An
introduction to
"Songs From The
Wood"
Jethro
Tull would close out the seventies with a trilogy of
albums that would most eloquently and cohesively
express Anderson's world-view. He would continue with
these themes in later albums but these attempts would
prove to be expansions or recapitulations of the
ideas stated in these three works. It is in these
albums that the urban/rural dichotomy comes to the
fore and Celtic/pre-Christian ('pagan') myth and
imagery, which had been used sparingly in the past,
is used prominently.
Previous
Tull albums have been generally cynical and quite
trenchant with regards to modern society. With the
album at hand, these elements are inverted. A largely
celebratory mood is invoked with the lyrics in praise
of nature and of past rural life. Previous albums
portrayed modern life as being spirtually hollow and
in decay while the current album portrays a way of
life that Anderson sees as full of meaning with a
sense of community and respect for nature. This
environmental theme will be most prominent in the
final album of the trilogy, Stormwatch. The first
track 'Songs From the Wood' begins with the title
track: "Let me bring you songs from the wood, To
make you feel much better than you could know."
These lines are sung in a madrigal-like acapella
chorus. The narrator wants to show us "how the
garden grows" and to bring us "love from
the field." He urges us to "join the chorus
if you can." He calls us to become a part of
larger community pursuit of a greater good. Contrast
this with the criticisms evident on Thick As a Brick.
It would seem that Anderson is trying to construct a
set of values that would be appropriate for society
to pass onto its young. In an interview the following
year, he would reveal how he has integrated some of
the ideas on the album into his own life: " ...
rather than spending his money on drugs, parties and
cars, I would rather have something tangible at my
disposal and also something I can feel a little bit
responsible for. That's one thing money buys: the
right to acquire responsibility for things or people
or animals or whatever".
'Songs
From The Wood' is ripe with folk instrumentation, but
it is not folk music. There is electric guitar and
rock drums but it is not rock music. It is a complex
mixture of both these musics and more. Regarding the
appropriation of English folk music Anderson has
said, "It's more than a liking for the
instrument. It's a response to the music - that
droning quality - Celtic music. It's something
special. One can't really pin down what. It has to be
some kind of folk memory." It is also noteworthy
that this musical break with their past involved the
inclusion of 'additional material' by David Palmer
and Martin Barre. This album was more of a group
effort than past albums.
"Songs
from the wood : the music and lyrics of Ian
Anderson", John Benninghouse; adaptation Jan
Voorbij.
As
said before, on the albums 'Songs From the Wood','
Heavy Horses' and 'Stormwatch', Ian Anderson makes
use of all kinds of references and images from
English folk song, as Caswell states in his astute
1993 paper: "In fact the images are too numerous
to be dealt with thoroughly here. However, with just
a brief look, we can find that English folk song is a
source of validation for religious and sexual
rebellion. The matter-of-fact sexual attitude
expressed on Songs From the Wood and Heavy Horses is
in no contradiction with true English folk song.
Stuart, in his Pagan Images in English Folk Song,
explains that sex was considered quite natural and a
worthy topic of song (59). Lloyd explains that in an
agricultural society, all kinds of fertility are
sacred--human, animal and plant. He goes on to say,
"Nowhere does this intimate consonance with
nature show clearer than in the erotic folk
songs" (p, 197).
The "Songs From The
Woods"British tour programme (1977).
By kind permission of Pete McHugh (Electrocutas
- The Jethro Tull Archive).
Particularly
striking images arise from the rite of Beltane, or May Day: Stories abound of young men
and women running amok in the woods on the eve before
the first of May. Church officials condemned such
practices, swearing that a full two-thirds of the
maidens returned home "defiled" (Lloyd,
106-107). For the pre-Christian peasant, these were
not defiling acts: The first of May was seed time,
and after planting it was believed that the seeds
should be assisted in their fertilization. The sexual
energy of the most virile members of the community
was required to ensure the success of the crops
(Lloyd, 106). Young couples copulated in the furrows
of the fields to assist the crops along as well (99).
As a result of these pagan practices, sexual imagery
involving fields and farms is abundant (200)."
"The
sexual imagery on Songs From the Wood and Heavy
Horses is full of such references. The main sexual
songs on the album "Songs From The Wood"
are "Velvet Green" and "Hunting
Girl".(...). All songs involve love in the wide
outdoors."
Jethro Tull in 1977 during the Songs
From The Wood tour.
Annotations
Songs From The Wood
'Songs From the Wood' ,
the title track, begins with: "Let me bring you songs from
the wood, To make you feel much better than
you could know." These
lines are sung in a madrigal-like acapella
chorus. The narrator wants to show us "how
the garden grows" and to
bring us "love from the
field." He urges us to "join
the chorus if you can." He
calls us to become a part of larger community
pursuit of a greater good.
* Judson C.Caswell
"Galliards", or in
french "gaillardes" are dance songs
from the Renaissance era.
Obviously the title is
in itself one of the most interestingly rich
features of the song and of the album, since
it is title for both. I think we ought to
take into account the fact that the sentence
can be understood in two (if not more than
that, as is usual with Ian Anderson)
different meanings, the first one being, of
course, songs from the countryside in
opposition to urban life. The wood here
symbolises the old way of life, the rural
one, when human beings were closer to nature
and understood it better. Now they are
destroying it, and the narrator wishes us to
hear the voice of Nature singing in these
songs from the Wood, telling us to come back
to a better way of life in harmony with
Nature.
Secondly, since the album reverts to such a
folk kind of music, "from the wood"
might mean "from wooden
instruments", that is to say older ones
than electric guitar and the kind. Of course
electric guitar is present in the album, but
I can think of no other album than Heavy
Horses that has as old-flavoured music as
Songs From the Wood, and the song in itself
is a example of the mixing up of old i.e.
traditional folk style and new style. The
verseline "Let me bring
you old things refined" is
quite clear in this way, and "Dust
you down from tip to toe"
applies to us listeners, meaning that we need
to get off ourselves the dust accumulated
through generations of evolution in order to
find back what is lying at the bottom of us,
i.e. the older way of life. Hence the
narrator says he wants to revitalise us
because our current life is killing us: let
me "... show you how the
garden grows" is
explicit: in our modern way of life we have
so detached ourselves from Nature that we do
not even know how plants and vegetables grow
any more! We are only concerned with eating,
without thinking what a marvellous process of
creation has had to take place before we can
have the said vegetables in our plates.
"Let me bring you love
from the field" means
for me "let me show you that Nature
loves you, because you are her
children," and "to
heal the wound and still the pain" once
again explicitly implies that our modern
society and way of life endanger our health. "Life's
long celebration's here" means
that life is in Nature, not far from it, and
that if we want to enjoy life again (Ian
constantly implies that we do not, even
though unconsciously, enjoy life in its
western, modern, urban way) we have to come
back to rural life.
"I am the wind to fill
your sail / I am the cross to take your
nail" imply two metaphors:
in the first one the narrator says he will
fill our sail with wind in order to help us
sail towards better life, and the fact that
he talks of a sail goes on well with his idea
of the old ways of life being better: a boat
with a sail does not pollute! In the second
sentence Ian does no less than, I think,
comparing himself with Christ, i.e. let me be
the one to pay for your sins so that you can
life happily. Finally, "A
singer of these ageless times / With kitchen
prose and gutter rhymes" apply
to himself, so he positions himself as a kind
of herald of these forgotten times when life
was better, and he also implies that his
discourse and songs are all but serious:
kitchen, that is not very good prose, and
rhymes from the gutter mean that we must not
take things too seriously but rather revel in
a simple but healthy way of life.
* Fred Sowa
Velvet Green
- Imagery
in this song is reminiscent of images from an
English folk song called "The
Mower," in which the fair maid is
unsatisfied with her beau. "I'll
strive to sharp your scythe, so set it in my
hand" says the maiden (Lloyd, 201).
"Velvet Green" includes the line "Won't you have my company,
yes take it in your hand."
-
- As
the first lines of the song imply, it is
about living without a care in a rural way,
so it sums up the whole message of the album.
The Velvet Green of course refers to the
green grass of Scotland, Ian's birthplace,
but I think we can take it as a larger
metaphor for Nature in general. "Walking
on Velvet Green" would
thus mean "following the green way, the
green road of Nature," that is to say
living in harmony with Nature. Of course it
is about a sexual relationship between a
country girl and a country man, but once
again I think we should take this as a
metaphor meaning that real, enjoyable and
healthy life lies in a closer relationship
with Nature (embodied in previous songs in
the Green Man, Jack-in-the-Green, and here in
the narrator) and the awareness that we
ourselves are part of Nature.
"Won't you have my
company, yes, take it in your hands.
Go down on velvet green, with a country man.
Who's a young girls fancy and an old maid's
dream.
Tell your mother that you walked all night on
velvet green.
One dusky half-hour's ride up to the north.
There lies your reputation and all that
you're worth.
Where the scent of wild roses turns the milk
to cream.
Tell your mother that you walked all night on
velvet green.
And the long grass blows in the evening cool.
And August's rare delight may be April's
fool.
But think not of that, my love, I'm tight
against the seam.
And I'm growing up to meet you down on velvet
green".
This whole stanza reminds me of Sweet Dream:
"You'll hear me calling in your
sweet dream, Can't hear your daddy's warning
cry. You're going back to be all the things
you want to be While in sweet dreams you
softly sigh. You hear my voice is calling to
be mine again, Live the rest of your life in
a day".
It is an invitation to forget about our
education, which restrains us from enjoying
life, and is embodied in both songs in the
parents. The narrators appear as kinds of
tempting characters, probably devils or
incubuses in the parents' minds, but who in
fact want only to show us the way to a better
way of life. The line "Now
I may tell you that it's love and not just
lust / And if we live the lie, let's lie in
trust" mean that the narrator
does not only want to have sex with the girl
in question, but really to be in love with
her, i.e. on a more general level, the
relationship with Nature must not be based on
profit (using natural resources in a wild way
that leads to Nature's destruction) but on
real harmony and love.
The final verses "And the
ragged dawn breaks on your battle scars. As
you walk home cold and alone upon velvet
green" add a touch of
sadness, because the girl has to go back home
alone, she can't stay with her nocturnal,
dream-like lover, and we indeed have a
feeling that everything was just a dream,
that it never existed, but there is still the
hope that, be it dream or reality, it will
happen again the night after, and every other
night.
There is a clear dichotomy between daytime
and night-time in this song, the latter being
the time when the girl's (our) dreams and
fancies and most profound desires come true,
and day-time being the time for the harsh
reality of urban life. Ian will express the
same idea in "Pussy Willow" a few
years later: in fact the girl in "Velvet
Green " and the one in "Pussy
Willow" might be the same. We have to
notice that night is predominant in the album
"Songs From The Wood": "Velvet
Green" and "Fire At Midnight"
both depict scenes taking place during the
night, whilst "Cup Of Wonder"
begins with the opening line "May I
make my fond excuses for the lateness of the
hour", once again implying it is
night-time. It seems that Ian wants to give
night a very positive value, it being the
time for feasting ("Cup Of
Wonder,") love-making ("Velvet
Green") or lovesong-writing ("Fire
At Midnight")
* Fred Sowa
Hunting Girl
- "says:
"She took the simple
man's downfall in hand; I raised the flag
that she unfurled."
"Hunting Girl" is another of his
sex-in-the-fields songs. However, this is the
story of an aristocratic lady who seduces a
lowly field worker with wild and extravagant
practices: "Boot leather
flashing and spur-necks the size of my thumb. This high-born hunter had
tastes as strange as they come.
Unbridled passion: I took the bit in my
teeth. Her standing over: me on my knees
underneath." These
playful allusions to sex bear strong
resemblances in tone to many early folk
songs, and Ian's stage gesturing can be
related to folk sources as well. "Bawdiness
and sexuality, loose talk, obscene gestures,
priapic dance, are the starting points for
many ceremonial dramas of springtime"
(Lloyd, 106)." (...)
-
- Apart
from the fact that this is one of the most
kinky songs Ian ever wrote, I would like to
point out that the girl depicted in it is the
perfect representation of the Celtic woman.
Contrary to other civilisations, it seems
from mythological, judicial and literary
evidence that women had a very happier
condition in Celtic societies in the Dark
Ages (the period just preceding the
Middle-Ages) than in any other. Celtic women
were among other things renowned for their
sexual freedom, because when they wanted a
man they just went to him and made it clear
that they were interested in having sex with
him. The concept of sin was totally unknown
to Celtic peoples before their conversion to
Christianity, and a married woman could have
an affair with another man practically in
total impunity, and vice-versa. But a
distinctive feature of mythological feminine
Celtic characters is that they usually were
depicted as "femmes fatales," and
in the relationship between a man and a woman
the dominant character was often the woman.
From thence sprung the concept of "amour
courtois" or courtly love, which we find
in medieval romances: the man is totally and
in every respect devoted to the woman,
obeying her every wish and whim. We find the
same feature in the song: the lady is
depicted as a "hunting girl," but
what she hunts is in fact males! And when she
makes it clear to the narrator that she wants
sex, he just cannot refuse. Moreover, the
supremacy of the woman is expressed in the
position she adopts: "Her
standing over / Me on my knees
underneath."
Finally, interestingly enough the narrator
calls her "the queen of
all the pack" which
reminds me of Queen Medbh (pronounced Maeve)
of Irish Mythology: she was famous for her
sexual appetites, and her total lack of
scruples to sleep with someone else than her
husband. (Fore more information about Celtic
mythology or Celtic women, I recommend Jean
Markale's books The Celts : Uncovering the
Mythic and Historic Origins of Western
Culture, and Woman of the Celts.
* Fred Sowa
Jack-In-The-Green
- "This
rejuvenation (of nature/life - jv) is clearer
in 'Jack-In-The-Green' from Songs From the
Wood. Jack, as presented in the song, is
responsible for keeping the green alive over
the winter and bringing it out again in
spring. According to Stewart,
Jack-In-The-Green is one of the many names by
which Saint George is known. He is also
called the Green Man, is associated with many
fertility rites, including Beltane, and is
responsible for returning leaf and life after
winter. Ian Anderson applies this powerful
healing spirit to a very modern question.
Considering the environmental terrorisms of
industrialization as a kind of winter, he
asks:
"Jack do you never
sleep? Does
the green still run deep in your heart?
Or will these changing times, motorways,
powerlines keep us apart?
Well I don't think so, I saw some grass
growing through the pavements today."
This stanza illustrates two things: 1) that
there is hope for modern civilization and 2)
this hope lies in reaching back to tradition
for a different view of the man's relation to
nature. This is a small precursor to the
environmental concerns expressed later in the
trilogy.
- "Though
the audiences of these songs and viewers of
his shows may not recognize the specific
historical references presented, that doesn't
change the historical significance of the
work (Lipsitz, 104). It is likely that Ian
Anderson doesn't fully understand the images
he refers to: for instance, his
Jack-in-the-Green, according to a concert
clip off Bursting Out, is one of many little
woodland sprites that cares for plants. The
explanation is wrong, but the image serves
the proper function nonetheless. "
- This
reflects Lloyd's idea of a folk-memory,
through which connotations remain long after
true meanings are lost (Lloyd, 96). Stewart
would say that the strength of Ian's imagery
lies in the unconscious appeal of the magical
symbols, and that he has tapped into a source
of racial consciousness and identity
(Stewart, 13). Lipsitz says "all
cultural expressions speak to both residual
memories of the past and emergent hopes for
the future" (13). Ian's utilization of
old pagan imagery of fertility and rebirth
are being put to work in the present to
accomplish a sense of hopefulness. His agenda
at last is not political, but spiritual, and
he accomplishes a sense of tranquility and
rightness for those who can empathize with
his imagery. His goal: "Let me bring you Songs From
the Wood, to make you feel much better than
you could know."
- "Conclusions:
Now it is possible to compare where Ian
Anderson is in 1978 to where he started in
1968, with Roland Kirk. Lipsitz identifies
Kirk as a performer who is deriving his power
from a sense of history. He explains that
Roland Kirk presents an art that can be
interpreted at many levels - an art that
makes reference to the past through oblique
and coded messages. These messages arise as
eccentricities in Roland Kirk's music and
stage presence (4). Ian Anderson strove to
make that same kind of historical connection,
and to have that connection be manifest in
all of his works. He felt no sense of
group-identity with the rock 'n roll culture
of his times, so he searched elsewhere for
his historical connections. With these
connections he found a voice for emotional
and critical expression. The imagery of
English folk culture permeated his work and
allowed him to evoke the past to accomplish
his artistic goals."
* Judson C.Caswell (SCC,
vol. 4, issue 32, December 1993) ; adaptation
Jan Voorbij ;
Works Cited: 1. Anderson, Ian. "Trouser
Press Magazine." Autodiscography, (Oct.
1982), 1-13.; 2. Densflow, Robin.
"Rolling Stone." Jethro Tull's Ian
Anderson Plans a Movie; He'll Play God,
(11/8/73), 14 ; 3. Hardy, Phil and Dave Laing
Ed. Encyclopedia of Rock, New York: Schirmer
Books, 1987; 4. Lewis, Grover. "Rolling
Stone." Hopping, Grimacing, Twitching,
Gasping, Lurching, Rolling, Paradiddling,
Flinging, Gnawing and Gibbering with Jethro
Tull. (7/22/71), 24-27; 5. Lipsitz, George.
Time Passages. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1990 ; 6. Lloyd, A.L. Folk
Song in England. New York: International
Publishers, 1967 ; 7. Sims, Judith.
"Rolling Stone." Tull on Top: Ian
Anderson Speaks His Mind, (3/27/75), 12; 8.
Stewart, Bob. Pagan Imagery in English
Folksong. N.J.: Humanities Press Inc. 1977.
9. Torres, Ben Fong. "Rolling
Stone." Jethro Tull and His Fabulous
Tool, (4/19/69), 10.
- The
Greenman
The powerful foliate head of the
Greenman is a symbol still seen today carved
on mysterious stones, ancient churches and on
Celtic artifacts. In Celtic folklore, he
peers at us through the masks of Cernunnos
the Wild stag-horned Lord of the Hunt, Herne
the Hunter, the Green Knight of Arthurian
legend, Jack-in-the-Green (...). He protects
the forest and is the spirit of the land -
and is still used todayas a good luck symbol
for gardeners. His face, carved in golden
oak, can also be seen in Windsor Castle,
where it was restored after their disastrous
fire.
* Artwork and information: courtesy
of © Chris de
Haan
- Neil
Thomason has a different opinion on the
origins of Jack-In-The-Green and states:
" 'Jack-In-The-Green' is an
English character, as Ian acknowledged
numerous times on stage. Some have argued
here that the song relates to the Green Man.
I'd disagree, but in any case, the Green Man
is a figure of English, not Celtic folklore.
Okay, there's some cross-over, but as
generally understood, he's English."
* Neil Thomason (SCC vol.9 nr. 14)
- Here
are the two references to Jack-in-the-Green
from J.G. Frazer's book 'The Golden Bough: a
study in magic and religion' (abridged
edition, Macmillan 1987): "In England
the best-known example of these leaf-clad
mummers is the Jack- in-the-Green, a
chimney-sweeper who walks encased in a
pyramidal framework of wickerwork, which is
covered with holly and ivy, and surmounted by
a crown of flowers and ribbons. Thus
arrayed he dances on May Day at the head of a
troop of chimney-sweeps, who collect pence
[money] . . . . it is obvious that the
leaf-clad person who is led about is
equivalent to the May-tree, May-bough, or
May-doll, which is carried from house to
house by children begging. Both are
representatives of the beneficent spirit of
vegetation, whose visit to the house is
recompensed by a present of money or
food." (p. 129).
And: "In most of the personages who are
thus slain in mimicry it is impossible not to
recognise representatives of the tree-spirit
or spirit of vegetation, as he is supposed to
manifest himself in spring. The bark, leaves,
and flowers in which the actors are dressed,
and the season of the year at which they
appear, show that they belong to the same
class as the Grass King, King of the May,
Jack- in-the-Green, and other representatives
of the vernal spirit of vegetation . . .
" (p. 299). All in all, this book is
essential reading for information about
pre-Christian rituals and folk-beliefs.
* Andrew Jackson
- The
"Greenman" is in various form
carved into English Christian churches by
stonemasons and woodcarvers, which purport to
be forest-gods from England's pagan past. You
can see some examples of Green Men on these
sites:
"The
search for the Green Man" and "The
Green Man: variations on a theme". For
more specific information, see "Who
is the Green Man".
When I first visited your site I was
immediately struck by the image of Ian
Anderson as Green Man that you use as a
repeated motif in your site.
* Harrison Sherwood
Continuation
|
Introduction 