Cup Of Wonder
The Annotated Jethro Tull Lyrics Page

Annotations, information, comments, references

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" (197).

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 during the Songs From The Wood Tour 1977

Annotations

Velvet Green

• "is a wonderful pick-up song, sung by a amorous young man, asking his love to stay with him and "tell your mother that you walked all night on Velvet Green." The song presents sex on the open fields with a "silver stream that washes out the wild oat seed", and though "civilization is raging afar," the man still urges the woman, ""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."
• 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." ;

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)." (...)

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": http://www.dent.demon.co.uk/index.html and
  "The Green Man: variations on a theme": http://www.gmtnet.co.uk/indigo/edge/greenmen.htm.
  For more specific information, see "Who is the Green Man": http://emrs.chm.bris.ac.uk/morris/CClarke/GREENMAN.HTM
  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

Cup Of Wonder

• This song is a fairly explicit call for the listener to at least reconsider what tradition has to offer. The song calls back "those who ancient lines did lay". A ley line, in Celtic lore, is a line in the ground along which the energy of the earth flows. These lines were to connect sacred sites such as Stonehenge. After more Celtic images (standing stones, the Green Man, et al) the listener is asked to: "Question all as to their ways, and learn the secrets that they hold." This line perhaps sums up the message of the entire album better than any other. Other pagan/pre-Christian references include the line "Pass the cup of crimson wonder", which refers to Druidic human sacrifice. Peg Aloi interprets the lines "Join in black December's sadness, Lie in August's welcome corn." as referring to the pagan holidays of Yule and Lughnasa.
  * "Songs from the wood : the music and lyrics of Ian Anderson", John Benninghouse; adaptation Jan Voorbij.

• This has to be among the most brilliant of Anderson's many brilliant lines: For the May Day is the great day, sung along the old straight track. And those who ancient lines did lay will heed the song that calls them back. (...)"Cup of Wonder" is about pagan and quasi-druidical rituals (or how we today imagine that they were, since nobody knows for sure.) "Beltane" is the name of an old pagan ceremony surviving as May Day (...). Here's why the couplet is so brilliant: First it contains a literary allusion: "The Old Straight Track" was a book published in 1925 by Alfred Watkins, an amateur archaeologist, about the lines of standing stones and other megalithic monuments in Britain and France. He believed that the alignments of the stones were evidence of, or channels for, some unknown power in the earth. Deliberately aligning buildings, furniture, etc. to correspond with these lines is a type of magic called geomancy(...). But even more amazing, the next line contains a TRIPLE pun. There are three ways of reading "those who ancient lines did lay": 1) "lay" means to put or set down; it refers to those who placed the stones in their alignments. 2) "ley line" is another term for the mystical lines of power that are said to be under the earth. This term was first used by Alfred Watkins. The origin of the word "ley" is vague, but may be from "lea" for a tract of open ground, or the Saxon word for a cleared glade. 3) "lines did lay" can also refer to to minstrels writing lays, a form of poetry (as in "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," by Tennyson). The term "lines" then refers to the lines of words that make up the lay. And we know that Ian is fond of the idea of minstrels; it makes just as much sense that the minstrels will "heed the song" as it does the original builders of the alignments. The man is a stone (!) genius.
  * Ernest Adams (SCC vol. 9 nr. 4)

• In the line "pass the word and pass the lady", lady is probably the sabbath-cake which many pagans referred to as "the Lady". Here is referred to witches sabbat, of which Beltane is one of eight. Cakes and ale (or wine) is the traditional sacrament. One would "pass the word" because coven meetings (where a group of witches would work magic together) were, after all, secret affairs.
  * Jessica Alexander

Ring Out, Solstice Bells

• This song is a dance to celebrate winter Solstice (mostly on the 22nd and sometimes on the 21st of December) and appeals to rejoice the lengthening of the days, c.q. the return of the light. In it druïds dance while the narrator calls for people to gather underneath mistletoe and give praise to the sun. For many European nations like the Celts, and the Germanic peoples this festival in ancient times was one of the major ones of the year, full of rites and ceremonies of which some survived the ages like the bonfire/fireworks. During its spread over Europe, Christianity claimed this festival by 'implanting' Christmas as a festival of light on the 25th of December. The back of the sleeve of the "Solstice Bells"-EP (released in 1976) has a brief anecdote describing how the Church coöpted the pagan winter solstice celebrating, Yule, and replaced it with Christmas.
  * Jan Voorbij

The Whistler

• Like 'Velvet Green' this is a love song. The rural imagery continues. A man, presumably, offers to buy the object of his affection mares and apples. He talks of sunsets in 'mystical places', a line that bring the stone circles to mind. This image returns in 'Acres Wild' ("I'll make love to you (...) where the dance of ages is playing still") and in 'Dun Ringill' ("We'll wait in stone circles, till the force comes through (...) oh, and I'll take you quickly by Dun Ringill.").
  "Songs from the wood : the music and lyrics of Ian Anderson", John Benninghouse; adaptation Jan Voorbij.

Pibroch (Cap In Hand)

• This is a song of unrequited love. A man is travelling through the woods to his love's home after hesitating for long to propose to her or express his feelings. He finds out, that he is too late for that, since there is another man with her. Pibrochs (in Gaelic: piòbaireached) are a form of funeral music, dirge or lament, very hard to play and therefore also called 'big music' (ceòl mór), quite different from the 'little music' (ceòl beag): jigs, reels and strathspeys.
  * Jan Voorbij

• A pibroch is one of three traditional Scottish dances. They sound pretty well when being played by real highlanders; visit any Highland-Game anywhere in Scotland and you will hear a rich variety of Pibrochs being played.
  * Clemens Bayer (SCC vol 9, nr. 14)

• A pibroch is a formal Scottish dance, or series of variations on a theme played by bagpipes.
  * Neil Thomasson (SCC vol.9 nr. 14)

Fire At Midnight

• Once again a beautiful love song that describes the joy of coming home from a hard working day and spending time with one's wife. Ian said he wrote the song after a long day in the studio. The song breaths an atmosphere of relaxation, ease, harmony and - perhaps - gratitude.
  * Jan Voorbij

To summarize: the first album of the 'trilogy' is mostly celebratory. There are love songs, prurient songs and songs that celebrate nature and traditions c.q. folklore from ancient, pre-Christian religions, that were 'nature, earth based'. Modern society makes only the occasional intrusion into the green world painted by lyrics and music. 'Songs From The Wood' offers us some special qualities, and reveals an ingenuity that makes the album a masterpiece.
* Jan Voorbij