What does it sound like?:
Is it prog, is it folk, is it rock? Well all three of those elements are present to a greater or lesser extent on this album which has been given a 50th Anniversary makeover. So named because it was the band’s sixth album and they had recruited a sixth member, this Ian Anderson produced effort is to be honest something of a mixed bag. There’s some good music to be sure, notably Thomas the Rhymer and The Mooncoin Jig, but there’s also a few oddities that rather spoil the flow – a bizarre attempt at Twinkle Twinkle Little Star performed as a make believe children’s choir and a bog standard rendition of To Know Him Is To Love Him add nothing to proceedings even if the latter does feature a certain David Bowie on sax. The real gold of this reissue is in the bonus material – alongside a rather superfluous single edit of Thomas are four excellent BBC recordings from 1974 taken from sessions for the Bob Harris show and Sounds of the Seventies which are worth the price of admission alone. Overall then, a middling album in the band’s back catalogue lifted by the extras – it’s just a shame more weren’t included though. Better work was to come in the following years building on the success of this album with the likes of Commoners Crown and All Around My Hat.
What does it all *mean*?
The title is taken from AA Milne’s collection of poems for children.
Goes well with…
A glass of scrumpy.
Release Date:
12 July
Might suit people who like…
Folk rock, other Steeleye albums, Tull’s folky period.
retropath2 says
It was when Steeleye really jumped the shark, after a few tussles with pike and dogfish. I loved the original idea and format, traditional songs played, within the conventional style, if using electric instrumentation. Electric folk rather than folk rock. Exit Carthy and Hutchings and the worm was in the wood. They had their moments but it wasn’t the same. All Around My Hat nailed the lid on the crumbling coffin and that, for me, was that.
Astonishingly, decades later, and making little pretence about being much to do with folk, give or take the odd lingering presence of a broadsheet ballad or two in the set, they have become a grand night out. Funny that.
mikethep says
Fine collection of metaphors there Retro!
retropath2 says
I try!
fitterstoke says
Also, alliteration…
Jaygee says
An abundance, no an avalanche of alliteration
retropath2 says
An iteration of alliteration, a treat of attrition to trade for treats.
Bargepole says
This album did show a distinct change in their music to a more rock sound.
hubert rawlinson says
I remember talking to Silly Wizard back in the seventies. I think it was Phil Cunningham who said he’d recently seen SS and they came on and sounded like f***in’ Black Sabbath.
Colin H says
After the first couple of albums, I associate them with satin suits, bouffant hairdos and big grins and that really annoying rumpety-dumpety fol-de-rol sound. Ghastly!
Leffe Gin says
I agree completely, and there are few bands that I actively dislike as much. The Shadows are the other one.
deramdaze says
The Shadows… are you George?
They entered the world in the late 50s, and pretty much visually and instrumentally predicted The Beatles and the 60s.
Personally, I actively dislike, considerably more, at least 99% of the competition.
mikethep says
What on earth is there to dislike about the Shadows? At least until they traded their Fenders for Burnses anyway.
Leffe Gin says
I can’t deny their place in history, but I have a visceral reaction to the music. I have no explanation. I have a similar reaction to bananas.
Vincent says
The first band I saw, and on this tour. Naff but endearing, a bit like 1974 itself.
David Kendal says
I saw them on the same tour. One of the earliest gigs I saw, and I went with a couple of folk fans who were disappointed or even affronted by the rocky sound. They had a sound problem at one point, and to fill in the gap, the violin player did a sudden back flip to huge applause . At least that’s how I remember it – it may well have been something less acrobatic. But they definitely made an effort to put on a show.