Customer Reviews

Parcel Of Rogues

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Along with "Below the Salt," "Parcel of Rogues" must be considered Steeleye Span's finest work. The band still sounds like a folk string band at this point (they added a drummer on their next release, "Now We Are Six"), but they use amplification where appropriate and verge on having a pop feel. The individual cuts on the album are all excellent, especially 'The Weaver and the Factory Girl' (with a stunning performance by Maddy Prior), and 'Alison Gross,' a good bad witch story if there ever was one. This album was a success when it was released and still sounds fresh to my ears, in part due to the band's uncanny arrangement talents.

Although I'm always keen for artists to progress, I must admit that I found the opening tracks a little too much at first in 1973. On subsequent listens, however, my fears were allayed - it's a corker! Can't agree with the fuss about "Robbery With Violins" - listen to Rick Kemp on bass. A word of warning, though: Shanachie reissues are notoriously ordinary. As this record has always had a trebly sound, you don't need it sounding any harsher. I got this and the just as good (if not better) "Below The Salt" as BGO (UK) remasters. While not state-of-the-art, they are very good.

This album, along with its sister Below the Salt, is my favorite album of all time. These two albums are a part of who I am. I have enjoyed a lot of different music over the years, but like I have my whole life (literally), I can always come back to this great music by Steeleye Span.

Once again, all the songs are traditional, with some of the music written by members of the band. "Alison Gross" tells a story of a witch bribing a man to be her lover, but he won't and she makes him sorry. The instrumental "Robbery with Violins" showcases the talents of bassist Rick Kemp and violinist Peter Knight. "Hares On The Mountain" is a beautiful tune, reminiscent of "The Ash Grove," and old Welsch Air. "The Ups and Downs" is yet another tale of the loss of virginity. The words to "Cam Ye O'er Frae France" may not be fully understood at first (I've been listening to this for my whole life, and I still don't know all of the lyrics), because they are sung in a Scottish toungue, and the booklet prints the words spelled as they are pronounced. "One Misty Moisty Morning" is a great story of romance, while "The Wee Wee Man" is a great magical fairy tale." "The Weaver and the Factory Maid" is arguably vocalist Maddy Prior's greatest performance to date. The harmonies on this track will blow your mind. The band is also very tight on this track, as they are on many others as well. "Rogues In a Nation" showcases the groups excellent skill at ensemble singing, backed only by a bass drum.

Along with "Below The Salt," this album marks a major part of who I am. Whenever I can't think of anything else to listen to, I can always go back to the music of Steeleye Span. I would recommend this album to anyone wanting to hear great traditional music. If you buy this, also buy "Below the Salt," they both go well together and are virtually one album. When I become a father, I will definitely make sure that this music fills the ears of my children, enriching their lives as it did mine.

5/5

Probably the most direct and accessible of Steeleye Span's many fine albums, this starts out in fine style with the sprightly "One Misty Moisty Morning" - Maddy in typically powerful and melodic voice, solid support from the band and Bob Johnson providing some of the most elegant wah-wah guitar this side of Jimi Hendrix. "Alison Gross" is even rockier, crunching riffs and howling lead guitar...a more focussed cousin to the scary "King Henry" from "Below the Salt". This album is not just a guitar showcase, however, as Maddy contributes an amazing vocal tour de force on "The Weaver & the Factory Maid" - in fact she is unstoppably brilliant throughout. Rick Kemp's bass is well up in the mix - check out "Robbery with Violins", and Tim Hart is still there to add some more subtle touches: "The Bold Poachers" would not be out of place on one of Tim & Maddy's own albums. "Rogues in a Nation" is a weary song of proud resignation which highlights the group's fine ensemble singing, but the predominant tone of this album is relatively upbeat - my personal favourite being the energetic and amusing "Ups and Downs". Definitely one to sit back and enjoy - play it LOUD!

This album was another step in my own odyssey from whatever i was to dedicated folk-rock fan.

I was drowsing along one day in 1973 or so, headphones on while i did some homework so as not to disturb my Techwood dorm roommate, when WREK played "The Weaver and the Factory Maid".

I remember thinking that it was rather pretty... and then it came to the bit near the end where Maddie multi-multi tracks a capella vocals of the final chorus. That's pretty and a little spooky on ordinary speakers, when you're familiar with it. Hearing it for the very first time, on headphones, with All! Of! Those! Voices! inside my head, as it were, was almost an epiphany.

After contacting the station to discover just who the heck that was and what the title was, i proceeded to buy a copy the next day, and discovered that i liked Steeleye Span as much as i liked Fairport Convention, who i had discovered in a similar fashion... and it was another step on that long road for me...

As to the content of the album -- "Misty Moisty Morning" makes lovely use of Maddie's voice. "Alison Gross" is a nicely spooky story about a witch who craves a young lover. I'm still not sure what it means when one "...lives at the sign of the Ups and Downs...", but it's a neat little song.

"Cam Ye O'er Frae France" is a bit of scurrilous anti-Hanoverian propaganda, accusing King George of whore-mongering, and "Rogues In a Nation" is a heart felt lament by a Scots patriot at the anticlimactic union of Scotland with England fro economic reasons: "What force or guile could not essay, O'er many warlike ages/Is wrought now by a coward few, for hireling traitors' wages..."

And "The Weaver and the Factory Maid" is Simply Lovely. ((As a footnote -- when i got to speak to Maddie at a show she did here in Atlanta a few years ago and asked her just how many tracks she laid down on that last chorus, she couldn't remember...))

Although falling just short of the standards set by their previous album "Below the Salt," Steeleye's fifth album is another gem of a record,

The theme is the same - centuries old British folk songs adapted for a modern audience. Standouts this time out include "One Mist Moisty Morning," "The Bold Poachers," "The Wee Man" the haunting "Rogues in a Nation" and the odd, but sublime "Cam Ye O'er Frae France." The only flat out clunker here is the brief "Robbery with Violins," a short instrumental which probably worked better in theory than in practice. On the whole, not Steeleye's best, but one very much worthy of their normally lofty standards.

You can't find anything better than what is on this record if you're looking for great celtic/rock music. Never have I found a band that comes close to the musicality and the bewildering awesome sounds they produce. A must buy!

This collection includes all the elements that I love about Steeleye Span: intricate instrumental lines, wonderful harmony, songs with both history and humor, Maddy Prior's voice. It also has some very strange bits where the urge to be avant-garde rock'n'rollers overcomes the group. The result is fascinating, though uneven.

I have been listening to Steeleye Span since the mid-1970's, when they performed often in Seattle. This album is one of their two best, in my opinion; the other being _Below the Salt_. Having Scottish ancestors, I am particularly taken by the song "Parcel of Rogues", a dirge lamenting the loss of Scotland's national identity to become part of England. Some of the songs on this album are versions of some of the "English and Scottish Popular Ballads [Child]", like "Alison Gross" [Child Ballad 35]; some are versions of non-Ballad folk songs, like "Hares on the Mountain".

Steeleye Span are not "traditional" folk singers. They are not purists about the way they sing the songs; and use musical instruments that hadn't been invented when some of these songs were first sung. That does not keep me from enjoying them. I reccommend this album to those who enjoy filk music as well as "semi-traditional" folk fans. Steeleye Span is fun; enjoy them.

I have listened to Parcel of Rogues more times and just realized that this is one of their best albums ever! Like before, the band continued updating centuries old folk songs from the British isles with electric instruments with very successful results. This was the second album with the lineup of Maddy Prior, Tim Hart, Rick Kemp, Peter Knight, and Bob Johnson, and without a doubt, in my book, the best with this lineup (although many prefer Below the Salt, I prefer Parcel of Rogues). My favorites here include "One Misty Moisty Morning", "Alison Gross", "The Bold Poachers", "Robbery With Violins", and "Cam Ye O'er Frae France". "Robbery With Violins" is a little odd. The band went for a more funky, '70s style that's much in the style of countless police and detective TV series of the time, and blends that with a way cool folk jig on violin. Odd combination to say the least, but it works real well. Drums make the occasional appearance, which I hear varying sources that it was Rick Kemp, or Nigel Pegrum (the band's full-time drummer starting with Now We Are Six). I totally love the medieval atmosphere of this album, and I can't help but be reminded of medieval faires when listening to this incredible album. Parcel of Rogues just comes to show that Steeleye Span was one of the most important bands of the British folk-rock movement of the late '60s and early '70s, along with Fairport Convention, and The Pentangle. In my opinion, this album ranks up there with Fairport's Liege & Lief as one of the greatest folk-rock albums ever, and so if you like this type of music, particularly with a medieval flavor to it, you can't go wrong here.