"Wond'ring Again" by Jethro Tull, Album: Living in the Past (1972)

the above cartoon was created by Ben Heine

There's the stillness of death on a deathly, unliving sea,
And the motor car magical world long since ceased to be,
When the Eve-bitten apple returned to destroy the tree.

Incestuous ancestry's charabanc ride,
Spawning new millions, throws the world on its side.
Supporting their far-flung illusion, the national curse,
And those with no sandwiches, please get off the bus.

The excrement bubbles, the century's slime decays;
And the brainwashing government lackeys would have us say,
It's under control and we'll soon be on our way.
To a grand year for babies and quiz panel games
Of the hot hungry millions you'll be sure to remain.
The natural resources are dwindling and no one grows old,
And those with no homes to go to, please dig yourselves holes.

We wandered through quiet lands, felt the first breath of snow.
Searched for the last pigeon—slate grey, I've been told.
Stumbled on a daffodil,
Which she crushed
In the rush;
Heard it sigh,
And left it to die.
At once felt remorse and were touched by the loss of our own,
Held its poor broken head in her hands,
Dropped soft tears in the snow,
And it's only the taking that makes you what you are.

Wond'ring aloud, will a son one day be born
To share in our infancy,
In the child's path we've worn?
In the aging seclusion of this earth,
That our birth
Did surprise—
We'll open his eyes.

Poetic lyrics about a furure environmental destruction and civilisation collapse caused by human actions based on false and rotten but well enstablished in their minds nationalistic and religious imaginaries: eternal expansion of a nation/race, eternal births and uncontrolled increase of population based on oldfashioned relligious beliefs, class/racial/national/relligious discriminations, etc. Those concepts also controll and shape the form of technology humans choose to invent and use in order to "serve" and fullfill them.

But the survivors don't learn anything and they try to rebuild their civilization as they knowed it: An elit of rich and superior at the expense of millions of poor died in starvation. Such a vision is not so far from reality when people have not changed their minds even before a global disaster. Unfortunatelly, survivors will reproduce the same exploitative societies and ideologies in a similar way every social revolution (from the ancient past or even our recent years) simply reproduces another version of the same political status of people division and human exploitation.

In the end, Ian Anderson seems to vision the birth of a new Messiah that will open our eyes.

You can hear this song in youtube

and thanks to anonymous a cover of this song by Sossity

The Whaler's Dues by Jethro Tull, Album: Rock island 1989

Money speaks. Soft hearts lose. The truth only whispers.
It's the whaler's dues.

I've been running on diesel. Been running on coal.
Running on borrowed time, if truth's to be told.
Two whales in the ocean, cruising the night
search for each other before we turn out their light.

Been accused of deep murder on the North Atlantic swell
but I have three hungry children and a young wife as well.
And behind stand generations of hard hunting men
who raised a glass to the living, and went killing again.
Are you with me?

Money speaks, soft hearts lose. The truth only whispers.
Now pay the whaler's dues.
Can you forgive me?

Now I'm old and I sit land-locked in a back-country jail
to reflect on all of my sins and the death of the whale.
Send me back down the ages. Put me to sea once again
when the oceans were full --- yes, and men would be men.
Can you forgive me?

A song about whale hunting which gives some points to the breadwinner whaler, not those of nowadays entrepreneurs who kill for profit and greed, but recalling to a past where seas were full of fish and whales and people hunt for surviving and have a morality of respect towards the hunted animal.

You can hear some Jethro Tull classics in youtube:

Aqualung

Thick as a brick

Heavy Horses

North sea Oil by Jethro Tull, album: Stormwatch 1979

Black and viscous --- bound to cure blue lethargy
Sugar-plum petroleum for energy
Tightrope-balanced payments need a small reprieve
Oh, please believe we want to be in North Sea Oil

New-found wealth sits on the shelf of yesterday
Hot-air balloon --- inflation soon will make you pay
Riggers rig and diggers dig their shallow grave
But we'll be saved and what we crave is North Sea Oil

Prices boom in Aberdeen and London Town
Ten more years to lay the fears, erase the frown
before we are all nuclear --- the better way!
Oh, let us pray: we want to stay in North Sea Oil

An ironic song about the strong dependence of our lives and society from energy consuming (oil or nuclear)

You can hear this song in you tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjvNY2zzEC8

Jethro Tull, Album: Songs from the wood, 1977

Songs From The Wood

Let me bring you songs from the wood:
to make you feel much better than you could know.
Dust you down from tip to toe.
Show you how the garden grows.
Hold you steady as you go.
Join the chorus if you can:
it'll make of you an honest man.

Let me bring you love from the field:
poppies red and roses filled with summer rain.
To heal the wound and still the pain
that threatens again and again
as you drag down every lover's lane.
Life's long celebration's here.
I'll toast you all in penny cheer.

Let me bring you all things refined:
galliards and lute songs served in chilling ale.
Greetings well met fellow, hail!
I am the wind to fill your sail.
I am the cross to take your nail:
A singer of these ageless times.
With kitchen prose and gutter rhymes.
Songs from the wood make you feel much better.


Jack-In-The-Green

Have you seen Jack-In-The-Green?
With his long tail hanging down.
He sits quietly under every tree ---
in the folds of his velvet gown.
He drinks from the empty acorn cup
the dew that dawn sweetly bestows.
And taps his cane upon the ground ---
signals the snowdrops it's time to grow.

It's no fun being Jack-In-The-Green ---
no place to dance, no time for song.
He wears the colours of the summer soldier ---
carries the green flag all the winter long.

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.

The rowan, the oak and the holly tree
are the charges left for you to groom.
Each blade of grass whispers Jack-In-The-Green.
Oh Jack, please help me through my winter's night.
And we are the berries on the holly tree.
Oh, the mistlethrush is coming.
Jack, put out the light.

Cup Of Wonder

May I make my fond excuses
for the lateness of the hour,
but we accept your invitation,
and we bring you Beltane's flower.

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.

Pass the word and pass the lady,
pass the plate to all who hunger.
Pass the wit of ancient wisdom,
pass the cup of crimson wonder.

Ask the green man where he comes from,
ask the cup that fills with red.
Ask the old grey standing stones
that show the sun its way to bed.

Question all as to their ways,
and learn the secrets that they hold.
Walk the lines of nature's palm
crossed with silver and with gold.

Pass the cup and pass the lady,
pass the plate to all who hunger.
Pass the wit of ancient wisdom,
pass the cup of crimson wonder.

Join in black December's sadness,
lie in August's welcome corn.
Stir the cup that's ever-filling
with the blood of all that's born.

But the May Day is the great day,
sung along the old straight track.
And those who ancient lines did lay
will heed this song that calls them back.

Pass the word and pass the lady,
pass the plate to all who hunger.
Pass the wit of ancient wisdom,
pass the cup of crimson wonder.


Velvet Green

Walking on velvet green.
Scots pine growing.
Isn't it rare to be taking the air, singing.
Walking on velvet green.
Walking on velvet green.
Distant cows lowing.

Never a care:
with your legs in the air, loving.
Walking on velvet green.
Won't you have my company,
yes, take it in your hands.

Go down on velvet green, with a country man.
Who's a young girls fancy and an old maid's dream.
Tell your mother that you walked all night on velvet green.
One dusky half-hour's ride up to the north.
There lies your reputation and all that you're worth.
Where the scent of wild roses turns the milk to cream.
Tell your mother that you walked all night on velvet green.

And the long grass blows in the evening cool.
And August's rare delight may be April's fool.
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.

Now I may tell you that it's love and not just lust.
And if we live the lie, let's lie in trust.
On golden daffodils, to catch the silver stream
that washes out the wild oat seed on velvet green.

We'll dream as lovers under the stars ---
of civilizations raging afar.
And the ragged dawn breaks on your battle scars.
As you walk home cold and alone upon velvet green.

Walking on velvet green. Scots pine growing.
Isn't it rare to be taking the air, singing.
Walking on velvet green.
Walking on velvet green. Distant cows lowing.
Never a care: with your legs in the air, loving.
Walking on velvet green.

may be one of the most naturalistic rock albums. A Folk concept-hymn in nature

you can hear three of the above songs in you tube:

songs from the wood

jack in the green

velvet green