Let me bring you songs from the wood: to make you feel much better

Continuing my trip back through the 1977 album charts.

06/03/77 : Songs From The Wood - Jethro Tull 

Jethro Tull were always one of the heavier bands when I was at school, but I know they've had a few incarnations over their lifespan and believe 70s Tull is very different from 80s Tull - so, let's be honest, I've no idea what I'm going to get here!

Hmmm - prog-folk anyone?  It's certainly, errr, different with it feeling much more early 70s than late 70s - I can't say I loved it, but I admire them making the noises they wanted to make and there's certainly plenty of skill involved in making those sounds.  I would have preferred some of the tracks to be a bit shorter (or at least feature less repetition) but I think that's pretty much all I have to say about it.  It's just odd.

We're at #13 this week on their fourth week of a twelve week run, which was as high as it got but that still feels like a very generous run for what seems like a pretty niche album (even within the popular niche world of prog).  The top five this week were The Shadows best-of, the Heartbreakers compilation, Pink Floyd, a Status Quo live album (a new entry) and Bryan Ferry - it feels bizarre that Bryan Ferry is the new kid on the block there.  We also have a rarity of a second new entry in the top ten for Peter Gabriel (#7).

Wikipedia has way more on the album than I was expecting (152 milliPeppers) because there's some BIG news - you might want to sit down for this.  Because, at this point in time Jethro Tull featured (wait for it) - A WOMAN!!!  Yes, Dee Palmer had served a mere eight year apprenticeship as their orchestral arranger so they graciously allowed her to play keyboards on this album.  There's also a bizarre section on the album cover where it explains that the back cover says "front cover painting by Jay L. Lee" - but, you're never going to believe this, IT'S NOT A PAINTING!!  I guess you had to make your own entertainment in 1977.  

A lot of the entry relates to the critics saying "at least they're back to making decent stuff" after a couple of stinkers - the band were pretty happy during this period (which was apparently not always the case) and it seems like that came across in the music.  It also did surprising well commercially globally - top twenty in quite a few European countries (it was #34 in the year-end Spanish chart) and hitting the dizzy heights of #8 in the US, which feels bizarre for what is a very English sounding album.

"Customers also listened to" Ian Anderson (unsurprisingly), ELP, Yes and Genesis - no major surprises there, methinks.  This was an altogether curious album - I'd say it felt "of its time", but I feel "of a time" is closer - and I has a sneaking suspicion that late 60s is that time, although I'm not entirely sure which century.

27/02/77 - A classic example of that-sort-of-thing
13/03/77 - Well, I got that wrong!

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