History Music / SteeleyeSpan

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "Drink Down The Moon", the sort of English folk song Puritans would not have appreciated ''at all'', and which needed to have its [[IntercourseWithYou principal theme]] slightly disguised. The same applies to slice of thinly disguised paganism like "Seven Hundred Elves", and the occassional hint of Celtic dissidence, which the English state and church would not have appreciated. And you thought folk music was twee and safe?

* BedlamHouse: "Boys of Bedlam," an adaptaion of the song "Tom O'Bedlam."

* Creator/TerryPratchett: The album ''Wintersmith'' is based on the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel of {{[[Discworld/{{Wintersmith}} the same name]]. Sir Terry himself guests on "The Good Witch", reading the passage from the book about cackling.

* Creator/TerryPratchett: The album ''Wintersmith'' is based on the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel of [[[[Discworld/{{Wintersmith}} the same name]]. Sir Terry himself guests on "The Good Witch", reading the passage from the book about cackling.

* Creator/TerryPratchett: The album ''Wintersmith'' is based on [[Discworld/{{Wintersmith}} the Discworld novel of the same name]]. Sir Terry himself guests on "The Good Witch", reading the passage from the book about cackling.

* SweetPollyOliver: "Female Drummer"

* AbhorrentAdmirer: the she-creature who practically rapes Good King Henry.

* EarWorm: "All Around my Hat". Oh, dear god, make it stop.

* SignatureSong: "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"

* IntercourseWithYou: "Drink Down The Moon", eight minutes of robust rural English sex circa 1400, disguised as ornithology. "The Two Magicians", in which a wizard and a witch get it on. "Spotted Cow" and "Bonny Black Hare", where finding animals leads to finding fun times (the latter with a gun/penis metaphor). "King Henry", in which good old loving turns a monstrous hag into a beautiful woman. "Royal Forester", who uses his (alleged) title to sleep with a woman he finds. "The Ups and Downs" and "The Gentleman Soldier", both dealing with a woman sleeping with a soldier who then leaves her. And that's just songs where the main characters are actively getting it on.

* ConspiracyTheories: "Little Sir Hugh" is a seven hundred year old mediaeval ditty about the Blood Libel, the assertion that Jews stole away good Christian children for nefarious purposes.

* BertoltBrecht: Slightly uncharacteristically, the band covered a couple of Brecht songs, including a darkly comic rendition of "The Black Freighter" ("PirateJenny")

* ConspiracyTheories: ''Little Sir Hugh'' is a seven hundred year old mediaeval ditty about the Blood Libel, the assertion that Jews stole away good Christian children for nefarious purposes.

** ''Allison Gross'' is another example. If you never believed drumless, guitar-driven folk-rock could sound loud, harsh, and abrasive, you will now.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: ''Drink Down The Moon'', the sort of English folk song Puritans would not have appreciated ''at all'', and which needed to have its [[IntercourseWithYou principal theme]] slightly disguised. The same applies to slice of thinly disguised paganism like ''Seven Hundred Elves'', and the occassional hint of Celtic dissidence, which the English state and church would not have appreciated. And you thought folk music was twee and safe?

* IntercourseWithYou: ''Drink Down The Moon'', eight minutes of robust rural English sex circa 1400, disguised as ornithology. ''The Two Magicians'', in which a wizard and a witch get it on. ''Spotted Cow'' and ''Bonny Black Hare'', where finding animals leads to finding fun times (the latter with a gun/penis metaphor). ''King Henry'', in which good old loving turns a monstrous hag into a beautiful woman. ''Royal Forester'', who uses his (alleged) title to sleep with a woman he finds. ''The Ups and Downs'' and ''The Gentleman Soldier'', both dealing with a woman sleeping with a soldier who then leaves her. And that's just songs where the main characters are actively getting it on.
** Indeed, the song ''Spotted Cow'''s other appearance in English literature is in the early chapters of Thomas Hardy's ''Tess of the D'Urbervilles'', where it presages the later events of the novel.
* MoodWhiplash: ''Jack Hall'' is a cheerful, rousing, upbeat song about...a murderer headed for the gallows.

* RevolvingDoorBand: Maddy Prior compared Steeleye to a bus, with members getting on and off. Indeed, the band were aware of this; on ''Now We Are Six'', there is a jokey rendition of ''The Camptown Races'' in the voice of a West Indian bus conductor that alludes to this.

* IntercourseWithYou: ''Drink Down The Moon'', eight minutes of robust rural English sex circa 1400, disguised as ornithology. ''The Two Magicians'', in which a wizard and a witch get it on.

* SanitySlippage: "Boys of Bedlam." ''Bedlam,'' by the way, is short for Bethlehem's Royal Hospital, one of the world's oldest psychiatric hospitals, and the song is sung from the point of view of one of its patients.

* RevolvingDoorBand: Prior compared Steeleye to a bus, with members getting on and off. Indeed, the band were aware of this; on ''Now We Are Six'', there is a jokey rendition of ''The Camptown Races'' in the voice of a West Indian bus conductor that alludes to this.

* EpicRocking: "King Henry" from ''Below the Salt'' comes in at about 7 minutes. And it rocks out ''without drums.''

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: ''Drink Down The Moon'', the sort of English folk song Puritans would not have appreciated ''at all'', and which needed to have its 'IntercouseWithYou principal theme' slightly disguised. The same applies to slice of thinly disguised paganism like ''Seven Hundred Elves'', and the occassional hint of Celtic dissidence which the English state and church would not have appreciated. And you thought folk music was twee and safe?

* IntercourseWithYou: ''Drink Down The Moon'', eight minutes of robust rural English sex circa 1400, disguised as ornithology.

* RevolvingDoorBand: Prior compared Steeleye to a bus, with members getting on and off.

* BigApplesauce: The band's cover of the shanty "New York Girls."
* BlackSheepHit: When people think of Steeleye, they think of an electric folk/folk-rock band with a repertoire drawn from the UK folk tradition. However, their first UK hit, in 1972 was an a capella Christmas song, "Gaudete," sung in Latin.