In 1969, Jethro Tull had a Top Three UK single with Living In The Past and also a No.1 album, Stand Up. They hadn’t yet breached the US Top Ten, though, coming close a year later with the folky/experimental Benefit. That accolade would come in 1971 with Aqualung. And what would become Tull’s best-selling album began with one of their best-known riffs.
Ian Anderson recalled that, like much of the album, the title track emerged as a result of the singer-songwriter approach he brought to the project. “That came out of an acoustic jam; you’ve just got to have the imagination to hear that. You have to know that you can make it sing.”
