I rather like the song “Bungle in the Jungle” off of their last album…but what the hell is it about?
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/jethro-tull/17673.htm
The first verse seems to have some “deep” message:
Well, it’s sorta makes sense. However, the rest of the lyrics seem to be babble that rhymes.
So wtf is going on here?
As to Bungle in the Jungle, and most other Jethro Tull songs, I would suggest you refer to this recent Column of Cecil’s and simply cross out each “Stairway to Heaven” and replace it with the title of the song you’re wondering about.
Supposedly it is about life in the corporate system.
DL: “Bungle in the Jungle,” I had always assumed that this was your comment on religion but I have since read an interpretation of the lyric that differs with that. What were you saying in that song?
IA: No, no, no, it was just, sort of, about the harsh realities of the business world, the urban jungle, the city of London and finance. The way that people in urban society, I have never really been a town guy, I have usually lived in the country and whenever I go to town I am rally quite excited by it but I don’t really want to spend the night there if I can avoid it. (laughs) It is always a bit scary and a bit “dog eat dog” and a bit of a roughhouse down there. It is a song about that using the analogy of animals in the jungle, how people behave in the world of corporate competition.
Rest of interview is here http://www.rockworld.ndirect.co.uk/new/interviews/ian_anderson.html
Scumpup- interesting link, thanks. Actually, based on the last verse, I’d long assumed it was another Tull slam at God/religion.
The line about how “he who made kittens put snakes in the grass” always seemed liked a jab at God, the guy who supposedly loves us, who supposedly made all the pretty flowers and trees, but who also put us in a dangerous world where all kinds of horrible things happen.
It was the 70s, after all.
Maybe we’re all just Thick As A Brick, looking for a meaning that makes sense.
Jethro Tull and Tom Baker’s Doctor Who are forever linked in my reccollections of the 70s.
Too much LDS, I guess.*