Side effects (The Rolling Stones) (LP 4707 - 4709)

Steeleye Span  Live at Last! (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1979) *** 

The Rolling Stones  Foreign Tongues (CD, Polydor Records, 2026) ****  

Anthony Williams  Spring (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1966) *** 

Genre: Folk rock, rock, jazz

Places I remember: Vinyl Countdown, JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Rough and Twisted (Stones)

Gear costume: Montrose (Steeleye Span)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8

Active compensatory factors: This post reviews three albums from a recent trip to New Plymouth and Palmerston North that cover three very different genres.

The Steeleye Span live album is both their first live album and final album of the seventies. It features Martin Carthy amid the band's gloriously updated folk rock sound. Honestly - any album featuring the combined vocals of Maddy Prior, Tim Hart and the others is worth hearing. 

Maddy is in great form here and she makes the album come alive. The Highlight is the lengthy Montrose and an expanded version of The False Knight on the Road which was originally from their 1971 album Please to See the King.

The latest Stones album has arrived in shops and like Hackney Diamonds, it is produced by Andrew Watt. He again achieves some great results from the threesome (Mick, Keef and Ronnie) plus guests (Macca again plays bass on one song).

It's not as consistently brilliant as Hackney Diamonds, but it is still a solid set of Stones songs with some familiar touches - the falsetto vocal songs, a country song and Keef's song all making an appearance.

Remarkably, Mick Jagger's vocals seem untouched by the years. He's remarkable!

Tony Williams (billed as Anthony here) is an amazing drummer. This was his second album as leader. He assembled a stellar cast for the album -  tenor saxophonists Sam Rivers and Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock and bassist Gary Peacock.

The sub genre of jazz that is on offer here - post bop or modal jazz, is one step away from free jazz and it's an acquired taste. I don't mind being challenged by music but a lot of post bop is at the outer limits of my taste.

When they settle into a more lyrical stride I'm more on board, as on side two with both Love Song and Tee. That's largely down to the wonderful playing of Herbie Hancock on piano. I'm much more content with those than I am with the wild shronking horns of Extras which leads off side one. Even then though, there are things to learn, and it's good to stretch the taste boundaries from time to time.

Where do they all belong? Three excellent additions in three different genres.

The lark in the morning (Steeleye Span) (LP 3949 - 3953)

Steeleye Span  Please to See the King (Vinyl, Big Tree Records, 1971) ****  

Steeleye Span  Now We Are Six (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1974) ****

Steeleye Span  Commoner's Crown (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1975) *****  

Steeleye Span  All Around My Hat (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1975) ****  

Steeleye Span  Rocket Cottage (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1976) ****  

Genre: Folk, folk-rock

Places I remember: Amoeba Music, Real Groovy Records, Slow Boat Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Two Magicians (Now We Are Six), All Around My Hat 

Gear costume: Cold, Haily, Windy Night (Please to See the King), Thomas the Rhymer (Now We Are Six)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: I have mentioned a couple of Steeleye Span's albums already on this blog - Hark! The Village Wait and Below the Salt - their first and fourth albums.

My musical proclivities are interesting. I have always loved Steeleye Span and Maddy Prior and for a while, I collected their albums when I saw them. But I was never drawn to collect a similar band - Fairport Convention, in the same way. Curious.

While visiting Los Angeles this year, I found a copy of Please to See the King, their second album, so we'll start there.

It begins with a different version of The Blacksmith (which was also on their debut). It's a radically slowed down version, though, that concentrates attention on the singing and guitar. Maddy Prior is superb as always.

This first song signals a changed sound for the album overall, as Martin Cathy (guitar) and Peter Knight (fiddle) join the band (they also dispense with drums).

By 1974's Now We Are Six the band had morphed into a much more commercial proposition. The six members were now Maddy Prior – vocals; Tim Hart – vocals, guitars; Peter Knight – vocals, violin; Bob Johnson – vocals, guitars; Rick Kemp – vocals, bass guitar; Nigel Pegrum – drums.

Commoner's Crown was their seventh studio album and the band were well into their folk-rock stance on this album. In many ways it was a peak moment for this version of Steeleye Span. It's a five star classic!

All Around My Hat was their highest charting album. Given it has rocky drums and guitars providing some power chords at times, that's the result they were after, I guess. It's still absolutely Steeleye Span though - traditions were still there under the surface and the resulting sound is a lot of fun - purists can try elsewhere.

Final album on my list is Rocket Cottage from the year after All Around My Hat. This year (1976) also happened to be Year Zero for punk in the UK and folk-rock wasn't cutting it at that time. It was the last album featuring the mid-seventies version of the band. It's another excellent folk-rock album.

Where do they all belong? A few gaps need plugging. I'll get there eventually. I have a few compilations that are okay but they tend to be wide ranging and so the different Steeleye Spans jostle for attention.

The hills of Greenmore (Steeleye Span) (LP 218 - 219)

Steeleye Span Hark! The Village Wait (CD - Castle, 1970) ***

Steeleye Span Below The Salt (Vinyl - Chrysalis, 1972) ***

Genre: Folk

Places I remember: Fives (on The Broadway, Leigh-on-sea, UK); Slow Boat Records (Wellington, NZ) 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Blacksmith (Hark!)




Gear costume:  John Barleycorn (Salt)

Active compensatory factors: Earthy, is the best adjective I can think of to describe the appeal of Steeleye Span. Although I started late - around the Thomas The Rhymer era (via Ian Anderson), I have come to appreciate these early albums for their honesty and earthiness.

Apart from the life weary instrumentation and the everyday content of the folk songs - shoemakers, miners, blacksmiths, sailors and fisherfolk inhabit these songs, it is the peerless vocals of  Tim Hart and Maddy Prior (along with Gay Woods on that first Steeleye Span album) that make this such a rewarding experience.

Perfect starts to debut albums are scarce as hen's teeth (tip o' the hat to I Saw Her Standing There and Good Times Bad Times at this point) - but here's another contender thanks to the one two punch of a capella A Calling-On Song and then The Blacksmith. 

Being transported back to my spiritual home of England is one of my favourite-ist things in the world and hearing Ar-a blacksmith courted ME (etc) does the trick admirably!

The rest of the album is set up for more rollicking tales from England's folk past via fiddle/dulcimer/ banjo/ autoharp/bodhran/mandolin on top of a drum/bass bed and I'm thankful to be along for the ride. Yes sirree!

By 4th album, 1972's Below The Salt, The group had undergone radical transformation personnel wise.

Bit of a shock when you see the cover - all look like they are in their bloom of youth, but then they sound like they've accessed a time tunnel from the 16th century.

Folk rock bands often have fluid line-ups and so it is with Steeleye Span. Gay and Terry Woods had left after Hark! and, further down the road, so had Ashley Hutchings.

That left the glorious Maddy Prior and Tim Hart as the core members. Cue a simpler sound in many ways but all the Spanisms are intact - a cappella, jigs, catchy folk rock, Tim and Maddy harmonies - all present and correct.

Where do they all belong?  Now We Are Six is next.

A melody is like a pretty girl (The Magnetic Fields)

I'm not a big folkie fanatic but I do love the music of Steeleye Span.

I was going to do a post on my five favourite folk songs and then I realised they'd probably all be songs by the Span or Maddy Prior (June Tabor would have snuck on with her awesome rendition of And the band played Waltzing Matilda) - so I might as well do a post on them instead.

Steeleye Span is one of those bands (like John Mayall's Bluesbreakers) that has had a revolving cast of characters but I guess that's natural given they've been at it since 1969 and don't appear to be retiring to a cottage in Hampshire any time soon.

I think it's the evocative nature of their music that wins me over - those earthy rough voices - nothing too pretty about a lot of their music. I spose there are more authentic folk outfits out there but when they get going acapella style on Rosebud in June (track two side one on Below The Salt) I don't really care how authentic or not they are. I'm transported down the eons of time via my imagination.

The jigs and reels side of their music is equally as entrancing. I can't help the toes tapping and the head bobbing along with the mandolins, fiddles, banjo and spoons. Joyous music.

My favourite Steeleye Span moments are Blackleg Miner, The Blacksmith, Thomas The Rhymer, All Around My Hat, and I love their version of John Barleycorn with Tim Hart's vocals a standout.

 

Let creation reveal its secrets by and by (Jackson Browne)

This post's album cover round up theme is -  nature. Often this means a tree (or trees) or a sylvan glade. Clouds are also a biggy, so are waves (of dreams). You can't beat a moody landscape!