Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day
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| "Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by Jethro Tull | ||||
| from the album War Child | ||||
| B-side | "Sealion" | |||
| Released | 17 February 1975 [1] | |||
| Recorded | 10 September 1972 at the Château d'Hérouville, France | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Label | Chrysalis | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Ian Anderson | |||
| Producer(s) | Ian Anderson | |||
| Jethro Tull singles chronology | ||||
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"Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day" is a song by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull. It was released on their album War Child in 1974. Written as a comment on global cooling for the band's aborted "Chateau D'isaster" album, the song was reworked in 1974 for War Child.
The song was released as a single in 1975 and reached number 75 on the Cashbox charts in the US. Despite its limited chart success, the song has seen positive critical reception from music writers and has appeared on several compilation albums.
"Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day" was written by Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson, who dubbed it his "first climate change song" due to its lyrics about the then-current concern over global cooling.[4] He later explained,
This was my first song talking about the issue of ecology and, in this specific case, climate change. Back in those days, scientists believed that we were heading towards a period of global cooling, that we could be heading towards a new ice age. And in fact, they realized that in fact, no, we're heading toward a period of global warming. So my song became kind of redundant. But the idea was sound. And I still have a fondness for it today, because it is talking with optimism about facing the changing world and a changing climate to which we have to adapt, bravely and optimistically. And it feels very apt and appropriate for today.[5]
Like other songs on War Child, "Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day" was initially written as part of the "Chateau D'isaster Tapes", an early version of A Passion Play.[6] An early version appears on the 2014 re-release of A Passion Play as a bonus track.
