right, as the human population continues to explode.) Ian Anderson, a self-taught flautist, is a deep-thinking lyricist and a master musician and showman. Add in the most excellent rest of the band and you’ve got yourself a group whose body of music will last through time. Anyone who has confined themselves to the few hits they’ve heard on the radio would be well-served to look deeper. Thanks for covering one of their hits, Max, and hope to see you covering others of theirs along the way.

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    1. I already have the other written up…for July. He has one of the most distinctive voices out there. They are hard to put in a box.

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  8. There’s one song on Aqualung which has one of my favourite guitar riffs – I think it’s Hymn 43? I need to go through their albums sometime properly – Thick as a Brick has always been a favourite.

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  10. Undoubtedly a classic, and for a long time, it was the only Jethro Tull song I knew. It remains among my favorites by Tull, together with “Hymn 43” and “Aqualung”. And Anderson hasn’t run out of steam yet. He may be the only original member, but the latest Tull album still sounds Tullish!

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  13. Ian Anderson on the side (great flautist), this is one band I cannot listen to…no matter what. I’d have an easier time listening to “Star Trekkin”, over and over, again. I…just…can’t…

    I will just have to be the weird one, again.

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  14. The re-release explains why this song seemed to have a long life. I’m not a fan of the music of Tull or Ian Anderson, but it’s impossible to not be intrigued, imo. I think I saw this performed on Midnight Special or Don Kirchner in the mid-70s.

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