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").
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").