ROCK CALENDAR: July 1, 1971 Jethro Tull's hit "Aqualung" became gold

Remember that day in the '70s, (maybe' 71?) when I from Moscow friend brought three new discs - "Deep Purple in Rock", "Aqualung" and some third-which – I do not remember. For all three asked for 150 rubles, which was then not expensive (individually they were pulling 70). Took in half with the neighbor and then did not regret. "Scuba" is the most commercially successful album of the group: its sales worldwide amounted to more than 7 million copies. In 2003, "Scuba" reached 337 marks in the list of " 500 greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine
As Ian Anderson recalls, he was not the only author of the words to this composition: "my wife Jenny was a photographer and once brought home a picture of a homeless tramp. In the photo, she wrote a few words, which tried to convey the feelings of the homeless and feelings towards the homeless. My wife and I did not live together long after that, but I mentioned her as a co-author of the song. It was a parting gift. Now she remembers me-when she gets another check of the author".
The band's guitarist Barr had to work on the guitar solo in the title track. "Once Jimmy page came to the Studio and Martin was completely lost," Anderson recalls. "Maybe that's why he recorded it all at once, so no one else was watching him." Barr himself says: "this guitar solo was completely improvised and I recorded it all at once. Luckily for me, it turned out good, because if it wasn't, it would have been a flute solo."
The content of this song is about an old tramp, unkempt and always sneezing the tubercular. By the way, there is another hidden allusion, which becomes obvious if you literally translate the word itself (Aqua — water, and lang — lungs). To the wonderful apparatus of rubber and iron, allowing a person to swim and breathe under water, this, of course, has nothing to do.

I found the author's performance of this song at the festival in 2003 on youtube.

Jethro Tull - Aqualung (Live At Montreux 2003)