A Parcel Of Steeleye Span

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合計収録時間 : 00:00:00
Steeleye Span are so well entrenched in the annals of folk history that it is sometimes easy to forget that, for two or three years in the middle of the 1970s, they were likewise poised on the very brink of mainstream rock superstardom. Two major U.K. hit singles, the unaccompanied Latin carol "Gaudete," and the bouncing "All Around My Hat" bookended no less than three albums that made serious inroads into the popular consciousness. Similarly, the involvement of such stars as David Bowie (sax on a weird reinvention of "To Know Him Is to Love Him"), Ian Anderson, and Mike Batt (producing an album apiece), Peter Sellers (special guest on "New York Girls"), and Tony Secunda (manager at the end of this period) added its own magical cachet. All three of those albums -- Now We Are Six, Commoners Crown, and All Around My Hat -- are included here, together with the two LPs that preceded them: 1972's Below the Salt (including the original version of "Gaudete") and Parcel of Rogues from the following year. And tracing the band's progression from one end of the span to the other, it is clear that Steeleye were never a simple folk band, even by the amplified parameters of the day. Performances like "Alison Gross" (heavy metal for the hard of hearing) and "Cam Ye O'er Frae France," from Parcel of Rogues, are all but a genre of their own, while the previous year's "King Henry" haunts the same gothic cathedrals as the first King Crimson album. Things do settle down a little on the later records, although Now We Are Six is almost avant-garde in its approach to vocal arrangements and audience expectations ("Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and the aforementioned collision of Bowie and Phil Spector); plus, it includes the pulsating "Thomas the Rhymer," the monster hit single that never was. Commoners Crown, too, has more peaks than troughs, with the lengthy murder ballad "Long Lankin" unquestionably a Steeleye standout. Which leaves All Around My Hat, an album whose memory may have been scarred by the ubiquity of its title track, but which packs its own fair share of jewels. Of course, it seems hard to believe that anybody who cares does not already own these five albums in one form or another. But if, by some twist of fate, you've managed to avoid them, a smart box, a good price, and a clutch of relevant bonus tracks are now yours for the taking. ~ Dave Thompson
エディション : Remaster