Steeleye Span - any prog credentials?

Dean wrote: They a electric-folk/folk-rock with little or no prog, though that's not to say a Prog-Folk fan wouldn't enjoy them. The Anderson produced album is "Now We Are Six" and is one I'd recommend since it is my personal favourite, and (again personally), I'd avoid the two Mike Batt produced albums.

 

Great band, co-founded by Ashley Hutchings once of Fairport Convention. I always think of the two bands as following broadly similar paths, and thus would be comfortable with them being listed as prog related. I seem to recall though in past discussions I was in the minority.

Edited by Easy Livin - July 11 2008 at 10:17

I sort of remember that drummer Rod Coombes of Strawbs fame played first in Steeleye Span. Perhaps we need Easy Livin' to substantiate that claim with his encyclopedic knowledge (aka search engine) Dick?

Hi there,

at first I'd like to apologize for my much too formal and sometimes very clumsy English, for I'm a German student  who is greatly interested in Progressive Rock music - and in those great Progressive Rock pages in which I'd like to participate.

I'm listening to the Steeleyes for a couple of years already  and always missed them here ...  

Of course, only "progressive" bands should be here,   I don't think the Village People would fit here - I think nobody does. 

In my humble opinion  Steeleye Span  were (are?)  progressive, even in two ways:  

With their combination of psychedelic, folk und rock music  they created - with their partner-band Fairport Convention -  the Folk Rock,  a genre which still is very modern (just listen to those Pagan Metal artists like Korpiklaani and their Scandinavian neighbors .)  

Especially  Steeleye's first four albums were very unconventional,  for example the hypnotic, driving beat in "Lowlands of Holland" and the colorful instrumentation of Banjo, Dulcimer, Concertina, Mandolin and all those instruments,  or the psychedelic-spacy guitar sounds on TEN MAN MOP (where the distorted guitars crash and wail in "Gower Wassail" and "Captain Coulston")  or the BELOW THE SALT album, where we have kind of an epic in the polyphonic and multi-parted (does that word exist? )   "King Henry" .

And now we get to the *prog*  that we usually mean,  with the somewhat strange rhythms,  complicated structures and epics -  and that can be heard on NOW WE ARE SIX  where drummer Nigel Pegrum  brings the Progressive Rock in the music.
(Off topic -  those three fun numbers with David Bowie and the ST.EELEYE-Primary-School-Choir ...   I think theyre quite funny ).

Especially as a "newbie" in this music pages  I don't want to dictate anyone to get this band in the list ... 
But as a lover of that music  I just wanted to put in my twopenn'orth.  I hope you don't mind.

Kind regards,
Einsetumadur

I agree, they have a Folk Prog connection, not enough for a full genre, but OK for Prog Related.

 ^ that may apply to their career overall, but my perspective is of their prog period which was a clear fusion of traditional musics and hard rock

I could give it a go I suppose, unless SouthSide had hoped to do the bio










Edited by Atavachron - September 25 2008 at 04:16