Jethro tull is the most anti-religous, religous

Jethro tull's album, aqualung is in my opinoin very religious, but also very critical of the church. For example, cross eyed mary is about an under age prostitute but is about forgiveness. My god is about having faith despite the church. Any thoughts?

lazland wrote: MarcIsCringe wrote: Jethro tull's album, aqualung is in my opinoin very religious, but also very critical of the church. For example, cross eyed mary is about an under age prostitute but is about forgiveness. My god is about having faith despite the church. Any thoughts? It is a commentary on religion in the main, although as Anderson has pointed out ad infinitum, not a concept album about religion. The commentary therein is extremely disparaging.

lazland wrote: The Dark Elf wrote: lazland wrote: MarcIsCringe wrote: Jethro tull's album, aqualung is in my opinoin very religious, but also very critical of the church. For example, cross eyed mary is about an under age prostitute but is about forgiveness. My god is about having faith despite the church. Any thoughts? It is a commentary on religion in the main, although as Anderson has pointed out ad infinitum, not a concept album about religion. The commentary therein is extremely disparaging. It is certainly anti-religious, particularly anti-institutional religion, but it is not anti-god. In fact, Ian offers sympathy to god for the way hypocritical man has missed the point and co-opted the message. The dichotomy between man-made religion and god can be found in two adjoining stanzas of "My God"... So lean upon Him gently And don't call on Him to save You from your social graces And the sins you used to waive The bloody Church of England In chains of history Requests your earthly presence At the vicarage for tea Absolutely right, Greg. It was organised religion I was referring to, and perhaps should have made that clearer.

Edited by The Dark Elf - April 15 2021 at 14:02

As Ian Anderson many times said, the lyrics reflect his opinions on organized religion, and nothing more. 

My A remix will be in the mail any day

Edited by dr prog - April 20 2021 at 14:54

tszirmay wrote: in a prog context, "organized" religion means the priests play keyboards??

I think any intelligent religious person should take it upon themselves to understand the logic (or potentially lack thereof) behind the choices and organization and rules and such of whatever religion they follow. It's no good following things blindly, as that gives the people in charge the power to either make stuff up that doesn't make any sense, or to be negligent and allow things to slip through the cracks because no one is watching them. The Pope may be infallible from a specific point of view, but that doesn't mean in reality no pope has ever made mistakes, or abused their power, etc. The same goes for any religious leader. The thing that makes organized religion bad is the same thing which makes politics bad, the corruption of power and the negligence of those who wield it. So in a sense you could say Anderson's lyrics on My God and Wind Up are in fact very religious, in that they openly criticize things about the organization and rules and ideology of a religion on grounds of being nonsensical or worse. An anti-religious person might not care to even make an argument against religion, having sworn it off altogether. Anderson is trying, perhaps in vain and perhaps from a biased perspective, to have a conversation about the way things aught to work: "I don't believe you... He's not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays." That's not a denial of religion, that's a disagreement with its principles, and disagreements and healthy and can lead to change in a positive direction. So bravo Ian!

Pelata wrote: Critique, analysis, discussion...all well and good. But once you go "full Neal Morse", I'm out.