Talk:Locomotive Breath

The Story

This song seems to tell a story, but can anybody tell what the story is? It seems to me a story of a train sabotage and a subsequent crash, from the perspective of a depressed train engineer whose life is in ruins anyway.. Other interpretations? Cryptic Cloud 00:56, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

I believe that this song, like "Aqualung", is also about a homeless man, despite his denial that this album was consciously created with a deliberate theme in mind. Perhaps the image of the homeless man that his wife captured in the photograph, affected him more deeply than he realized, guiding his hand to create a more deeper introspection into the life of the poor and destitute than he intended when he began this work. I think it describes the life and times of a man as he falls from a normal life to his ultimate demise, living his life on the cold uncaring streets of a thriving metropolis. The use of train references are a metaphor for his social and mental deterioration, (A Train Wreck) "Shuffling Madness" The general society of the busy cities population, going about their busy purposeful lives, stepping over and around the hopeless, homeless man. "Locomotive Breath", refers to his state of poor hygiene created by his unfortunate fall to destitution. JobyWan1 23:03, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

My interpretation (right or wrong), is that this song is metaphorical in most of it's entirety.

The main character would be a foot soldier during the Vietnam war, fighting the Viet Cong(Charlie) The war itself could be the train. His "children jumping off the station", would refer to his kids growing up without him being there.

"His woman and his best friend" needs no interpretation, but crawling down "corridor" could be referring to the front line. "Charlie stole the handle" would mean how we lost control of the war's direction through the hands of the enemy, hence now the Viet Cong{charlie) is dictating the wars path.

                          the last verse, I interpret as God taking over, finally ending the war.

sef —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sef80033 (talk • contribs) 04:10, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I would imagine that it is absolutely nothing to do with the Vietnam war. Can't think of anything which would be further from Anderson's mind, but as it's so abstract you can probably adapt any interpretation you want to it.

The song is less notable for Ian's flute solo, which could be many many JT songs, and more for the piano introduction, particularly in live versions. Gusssss (talk) 15:09, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

The lyric is "Old Charlie stole the handle", and further, after "the train it won't stop going", the phrase "no way to slow down" is sung in a strange rhythm which could be heard as "though it could slow down".Gusssss (talk) 15:13, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

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Well, yet another unverified interpretation: The song is primarily about a middle-aged man's life falling apart... the children leaving places the story in the man's midlife crisis period. He realizes at this point that death's real and approaching fast ("...head-long to his death"), and he'll never live the ideal life he has always imagined. The corporate fat cat has control over his life and finances ("the all-time winner has got him by the balls").

I've always kind of thought "Old Charlie" referred to the Viet Cong, also, but that's just an assumption on my part. Being more-or-less from that period, when I hear "Charlie," I inevitably think of the VC. I'm not sure why Gusssss feels that would be far from Anderson's mind?

Regardless of who Charlie was, I interpret the shift from Old Charlie stealing the handle (which I assume refers to the brake handle on a train) to God stealing it thusly: when our protagonist was younger, his scapegoat for everything that went wrong in his life was originally the V.N. war. As he got older and that excuse wore thin, God in general became the one he blames.

Anyone actually tried to contact a Tull member or hunt down an interview?

My 2 pesos. I expect change.

Well, it's just an incredibly US centric interpretation ("we lost control of the war's direction"), and a very specific one given that there are no other clues to support it in the lyrics, or indeed the album which has more English references in it than you could shake a stick at (like most of their other work in fact). I know the band spent a lot of time in the US at that time, but this is just an allegory about life in general running away from somebody who is not in control. Gusssss (talk) 19:44, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

The page currently talks about an "impending train wreck", but there's nothing in the lyrics to suggest this. The story is about the average man's struggles with life and its meaning in the industrialized world. Life in the industrialized world is too fast, hence the desperate need to "slow down". Specifically, this average man is going through a mid-life or late-life crisis: his children has left home and his family is falling apart. But that's not the main point. The main point is that Charlie stole the handle. This is a common theme in literature about the alienation of modern man - religion used to provide us with a handle on how to live life and on the meaning of life. But Sir Charles Darwin spoiled it all, as evolution provided a logical alternative to believing in a god that created us and the life around us. So fewer people are religious (hence the falling angels). Seeing the end of his life nearing, the hero turns to religion (as so many do in real life) and as many non-religious folks, his first contact with it is the ubiquitous Gideon's bible. Which he never read before ("open at page one") and probably can't make much use of at this point. The delivery both in the studio version and in the life performance (from "A little light music") fits in well with this interpretation. There are many ambiguous songs, but this doesn't seem like one of them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.67.76.176 (talk) 13:56, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

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unusual manner?

what here is described as recording in an unusual manner is what I thought everybody does and is the normal way of recording?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jms (talk • contribs) 08:16, 23 July 2009 (UTC)