Customer Reviews

Lark in the Morning

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4 star:		(3)
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You might want to get "Lark in the Morning" if you don't have the 1st 3 Steeleye albums - all 3 remastered on 2 cd's for about $11.00 is a nicely packaged steal (other great bands from the era should consider this quality/helpful/convenient format - how about the next three Steeleye's for vol. 2?)!

Steeleye's first album (which I originally wrote this review for) truly is something special! Every song on here is great...too bad that this line-up didn't get a more thorough work-out since the magic is flying everywhere on this recording, and having BOTH female singers makes this one SOAR (though the male vocals are spot-on as well)!

The Blacksmith version on here may be one of my favorite songs I've ever heard in this genre. Other beautiful songs like Fisherman's Wife, Dark-Eyed Sailor, Lowlands of Holland, All Things Are Quite Silent, and One Night as I Lay on my Bed have such great harmonies, melodies and energy (some rock! I'd love to see Tull record a couple of these) that they stick with you long after the cd shuts off. Black-leg Miner is such an energetic and trippy string-whacking and cool vision of a new musical style, I am amazed...even that heavy accent really adds to the song (Bluegrass musicians should check this out). Is there a better way to start a new band and album than the Calling On Song? I could go on and on with other songs on HARK!

This album is just wonderful from beginning to end, do yourself a favor and let this soak into your soul, you won't regret it. Cross-over appeal is broad with this band. I should further explore Terry and Gay Wood's music to see if this magic was created on other recordings of theirs. I know it was on the (also great) later Steeleye albums (this album has drumming which gives it a familiar feel, although they tried it without drums after this album for awhile).

Now for this review, the next two great albums need at least some comment to reassure the unconvinced that it was no fluke - THE MAGIC CONTINUES! Please To See The King starts the "new" sound with the cranked up strings and dulcimer minus Terry & Gay Woods but adding Martin Carthy and Peter Knight (two incredibly talented musicians and singers). So many excellent songs here that getting into them all would be daunting, let's just say that they are ALL great and this package is a blast to listen to all-through.

I imagine this band sometimes as hairy-feet Hobbits smoking long-bottom leaf cranking their wired, crazy little electric instruments to the Shire's delight at the great harvest festival - Mordor quakes at the power of these Middle-Earth minstrels, Orcs and Goblins run for their lives...fun thought anyway! Thanks for the gift of your music Steeleye members past and present. The world would feel more empty without it. Enjoy!

Most Steeleye Span fans will already have these albums from the original CD releases. The question may be, should I spend the money to get this package. My answer is a resounding yes!
The improvement in sound clarity is phenomenol. Its like hearing these albums for the first time again (especially the first two.)
As a bonus, the set includes the track "General Taylor" previously only available on the compilation "Individually And Collectively"

Yes the sound quality is much improved, but the vocals were recorded with a little over driven crunch when the vocals are loud. The older more flat mastering of the songs hides this a little better. But with this being said I still think it is a good buy. You can always turn down your treble a little to cover this if you find it annoying.

I already have these albums from the original CD releases and The improvement in sound clarity is for the most part great for a recording made over 30 years ago.
As a bonus, the set includes a great track "General Taylor".

Yes, they did it again. Besides pushing every frequency range to the limits, they managed to actually cripple the songs with over 200 clipped samples on disc 1 and over 900 on disc 2. This happens when the sound levels go beyond the limits of the audio CD specifications and parts of the sound wave are "cut off" - or, in other words, the waveform literally flatlines and any sound at those points is simply lost. Even in the parts where clipping does not occur, the absurd raising of the sound levels results in some very uncomfortable listening. All instruments and vocals have had their volumes raised to the same high levels, resulting in a complete loss of the dynamics of the songs, with instruments that were originally very quiet now sounding as loud as everything else. Why can't these audio "engineers" go work in some other field more adequate to their abilities like dog walking or whatever, thus avoiding criminally maiming classic, essential music like this?

If you happen to like the way recordings are "remastered" these days, rendering them loud messes of sound that obscure the subtleties of the music, then you'll love these remasters. But if you think that louder does not equal better, and if you have the older CD issues, then just stick with them. I ended up keeping my old CDs of these albums and giving this set to a friend (who loved it, by the way, so what do I know?).

"A Music Fan" said: "... the impact of Steeleye Span has been widespread both in rock where they were the first band to incorporate medieval influences in rhythm and texture and among international groups for whom their use of traditional folk tunes set a groundbreaking example ..."

Actually, i think that you'll find that that distinction pretty much belongs to the previous band founded by bass player Ashely "Tyger" Hutchings, Fairport Convention.

Doesn't matter -- this is great stuff.

Steeleye Span's first three albums are an essential part of the development of modern music, crucially tracing a brilliant and influential group developing from straight-ahead folk-rock to a unique, medieval style that could be categorised as neither folk nor rock on their second masterpiece Below The Salt from 1972.

Led by the angelic, incredibly melodic voice of Maddy Prior, the debut album Hark! The Village Wait ought to be surprising to those brought up on today's floating, tuneless pop - yet at the same time highly accessible. Maddy Prior's singing on such songs as "The Blacksmith," "All Things Are Quite Silent" and the intensely medieval and captivating ditty "Twa Corbies" (meaning "Two Ravens"), whilst the simplicity of the backing is extraordinarily effective at capturing the essence of these traditional tunes.

The second album, Please To See The King, is much more challenging yet truly rewarding. Opening with a much more complex and slow version of "The Blacksmith", this album dispenses altogether with drums and allows the bassline to provide a sort of rhythm to such songs as "Cold, Haily, Windy Night", "The Lark In The Morning", "Female Drummer" and "Lovely On The Water". At time Maddy Prior's voice here verges on incomprehensibility, but its beauty is enhanced by the way in which the band seemingly spontaneous turns obviously traditional folk songs into something both ancient and modern at the same time.

The third album Ten Man Mop Or Mr. Reservoir Butler Rides Again is the weakest of their first five albums on Shanachie and suffers clearly from the over-sparse production that drown out the beautiful, feminine tome of Maddy's vocals, as well as putting the male vocalists to the front in a manner that is by no means so effective as the simple arrangements of Hark! The Village Wait or the gothic soundscapes on "Sheep Crook And Black Dog" or "Gaudete" from Below The Salt. Nonetheless, Ten Man Mop Or Mr. Reservoir Butler Rides Again is still a lot better than much of what passes for music on the radio today.

The Shanachie issues of Steeleye Span's catalogue suffer enormously from poor sound quality. "Lark In The Morning" does a wonderful job however of resolving this and songs like "The Blacksmith", "Lark In The Morning" and "The Gower Wassail" seem totally new when a proper mastering job is done on them. It sounds as if the instruments were turned up to a new level and much clearer recordings were made on the original tapes. This, Below The Salt and the stunning Storm Force Ten are essential if you want to study folk or rock: the impact of Steeleye Span has been widespread both in rock where they were the first band to incorporate medieval influences in rhythm and texture and among international groups for whom their use of traditional folk tunes set a groundbreaking example.

I'm not sure that the cross-over success of All Around My Hat in 1975 did Steeleye Span or the folk-movement any long term favours. They never hit the charts again, and folk and folk-rock, both undergoing something of a renaissance, began their retreat underground, though there is no proven link between the two. The producers of Top Of The Pops may have relished the thought of the band in pixie-garb and tinkling bells skipping around a maypole, Pan's People style, but trivialising hundreds of years of folk heritage to the level of the Wombles couldn't ultimately enhance the movement's credibility. Although they succeeded in popularizing the music and bringing it into the mainstream for a while, something was lost in the process. In particular, it led to their earlier and finest work becoming overshadowed.

Hark! The Village Wait (1970) was a marvelous and groundbreaking album, to stand alongside classics like Liege And Lief, and featured the original line-up that included Gay and Terry Woods. Gay's vocals alongside Maddy Prior's gave the band a very special sound (see A Calling On Song and My Johnny Was A Shoemaker for the full accapella effect). The Woods introduced an element of Irish traditional music to the mix that founder member Ashley Hutchings had originally intended to be purely English, and this continued on the second album, Please To See The King (1971), even though Gay and Terry had left, leaving Maddy as the only girl in the group. In their place came the veritable Martin Carthy (who collected and brought to the band such songs as Cold, Haily, Windy Night; Boys Of Bedlam, based on an 18th century poem; and False Knight On The Road) and Peter Knight, a classically trained violinist. The difference in approach is demonstrated on the song The Blacksmith, a version of which appears on each album, both great, augmented by drums on the earlier arrangement. Please To See The King is an uncompromising, timeless album and both its line-up and style survived for their third LP, Ten Man Mop (1972). That they were not just a vocal-led band is demonstrated on three excellent instrumental medleys of jigs and reels found on Please To See The King and Ten Man Mop.

The Dark-Eyed Sailor is a folk club favourite and there are many wonderful records of it, featuring Carolyn Hester, June Tabor, Kate Rusby and Kathryn Roberts among many, but I think the stately rendition on Hark! The Village Wait, led by Gay Woods with Maddy Prior's harmonies bests them all. The accapella version of Buddy Holly's Rave On that started life as a bit of a joke also works really well. It is a rare American influence on the record and shows that a good song is a good song regardless.

The important thing to note about The Lark In The Morning - The Early Years is that it is not a compendium of the best of the first three albums; it is all three albums in their entirety, spread over 2 CDs, and therefore represents a considerable bargain. There is even a bonus track: General Taylor, another accapella tune, left over from the Ten Man Mop sessions. It found a place on a various artists compilation the following year.

File under: Essential Folk-Rock

Any person who has ever been attracted by the folk music of the British Isles, or any younger person gradually discovering this music now, must have these precious first albums (now in two CD's). These songs are intensely moving and reflective of British culture(s) (with some Celtic Irish influence too), and there is undoubtedly a certain amount of nostalgia for the best of times gone, even though these times were mostly very hard for most people. I also have the next five albums gathered in the three CD's set ("A Parcel of Steeleye Span"), which contain many brilliant songs too and are another "must have", but this collection, "Lark in the morning", should be, in my opinion, the absolute first priority for anybody discovering Steeleye Span. I am just wondering why Martin Carthy did not pursue his collaboration with the band at the time. His own style blended so well.

The Lark in the Morning: The Early Years

More bang for your buck. Two CDs packed to the gills with brilliant folksongs, fantastic instrumentals and harmonies plus delightful lyrics. If you love Irish and English folk music you must own this CD. If it is possible to wear out a CD, you will wear this one thin. :) Enjoy