Locomotive Breath

{{use British English|date=September 2024}} {{use dmy dates|date=September 2024}} {{Infobox song | name = Locomotive Breath | cover = Locomotive_Breath_-_Jethro_Tull.jpg | alt = | type = single | artist = [[Jethro Tull (band)|Jethro Tull]] | album = [[Aqualung (Jethro Tull album)|Aqualung]] | B-side = "Wind Up" (1971) "Fat Man" (1976) | released = 30 March 1971 (Europe) *December 1971 (US) <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hitparade.ch/showitem.asp?interpret=Jethro+Tull&titel=Locomotive+Breath&cat=s|title=Jethro Tull - Locomotive Breath|first=Steffen|last=Hung|website=Hitparade.ch|access-date=1 June 2021}}</ref> | format = | recorded = {{Nowrap|December 1970 – February 1971}} | studio = [[Island Studios|Island]], London | venue = | genre = {{hlist|[[Progressive rock]]|{{nowrap|[[hard rock]]<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/currentbiography1998eliz|url-access=registration|title=Current Biography Yearbook, 1998|last=Schick|first=Elizabeth A.|date=1998|publisher=H.W. Wilson|isbn=9780824209575|page=[https://archive.org/details/currentbiography1998eliz/page/26 26]|quote=Two other songs on Aqualung, 'Cross-Eyed Mary' and 'Locomotive Breath,' have also become hard-rock classics.}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jethro-tull-detail-massive-50th-anniversary-compilation-205589/|title=Jethro Tull Detail Massive 50th Anniversary Compilation|last=Blistein|first=Jon|date=March 27, 2018|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|access-date=March 4, 2019}}</ref>}}|[[blues rock]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ultimateclassicrock.com/jethro-tull-songs/|title=Top 10 Jethro Tull Songs|author=Rivadavia, Eduardo|date=July 27, 2013|access-date=July 18, 2019}}</ref><ref name="Romano2014">{{cite book|author=Will Romano|title=Prog Rock FAQ: All That's Left to Know About Rock's Most Progressive Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UIqkCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT84|date=1 November 2014|publisher=Backbeat Books|isbn=978-1-61713-620-7|page=84}}</ref>}} | length = {{Duration|m=4|s=23}} {{Duration|m=3|s=05}} (single) | label = {{plainlist| * [[Reprise Records|Reprise]] (original US) * [[Chrysalis Records|Chrysalis]]/[[Capitol Records|Capitol]] (US re-issue) }} | writer = [[Ian Anderson (singer and musician)|Ian Anderson]] | producer = {{plainlist| * Ian Anderson * [[Terry Ellis (manager)|Terry Ellis]] }} | prev_title = [[Hymn 43]] | prev_year = 1971 | next_title = Life Is a Long Song | next_year = 1971 | misc = {{Extra chronology | artist = [[Jethro Tull (band)|Jethro Tull]] | type = single | prev_title = Minstrel in the Gallery | prev_year = 1975 | title = Locomotive Breath | year = 1976 | next_title = Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die | next_year = 1976 }} }}

"'''Locomotive Breath'''" is a song by British [[progressive rock]] band [[Jethro Tull (band)|Jethro Tull]] from their 1971 album, ''[[Aqualung (Jethro Tull album)|Aqualung]]''.

Written as a comment on population growth, "Locomotive Breath" was meant to replicate the chugging rhythm of a train. In addition to its release on ''Aqualung'', "Locomotive Breath" saw two different single releases and has been a live favourite. It is one of Jethro Tull's best-known songs.

==Background== Lyrically, "Locomotive Breath" was inspired by Anderson's concern regarding overpopulation.<ref name="louder">{{cite web |last1=Dome |first1=Malcolm |title=Ian Anderson's Top 10 Jethro Tull Songs |url=https://www.loudersound.com/features/ian-anderson-s-favourite-jethro-tull-songs |website=Loudersound.com |date=21 July 2015 |access-date=13 February 2019}}</ref> He explained, "It was my first song that was perhaps on a topic that would be a little more appropriate to today's world. It was about the runaway train of population growth and capitalism, it was based on those sorts of unstoppable ideas. We're on this crazy train, we can't get off it. Where is it going? Bearing in mind, of course, when I was born in 1947, the population of planet earth was slightly less than a third of what it is today, so it should be a sobering thought that in one man's lifetime, our planetary population has more than tripled. You'd think population growth would have brought prosperity, happiness, food and a reasonable spread of wealth, but quite the opposite has happened. And is happening even more to this day. Without putting it into too much literal detail, that was what lay behind that song."<ref name="rolling stone" />

The song additionally features a train motif that Anderson has employed on many songs. Anderson later said, "Train songs have been with us ever since the blues began, and I have written my fair share of these. I keep being drawn back to the subject, because public transport is part of my life. I don't drive, so rely on buses, trains and the like."<ref name="louder" />

==Composition== "Locomotive Breath" was recorded via [[overdub]]s; most of the parts of the song were recorded separately. Ian Anderson did his normal [[flute]] and [[vocal]] parts in addition to [[bass drum]], [[Hi-hat (instrument)|hi-hat]], [[acoustic guitar]] and some [[electric guitar]] parts. [[John Evan]]'s piano parts were then recorded; [[Clive Bunker]] added the rest of the drums and [[Martin Barre]] finished the electric guitar parts. All of these recordings were then overdubbed onto each other because Anderson was finding it difficult to communicate his musical ideas about the song to the other band members. The song was designed to replicate the chugging of a train in its rhythm.

Anderson explained the recording process of the song in an interview, saying {{"'}}Locomotive Breath' was actually an utter failure when we tried to play it all together. It didn't gel. We didn't get the groove. I think John Evan recorded the piano intro, then I went out into the studio with two drum sticks and clicked them together because this was in the days before click tracks, and then I went out and played to [that] with a hi-hat and bass drum. Then Clive [Bunker] went out and added the tom-toms and the cymbals. And then I played the electric-guitar rhythm part all the way through. And then we had something that was beginning to sound a bit like a song and it had that kind of metronomic feel, which I wanted it to have, because it's about a railway train running on the tracks. So it should click-clack in time."<ref name="rolling stone">{{cite magazine |last1=Grow |first1=Kory |title=Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson: My Life in 10 Songs |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/jethro-tulls-ian-anderson-my-life-in-10-songs-666164/locomotive-breath-666168/ |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=27 June 2018 |access-date=13 February 2019}}</ref>

The song has been Jethro Tull's live encore during concerts since 1972. During some live concerts, the song would segue into the finale of [[Pomp and Circumstance Marches|Pomp and Circumstance]], usually to end the concert, or an encore.

==Release== "Locomotive Breath" was released on Jethro Tull's 1971 album ''[[Aqualung (Jethro Tull album)|Aqualung]]'' in 1971. A censored edit of the song was released in the US as a single in 1971, backed with "Wind-Up", though it did not chart. A 1976 single release of the song, backed with "Fat Man", was more successful, reaching number 59 on the [[Billboard charts|''Billboard'' charts]]<ref name="billboard">{{cite magazine |title=Jethro Tull: Chart History |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/jethro-tull/chart-history/hsi/ |magazine=Billboard |access-date=15 February 2019}}</ref> and number 85 in Canada.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.6460b.pdf| title=RPM Top 100 Singles – April 17, 1976|website=Collectionscanada.gc.ca}}</ref> The song was also released as the B-side to "[[Hymn 43]]". Since its initial releases, the song has appeared on multiple compilation and live albums, including ''[[Living in the Past (album)|Living in the Past]]'', ''[[M.U. - The Best of Jethro Tull]]'', and ''[[Bursting Out]]''. The song receives frequent airplay on [[classic rock]] [[radio station]]s.

Ian Anderson ranked "Locomotive Breath" as one of his top 10 Jethro Tull songs. ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' regarded the song to be Jethro Tull's best purely rock song in some time, saying that it had a similar theme and feel to "[[Aqualung (song)|Aqualung]]."<ref name=bb>{{cite news|title=Top Single Picks|newspaper=Billboard|access-date=2020-07-13|date=January 24, 1976|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/70s/1976/Billboard%201976-01-24.pdf|page=78}}</ref> ''[[Cash Box]]'' praised the "incredible flute work from Ian Anderson."<ref name=cb>{{cite news|title=CashBox Singles Reviews|date=January 17, 1976|page=28|accessdate=2021-12-11|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/70s/1976/Cash-Box-1976-01-17.pdf|newspaper=Cash Box}}</ref> ''[[Townsquare Media|Ultimate Classic Rock]]'' named the song Jethro Tull's third best, saying, "This tune covers the length and breadth of Anderson’s songwriting talents, beginning with a bluesy John Evan piano intro so discreet one can barely hear it at times, before crashing into some of the most bombastic hard rock display of the band’s career."<ref name="ultimate classic rock">{{cite web |last1=Rivadavia |first1=Eduardo |title=Top 10 Jethro Tull Songs |url=http://ultimateclassicrock.com/jethro-tull-songs/ |website=Ultimate Classic Rock |date=27 July 2013 |publisher=Townsquare Media |access-date=13 February 2019}}</ref> The song was ranked the fourth best Jethro Tull song by {{lang|de|Rock – Das Gesamtwerk der größten Rock-Acts im Check}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rehe |first1=Christoph |title=Rock – Das Gesamtwerk der größten Rock-Acts im Check: alle Alben, alle Songs. Ein eclipsed-Buch |trans-title=Rock – The complete works of the greatest rock acts in check |date=2013 |publisher=Sysyphus Sysyphus Verlags GmbH |isbn=978-3868526462 |language=German}}</ref>

==Personnel== * [[Ian Anderson]] – [[flute]], [[lead vocals]], [[bass drum]], [[Cymbals|hi-hat]], [[acoustic guitar]], [[electric guitar]] * [[John Evan]] – [[piano]] * [[Martin Barre]] – [[electric guitar]] * [[Jeffrey Hammond]] – [[bass guitar]] * [[Clive Bunker]] – [[Drum Kit|drums]]

==References== {{Reflist}}

[[Category:Jethro Tull (band) songs]] [[Category:1971 songs]] [[Category:Songs written by Ian Anderson]] [[Category:Song recordings produced by Ian Anderson]] [[Category:Songs about trains]] [[Category:Works about human overpopulation]] [[Category:Reprise Records singles]] [[Category:Chrysalis Records singles]] [[Category:Capitol Records singles]] [[Category:1971 singles]]