Search - Steeleye Span :: Now We Are Six

Quintessential "Classic" Steeleye Span

Michael Gmirkin | Beaverton, Oregon, USA | 05/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Steeleye Span pioneered folk rock along with Fairport convention (whose music I still haven't picked up yet, though I've been meaning to for variety's sake). If you're a Steeleye Span fan, you will like this CD. Period. It's a Steeleye classic, and one of my many favorites.



Skip the newer releases, like: They Called Her Babylon, Bedlam Born, Bloody Men.



Go for the Classics: Tempted and Tried, All Around my Hat, Sails of Silver, Storm Force Ten, Rocket Cottage, Hark! The Village Wait, Please to See the King, Ten Man Mop, Commoners Crown, Now We Are Six, Parcel of Rogues, Below the Salt, Back in Line.



If you must pick up "modern" Steelye albums, pick up: Time (one of their best "modern" releases) and Horkstow Grange (their other good "modern" release). "Winter" is supposed to also be good, on par with the classics (traditional arrangements of holiday songs), though I haven't yet seen it.



The above "classic" albums cover the early and middle years."

It Gets a Little Cheesy, but They Still Have It!

Horkstow Grange | San Fransisco, California USA | 05/30/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Now we are Six is kind of a cheesy album, especially with "Twinkle, Twinkle". I think they just wanted to fill up extra time with that song. This is the first album with Nigel Pegrum, the controversial drummer. He thus makes the band six people, this being their sixth album as well. Ian Anderson of Tull produces it, and he did a good job.



"Thomas the Rhymer"is good, (It reminds me of some eighties rock band)and I'll have you know I know quite a bit about my good friend Thomas. He was a fictional poet who was a leading poet on faeries. Apparently, he expirienced them in daily life. Also a great song, "Drink Down the Moon", with a sad mellody sang by Maddy Prior, in my opinion the best prog. rock vocalist of all time, extends over six minutes, but hey- they needed the time. "The Mooncoin Jig", a happy number that starts off with, "One, Two, Three", said by Pete Knight, featured mandolin player on the song. "Seven Hundred Elves" is a prog rock classic, with long vocal solos sung by Maddy. My mom says it's drug music, but she's wrong.

"

Solid Span

G. Moses | Men...Of...The...Sea! | 02/18/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Yeah, there's no way to deny it: "To Know Him Is to Love Him" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" are serious double-you tee eff moments (though it's hard for me to believe people actually fell for the notion that they were performed by elementary school students--I mean, "St. Eleye?" Come on). I know some people would also put the title track in this category, but I can't really agree with that--consisting of several Old English-style riddles put to music, I find it nice and evocative. But those other two--um, no. Extremely missable by any standard.



But never mind them--look at what this album DOES do right. The opener "Thomas the Rhymer" is always fun, with a nice, adventurous arrangement. And it's really funny to me to picture Thomas bowing down and going "Hail, Queen of Heaven!" while the faerie queen's going, um, dude. No. It's true that the story doesn't really GO much of anywhere, but the song is still very much worthwhile.



"Drink Down the Moon" is also pretty great; it's a slow, melancholic song with sort of mysterious lyrics, that towards the end takes a left turn by segueing into the rollicking--and totally delightful--"The Cuckoo," which features one of my favorite bits of innuendo in any Span song: "It is thorn and it is prickle, it is compassed all around/It is thorn and it is prickle and it isn't easy found/She said young man you blunder and he said it isn't true/And then left her with the makings of a young cuckoo."



Then there the ever-popular "Two Magicians." This song is especially good when you realize what the band's done with it. What I take to be the original version, as performed by Martin Carthy, is a sort of queasy song of sexual conquest--but the Span version is much "nicer"--sweet, even; the male magician comes across as being much less predatory, and the whole thing has more the feel of an elaborate flirtation than an aggressive pursuit.



Passing over the previously-mentioned "Now We Are Six," we come to "Seven Hundred Elves," which I'm kind of dubious about. You'd think a duel between humans and elves would be super-fun, but ultimately, I really don't think it's very compelling, and it's not at all clear whether the farmer is actually supposed to be sympathetic or not. Was the band aiming to make the song into some sort of oblique environmental anthem? Regardless, it doesn't do much for me. "Long-A-Growing"--performed by Carthy, Pentangle, and others under the rather more poetic title "The Trees They Do Grow High," is better, but it's not a favorite, either--I'd have to say I like Pentangle's take on it best. "The Mooncoin Jig" is an okay-not-fantastic instrumental. Fortunately, then we come to the gleefully-macabre murder ballad that is "Edwin," which is one of the band's all-time classics. Seriously great singing, and it's difficult not to smile in particular at the almost gratuitously grim final lines: "And Emma broken-hearted was to Bedlam forced to go/Her shrieks were for young Edwin/That plowed the lowlands low." Whee! Sing a merry song!



Then, unfortunately, we're back to "To Know Him" and "Twinkle"--but who cares? With "Drink Down the Moon, "Two Magicians," and "Edwin," this album contains three of the band's best songs, and other than the two closers, the others ain't half bad either. This may not be the ideal first Span purchase (Below the Salt), but it's a typically-solid entry in the band's seventies catalogue. Recommended."