Jethro Tull
Songs From the Wood

PROLOGUE:

I've looked at the reviews already written with great passion on one of the most beloved albums by Jethro Tull, so I know well that I'm treading on thin ice.

As I write this, I'm listening to a beautiful piece by Maddy Prior (COLD FLAME) in which Martin Barre participated just a year after releasing SONGS FROM THE WOOD with his group.

CONTROVERSY:

When talking about the classic era of Jethro Tull, people always speak of two lineups, but perhaps it would be more accurate to talk about identities. The first one starts with THIS WAS in 1968 (sort of a prequel in literal terms) and stops in 1970 with "Benefit". Then we have "Aqualung" which changes the rules, with some reshuffling since bassist Jeffrey Hammond comes on board full-time, despite having already played live with the band before this album. He is the bassist in "Dharma for One" during the "Living in the Past" version. The overwhelming success of "Aqualung" drives drummer Clive Bunker away as he chooses family over the frantic rhythm of a Rock Star.

From the maxi single "Life's a long song" (composed of 5 tracks in total) comes Barriemore Barlow, and with "Thick as a Brick" the new and second lineup-identity is formed, which fans consider to be until 1979 with "Stormwatch". In reality, the band would be dismantled at the end of the "A" tour in 1981, and let's just say that Anderson let them go. However, I believe there's a third lineup-identity with a completely standalone trajectory that debuts precisely with SONGS FROM THE WOOD. A quick analysis: from '72 to '75, the band had incredible concert activity, halved already in '76. There was an escalation of works not just musically but artistically theatrical, such as ironic and comedic pieces for "Thick as a Brick," backward journeys into the afterlife with humorous interludes of rabbits losing their glasses during "Passion Play," films with an environmental focus in "War Child," and a clear autobiographical reflection in "Minstrel in the Gallery," never renouncing the stage presence of Hammond for a series of gags in perfect vaudeville style to animate those concerts. Fashionable packaging to impress critics that would become the balance for Ian Anderson's ego.

Then everything, or almost everything, changes. Hammond amicably departs and John Glascock comes in on bass, and the figure of David Palmer, arranger and curator of the orchestrations (excluding "Living in the Past" work), becomes more and more established since the band's beginnings.

The theatricality disappears, the CONCEPT ambition fades, the necessity to surprise everyone with theme albums disappears. Live, the band will study concerts and the execution of pieces in perfect RECORDING STUDIO style, also limiting improvisation in scores thanks to the use of a double keyboard. Even the stage presence changes, Anderson and company present themselves on stage as true English gentlemen, abandoning the line of the hard and pure rocker (but also a bit boorish), inaugurated with "War Child".

The new album indeed starts from a (for me third) lineup with new creative energy developed during a particularly difficult period for Anderson.

THE GENESIS:

We must take a few steps back. In my opinion, Anderson was falling out of love with his creation, and with a grain of salt realized that by 1975 the band had already given everything. The musicians had realized their dreams, wealth, fame, concerts, and therefore fatigue, but not creative fatigue. The band was performing well, but the mood had changed. Evan was now singing only classical music on the piano, developed drinking and depression issues even due to sentimental matters, Barlow was the one everyone argued with, and Hammond was not a real musician, but an artist lent to music (Anderson's words).

This is what Anderson saw, but he also became reclusive towards everyone and everything. He had his own troubles too, a few flings (the ballerina from "Passion Play") and the divorce from his first wife, Jennie (a Jewish girl, secretary at the record label at the time) whom Anderson co-credited with "Aqualung." Many of these things are subliminally set in the album "Minstrel" where eventually a sort of price to pay in exchange for what the band had received is discussed. Black Satin Dancer spoke of the last embrace of a couple, while One White Duck was somewhat a fracture and attempt at recomposing the love story, plus many other episodes where Anderson was tired of being the target. The press had long started a witch hunt damaging Jethro Tull.

The first move was the theatrical work which then became Too Old to R'n'Roll, but even here the band was not particularly interested in this work. A lackluster Martin Barre and Barlow on drums were replaced by Anderson himself in some episodes, and he didn't fail to highlight it in the credits. Palmer would speak of a true storm in the studio.

A bit like "Aqualung," this work will act as a traffic divider for the third (?) lineup.

Anderson buys a house in the countryside and moves there with his wife, discovering that a song can be composed in front of a fireplace instead of in a hotel room or after a horse ride in the woods if not with a fishing rod in hand. There’s a new environment and new inspiration. The idea is to transcribe in music just for the sake of playing and being together, but a charismatic figure is needed for the writing and arrangement, a role that the John Evan of that time could not cover, thus David Palmer is hired as the second keyboardist.

A Few Words about Palmer:

More an arranger than a performer, more an orchestra conductor than a keyboardist, Palmer boasts a lot of experience and will become a sort of guardian angel of Anderson, giving him lessons in applied music theory. He will be the only resigned member to collaborate again in the 80s (45 RPM Coronach and the Classic Case work), and when he decides, after the death of his wife, to change gender, Anderson will be one of the first to give a sort of approval. Even today, after having gone through a "CHECK-UP," he continues to make music and doesn’t shy away from collaborations with former Tull members.

THE ALBUM:

This album reached eighth place in America and number 13 in England right away presenting some novelties. The 70s sound and hard rock vanish; there are elements strongly reminiscent of popular music, which the Leader calls folk with a lowercase 'f' and academic. Barre and Barlow are among the first to be somewhat sacrificed; I believe the band first documented themselves on the new genre, doing an excellent overall work although with some moments not so successful in my opinion. The production generally takes care to give a polished sound, and hence the true DNA of Jethro Tull is not felt. Prog is downsized but persists. This album engaged the band greatly, evidenced by the fact that there will be no unreleased tracks or outtakes. Even Barlow in concert, for his usual drum solo, will have to recycle a piece from the previous year, and the collection stops at just nine tracks. True, there are long songs but also ones that don’t reach 3 minutes. From this album, Anderson invents the famous, somewhat cheeky "Additional material by DAVID PALMER MARTIN BARRE'.

The medieval atmospheres, as well as a wall of keyboards and synthesizers, deliver the second album ever, along with Benefit, to do without an orchestra, precisely that orchestra which showcased Palmer's talent. I've honestly never seen this strain in comparing this album to Heavy Horses and Storm. I, on the other hand, as methodology, necessity, and general condition see it very closely related to BROADSWORD, of which I consider a remake 5 years later of this. For the rest, a lot of 12-string guitar and a strong desire to purge the band from the excesses of the past, not only musically speaking. Nothing really new in the end, already in 1972 the Gentle Giant ventured into the mix of Rock and sounds evocative of King Arthur, but here the cut is more targeted and less experimental. A slight vocal decline of Anderson is already clear.

THE SONGS:

It's right to analyze them all:

Songs from the Wood is also the titular track that opens the album, nothing much to say. We are still in the classic realm, rock, prog, virtuosity, and skill together in a condensed version of Thick as a Brick. Jack-in-the-Green is one of the 2 or 3 pieces entirely Made in Anderson, he plays all the instruments and it shows a bit. The song is simple but frankly nothing more. We prefer the live versions where it seems to find its true identity. Cup of Wonder revives the Prog theme and remains a pearl never really cherished by the album’s fans, a central line that confirms Barlow as the king of syncopated beats. Hunting Girl, on the other hand, is the only piece far from folk sounds but remains an interlocutory song because it being rock, the production somewhat mutes its sound to not clash with the rest of the album. The double bass drum of Barlow is somewhat hidden, Barre places a rambling WHA-WHA for guitar atop it, and Anderson, who I think has chosen the wrong key, tries to play as cleanly as possible. The song, which in itself isn’t a masterpiece, will recover something in live performances, with a not so impeccable text. Musically it has something commercial. Ring Out Solstice Bells is a clearly Anderson-Palmer-Barre written piece, very different from the band's genre, interesting but too Christmassy, to be heard to understand where they were trying to go, one of the more challenging moments, the rest is tip. Velvet Green is a flagship song of the new Anderson-Palmer partnership. We are in front of a piece that conveys Anderson's new environment. Even though it doesn’t seem, there is a lot of bass work here, the central vocal part remains the best part, The Whistler instead is solid rock with folk nuances, all keyboards, and a 12-string guitar, perhaps another all-Anderson piece. Barlow at the snare simulates the arrival of a locomotive (...). Pibroch, on the other hand, is one of the most criticized songs on the album, starting with an Hard riff by Barre, it then becomes a dark melancholy and very English piece, very different from what Anderson usually did with the band. Some love it while others consider it an inconclusive blues, perhaps a repetitive piece, but I believe that Barre's intro is the best thing, and I think there's a lot of him in this song, Palmer pays tribute to Bach, and if Cup of Wonder is the most important text of the album, Fire at Midnight is not chosen last by chance to close the album, another song with a committed text but also a musical theme that together with Pibroch ties up and closes the darker, more characterful part of the album.

THE UNRELEASED:

What unreleased?

LIVE:

I always report documentation or sightings, so I can't be too sure, therefore take me as a sort of Adam Kadmon,

The title track is played in full during the tour, then gradually more and more rearranged. Since '78 the beginning is missing, but it's always played up to and including Crest of a Knave, and even when continually changing, it will always be very valid, then a bit forgotten and rediscovered for the Roots to Branches tour where it was linked in a Medley with Heavy Horses and Too old to Rnr, and in my opinion performed live with the original base underneath, even though drummer Doanne Perry would deny the use of the Click, also present in the Dot Com Tour,

Jack in the Green is played until '80 (classic lineup) and then resumed in 1982 and also in 1990 at the Rock Island tour, also played in Dot Com live performances.

Cup of the Wonder is never heard, while Hunting Girl is always played until 1987/88 and picked up again during the Dot Com years. Ring Out Solstice Bell never like Cup, Velvet Green was very challenging to bring live, played that year and considered lost until 2006. The Whistler instead I have a nice instrumental version that Barre reviewed in 1992 in a hard blues rock outfit, not bad. Pibroch was hinted at in its center part (that of Palmer with the keyboard solo) then it all became a Barre guitar jam linking it to Black Satin Dancer in 1982 and then picked up again in the late '80s linking it to Pussy Willow. Fire at Midnight was played with Weathercock in 1982.

BELTANE:

This splendid song is considered by the most fetishistic fans of the group as stemming from the Songs from the Wood sessions, but I can affirm that perhaps the composition dates back to that period. The sounds, however, are those of Heavy Horses, testified by the snare muted by Barlow’s striped drumsticks used at that time, plus the use of a Musicman bass, which Glascock used from 1978 onwards, and aside from Barre's guitar riff, no longer a GIBSON but a PAUL RED SMITH, you can also hear Anderson's voice (without tonsils).