SONGS FROM THE WOOD
JETHRO TULL, STUDIO ALBUMS, 1977
Fan favourite Songs From The Wood was seen as the first in the band’s Folk Rock trilogy (Heavy Horses and Stormwatch followed).
STREAM THE ALBUM
The album was recorded right after the tour of the previous album, Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die! (1976), and demonstrated the desire of Anderson to change the musical style of the band, since he was meeting and even producing music from the folk rock scene – in 1974 Anderson produced ‘Now We Are Six’ for Steeleye Span.
MORE ABOUT THE ALBUM
The album signalled a new direction for the band, who turned to celebrating British pagan folklore and the countryside life in a wide-ranging folk rock style which combined traditional instruments and melodies with hard rock drums and electric guitars.
The album is considered to be the first of a trio of folk rock albums: Songs from the Wood, Heavy Horses (1978) and Stormwatch (1979). On the album cover appears an extended title line: “Jethro Tull—with kitchen prose, gutter rhymes and divers—Songs from the Wood.” The title track of the album contain two of these phrases in its lyrics.
The UK music-paper adverts read: “Jethro Tull present ‘Songs From The Wood’. A new album of Old Magic. Songs From The Wood. It’s inspired by the thought that perhaps nature isn’t as gentle as we’d like to believe. And it takes as its theme the natural and supernatural inhabitants of the woodlands of old England. Warm and friendly, harsh and bitter by turns, it includes ‘Ring Out Solstice Bells’ as well as Tull’s new single ‘The Whistler’ and seven other songs. Find a quiet spot and listen to it soon.”
The 2003 remastered edition includes a pair of bonus tracks, featuring a live rendition of “Velvet Green.”