1971 Classic Hit, Featuring Iconic Flute Solo, Ranked Among Best Progressive Rock Songs of All Time

The '70s were a pretty great decade for amazing guitar solos, obviously: With legends like Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix and Brian May at the heights of their careers, how could it not have been? But guitars weren't the only instrument to make an impression in those days; in fact, one of the most iconic albums of the '70s - especially its title track - prove a flute can rock just as hard as an axe.

Released in 1971, Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" isn't just unique because of frontman Ian Anderson's prominently featured flute skills. The lyrics, which deal with themes including homelessness, aren't exactly typical rock and roll fare, either:

Sun streaking cold

An old man wandering lonely

Taking time the only way he knows

Leg hurting bad

as he bends to pick a dog-end

He goes down to the bog and warms his feet

As Anderson explained in a 1999 interview with Guitar World, Aqualung wasn't originally meant to be a concept album, "although a lot of people thought so."

"The idea came about from a photograph my wife at the time took of a tramp in London," Anderson said. "I had feelings of guilt about the homeless, as well as fear and insecurity with people like that who seem a little scary. And I suppose all of that was combined with a slightly romanticized picture of the person who is homeless but yet a free spirit, who either won't or can't join in society's prescribed formats."

"So from that photograph and those sentiments, I began writing the words to 'Aqualung,'" he continued. "I can remember sitting in a hotel room in L.A., working out the chord structure for the verses. It's quite a tortured tangle of chords, but it was meant to really drag you here and there and then set you down into the more gentle acoustic section of the song."

"Aqualung" was never released as a single, because it was "too episodic," as Anderson told Songfacts. But the album became Jethro Tull's first top 10 album in the U.S., and the title track remains one of the band's most famous songs to this day. Goldmine ranked the song #8 on a list of "Top 20 Unlikely Progressive Rock Hits," with music critic Martin Popoff calling it the "proggiest" of Jethro Tull's signature tracks and praising it as "mischievously heavy" and "regal."

Over 50 years after it was released, "Aqualung" is also Jethro Tull's most popular song on Spotify, with over 120 million streams.

Related: Legendary '70s Rock Band Announces Massive 2026 Tour Following Recent Comeback

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This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 5:52 PM.