Songs from the Wood vs. Heavy Horses - Progressive Rock Music Forum

miamiscot wrote:

JT's last two great albums.

yeah, maybe, but I love Roots to Branches and Crest of a Knave. Big smile

Songs From the Woods by a large margin for me.

PROGMATIC

Mirakaze wrote:

dougmcauliffe wrote:

SFTW. Semi related question for people here. Am I alone in thinking TAAB side one is MARGINALLY superior to part 2. I’ve finally come around to that album and I think part one is easily one of The best prog epics out there. While part two is good, it isn’t nearly as memorable. Do any of you prefer part two? Curious what your reasoning would be.

(I think you're misunderstanding the meaning of the word "marginal") I really love the "let me tell you / come all ye young men" section and I think the ending beautifully wraps the whole thing up, but I can't say I really prefer one side that much over the other. Neither is complete without the other I think.

I prefer part two almost as much as one.

kenethlevine wrote:

Then: SFTW

Now: HH

What's remarkable is that HH managed to retain as much folk flavor without repeating what was done on SFTW. And it's a bit less "hey nonny nonny"

I agree. SFTW was definitely more "accessible" where HH was pure folk rock.

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Jeffro wrote:

Not having heard Heavy Horses (yet, gonna remedy that), I didn't vote but I do like Songs From The Wood a lot.

I thought you may be interested to know there's a 5-CD Jethro Tull box sat available that has both the Heavy Horses album and Songs from the Wood included.

Edited by Psychedelic Paul - January 28 2020 at 09:15

Mormegil wrote:

Equal - can't decide.

Me too. Both are great to my ears, and it's always a great pleasure to listen to them.

Heavy Horses

Love both albums but if I have to choose, it's Songs from the Wood. And IMO these are not the last good JT records. I really like Stormwatch, The Broadsword and the Beast and Crest of a Knave. Then I lost interest (although I've got the whole JT's discography, I listen to records after CotK very rarely - maybe it's my fault and I should try to change it, but to my ears all last JT records seem to be the same - good music but nothing I could say: well, this is fabulous, fantastic etc.)

Edited by Libor10 - January 29 2020 at 01:58

Really close, but I have to give it to SFTW.

Braka1 wrote:

Mirakaze wrote:

Songs From The Wood. I haven't heard Heavy Horses in a while but I remember really disliking it the last time and thinking it was just a pale rehash of SftW

For me it's the other way around. SftW, though it's good, sounds like them finding their new direction, and HH is its full flowering. Heavy Horses is a more passionate album to me, and pretty much every song just knocks it out of the park.

Stormwatch is the one that'sounds like the unconvincing third excursion.

this pretty much exactly

I don't get how HH can be considered a rehash. It's actually SFTW that is a rehash of what Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention and Horslips did in years past. I'm not saying it wasn't great or influential, bringing Celtic rock into the mainstream the way those bands could not, but HH may be even more influential. It's a more subtle take on the genre and I hear its influence in a lot of bands which followed who didn't hit you over the head with the "you know we are celtic rockers" message, like the MORRIGAN.

Stormwatch had some nice parts but lacked for standout material. That's probably why the JT prog folk era was just a trilogy. Plus the times were a changing

Poll Question: Which album do you like best??
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Songs from the Wood (1977)	31	[62.00%]
Heavy Horses (1978)	19	[38.00%]
You can not vote in this poll