'Beltane' ~ Jethro Tull

'Beltane' by Jethro Tull
from the expanded "Songs from the Wood" album.

I do not know who the central 'Maypole' drawing is by, but I was very taken with it...!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Rock
• Folk
• Prog
• Jethro
• Tull
• Beltane
• Pagan

[KingHellstrings]

Ian's voice definitely has more of that Heavy Horses raspiness than the Songs from the Wood gentleness, so I wonder why they put it on SFTW?

Still a really cool song!

[SilverWolfMoon]

Well, the liner notes for 'Beltane' do say © 1977, but I guess they felt the 'theme' of the song sat better with the pagan imagery of songs like 'Jack-in-the-Green', 'Cup of Wonder' and 'Velvet Green'.

[daddysevenpointfiver]

@SilverWolfMoon and this song is easily as strong as the material you mentioned. martin's solo is particularly good, even if the song could be two minutes shorter. it's strange, but that year Genesis released "Wind and Wuthering" which was about thirty minutes to the side, while ian seemed bent on keeping Tull albums 40 minutes. Duke was like 60 minutes long, and A was like 40. Spendthrift, I think

[SilverWolfMoon]

@daddysevenpointfiver Don't forget - with vinyl, the more you put on it, and the closer you get to the centre, the more the quality of sound drops off. Perhaps Ian wanted quality over quantity?!

[jgfan79]

Thanks so much for posting. Love all Tull tunes, especially those recorded in active years of John Glascock on bass. This one is from 1978, but wasn't released until the 5 disc box set, around 1988. Glad they included it on "Songs from the Wood" cd as bonus track. Goes along nicely.

[SilverWolfMoon]

I love this song :)

I'm not sure if it was originally intended to be on "Songs from the Wood", but as you say, it seems to fit perfectly.

The expanded album also has a live version of 'Velvet Green', but I didn't think it was nearly as good as the studio version...

They also gave us some nice bonuses on "Heavy Horses", "Stormwatch", and "Broadsword and the Beast", plus finally putting 'The Witch's Promise' on a studio album ~ "Benefit", and the excellent 'Love Story' on to "This Was"...

[daddysevenpointfiver]

@SilverWolfMoon yes, this is true, the longer the side the denser and less audio quality, (I remember Duke by Genesis being so compressed -- the record was like an hour long!). but i don't think it was for quality

[daddysevenpointfiver]

@jgfan79 i'll put money on this song being recording during the songs from the wood session. listen to the production value of velvet green, then this. Heavy Horses sounded more sparse than this.

[Dbach1862]

Agree SilverWolfMoon, i close my eyes, and can imagine the pagan rituals. The music is so beautiful!

[Stephenconder]

This is brilliant coz it sits right in the middle of songs from the wood and heavy horses ......Its a sort of no mans land coz it could fit into either 

[SparrowHawk541]

good song, but he should of done a bit more research as the first verse is actually referring to Samhain. :)

[theskyinstars]

My dog was named after this song. its such an awesome song!

[mwmaxwgreen]

Merry Beltane to all.

[scarredfeathers]

wow his voice is sexy... O.O