Talk:Pentangle (band)

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Surely Commoner's Crown was a Steeleye Span album. The pentangle album of 1972 was Solomon's Seal. Bluewave 14:22, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Contents 1 No electric rule 2 Removed image: Likely copyvio 3 Singles 4 Light Flight time signature 5 Re-releases 6 Let No Man Steal Yoar Thyme 7 Substantial edit 10 March 2007

[edit] No electric rule

This rule was explicitly stated on the Basket of Light album (applying to that album). However, there are definitely other examples of Renbourn's use of electric guitar before Reflection. On Cruel Sister he plays an elecric guitar, through a fuzz-box, on the song Lord Franklin, as an almost violin-like melody instrument. There is also a more conventional electric guitar solo towards the end of Jack Orion, on the same album. On the instrumental Goodbye Pork Pie hat, from Sweet Child, it sounds to me as though Renbourn is playing an electric (probably a hollow-bodied one, such as a Gibson 335) but my copy of the album was a very poor pressing at the time, and is now completely knackered, so I can't say for certain. Bluewave 14:37, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

The sleeve notes for Sweet Child simply list accoustic guitar and vocal for both Jansch and Renbourne. Being quite convinced of the superiority of accoustic music at the time, I put down the odd guitar tone on the live set to sound engineering. Gradually, though, I came to the conclusion that Renbourne must have been playing electric guitar in some places. (It’s especially noticeable where you are expecting a pure accoustic sound, as in the renaisance dance pieces.) Listening to the first two sides tonight, I was unable to convince myself that he used an accoustic guitar on any one of those tracks. Indeed there are times (notably in No Exit where Jansch sounds pretty electric. (Great album, by the way!) Ian Spackman 02:58, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removed image: Likely copyvio

The image is identical to one on the page Old Pentangle Photos Mostly 1969 from the Jacqui McShee and The Pentangle official site. There is a credits line on the bottom right of the picture itself. It seems probable the this is a non-free image and that the licensing info given by the uploader is mistaken. A shame, because it’s a fine photo. Ian Spackman 09:30, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Singles

My recollection is that the first single released by Pentangle was of the Bert Jansch song "Going Home". Again from recollection, it was a very un-Pentangle-like production with a string orchestra arrangement. Can anyone confirm (or deny)? Bluewave 14:25, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Found it on a compilation. It was called "Travellin' Song" but the bit about "going home" is the chorus. It is the worst thing they ever recorded! Have moved that into singles section. Also added some headings and an album image. Bluewave 20:42, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Light Flight time signature

Light Flight from Pentangle's Basket of Light is probably in 12/8 time but the best way to count out the time on this classic folk/pop tune is to alternate bars of 5/8 and 7/8 (5+8=12). The bridge is in straight 12/8 or 6/8. This unusual rhythm makes Light Flight a very interseting little gem!

The Basket of Light album sleeve describes it as 5/8, 7/8 and 6/4 and it is described like this on the page about the album. The 6/4 presumably refers to the bridge but I agree that has more of a triplet-time feel to it. A lot of Bert Jansch's songs have odd time signatures but this one works particularly well. At the time it was also very unusual for a song to make it into the charts with such an interesting rhythm. Bluewave 06:39, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

I didn't know the band had elaborated on the time signature on the album sleeve. That's an unusual thing in itself, a bit like John Mayall listing the keys of the songs on "Turning Point". There have been a few pop songs with strange-ish time signatures: Jethro Tull's "Living in the Past" and AL Webber's "Everything's Alright" from JC Superstar are both in 5/4. "Solsbury Hill", by Peter Gabriel is in 7/4 and the chorus of Burt Bacharach's "Say a Little Prayer" has one bar of 7/4. There must be plenty of others.

[edit] Re-releases

It's a bit non-standard to show all the album re-releases one after another. On the other hand it would be a shame to loose this information. How would the Pentanglomaniacs feel about havinging only one entry per album, and putting the catalogue numbers and re-release dates within that article? If there was one article per album this could be done immediately. Unfortunately there are several albums without any article, so there would be a long intermediate phase before we reach complete tidiness, creating a new kind of inconsistency. Either way, it's not satisfactory. Ogg 18:29, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

This particular Pentanglomaniac agrees with you! At the moment the article is a bit unbalanced and would be improved by including more on the history of the band (which I have been meaning to do some work on) and less on the discography. I would actually support doing it immediately, I think. The details about the various albums would not actually be lost and could easily be retrieved from the history files as and when each album gets its own article. Bluewave 08:21, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Assuming nobody objects to stubs, I can probably get the track listings of the albums that have no article. This might take me a couple of weeks. Ogg 20:18, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Another Pentanglomaniac who agrees with you! Stubs are the way to go, and there are probably people around who can expand them. On which point I recall Bert Jansch saying on a late-night TV programme: ‘I gotta feelin’ that we stole this from somewhere’. Later I heard the same tune played (rather beautifully) on solo sax on the soundtrack of a movie, but failed to catch the credits. Anyone able to identify the copyvio? ±Ian Spackman 16:28, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

I think they nicked it from a Miles Davis instrumental. "All Blues" I think. Bluewave 16:54, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Yeah. Now you say it, thirty years later I hear a trumpet! —Ian Spackman 18:22, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Let No Man Steal Yoar Thyme

This has been moved from albums to singles. It was a USA-only release, and the correct spelling is "Your Thyme" not "Yoar Thyme". Ogg 11:33, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

In the UK that song was a track their first album. Are you saying that “across the pond” it was an album title? In which case we should certainly reference it. —Ian Spackman 15:33, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Just had a look in the Harper book which has a very well-researched UK discography...but doesn't include U.S. releases. So no help there! Bluewave 16:18, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Sorry about the delay in responding to your comments - I didn't make myself clear. "Let No Man Steal your Thyme" is the name of a single, not the name of an album. That's where I transferred the info. The details of this, and the two singles from the 1980's are derived not for the web, but from the hardback "Rock discography" book by Strong. I have been totally unable to find any album called "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme". Ogg 09:20, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Substantial edit 10 March 2007

I've done quite a substantial edit. The main thing was adding more detail (especially from the Colin Harper book about Jansch). I've tried to keep existing stuff as much as possible. A couple of things I have left out: firstly, the mention of the "Go and Catch a Falling Star" song, regarding the sweet Child album. I left this out because the song wasn't on the original album (it is a bonus track on one of the CD reissues), Secondly the "no electric" rule. I can't find any reference to the rule other than the statement that "All the instruments played on this album are accoustic" [sic] on Basket of Light. However, there is evidence of Renbourn playing electric guitar both before and after that album. I hope I've improved the article....feel free to disagree! Bluewave 17:27, 10 March 2007 (UTC)