Steeleye Span-Parcel of Rogues

DSCN4506This album represents my big score from last year’s Memorial Day Sale at Half Price Books Sale.  I got it at the HPB at Hwy 6 and Veterans’ Memorial. They have a huge dollar section.  It was 80 cents with discount.  I was ecstatic.  There was a guy next to me in the dollar racks talking to himself.  He asked me a question if I was buying a certain album but it took me a while to answer.   I did not realize he was talking to me.Steeleye_span_mk42-600

This was Steeleye Span’s fifth album and the most successful to date (although it would be eclipsed soon thereafter).  This was made with its classic lineup that produced a good string of hit records in the seventies.  It was formed out of a theater project the band was working on at the time, a stage version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped.  The book and play focused on a time in the aftermath of the 18th century Jacobite Rising, where Charles Edward Stuart attempted to regain the British throne for the House of Stuart with a march south from Scotland. In preparation for this, the band became familiar with a good deal of 18th century Scottish poetry and songs.The_Battle_of_Culloden

Wikipedia page on said rebellion

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The albums title comes from the Robert Burn’s song, also on this album, “Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation”.  The song was a decry against the members of the Scottish Parliament who signed the Act of Union with England in 1707 and were suspected of taking bribes.  The song continues to this day to be associated with Scottish Nationalism.Photo-of-STEELEYE-SPAN-001

The rest of the album is pretty good.  It reached #13 in the UK.  The underlying theme of the album can be the contrast between the old and the new both in theme with song selection, song themes , and the interplay between acoustic and electric instruments which Steeleye Span is known for.  The album contains three of their classic numbers, “Allison Gross”, “One Misty Moisty Morning”, and “Cam Ye O’er Frae France”.  The latter is a satirical Jacobite song mocking the court of King George I or Geordie Whelps in the song.  I was tempted to write a summary about it on this page but my Lord is there already too many words in this post.  If you have any interested you can read about the song here.

Meaning of Cam Ye O’er for France

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For samples, I went with the above mentioned “Cam Ye O’er for France” because it is one of my favorite Steeleye Span songs.  I also decided to include “Parcel of Rogues” for what few Scottish friends I have and not to stroke any nationalistic fires.steeleye-span_2767432k

Anyway, this is the third Steeleye Span album I have posted so it should go without saying that I would call this a Top Rated Album.