1. Sails of Silver
(3.27 Written by Tim Hart)
Single: Nov 1980: Sails of Silver (b: Senior Service)LIVE/RELEASES:
[1980] UK Comeback Tour
[1981] UK Spring Tour; Cambridge Folk Festival
[1982] Winter Australian Tour; UK Autumn Tour. 'On Tour' LP (1982); 'Gone to Australia CD' (2001)
[2009] Spring Tour. Rare outing which only lasted a few dates on this tour, Sung by Maddy as before.
2. My Love
(2.53 Written by Tim Hart using a traditional tune)
Peter Knight when responding to a Question on his old site, said of the song that it was Tim's words put to an old tune. Someone later responded that it was possibly a tune called 'Kelvin Grove' in a book called 'The National Songbook'. I have not managed to verify this.
LIVE/RELEASES:
[1980] UK Comeback Tour
[1982] UK Autumn Tour
3. Barnet Fair
(4.34 Written by Rick Kemp)
Rick: 'Here I tried to re-create the atmosphere in a town anticipating the arrival of a travelling fair, in the days before hydraulics made the fairground experience bigger, racier, and much more expensive.'
Per Rick this was turned into a more Rock n Roll arrangement by Gus.
LIVE/RELEASES:
[1980] UK Comeback Tour
[1981] UK Spring Tour
[1982] Winter Australian Tour; UK Autumn Tour. 'Gone to Australia CD' (2001)
4. Senior Service
(3.31 Written by Maddy Prior)
LIVE/RELEASES:
[1981] UK Spring Tour; Cambridge Folk Festival - Higher tempo version with Peter's violin played through a 'RAT' Pedal - available on
Youtube.
[1982] UK Autumn Tour
5. Gone to America
(4.21 Written by Peter Knight)
Bob:
"Incredible, some of the low notes that she [Maddy] hits, there's a power in her voice, she was actually pregnant, she was very, very pregnant when she sang that and I remember her sitting down singing this. I was amazed at how much power she got out"
When played live has lengthy guitar solos, unusual for Bob in particular. Accompanied by Peter on Keyboards.
LIVE/RELEASES:
[1980] UK Comeback Tour
[1981] UK Spring Tour
[1982] Winter Australian Tour; UK Autumn Tour; 'On Tour' LP (1982); 'Gone to Australia CD' (2001)
[1984] UK Spring Tour (Played on BBC Radio Folk On Two in Dec); US 'Reunion' Tour;
[1993] UK 'Chasing Rainbows' Tour
[1994] Australasia May Tour; Summer festivals
[2008] Spring UK Tour. 'Live at a Distance CD' (2009)
6. Where Are They Now
(4.11 Written by Rick Kemp)
Rick: 'Seems as if my chums Peace and Environment are on the defensive again. Written overnight and recorded by Steeleye the next morning'
LIVE/RELEASES:
[1980] UK Comeback Tour
[1981] UK Spring Tour
[1982] UK Autumn Tour
7. Let Her Go Down
(3.36 Written by Peter Knight)
Written by Peter during the time when he was not in Steeleye ('77-'80) and owned a commercial fishing boat with a friend off the coast of Hastings. Has been covered by The Hollies. Although Peter has said it is not about a specific incident, knowing Peter it is more than likely a metaphor for other experiences not relating to a ship...
Peter: "This song reflects the dangers of the sea and how quickly the weather can change without warning".
When recorded it was considered a potential single and as a result the final verse was re-written to allow Maddy to sing a verse. It also meant the lyrics didn't quite make sense and when questioned about it on his website (around 1999) Peter explained about the re written verse and for the first time said what they had intended to be (below).
Peter said that 'the Captain could have save the ship but didn't...Sometimes the crew know best'
'I wondered if my shipmatesHad been lost in that rolling seaSo I called their names out one by oneBut there was no one else around but meAnd as that ship went down in the fading lightI knew we could have saved herThe captain lied when the captain cried“There's none of us here can save her”
Studio Re-recording - 'Present' CD (2002)
Re recorded with the original as intended verse. After this date the song was always sung live with these lyrics
LIVE/RELEASES:
[1980] UK Comeback Tour
[1981] UK Spring Tour
[1982] Winter Australian Tour; UK Autumn Tour.
'On Tour' LP (1982); 'Gone to Australia CD' (2001)
[1984] US 'Reunion' Tour
[1985] US Tour and probably UK Tours
[1987] World Tour (probably all tours that year)
[1989] Cropedy Festival
[1994] 25th Anniversary Tour; '25 Live' VHS Video (1994)
[2002] UK Reunion Tour
[2004] Australian Tour; UK 35th Anniversary tour; UK 'Winter' Tour; 'The 35th Anniversary World Tour 2004 DVD (2005)
[2006] UK 'Bloody Men' tour
[2007] Spanfest
[2009] UK 40th Anniversary Tour (some dates)
[2011] Spring UK Tour; 'Now We are Six Again' CD (2011)
[2013] Spring UK Tour
8. Longbone
(3.58 Written by Bob Johnson. Interpreted the lyrics from Norse mythology ballad and wrote the melody)
Apparently Gus didn’t like as it was too 'Status Quo', Bob thought it was a good Jig rhythm. Gus then turned into a West County Country funk (as described by Peter and Bob!)
LIVE/RELEASES:
[1980] UK Comeback Tour
[1981] UK Spring Tour; Cambridge Folk Festival
[1982] Winter Australian Tour; UK Autumn Tour; 'On Tour' LP (1982); 'Gone to Australia CD' (2001)
[1984] Winter Australian Tour; US 'Reunion' Tour.
[1986] Autumn British Tour
[1999] UK 30th Anniversary Tour
9. Marigold / Harvest Home
(3.05 Part a/ written by Maddy Prior; part b/ Trad. Arr.)
LIVE/RELEASES:
[1984] Winter Australian Tour; UK Spring Tour;
US 'Reunion' Tour. As part of the 'Autumn to Spring Medley. 'A Rare Collection' 1972-1996. (1999)
10. Tell Me Why
(3.56 Traditional Lyrics, also known as 'Devil's Nine Questions'. Melody written by Bob Johnson)
This was the half a song of the 'One and a half' songs that Gus liked when the band first rehearsed the album. This one had to be altered to take out the references to Lucifer in the original lyrics as an engineer thought it could be a single.
LIVE/RELEASES:
Never performed live as far as we know