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Roots Rocking of a Different Kind
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Ian Anderson always had a minstrel's soul, yet in all of Jethro Tull's discography, it wasn't laid bare until "Songs From The Wood." Martin Barre's electric guitar is turned off or down with the exception of one song, while Anderson conducts the ceremonies with his ever present lilting flute and eclectic lyrics.

"Let me bring you songs from the wood,
to make you feel much better than you could know."

Calling listeners into a quite countryside with this a Capella couplet, and then sing wistfully about getting back to the countryside. Come with them and visit such characters as "Jack In The Green," they cheerfully beckon. Follow "The Whistler," who might was well be Anderson himself, as he plays his fife while strolling through the fields. Join in the sense of medieval England, with songs that are as far away from the proggy world of "Thick as a Brick" or the rocking semi-autobiographical "Too Old To Rock And Roll, Too Young To Die!" as possible. The band sounds looser and less yoked in than they have since the earlier albums sported their side-long spunky epics.

The one time that the electric guitar rings out is on "Pibroch (Cap In Hand)," which begins and ends with Barre's echo-laden guitars before Anderson assumes control with his flute. It's also "Songs From the Wood's" longest song and most reminiscent of past work, slipping in and out of folk, jazzy passages and the rock of Barre and Anderson's dueling solos. It's a little out of place, but hardly a misstep. That honor goes to "Ring Out Solstice Bells," which stumbles over its lightweight lyrics. Oddly enough, this song became an unlikely hit in the UK.

Those songs not withstanding, "Songs From The Wood" is a delightful mix of fields and forest, and one of Tull's most enjoyable albums. They must have thought so as well, as the follow-up "Heavy Horses" and much of "Storm Watch" would stay on the same pathway.


   
blackleatherbookshelf: (Default)
Roots Rocking of a Different Kind
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Ian Anderson always had a minstrel's soul, yet in all of Jethro Tull's discography, it wasn't laid bare until "Songs From The Wood." Martin Barre's electric guitar is turned off or down with the exception of one song, while Anderson conducts the ceremonies with his ever present lilting flute and eclectic lyrics.

"Let me bring you songs from the wood,
to make you feel much better than you could know."

Calling listeners into a quite countryside with this a Capella couplet, and then sing wistfully about getting back to the countryside. Come with them and visit such characters as "Jack In The Green," they cheerfully beckon. Follow "The Whistler," who might was well be Anderson himself, as he plays his fife while strolling through the fields. Join in the sense of medieval England, with songs that are as far away from the proggy world of "Thick as a Brick" or the rocking semi-autobiographical "Too Old To Rock And Roll, Too Young To Die!" as possible. The band sounds looser and less yoked in than they have since the earlier albums sported their side-long spunky epics.

The one time that the electric guitar rings out is on "Pibroch (Cap In Hand)," which begins and ends with Barre's echo-laden guitars before Anderson assumes control with his flute. It's also "Songs From the Wood's" longest song and most reminiscent of past work, slipping in and out of folk, jazzy passages and the rock of Barre and Anderson's dueling solos. It's a little out of place, but hardly a misstep. That honor goes to "Ring Out Solstice Bells," which stumbles over its lightweight lyrics. Oddly enough, this song became an unlikely hit in the UK.

Those songs not withstanding, "Songs From The Wood" is a delightful mix of fields and forest, and one of Tull's most enjoyable albums. They must have thought so as well, as the follow-up "Heavy Horses" and much of "Storm Watch" would stay on the same pathway.


     


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Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock? 
4 Out Of 5 Stars

That question is what Ian Anderson poses for "Thick as a Brick 2," some 40 years post the original classic rock epic that helped make Jethro Tull into American stars. Appears Ian has been goaded about writing this for several years now, and finally took up the challenge. It's surprisingly good, given the idea of writing a full on prog-rock concept album in the 2010's.

Gerald is given a batch of alternate futures to have arrived at, with Anderson exploring the themes with an obvious glee. It's his liveliest album in many a year, sketching out where Gerald might have been at 50, becoming a banker, a derelict, soldier, singer and "A Most Ordinary Man." Anderson also does a fair amount of self-reference, down to teasing with lyrics from "Locomotive Breath" (on Cosy Corner") and revisiting musical themes from the original album. His flute dominates, along with staccato blasts of guitar, folk-rock interludes, and spoken word set-ups to several of Gerald's possible lives.

It should be noted that, while several Tull alumni are among the players. this is still Anderson's solo show. It could easily be his own musings of "What If's Maybes and Might Have Beens" had he not been rock's best known flute player. You also won't hear anything that sounds like an obvious single, even though the original still managed one. What you do get in Anderson the ringleader, putting aside the classical ambitions from some of his solo albums to what could easily pass for a Tull album from the 80's and 90's. If you ever wondered about the boy-wonder poet or treated yourself to an afternoon puzzling over the St Cleve newspaper (now a website), you're going to get many growing spins of "Thick as a Brick 2."




     





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Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die!You're Never Too Old
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Jethro Tull had been making side long progressive rock albums with the band's folk elements mixed in that "Too Old Too Rock and Roll: Too Young To Die" registered shock waves among the band's faithful. Ten songs (originally), short by Tull standards, and an aggressive storyline that Ian Anderson insists to this day was not about him about one "Ray Lomas," who is an old leather/biker rocker who can't abide by these new punks who can "live and die upon your cross of platinum." The comic strip from the inner sleeve pictures Ray to be more than a little bit similar to Anderson, and the cover image of "Ray" throwing a disrespectful fist to the masses only threw more gasoline on the fire.

However. "Too Old To RnR" has aged a lot better than it has been given credit for. In the liner notes, Anderson asserts that the album was conceived to be a stage play about Lomas' rise from Game Show winner ("Quizz Kidd") who comes to the big city to discover he's a man out of time ("From A Deadbeat to An Old Greaser") until he just can't take it anymore (the title track). But before you know it, the cycle brings Ray's stylistic world back into fashion and he's headed back to the top ("The Chequered Flag"). Add a pair of bonus tracks (the delightful "A Small Cigar," which sounds like it would have come between "Big Dipper" and the title song in the storyline, and "Strip Cartoon"), and you round out this reissue.

Musically, TOTRNR is a middling Tull effort, but sounds like it was setting up "War Child" and that album's more concise compositions. The title track is still one of my favorite jethro Tull songs, and among the rest, I have a fondness for "Salamander" and "Big Dipper." Probably for Tull completests only as it marks a transition from the wide ranging epics of the past towards the more folkish and concise albums in the future.



Aqualung  Thick As a Brick Songs From the Wood Stand Up Living in the Past Heavy Horses

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