A remnant from the band's abandoned "Chateau D'Isaster Tapes", "Bungle in the Jungle" features lyrics based on analogies between animals and humans.

Following the success of the band's 1972 album Thick as a Brick, Jethro Tull spent time in Paris to record the unfinished "Chateau D'isaster Tapes".

According to Jethro Tull bandleader Ian Anderson, the unfinished album was intended to focus on "exploring people, the human condition, through analogies with the animal kingdom.

"[1] Unlike other songs in the band's catalogue, "Bungle in the Jungle" features a more traditional, rock-oriented arrangement and structure.

[3] The single spent 16 weeks on the American charts was the band's second and final top 40 hit in the United States, after 1969's "Living in the Past".

[4] Cash Box said that "Ian Anderson's vocal is powerful and his flute playing enhances the arrangement as always" and "the lyric is in the haunting metaphorical imagist mood that Tull has always typified so well.