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NATIONAL ROCK STAR
12 February 1977
AN ALBUM TO SET ROBIN HOOD DANCING
JETHRO TULL: Songs from The Wood
Chrysalis CHR 1132
If Robin Hood was still around today he'd be bopping to this lad.
Songs like 'Jack in the Green', 'Hunting Girl' and 'Velvet Green' would have him dancing in the fauna.
Unlike a lot of Tull albums, this one is neither a concept nor an exercise in social comment.
The aggression and bite which Ian Anderson usually lets flow out of his songs has been replaced by a neat package of nine songs linked by this back-to-nature theme, and a definite leaning towards the folk end of rock music.
The return to simpler material — Anderson denies it is commercial — is maybe an attempt on his part to try and recapture some of the immediacy which got lost during the epic days which peaked on A Passion Play.
The success of the single 'Ring Out Solstice Bells' reinforces this idea, and as 'The Whistler' is the next single, and the most immediately attractive track on the album, the projected success of that plus the sell-out UK tour should boost sales of this album above any since Passion Play.
Tull have fought a hard and bitter battle since then. This album hints strongly they are slowly winning.
MARTIN THORPE.
Thanks to Mike Wain for this article, and Gerrit de Geus for confirmation of the publication date.