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Spanning the Years

Steeleye Span

Capitol

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1. The Blacksmith
2. My Johnny Was A Shoemaker
3. The King
4. Lovely On The Waters
5. Marrowbones
6. Rave On
7. Gaudete
8. John Barleycorn
9. Alison Gross
10. Robbery With Violins
11. Rouges In A Nation
12. Cam Ye O'er Frae France
13. Thomas The Rhymer
14. To Know Him Is To Love Him
15. New York Girls
16. Long Lankin
17. Black Jack Davy
18. Hard Times Of Old England
19. All Around My Hat
20. London
21. Fighting For Strangers
22. The Black Freighter
23. The Victory
24. The False Knight On The Road
25. Rag Doll
26. Let Her Go Down
27. Sails Of Silver
28. Gone To America
29. My Love
30. Lady Diamond
31. Blackleg Miner
32. One Misty Moisty Morning
33. The Fox
34. Following Me
35. Tam Lin

Average customer rating:

Wonderful and mysterious

I've just started listening to Steeleye Span. Their music reminds me of Outgrabe's recording of "Twa Corbies" and "Tam Lin." Steeleye Span is really marvelous and spooky, with links to a vanished time. I just slip in the CD and take a little trip to the land of "Neverwas." Lots of tunes on this two-CD pack, too. I recommend it!

An Excellent Collection for long term listening

`Spanning the Years' is a two CD collection issued in 1995 of a wide range of Steeleye Span's music which began in the early 1970s. As a great fan of The Pentangle, Fairport Convention, and The Incredible String Band in the late 1960's and early 1970's, I suspect I fell victim to the confusion between the Steely Dan and Steeleye Span names, as the former was much easier to stumble across on the radio dial, and seemed to have little to offer me.

Steeleye Span's range of material and style has a passing resemblance to The Pentangle and Fairport Convention, yet they definitely put it all together in a distinctive manner which ring more of the Victorian English music hall than it does of the rural manor house or Renaissance stage.

While a relatively large number of their selections are traditional, many of those come from the last 200 years. And, when they duplicate material done by Pentangle, Incredible String Band, and Fairport Convention such as `Black Jack Davy' and `John Barleycorn', they certainly have their own twist. Their `Thomas the Rhymer' rendition starts out as if it were being done by `The Who'. Then, there are the pieces brought in from far left field such as `Rave On', `To Know Him is to Love Him', `Rag Doll', and `The Black Freighter'. Their rendition of the Kurt Weill classic from `The Threepenny Opera' benefits more from the surprise one has at seeing it in the company of their other material than it does from the rather weak imitation of Lotte Lenya's German accented English rendition of the song.

This is a really great album for listening in the car or while gardening, especially if you have a taste for both their traditional base and the great renditions of the little surprises they stick in every two or three songs.

Since little of this material is original, they don't quite have the same stature as The Incredible String Band or Fairport Convention (especially the original lineup with Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson), but it is great fun and a great listen when you have run through all the works of their Brit colleagues from the heyday sixties and seventies.

Highly recommended album for price and quality!

Great Attention "Span" !!!

Steeleye Span! -- "Spanning The Years" -- if you have never listened to "Steeleye Span", or even if you never heard of this musical groupof talent, or if you have heard the and liked and enjoyed them - this is "the" album collection of the choicest gems of their career.

Their acapella rendering of Buddy Holly's "Rave On" is something no one should ever miss and you'll want it in your collection for sure.

Also acapella, is a classic performance of a "christmas hymn" in Latin, "Guadete" - (Rejoice)

"John Barlecorn" recounts a folk-tale about the "death" of John Barleycorn from harvest cutting to it's "resurrection" as brewed ale! :)

A great song about the "selling-out" of Scotland to "English Gold" is recounted with interesting bag-pipe sounding fiddle in "Rogues In A Nation".

Phil Spector's "To Know Him Is To Love Him" has a most novel vocal interplay between the great Maddy Prior and a tenor-sax played in mimic style of Maddy's delivery style by none other than David Bowie himself -- really interesting sounds.

Maddy also delivers an emotionally moving performnce of the famous Four Season's song, "Rag Doll" . . I prefer Maddy's and Span's version to that of The Four Seasons!

You even get to hear the late Peter Sellers play ukelele and do some comic-speak with "the Span" on "New York Girls" -- a must hear!

One of my all time favorites by "the Span" is on ere too, "Hard Times Of Old England" -- this is the first song I ever heard by this band, that and "All Around My Hat". I was hooked for life on this band's musical magic.

And there are so many more memorable tracks on this two-cd set.

Buy this collection on this two-cd set and you will ever regret it. You will listen to thi musc over and over for years and years, enjoying it more and more with every "listen". Steeleye Span are that good . . . and better! Long may they "Span the years . . . and may their music "Span the world"!

Maddy Prior's folk-rock group

The British folk-rock scene of the sixties, though much smaller than its American counterpart, produced a few stars. The first real success came via Liege and Lief, an album by Fairport Convention, a group that launched the careers of several major figures on the British folk-rock scene. Sandy Denny was an excellent singer often acclaimed as the queen of British folk-rock, though Maddy Prior (who describes Sandy as both inspiring and infuriating) also has legitimate claims to that title. Richard Thompson continued to make excellent music after Fairport Convention disbanded. Ashley Hutchins quit Fairport Convention because he didn't like the direction the group was heading. He became one of the founding members of Steeleye Span, a group that has seen many line-up changes through the years but Maddy remained throughout. This helps to explain the diversity of music here, some very close to traditional English and Irish folk but some more like pop-rock music. Even so, Maddy's love of traditional folk ensures that all but the die-hard traditionalists should find plenty to enjoy here.

To the wider public, there are only a few familiar songs. All around my hat was a huge UK pop hit. Gaudete, a Christmas song, regularly turns up on Christmas compilations. There are also covers of Rag doll (Four seasons), Rave on (Buddy Holly) and To know him is to love him (Teddy bears, later a hit for Peter and Gordon, also covered by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou for their first Trio album). Of the other songs, some are traditional and some are original but none are well known outside folk circles.

This comprehensive collection covers Steeleye Span's music from 1970 to 1992. Original released as a full price compilation, it was later re-released at a much lower price and is now a real bargain, still available in the UK as I write. Traditionalists may prefer to buy the original albums from the early part of their career, but if (like me) you want a collection that captures the full range of their music, this is the one to go for.

Really Awesome!!!

I recently was turned on to Steeleye Span by my boyfriend, and I've been listening to the CD's non-stop! The beautiful vocals by Maddy Prior, combined with the gorgeous harmonies make these CD's extrodinary. Combining Celtic songs with modern rock is a brilliant idea, and Steeleye Span should be credited for that idea.