Sossity You're A Woman by Jethro Tull

Jethro Tull circa 1700

       According to Rolling Stone Magazine Jethro Tull was *"Named for no apparent reason after an 18th-century British agronomist who invented the machine drill for sowing seed".  They released their first album in 1968 called This Was Jethro Tull.  My favorite song off that album is called A Song For Jeffrey.  It's a blues/jazz number with Ian Anderson singing in a weird throaty voice and it shows off the talents of the band while promising a strong future for it's fans to look forward too.

Machine drill for sowing
wheat seed

     That future began arriving the following year when Tull released a very strong album called Stand Up.  Part of what made Stand Up different was the replacement of guitar player Mick Abrahams by Martin Barre.  This reflected Anderson's growing control of the band as well as his maturity as a songwriter and composer.  The album featured a more classical/celtic fusion influence signalling Tull's entrance into the burgeoning Progressive Rock movement.  While there still was a strong blues/jazz influence the most popular song from that album is the instrumental Bouree which is Tull's take on Johann Sebastian Bach's 18th century composition. Proving their credibility as superlative musicians as well as informing their fans of their overall musical direction.

Jethro Tull, an eccentric & extremely talented
70's era prog-rock band

     Next came 1970's Benefit album which completed Tull's conversion from a blues/jazz band to a classical progrock band with Celtic influence.  In 1970 it was a very original sound, that despite others working within the template has never quite rocked as hard as Tull.  A fine example of this is Loreena McKinnitt's 1997 spectacular The Mummers Dance.  The Tull influence is obvious and she adds in an interesting Eric Bazalian style (Hooters) hook.
      The song I'm featuring today is called Sossity You're A Woman and it came to me as a request from the Salem Massachusetts singer/songwriter Ronnie Black Hat Deschenes who was one of my early guitar teachers and is still a lifelong friend.  
       The song tells the story of a woman who can't quite keep her promises to herself to become the woman she wants to be.  While the man in her life understands this he knows she'll never change and though he stays he knows he will always be let down.  Sossity (alternately pronounced sauce-i-tee and then society) is, besides a melancholy love story, a metaphor for modern society.  When Anderson wrote the song in 1970 he obviously believed the possibility that society had within it the potential to fulfill it's promise to itself.  That reflects both Anderson's age, he was an idealistic 23 at the time, and his growing wisdom as an observer of man. As the song predicts, society, in general, never quite lives up to her promise.  We stay, like Anderson's protagonist, because it is our home and we still have hope yet we remain eternally dissappointed.  

Ian Anderson. flute,
tights, & medieval cod piece

       The song, of course, features Ian Anderson's unique and intriguing vocal style and flute over Martin Barre's complex & clean classical guitar.  Also under the singing is a wonderful organ accompaniment provided by either Glenn Cornick or John Evan.  Cornick was released from the band after Benefit and went on to join Bob Welch's band (Sentimental Love Affair).  Evan participated in the recording of Benefit and stayed with Tull for the next decade.  The familiar sounding organ is similar to the sound Boston successfully utilized a few years later on their rock classic self titled debut album.  
        I especially like the last minute of Sossity.  At the end of the lyric there is a half rest followed by a very strong flute/organ/guitar driven chorus with Anderson plaintively lamenting repeatedly Sossity, you're a woman.  Barre's polished classical guitar dramatically ends the song.
      The placement of this song last on the album probably means the band believed it was very strong song.  Sossity's influence is felt on the Aqualung album in songs like Mother Goose.  Despite Aqualung's sales success being driven by heavy rock and roll classics like Hymn 43, Aqualung, and Locomotive Breath the album is actually more acoustic and classically focused than anything Tull had offered before.  Driving that success is the influence of songs like Sossity.  Despite it's lack of radio play and the intervening years the song still sounds fresh today.  Pulled from the deepest recesses of the steamer trunk please enjoy Sossity You're A Woman

amazon.com Benefit byJethro Tull

I'd like to thank my most excellent friend Ronnie Blackhat Deschenes for the request and his freindship.

Jay

* http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/jethro-tull#ixzz2aLfbGYDI