Songs from the Wood

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Professional reviews
Songs from the Wood

Studio album by Jethro Tull
Released	February 4, 1977 (UK)
Recorded	1976
Genre	Folk rock
Length	41:22
Label	Island Records (UK) Chrysalis Records (US)
Producer(s)	Ian Anderson
All Music Guide link Progressive World link
Jethro Tull chronology
Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! (1976)	Songs from the Wood (1977)	Repeat - The Best of Jethro Tull - Vol II (1978)

Songs from the Wood (1977) is an album by Jethro Tull, the first of a trio of folk rock albums, Songs from the Wood, Heavy Horses and Stormwatch. Songs from the Wood was the first Tull album to receive unambiguously positive reviews since the time of Benefit and Living in the Past.

Filled with folk and fantasy imagery, and ornamental folk arrangement, the album is a departure from the hard rock of earlier Tull material. Although the band continued using folk elements in the next two albums, none were as cheerful or purely folk as this.

[edit] Analysis

Opening up is the male choir classic that gives its name to the album: "Songs From The Wood" , which changes rapidly to a progressive rock instrumental while stating the pace of the record to come, with varying time signatures and a mixture of acoustic, folk and electric instruments. It is however just the beginning, and as it gives the overall feeling of the album is a perfect prologue for the next title "Jack In The Green", an acoustic song about, as Ian Anderson states himself, an English folk creature full of a kind of elfish magic that lets him take care of everything that grows (pasture, flowers, trees...) and helps the vegetation survive those long English winters.

Mainly acoustic and folkish in its nature it is an introduction to the ecologic concerns the band will pursue for the next couple of albums, while "Cup Of Wonder" explores English traditions, sayings and pagan/druidic riuals as is the Beltane fire/fertility festival. It is a song that can be studied a line at a time, finding references to English antiquity at every turn. Next is "Hunting Girl", which speaks in various innuendos the sexual encounter of an aristocratic girl and a farm boy. Once again most touching is the musical arrangements for the song, with highly distorted electric guitars accompanying organs and flutes in difficult time signatures and great drum/bass/guitar alternations and coordination, almost unbelievable in live presentations. With "Ring Out, Solstice Bells" we return to Celtic traditions, as Ian describes a dance to welcome winter, with seven druids and seven maids dancing seven time under the magical mistletoe, just a brief rest before the entrance of "Velvet Green".

In an album where tracks such as "Songs From The Wood" and "Hunting Girl" elevate greatly the difficulties for a live show, "Velvet Green" approaches the realms of impossibility, with an extremely difficult acoustic guitar line (played by Anderson while singing) and an unconformist drum rhythm. The band pulled it off impeccably almost every time, though they stopped playing it live early on since it needed a different drum setting with medieval sounding percussion instruments. The song is musically sweet, with a lilting melody which disguises some of its sexual innuendi (..and the long grass grows in the evening cool/ And August's rare delight may be April's fool..), and speaks of a man begging his dame to stay with him for the night, and to tell her mother that she spent her night walking on velvet green. Once again Anderson expresses the need to walk through the joys of life embedded in a natural setting. This loving, caring aspect of a man for a woman is also mentioned in the next track "The Whistler", where a man offers to buy his woman mares and golden apples bought with his pay. Once again in a rural setting, with mystical places and a no-worries attitude, "The Whistler" seems to tell of a wandering musician that must be gone on the seventh day, perpetuating the message of love in each riddle and inviting you whistle along carelessly through life. The flute lines in this song are beautiful, enhanced by a drumming style that elevates it instead of obscuring it and guitar and bass lines which state the actual rhythm of the song.

The album then sombers a bit, with a song that tells of a man getting home to see through the window that the table has been set for two, and that a man has been invited into the bedroom. After such realisation, "Pibroch (Cap In Hand)" turns around and leaves. However, the ambiance rapidly changes back with "Fire At Midnight", a song which expresses the joy of coming home from a hard day's work. It is short, reflecting that it is a time to wrap things up, express your happiness in a few tired lines, and being (once again) with the much loved woman. Mainly acoustic musically Ian said he wrote the song after a long day in the studio.

The 2003 remastered edition includes a pair of bonus tracks, featuring a live rendition of "Velvet Green".