Now We Are Six (studio album)
by Steeleye Span

Also a warning for any other Australians buying this album. (at least on the LP, it might be fixed for CD) The track order is different. With the horrible twinkle twinkle in the middle of a side. I find myself lifting the needle. Which is odd because usually Australian releases of British albums are the same. The bad songs on this are REALLY bad. The rest is pretty decent.

Now We Are Six could have been a great Steeleye Span, if not their best. It has Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) producing and David Bowie showing up as a cameo part on saxophone. However it fails for two reasons -- the last two songs. They just don't fit and I scratch my head every time I listen to this album and try to understand what made the band think (or Ian Anderson for that matter) that this was a good idea?

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is just rubbish.
To Know Him Is To Love Him simply doesn't fit the album's overall style, and to have David Bowie play sax on this particular track just doesn't add up.

I guess the drugs must have been really good in 1974.

So why could it have been the best, because the majority of the album, the first 33 minutes is excellent. In particular the excellent opening track Thomas the Rhymer.

Simply program the album for the first 8 tracks and it's a thoroughly enjoyable listen.

The title "Now We're Six" refers to the fact that Steeleye Span on this album had expanded the line-up with drummer Nigel Pegrum, bringing the number of members of the group to six.

The somewhat silly children's song "Now We're Six" which is featured on the album is hardly reason for choosing this particular title.

It is obvious that the expansion with a drummer gave the group the opportunity to even more determinedly to continue to along rocking direction which was been taken with the two previous albums "Below the Salt" and "Parcel of Rogues." Especially on the albums strongest track "Thomas the Rhymer" this new potential comes to expression. Unfortunately, the choice of songs for this album is very uneven, and in fact only "Thomas the Rhymer," "Long a Growing" and to a minor extend "Drink Down the Moon" continue the high standards of their previous albums. The instrumental "Mooncoin Jig" is of course fine, but otherwise the rest of the album come silly or slightly uninspired.

The two children's songs "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Now We're Six" seem misplaced. The same applies to the old pop hit "To Know Him is to Love Him".

"Edwin" and "Seven Hundred Elves" are basically good and interesting stories, melodically just not very strong. It should be noted that the original album version of "Thomas the Rhymer" is the same edited version as on the single. A longer and even stronger version has been released released on some compilations.