Below the Salt [Import]

Product Description:
Japanese 24-bit remastered reissue of 1972 album featuring the most successful of all Steeleye Span lineups, packaged in a miniature LP gatefold sleeve, features 9 tracks. EMI. 2003.

Below the Salt,Steeleye Span,Toshiba EMI,British Folk,British Folk-Rock,Folk,Folk & Traditional,Folk-Rock,Pop,Rock,Sea Shanties

Average customer rating: Relive Olde Times Quintessential "Classic" Steeleye Span... The best of the best Beautiful British folk music Steeleye Spans Their Talent in Their Fourth Album, "Below the Salt"

Below the Salt Steeleye Span Manufacturer: Shanachie ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD British Folk | Traditional British & Celtic Folk | Folk | Styles | Music General | Folk | Styles | Music Traditional Folk | Folk | Styles | Music General | International | Styles | Music Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music General | Folk | Indie Music | Stores | Music Folk Rock | Folk | Indie Music | Stores | Music Similar Items: Parcel of Rogues Please to See the King The Lark in the Morning: The Early Years All Around My Hat Commoner's Crown ASIN: B000000E75 Release Date: 1989-08-08

Tracks:

1. Spotted Cow
2. Rosebud In June
3. Jig: The Bride's Favorite/Tansey's Fancy
4. Sheep-Crook And Black Dog
5. Royal Forester
6. King Henry
7. Gaudete
8. John Barleycorn
9. Saucy Sailor

Amazon.com

Like Fleetwood Mac would five years later, Steeleye Span had lost its most celebrated members, Fairport Convention alumnus Ashley Hutchings and guitarist Martin Carthy, when they reconvened in a comparatively anonymous lineup that proved to be their most successful. This 1972 album found vocalist Maddy Prior and guitarist Tim Hart (who'd worked as a duo prior to joining Steeleye) taking the reins, with violinist Peter Knight providing an instrumental foil for the then-drummerless quintet's electric and acoustic guitars. Prior's regal alto and a carefully chosen program of traditional songs (including a medieval Christmas hymn, "Gaudete," that's among the few rock songs extant boasting a Latin lyric) sustain the album's decidedly pre-industrial mood. Below the Salt stands as a British folk-rock classic. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews:

Relive Olde Times.......2007-06-08

This has always been a personal favourite of mine - having done it to death on vinyl, it was pure joy to listen again to the amazing vocals of Maddy Pryor and the instrumental genius of Peter Knight et al. One of the best Steeleye Span albums in my opinion.

Quintessential "Classic" Steeleye Span..........2007-05-02

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.

The best of the best.......2007-02-17

I don't suppose there's really any need for me to join the chorus, but what the hell: I can say without hyperbole that Below the Salt is one of the greatest albums in the universe. Listening to the band's mostly-uninspiring post-seventies albums, it's easy to lose perspective about how awesome Steeleye Span was in their prime, but listening to BtS brings it all back. This is just sublimely beautiful, deeply evocative music.

The opener, "Spotted Cow," is a very sweet love song--certainly a rarity for this band. Then the acappella "Rosebud in June" shows off the group's vocal abilities to breathtaking effect. It's a sort of fertility song, equating human and ovine fecundity. I suppose in this instance the word is being used in a manner similar to the French "jolie," but I can't help but smile at the line about the jolly, jolly sheep. The instrumental jigs are fine, if inessential--but then there's another stunner, "Sheep-Crook and Black Dog." It features some of Maddy Prior's best vocals--which, given her track record, is high praise indeed. I suppose that, broadly speaking, it's about feeling incapable of following societal expectations, in spite of the pain this causes--but that makes it sound way more like a sociology lecture than it should. It's beautifully sad, and the denouement is quietly devastating: "But she wrote that she's led such a contrary life/She said that she'd never be a young shepherd's wife."

Then there's "Royal Forester," which takes a mischievously proto-feminist approach to the "stolen maidenhead" trope that's so common in the band's oeuvre--even if the conclusion, wherein the maiden in question's violator's "punishment" is being forced to marry her, forcibly drags things back to a more medieval context.

"King Henry"--man, seriously, what can you say? At eight minutes, with several phases and complex arrangements, it's the album's obvious centerpiece. It's a tale of hospitality and duty with obvious echoes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Wife of Bath's Tale, among others. It sort of feels like there should be another verse or two--but there I go, applying modern narrative sensibilities to an ancient song. Bad! I suppose I'd also be guilty of that if I noted that Henry's "hospitality" seems, in places, remarkably indistinguishable from plain ol' cowardice--but regardless of how you read it, it's a great song.

"Gaudete"--eh, it's decent enough, very pretty, great singing, and so forth, but, while I know it's one of the band's best-known (best-loved?) songs it doesn't exactly set me on fire.

"John Barleycorn" gets things back on track, however--there are innumerable variations on the "patron saint of alcohol" theme, including a number of well-known versions of this same song, but this one is, predictably, one of the best. "Saucy Sailor" finishes things well, even if the instrumental section at the end drags a bit.

So yeah. In summary: fantastic stuff. Easily the band's best album. Commoner's Crown is another popular candidate, and I think (somewhat surprisingly) that their reunion album Time ought to be another--but, great as those albums are, I don't think they can really touch Below the Salt. If you think you might be at all interested in archaic British folk music, this is the only place to start--and even if you don't, give it a try. You may well surprise yourself.

Beautiful British folk music.......2006-10-26

British folk music has really grown on me over the years, and this is one of the best cds of the genre. I am especially fond of the lovely vocal harmonies in Rosebud in June and Gaudete, the instrumental Jig/The Bride's Favorite/Tansey's Fancey, Maddy Ryan's disarming vocal in Royal Forester, and the seductive strings in the closing Saucy Sailor.

This will make you want to further explore Steeleye Span's catalog of cds, and you will want to delve further into Irish Celtic music. I highly recommend this beautiful, catchy, folk music cd.

Steeleye Spans Their Talent in Their Fourth Album, "Below the Salt".......2006-05-28

In medieval times, the monarchs and rulers of the house would sit at the north end of the table. Salt, being a rare mineral, would be put in the center to symbolize its extreme superioriority above all other foods. The salt would also serve as a divider from the servants and dependants, and the family and intimates. As you can see if you flat out your album, they symbolize this in the front and back photographs. The poor people eat below the salt. Below the Salt. Being probably the only Steeleye Span fan under the age of twelve, I would asure you that my tastes have been delighted by this collection of sad mellodies clashed with joy unparalleled by the most joyful recorder. Steeleye's amazing knowlegde of folk music broadens as they excel even without a steady percussion section to back them up. Their true magic is portrayed in Guadete, (Pronounced, Gaw-day-tay), the only true Steeleye hit, which made to the UK's top ten list. Gaudete, which in Latin means rejoice, is a beutiful vocal-only short, with Maddy Prior's sheer soprano voice cracking your strongest window. Saucy Sailor, a beautiful love story, will make your eyes water.The charming jigs will get you kicking your feet in joy. The album is so harmonizing it will give you chills. And just to let your know, the small child on the cover isn't an instrument, nor a prop. He is just a child, a small child.

Average customer rating: Steeleye scrubs up well

Below the Salt Steeleye Span Manufacturer: Toshiba EMI Japan ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD British Folk | Traditional British & Celtic Folk | Folk | Styles | Music General | Folk | Styles | Music Traditional Folk | Folk | Styles | Music Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music Folk | Imports | Stores | Music Similar Items: Parcel of Rogues ASIN: B0000D8RV9 Release Date: 2003-11-17

Tracks:

1. Spotted Cow
2. Rosebud in June
3. The Bride's Favourite/Tansey's Fancy [Jigs]
4. Sheep-Crook and Black Dog
5. Royal Forester
6. King Henry
7. Gaudete
8. John Barleycorn
9. Saucy Sailor

Album Description

Japanese 24-bit remastered reissue of 1972 album featuring the most successful of all Steeleye Span lineups, packaged in a miniature LP gatefold sleeve, features 9 tracks. EMI. 2003.

Album Details

24bit Digitally Remastered Japanese Limited Edition in an LP-STYLE Slipcase.

Customer Reviews:

Steeleye scrubs up well.......2004-07-21

This is a remastered edition of the classic "Below the Salt" album. The sound is much cleaner, with better definition and dynamics. The sleeve is delight, being a miniature version of the original vinyl edition.

Many Steeleye fans see this album, or its immediate follow up, "Parcel of Rogues" as being the best of the band's considerable output. Great arrangements, fine playing, glorious vocals, and now a much better sound quality. Highly recommended.

Average customer rating: Relive Olde Times Quintessential "Classic" Steeleye Span... The best of the best Beautiful British folk music Steeleye Spans Their Talent in Their Fourth Album, "Below the Salt"

Below the Salt Steeleye Span Manufacturer: Bgo - Beat Goes on ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD British Folk | Traditional British & Celtic Folk | Folk | Styles | Music General | Folk | Styles | Music Traditional Folk | Folk | Styles | Music Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music Similar Items: Parcel of Rogues Please to See the King The Lark in the Morning: The Early Years All Around My Hat Commoner's Crown ASIN: B000024MUD Release Date: 2002-07-25

Tracks:

1. Spotted Cow
2. Rosebud in June
3. The Bride's Favourite/Tansey's Fancy [Jigs]
4. Sheep-Crook and Black Dog
5. Royal Forester
6. King Henry
7. Gaudete
8. John Barleycorn
9. Saucy Sailor

Amazon.com

Like Fleetwood Mac would five years later, Steeleye Span had lost its most celebrated members, Fairport Convention alumnus Ashley Hutchings and guitarist Martin Carthy, when they reconvened in a comparatively anonymous lineup that proved to be their most successful. This 1972 album found vocalist Maddy Prior and guitarist Tim Hart (who'd worked as a duo prior to joining Steeleye) taking the reins, with violinist Peter Knight providing an instrumental foil for the then-drummerless quintet's electric and acoustic guitars. Prior's regal alto and a carefully chosen program of traditional songs (including a medieval Christmas hymn, "Gaudete," that's among the few rock songs extant boasting a Latin lyric) sustain the album's decidedly pre-industrial mood. Below the Salt stands as a British folk-rock classic. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews:

Relive Olde Times.......2007-06-08

This has always been a personal favourite of mine - having done it to death on vinyl, it was pure joy to listen again to the amazing vocals of Maddy Pryor and the instrumental genius of Peter Knight et al. One of the best Steeleye Span albums in my opinion.

Quintessential "Classic" Steeleye Span..........2007-05-02

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.

The best of the best.......2007-02-17

I don't suppose there's really any need for me to join the chorus, but what the hell: I can say without hyperbole that Below the Salt is one of the greatest albums in the universe. Listening to the band's mostly-uninspiring post-seventies albums, it's easy to lose perspective about how awesome Steeleye Span was in their prime, but listening to BtS brings it all back. This is just sublimely beautiful, deeply evocative music.

The opener, "Spotted Cow," is a very sweet love song--certainly a rarity for this band. Then the acappella "Rosebud in June" shows off the group's vocal abilities to breathtaking effect. It's a sort of fertility song, equating human and ovine fecundity. I suppose in this instance the word is being used in a manner similar to the French "jolie," but I can't help but smile at the line about the jolly, jolly sheep. The instrumental jigs are fine, if inessential--but then there's another stunner, "Sheep-Crook and Black Dog." It features some of Maddy Prior's best vocals--which, given her track record, is high praise indeed. I suppose that, broadly speaking, it's about feeling incapable of following societal expectations, in spite of the pain this causes--but that makes it sound way more like a sociology lecture than it should. It's beautifully sad, and the denouement is quietly devastating: "But she wrote that she's led such a contrary life/She said that she'd never be a young shepherd's wife."

Then there's "Royal Forester," which takes a mischievously proto-feminist approach to the "stolen maidenhead" trope that's so common in the band's oeuvre--even if the conclusion, wherein the maiden in question's violator's "punishment" is being forced to marry her, forcibly drags things back to a more medieval context.

"King Henry"--man, seriously, what can you say? At eight minutes, with several phases and complex arrangements, it's the album's obvious centerpiece. It's a tale of hospitality and duty with obvious echoes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Wife of Bath's Tale, among others. It sort of feels like there should be another verse or two--but there I go, applying modern narrative sensibilities to an ancient song. Bad! I suppose I'd also be guilty of that if I noted that Henry's "hospitality" seems, in places, remarkably indistinguishable from plain ol' cowardice--but regardless of how you read it, it's a great song.

"Gaudete"--eh, it's decent enough, very pretty, great singing, and so forth, but, while I know it's one of the band's best-known (best-loved?) songs it doesn't exactly set me on fire.

"John Barleycorn" gets things back on track, however--there are innumerable variations on the "patron saint of alcohol" theme, including a number of well-known versions of this same song, but this one is, predictably, one of the best. "Saucy Sailor" finishes things well, even if the instrumental section at the end drags a bit.

So yeah. In summary: fantastic stuff. Easily the band's best album. Commoner's Crown is another popular candidate, and I think (somewhat surprisingly) that their reunion album Time ought to be another--but, great as those albums are, I don't think they can really touch Below the Salt. If you think you might be at all interested in archaic British folk music, this is the only place to start--and even if you don't, give it a try. You may well surprise yourself.

Beautiful British folk music.......2006-10-26

British folk music has really grown on me over the years, and this is one of the best cds of the genre. I am especially fond of the lovely vocal harmonies in Rosebud in June and Gaudete, the instrumental Jig/The Bride's Favorite/Tansey's Fancey, Maddy Ryan's disarming vocal in Royal Forester, and the seductive strings in the closing Saucy Sailor.

This will make you want to further explore Steeleye Span's catalog of cds, and you will want to delve further into Irish Celtic music. I highly recommend this beautiful, catchy, folk music cd.

Steeleye Spans Their Talent in Their Fourth Album, "Below the Salt".......2006-05-28

In medieval times, the monarchs and rulers of the house would sit at the north end of the table. Salt, being a rare mineral, would be put in the center to symbolize its extreme superioriority above all other foods. The salt would also serve as a divider from the servants and dependants, and the family and intimates. As you can see if you flat out your album, they symbolize this in the front and back photographs. The poor people eat below the salt. Below the Salt. Being probably the only Steeleye Span fan under the age of twelve, I would asure you that my tastes have been delighted by this collection of sad mellodies clashed with joy unparalleled by the most joyful recorder. Steeleye's amazing knowlegde of folk music broadens as they excel even without a steady percussion section to back them up. Their true magic is portrayed in Guadete, (Pronounced, Gaw-day-tay), the only true Steeleye hit, which made to the UK's top ten list. Gaudete, which in Latin means rejoice, is a beutiful vocal-only short, with Maddy Prior's sheer soprano voice cracking your strongest window. Saucy Sailor, a beautiful love story, will make your eyes water.The charming jigs will get you kicking your feet in joy. The album is so harmonizing it will give you chills. And just to let your know, the small child on the cover isn't an instrument, nor a prop. He is just a child, a small child.

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