Steeleye Span

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_BXh6DL4lg

Love that ridiculous guitar -- so massive on "Alison Gross," e.g. Plus Rogues has "Cam Ye O'er Frae France," which is maybe my favorite Span song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL0A9bGQaZk

(Also has a fascinatin' backstory: http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2010/03/great-moments-in-pop-music-history-steeleye-span-cam-ye-oer-frae-france/.)

argh i read that url as steeleye-span-cum-oer-yr-face

Ha.

I like or love everything through All Around My Hat, but I've never listened to Rocket Cottage. I should.

lol
yeah the guitar! there are some heavy riffs. were steeleye heavier than sabbath?
rocket cottage also brings in some funky wah action too.

the albionic hard rock thing was kind of underused IMO. but then Songs from the Wood is one of my favorite records of its decade so what do i know.

'King Henry' flattening me rn with its tick tocking menace

commoner's crown and storm force ten are pretty sweet lps

I think all of their '70s studio albums are good-to-great!

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Friday, April 25, 2014 9:06 AM

agree w/this

(xp) "Storm Force Ten" is a favourite of mine

I've been listening to Below to Hat lately. Some weird pop crossover bits sure. Parcel is a particular fav.

I find a lot of that era of Steeleye Span a bit annoying and worryingly Jethro Tull-like (I mean after "Below the Salt" and before "Storm Force Ten")
― TS: Mick Ralphs vs. Ariel Bender (Dada), Tuesday, April 18, 2006 9:27 AM

a little, yeah. all around my hat has some kind of corny pub-rock boogie on it (including the title track). but i still like it pretty well.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Tuesday, April 18, 2006 4:36 PM (thirteen years ago)

Ian Anderson has production credits on Now We Are Six and Prior's Woman In The Wings. I actually started my Steeleye journey recently with Now We Are Six for this reason (from reading the books in the recent Tull reissues). But my first Prior thing was Silly Sisters with June Tabor.

I'm loving Now We Are Six. Her Americanized singing voice on the last track is wonderful.

Track order varies a lot in different releases. Mos versions include a shorter "Thomas the Rhymer", including mine, I think.

"Seven Hundred Elves" is great but I think "Drink Down The Moon" is the best thing on it, very lovely.

Watched that BBC performance with the castle and Morris dancers. When she's singing by the fireplace without a microphone is that an overdub or is she projecting her voice that well. Always liked something Robyn Hitcock said about her voice sounding like it could be shot across the sky.

The part in "Drink Down The Moon" where she cries "I'M A BIRD and a very pretty bird" is so amazing.

Sung a bit differently here but still very good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugomHQ70F2w

She's an amazing singer, who tends to get overlooked imo.

Bass playing on Steeleye records is so good. First Ashley Hutchings and then Rick Kemp, two great players.

woooooow this is cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWK_zzrS1xw

oh hell yeah! nice ...

Oh man, great stuff!

what the hell is this show. I love it.

I have vague memories of shows similar to this in the mid/late 70s - I know this is 1970 - lots of kids shows looked exactly like the way this one does for instance, super nostalgic for me, in a weird way.

it has some deep dreamlike qualities

yeah we're just kicking it with steeleye span in an apartment....brb let's take a quick break to show you how to make a dulcimer

feel like I need a prestige drama tv series about the early music scene in england in the 1970s

Oh God yeah, catnip

"it's like mad men — but with pan flutes!"

Detailed Vanity Fair article about how the costume dept uncovered a stash of uncut period corduroy in Hereford.

You could make a miniseries just about Fairport Convention in 1969.

would watch

nice to see martin carthy with his tele there. seem to remember steeleye were on british telly quite a lot when i was a kid, definitely the first folk band that i knew anything about, them and ralph mctell

Yes, I think they were on television more than most rock bands of the era - folk music than being considered of more cultural value than pop music no doubt.

All Around My Hat was one of those slight outlier records I remember in my Dad's collection and was common to quite a few of my mate's parents' collections, like The Best Of Bread and that Janis Ian one that everyone seemed to have.

Great video. I've seen a snippet of it before, the "Lark in the Morning" clip has been on YouTube. But I didn't know what it was from.

Magnificent video. I'd happily watch a miniseries just about Tim Hart's hair.

were hart and prior ever a romantic couple? there was this intense rivalry between them and terry and gay woods in the first lineup and i never quite get what was going on there except the obvious "we are a pair and we advocate for our position in the group" but both of the woods made it sound like hart really did some toxic shit against them but i never heard specifics. i like the original lineup best because of the blend of female voices but obv. getting martin carthy in the fold was a huge coup. the post hutchings lineups have their fair share of good songs but it never was as good when he left.

people talk about dylan going electric but carthy plugging in is so fuckin bizarre i can hardly even. i guess swarb joining fairport showed him you could go there and not lose your artistry

His electric guitar playing was fucking great.

And I'm guessing he probably hasn't touched an electric guitar since!

yeah i'm a big fan but how much pre and post steeleye did he play electric? i mostly know brass monkey and his duo stuff with swarb, i don't recall any electric guitar

ah yeah xpost

I doubt he played electric guitar at all outside Steeleye, certainly not on record.

i'm guessing simon nicol did the electric playing in the orig albion band but not sure
nicol another "hey i'm doing electric lead now what a weird world i find myself in" during the angel delight years

dunno if it was a one-off but he seems to have done a gig with graham coxon in 2009 where he was playing a tele:

http://www.whiskyfun.com/Gigs/Graham-Coxon-2009.html

http://www.whiskyfun.com/Material24/Carthy-Hitchcock.jpg

(Robin Hitchcock on the right obv)

doesn't look like he's enjoying it much though tbf

weirdest fucking celebrity sighting by far in la is when i saw Martin Carthy in a Ralph's supermarket circa 2000.

wait, why did i say he was playing a tele there? waht is that guitar?

nicol another "hey i'm doing electric lead now what a weird world i find myself in" during the angel delight years

Yes, and he was good too!

wait, why did i say he was playing a tele there? waht is that guitar?

Don't know what it is but I want one.

1972 Fender Telecaster Deluxe. Belonging to Graham Coxon I would suggest:

https://www.groundguitar.com/graham-coxon-blur-guitars-gear/

ah, there you go - the knobs and the headstock had me confused. kind of guessed he was playing a loaner!