Notes

---

Flawed though Shanachie's Steeleye Span catalog is, it's hard to pick fault with Portfolio. A gathering of 16 tracks spanning the band's entire career so far, it features liner notes from former member Tim Hart and culls at least one song apiece from each of the band's studio albums — the exceptions to this are two each from All Around My Hat and Rocket Cottage and three from what was then the most recent release, 1987's Back in Line.

As such, it offers a very disjointed but generally satisfying overview of the folk-rock giants' core repertoire, with faults generally confined to the realm of pedantry — the use of the album version of the hit single "Gaudete," when the 45 cried out for its CD debut; the contrary employment of the single edit of "Thomas the Rhymer," when it was the lengthier album take that demanded restoration (the same substitution was made for Shanachie's reissue of the Now We Are Six album); and the cropping of a few seconds of speech from the conclusion of "New York Girls." Little things indeed, and all are readily balanced by the inclusion of the folk-metal "Alison Gross," the haunting "Black Jack Davy," and the avant melancholy of "Fighting for Strangers." In the absence of a comprehensive, multi-disc Steeleye Span anthology, fully illustrating the breathtaking variety of the band's repertoire, Portfolio paints a very adequate portrait indeed.

Portfolio

Steeleye Span

Chrysalis CNW 7 (2 LP, UK, October 1988)
Chrysalis MPCD 1647 (CD, UK, October 1988)
Shanachie 79071/2 (2 LP, US, 1989)
Shanachie 79071/2 (CD, US, 1989)


Tracks
LP Tracks
Note: On the LP cover, the track Prince Charlie Stuart is misspelt as Prince Charlie Stewart.

The Chrysalis and Shanachie double LPs have twenty tracks:

Side 1
01.Dark-Eyed Sailor (5:57)
02.Boys of Bedlam (4:18)
03.Prince Charles Stuart (4:11)
04.Gaudete (2:22)
05.Saucy Sailor (5:46)

Side 2
06.Alison Gross (5:22)
07.Thomas the Rhymer ( 3:13)
08.Long Lankin (8:32)
09.New York Girls (3:00)
10.All Around My Hat (4:07)

Side 3
11.Black Jack Davy (4:15)
12.Fighting for Strangers (4:18)
13.The Victory (8:33)
14.The Black Freighter (6:30)

Side 4
15.Sligo Maid (3:42)
16.Gone to America (4:20)
17.Let Her Go Down (3:33)
18.Edward (6:15)
19.White Man (4:36)
20.A Cannon by Telemann (1:39)


#1 was originally released on Hark! The Village Wait
#2 and 3 were originally released on Please to See the King
#4 and 5 were originally released on Below the Salt
#6 was originally released on Parcel of Rogues
#7 was originally released on Now We Are Six
#8 and 9 were originally released on Commoners Crown
#10 and 11 were originally released on All Around My Hat
#12 and 15 were originally released on Rocket Cottage
#13 and 14 were originally released on Storm Force Ten
#16 and 17 were originally released on Sails of Silver
#18-20 were originally released on Back in Line