Steeleye Span: Parcel of Rogues (1973)
Along with Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span was one of the biggest names of British folk rock. Comparisons to Fairport are pretty common. For example, their vocalist, Maddy Prior often gets compared with Sandy Denny. The band even featured ex-Fairport bassist Ashley Hutchings for their first three albums. But unlike Fairport, Steeleye Span never touched on the West Coast style folk-rock the way Fairport did on their first three albums.
The band basically consisted of vocalist Maddy Prior and vocalist and guitarist Tim Hart with a revolving door of musicians that featured the likes of Gay and Terry Woods (Sweeney’s Men), folk veteran Martin Carthy, Peter Knight, Nigel Pegrum (of the little known prog rock band Gnidrolog), and many more.
Basically, Steeleye Span took the traditional approach of Fairport Convention’s Liege & Lief one step further, and for their first five albums, all the songs were modernizations of centuries old folk songs from the British Isles, by playing them on electric instruments. But their music was less accessible than Fairport’s because they were less rock oriented.
Parcel of Rogues is their fifth album, and featured the lineup of Prior and Hart with bassist Rick Kemp, guitarist Bob Johnson, and fiddler Peter Knight. Highlights for me include “One Misty Moisty Morning”, “The Bold Poachers”, “Robbery with Violins”, and “Cam Ye O’er Frae France”.
“Robbery With Violins” is a very interesting piece, because it starts off rather funky, in that style of music typical of blaxploitation flicks and TV detective series of the time, then it transforms itself into a excellent folk jig with Peter Knight giving what he’s got on his fiddle.
“Alison Gross” one of those songs dealing with a witch, with lyrics that keep repeating: “Alison Gross/She must be/The ugliest witch in the North Country”. It’s a pretty catchy number, even if the lyrics stereotype witches as ugly and like to cast bad spells (but then you have to remember where these songs originated: back around the 16th century or thereabout, where people did not have such a positive attitude towards witches, which even now, in modern day America, many still don’t).
Steeleye Span’s Parcel of Rogues gives me that feeling of a medieval faire, it’s the type of music you can play at such an event and you could probably get away with it. But that shouldn’t be surprising given that the group’s specialty was centuries old British folk songs.
An excellent album, but it was their last strictly folk-rock album, after which they included a full-time drummer (Nigel Pegrum), making their music more rock-oriented. Parcel of Rogues is another fine album to add to your collection if you’re looking for a rock album with a medieval touch to it.