What’s to like?

Let me bring you…songs from the remix, as one of Jethro Tull’s most popular albums gets a freshen up in a box set reaping a harvest of bountiful extras.

The low down

Jethro Tull have had a long and varied career, and with so many albums under their belt, picking just one as an introduction is challenging. Many fans would point to Aqualung as the starting point for new listeners, and I couldn’t argue with that. It’s a fine album, and you can read my views here:

But for me, Songs From The Wood is the one that I’d nudge the curious to try out first. While Tull are often overly associated with the prog scene, they also have a lot in common with the electric folk scene, and Songs From The Wood marries these two genres seamlessly, while throwing in classical flourishes, along with “kitchen prose and gutter rhymes”.

Whereas Minstrel In The Gallery which comes across as a solo project for singer and writer Ian Anderson, with the band in a supporting role, Songs is the work of a group collaboration, with each song playing to the strengths of each musician. By the time the band went into the studio for this one they were a finely honed unit, having played together on several earlier albums and tours. Even new boy John Glasgock had proven his skills as a bassist on the previous album Too Old To Rock And Roll, and had slotted in seamlessly.

It’s probably just a coincidence that this Country Set edition is being released just as winter is behind us, as Songs could be considered a rite of spring, greeting the arrival of longer and warmer days, and celebrating all things pastoral, rural and mythical. If you were to stretch the metaphor a little more indulgently, you could describe the album as a harvesting of some of the band’s best material, played with joyful hearts, and it never fails to brighten up my day.

There’s the hearty welcome with the opening title track, whimsical little folk elegies like Jack-In-The-Green and The Whistler, and songs to raise your spirits like Ring Out Solstice Bells or Cup Of Wonder, with its catchy flute refrains and rosy lyricism.

Martin Barre’s electric guitar riffing wins its spurs on the likes of Hunting Girl, and Pibroch (Cap In Hand) is one of Barre’s finest moments in Tull as he carefully layers one guitar riff on top of another and another to create a ‘bagpipe’ effect during the opening crescendo. Barre could solo with the best of them, but he also knew when to hold back with the less-is-more approach, which he demonstrates so well on this track.

Then there are the extended arrangements like Velvet Green which allow electric and acoustic guitars to stretch out, peppered with flurries of piano, organ and flute, and pretty much any other instrument the band have to hand. Yet it doesn’t sound at all cluttered – each instrument has its set place within the song, and it’s a good example of how Tull could combine instrumental versatility with meticulous arrangement.

And lest we forget the venerable wordsmithery so associated with Tull’s lyrics, a quick perusal of the lyrics to Hunting Girl reveals that Anderson’s sly wit is still writ large.

Songs From The Wood has always been a great sounding record from day one, so once again we all ask – does it benefit in any way from this latest remix by Steven ‘The Redeemer’ Wilson? Not as dramatically perhaps as on earlier albums, but I did feel the overall sound was a little warmer and a little more detailed, with a slight upward nudge of the bass. There’s a lot going on in each song and this remix sheds a little more light on the instruments in the background.

Far more interesting this time around are the bonus discs. Wilson’s 5.1 surround remix of the album is excellent, opening up the sound even further and giving me a renewed appreciation of how good the music on this album is. Instruments like xylophones or glockenspiels, previously hidden in the stereo background, get a new lease of life in the surround speakers, contributing to the sound as much as the acoustic guitars.

Keyboards and piano also sound more prominent, without taking away anything from the electric guitar or bass, and Barriemore Barlow’s drums get a bit more bottom-end welly. My introduction to his drumming was via the Live-Bursting Out set, and I always felt his studio contributions didn’t have quite the same impact, but they do in this 5.1 mix.

I realise that not everyone will have a 5.1 set-up, so what else can entice them to this set? Well, what about a complete live show from the US leg of the tour? The recordings have been sourced from two separate dates in order to make up the complete show, and have then been reconstructed and meticulously remixed by Jakko Jakszyk into one continuous performance. If you read Jakko’s notes in the accompanying book, you then realise what lengths he had to go to produce the live discs – it’s a wonder he didn’t go insane.

The end results are impressive, but with the caveat that the sound is not as good as the Live –Bursting Out album recorded the following year. I did a quick comparison because I thought the 1977 set was a little quiet and lacking dynamics in places, and right enough, the Bursting Out set has more presence to it. Nevertheless, the different setlist makes this a worthwhile addition to your concert collection, and Jakko has done a great job in getting the soundtrack to this level of quality.

But wait! There’s more! You can also watch the whole show – in living colour!

The final disc in this set includes previously unreleased footage that was broadcast on the overhead screens during the performance, restored from the original Betamax tapes and painstakingly synched up to the same audio used for the cds. Judging by the audio-visual synch, it looks like Anderson adopted the same stage patter each night to introduce the songs, so there are no obvious technical glitches other than a couple of film drop-outs because the camera got too close to the microphones.

This is probably the highlight of the box set because now you can get to experience a full show with the band at their peak, on one of their most popular tours. The visual quality is fine, and far superior to any bootleg stuff doing the rounds, and you can listen to it in stereo or surround mixes. I tried the stereo mix through a mini hi-fi and it sounded terrific; in fact, way better than the cd version.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen – a veritable feast of Tull treats served up with the same care and attention lavished on the earlier box sets, and all to be had for a princely sum while stocks last.

The only question left is, how the hell are they going to top this when it comes time to saddle up the Heavy Horses?