Lyrics to
Locomotive Breath

This version of Locomotive Breath was released by Jethro Tull in 1971.

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In the shuffling madness
Of the locomotive breath,
Runs the all-time loser,
Headlong to his death.
He feels the piston scraping —
Steam breaking on his brow —
Thank God, he stole the handle and
The train won’t stop going —
No way to slow down.
He sees his children jumping off
At the stations — one by one.
His woman and his best friend —
In bed and having fun.
He’s crawling down the corridor
On his hands and knees —
Old Charlie stole the handle and
The train won’t stop going —
No way to slow down.
He hears the silence howling —
Catches angels as they fall.
And the all-time winner
Has got him by the balls.
He picks up Gideon’s Bible —
Open at page one —
God stole the handle and
The train won’t stop going —
No way to slow down.

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Jethro Tull has released many songs over the years besides Locomotive Breath. Jethro Tull released songs from 1968 to 2003 spanning across albums like This Was, Stand Up, Benefit, Aqualung, Living In The Past, Thick As A Brick, A Passion Play, Warchild, Minstrel In The Gallery, Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die!, Songs From The Wood, Heavy Horses, Stormwatch, A, The Broadsword And The Beast, Under Wraps, Crest Of A Knave, Rock Island, Catfish Rising, Nightcap, Roots To Branches, J-Tull Dot Com, and The Jethro Tull Christmas Album. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Jethro Tull.

If you're a fan of lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1971 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Locomotive Breath by Jethro Tull

When you decide to study the lyrics to Locomotive Breath, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1971 song by Jethro Tull. Some of the lyrics to Locomotive Breath have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Jethro Tull and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Locomotive Breath if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Locomotive Breath" means the words set to the music of Locomotive Breath, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Jethro Tull. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Locomotive Breath and the lyrics to Locomotive Breath are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Jethro Tull who came here looking just for the lyrics to Locomotive Breath, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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