#aqualung

Some guitarists swear by improvising and feeling out their solos, others prefer composing them. No matter what your particular preference is, though, you probably wouldn't want someone to desperately try to get your attention while you're laying one down.

Such, however, was the situation that Jethro Tull's Martin Barre found himself in when cutting the solo for the band's now-classic tune, Aqualung.

In a recent interview with Guitarist, Barre recounted how none other than Jimmy Page came close to derailing him just as he was weaving some spontaneous magic.

“[Aqualung's] solo was all done on the fly,” Barre said. “I think it was take two – and if I hadn’t got it in two then it would have been a flute solo. But that’s when Jimmy Page, who was recording with Led Zeppelin in the basement of Basing Street Studios, came up to say hello.

“He was in the control room window, waving madly. I was in the middle of the solo, and I thought, ‘Sorry, but I can’t stop.’ And I didn’t. I just turned my back. Which was a bit rude. But that was the solo on Aqualung.”

Jethro Tull, Aqualung, LIVE at Madison Square Garden, 1978.