History Music / SteeleyeSpan

* GypsyCurse: Alison Gross, a woman who might safely, but inaccurately, be described as "homely", dumps a real haymaker of a curse on the man who spurns her advances, with scorn and insult, three times. three times pays for all, as wit chcraft says...

* 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.
** The Span's version of the old English ballad ''The Two Magicians'' directly inspired the account of the magical duel between witch and wizard in ''Discworld/EqualRites''. And "The Ups and Downs" inspired "The Ins and Outs" in ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment''. There is a Steeleye Street in ''The Compleat Ankh-Morpork'' in acknowledgement of the connection.

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

* WouldHarmAChild: The murderess of "Little Sir Hugh", "Long Lankin", "The Cruel Mother"... The latter at least gets sent to Hell for her crime.

* ''Wintersmith'' (with Creator/TerryPrachett) (2013)

A FolkRock band that formed in England in 1969, which, along with Music/FairportConvention, was one of the pioneers of the British version of Folk Rock.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: the she-creature who practically rapes Good King Henry; the titular Allison Gross, "ugliest witch in the north country" who does not take rejection kindly.

* ConspiracyTheories: "Little Sir Hugh" is based on a seven-hundred-year-old medieval legend (that of the fictional St. Hugh of Lincoln) about the Blood Libel, the assertion that Jews stole away good Christian children for nefarious purposes. The band edited out the anti-Semitic aspects of the song.

* WouldHarmAChild: The murderess of "Little Sir Hugh", "Long Lankin", "The Cruel Mother"...

A FolkRock band that formed in England in 1969, and may have been the TropeNamer for the genre. (Or at least, for the British variant, which was quite different from the American version.)

A FolkRock band that formed in England in 1969, and may have been the TropeNamer for the genre.

* AWildRapperAppears: On the ''Dodgy Bastards'' version of "Boys of Bedlam".

* SoundtrackDissonance: "Saucy Sailor" is (on paper) a rollicking comic tale about a sailor who tries to woo a girl, gets rejected, but then mentions that he's got money, whereupon she accepts him -- whereupon ''he'' rejects ''her'' and cheerfully swaggers off saying he'll marry someone else. The first half of Steeleye's version (the half with the words) is set to an eerie and rather menacing backdrop, and the second half is a sad little melody played on the piano with ghostly wordless vocals.

* Creator/PeterSellers: Guests on "New York Girls", playing the banjo and supplying vocal interjections as Henry Crun, Minnie Banister and Major Bloodnok of ''TheGoonShow''.

* BertoltBrecht: Slightly uncharacteristically, the band covered a couple of Brecht songs, including a darkly comic rendition of "The Black Freighter" from ''Music/PirateJenny''.

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

* ConspiracyTheories: "Little Sir Hugh" is a seven hundred year old medieval ditty about the Blood Libel, the assertion that Jews stole away good Christian children for nefarious purposes. The band edited out the anti-Semitic aspects of the song.

* IntercourseWithYou: ''[[http://youtu.be/3OivzThpJbk 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.

* PeterSellers: Guests on "New York Girls", playing the banjo and supplying vocal interjections as Henry Crun, Minnie Banister and Major Bloodnok of ''TheGoonShow''.

* BertoltBrecht: Slightly uncharacteristically, the band covered a couple of Brecht songs, including a darkly comic rendition of "The Black Freighter" ("Music/PirateJenny")
* BigApplesauce: The band's cover of the shanty "New York Girls." This featured guest performer {{Peter Sellers}} on ukelele and {{Goon Show}} voices.
* 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. The band edited out the anti-Semitic aspects of the song.
* DavidBowie: guests as saxaphone player on ''To Know Him Is To Love Him''.

A FolkRock band that formed in England in 1969, and may have been the TropeNamer for the genre.

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

** The Span's version of the old English ballad ''The Two Magicians'' directly inspired the account of the magical duel between witch and wizard in ''EqualRites''.