ANST - cd review: Steeleye Span - Spanning The Years
j'lynn yeates
jyeates at realtime.net
Thu Jun 17 14:04:38 PDT 1999
today i found a treausre ....
usually i shy away from retrospective collections and focus on the primary
works, but glad i did'na pass on this gem. being a long standing Span fan
(since early 70's), but with no Span CD's, i jumped at the chance to grab it
when i found it in the bins today.
it's a 2 cd set that contains 35 songs that appear to be primarily from their
early and mid period. included are most of my favorites ... some of the gems on
this marvelous collection:
Gaudete
John Barleycorn
Alison Gross
Rougues Of A Nation
Cam Ye O'er Frae France
Thomas The Rymer
Hard Times Of Old England
All Around My Hat
Fighting For Strangers
The False Knight On The Road
it's got a publication date of 1995 by Chrysalis / EMI if anyone wants to track
it
after listening, i dug down in some things and pulled up a *old* Span
compilation tape i made back in mid 70's to compare the songs. several of the
more "edged" (Thomas Rhymer for example) songs have been "sharpened" by heavier
electric guitar, but to very good effect ... reading the liner notes, they
explain that when they started electric instruments were rather primative and
their music evolved along with the tech (i like that ...).
to my ears, in some tracks Maddie Prior's vocals are not mixed quit high enough
for my tastes - the final sound being more Queen or Tull'ish than i remember,
but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
after listening, integrating the CD's into the changers (and ripping to WAV for
my personal digital uses) i think it's time to start a new project to get the
rest of my Span vinyl out of secure storage (along with all my 60's, 70's &
80's stuff) and start cutting it to CD format and MP3 ...
next target ... more Horslips CD's
'wolf
... truth is the sword of us all (lords of the new church)
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