I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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 snow drops, 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 colors of the summer soldier;
And 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, power lines, 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 him 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 Mistle Thrush is coming. Jack, put out the light!"
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 snow drops, 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 colors of the summer soldier;
And 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, power lines, 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 him 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 Mistle Thrush is coming. Jack, put out the light!"
Lyrics submitted by Philadelphia Eagles
Jack in the Green Lyrics as written by Ian Anderson
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
When We Were Young
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This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Magical
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How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
On "Bursting Out", Anderson says: "Back, you see, in England's green and pleasant woodlands, we have these small elf-like characters, who are charged with the grave responsibility of looking after all things that grow during the dark and cold winter months. Their names are 'jacks-in-the-greens', they are plural, plural!"
So while the song appears to be addressed to an individual, it's presumably intended to be one particular Jack (perhaps as a representative of the class as a whole), rather than a distinct quasi-historical/mythological figure like St George or the Green Man.
A 'Jack in the Green' - represented as a leaf-covered giant, rather than one of Anderson's small elves - is a feature in English May Day celebrations. In any case, a Jack may be taken to be a general nature spirit or a fairy. The name is similar to other periphrastic names for fairies such as Robin Goodfellow, Robin i' the Wood, etc. in which a conventional name is used to refer to a magical being to avoid actually naming it and so running the risk of attracting its attention, with possibly dangerous consequences.
The song describes the appearance and activities of the nature spirit, and touches on the question of whether the spirit - and the natural world it represents - can survive in the modern world, with the "grass growing through the pavement" as a symbol for the quiet endurance of living things in the face of modernity (a theme that Anderson returns to in the song "Heavy Horses").