Songs From the Wood

And for all that, even _I_ wasn't prepared for the full effect of this thing. My heavens, there's a wealth of sonic detail here that I haven't heard in twenty-five years, and it's every bit as fresh as when it first came out. It brought tears to my eyes.

This will not be a big deal to you if this isn't one of your Preferred Tulls. But if it is . . . well, then, you can safely ignore the silly comments from the peanut gallery and rest assured that this remastered release is worth investing in.

As with most of these Tull re-releases, I don't care one way or another about the extra tracks. It's nice to have "Beltane" (which was released on the big 20-year box set but got winnowed out of the one-CD version). It's also nice to have a live "Velvet Green". But I'd have bought this CD without them. (Not that I'm complaining. And anyway, if you don't want to hear the extra tracks, you can just stop the CD, can't you? Like most CDs, this one has a nice generous break before the "bonus" tracks kick in so that you can do just that.)

And I don't have anything to say about the album itself that I didn't say in my review of the earlier CD version. It's just that in view of some of the reviews this remastered version has been getting, I thought some potential buyers might like to hear from someone who _liked_ the blinkin' thing in the first place and can therefore comment sensibly on whether this new release is satisfactory.

It is.


Green treasures   April 14, 2003
ole skipper (Aarhus, Denmark)
21 out of 21 found this review helpful

Nature was always very present in Tull's music - with Ian Anderson's rich fluteplaying evoking images of wide open spaces, joyous rides across green fields, and perhaps slightly ironic but nonetheless real inclinations to go "living in the past".

On "Songs from the Wood" Ian Anderson - inspired by recently moving into the countryside - seems to transform himself into the Green Man of British folklore, roaming through mythical forests, high on Nature's juices and testosterone.

The resulting album hardly needs any recommendation - it is an acknowledged and flawless masterpiece, as fresh, magical and intoxicatingly original today as when it was recorded some 25 years ago.

The original cd-version was awful - the new, remastered version brings back memories of being blown away for the first time by this timeless masterpiece. The two bonus tracks are fine, the sinister "Beltane" (a pity, though, that the track isn't faded away when enough is enough...) and a fine, airy live-version of "Velvet Green".


Such cynicism!   June 15, 2003
Sam Theiner (Pittsburgh, PA USA)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

It's hard for me to believe that so many people find this album mediocre. Of course this is a matter of personal taste, but this is my all time favorite Tull album. There is so much going on at any one moment; all the melodies are strong, the hooks are wonderful, and yet this is some of the most complex and challenging arrangement work that Anderson and the band have ever done (second perhaps only to Passion Play). The band membership at this point was also top notch, and it shows in the sheer (small "b") baroque of the instrumental interplay. I'm particularly partial, as a bassist myself, to John "Brittledick" Glascock (may he Rock in Peace), who I consider the best bass player Tull ever had (sorry Peggy, you come in a close second).

I suppose whether or not you like the lyrics is also a matter of taste. You will definitely *not* like them if you refuse to hear them with the tongue-in-cheek flavor that they're written. The combination of seriousness with fun is a very, very English outlook, poorly understood by Americans All of you out there who think that Tull peaked with Thick as a Brick: the music on Brick is fantastic, and the lyrics near-literary quality, but you seem to have missed the point. That album was intended as a joke, from the front cover to the very last note. Is it any wonder that Ian Anderson is still, to this day, occasionally asked "So, whatever happened to Gerry Bostock, then?" Not to mention that while the lyrics on SftW may *describe* "country living" topics, they're not anywhere near *about* those things. If you cannot read beneath the veneer of woodland fairies and toddies on the mantlepiece to what the songs are actually *about*, then you'll never really get it anyway.

I absolutely love the word-play in Velvet Green; it points out very well the difference between being liscentious and being crassly vulgar. Solstice Bells is a little more serious in it's treatment of the May Day celebration, and the choruses a bit heavy handed and hymn-like, but dang if the production and arrangement aren't sharp, tight, and clever.

Also, IMHO, the remastering is *very* good, some of the best such re-issue work I've yet heard.

I'm sure there are some people, somewhere, who think that the Beatles started to go downhill after Help! Or that Led Zeppelin peaked with the II album (just as a couple of examples). I'm not one of those people. Give me sophistication, maturity, and good humor whatever the date and time, and to heck with the chronological "coolness" and the "not the original band" snobbery.

Pass the word and pass the lady!


Add it to your Tull-ection   May 22, 2003
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

This review is more to defend Tull in general and this remastered album in particular, than to split hairs about its finer points (esp. after having read some reviews ripping into it).

Tull's music has always been DIFFERENT. You either love it or you don't. To all you Tull fans out there: this album is a good buy. The remastering has made the music more crisp, and you can now hear notes and complexities that weren't apparent before. However, I have to agree with some of the other reviewers in saying that the live version of Velvet Green doesn't really add anything to the album.

Yes, there are many Tull albums that are insipid. But Songs from the Wood is NOT one of them. It is a masterpiece. To some of you who've thrown brickbats at it, I have only this to say: Cloth Ears!