Jethro Tull – Locomotive Breath

Ian Anderson give his two cents about population control

“When I look at it today, it does, for me, become very crystallized in being a song about unmanageable population expansion”

Composed by Ian Anderson, frontman of Jethro Tull– “Locomotive Breath” became a strongly oppiniatied song, and is metaphor for societal problems about the claustrophobic feel of a lot of people in a limited space (earth).

Anderson said:

“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.”

“When the population 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.”

I mean, the man does have a point. Is population planning and management even worth being considered?

One thing is for sure- we would have never guessed such a fun sounding song would make us think about planetary issues.

What are your thoughts? Enjoy!

(patchhawaii.org)