''Ten Man Mop or Mr. Reservoir Butler Rides Again'' is the third album by

Steeleye Span Steeleye Span are a British folk rock band formed in 1969 in England by Fairport Convention bass player Ashley Hutchings and established London folk club duo Tim Hart and Maddy Prior. The band were part of the 1970s British folk revival, and we ...

, recorded in September 1971. It was issued on the short-lived Pegasus label, and then the Mooncrest label, also in 1971 (Crest 9). It was not initially issued in the US until Chrysalis acquired the group's first three albums in 1975, when it reissued all three in the UK and US. Tracks like "Four Nights Drunk", "Marrowbones", and "Wee Weaver" are essentially pure folk. It was the last album to feature founding member

Ashley Hutchings Ashley Stephen Hutchings, MBE, sometimes known in early years by his nickname, "Tyger" Hutchings (born 26 January 1945) is an English bassist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, band leader, writer and record producer. He was a founding member of t ...

; he left the band in November 1971, just after its completion, partly because he felt that the album had moved too far toward Irish music and away from English music. The band was also considering touring America, and Hutchings was reluctant to make the trip. The album begins with an adaptation of the

Christmas carol A Christmas carol is a carol (a song or hymn) on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French ori ...

Gower Wassail The Gower Wassail is a wassail song from Gower in Wales, UK. Wassailing is a midwinter tradition wherein either orchards or households are blessed by guisers, which came to Wales through exposure to English custom. The song is printed in A.L. Llo ...

". "When I was on Horseback" is one of the few folk songs to have an alternative existence as a blues song, sometimes known as "Six White Horses". It is also an Irish variant of a tune that inspired " Streets of Laredo" and "

St. James Infirmary Blues "St. James Infirmary Blues" is an American blues song and jazz standard of uncertain origin. Louis Armstrong made the song famous in his 1928 recording on which Don Redman was credited as composer; later releases gave the name Joe Primrose, a ...

". The last song, "

Skewball Skewball was the name of an 18th-century British racehorse, most famous as the subject of a broadsheet ballad and folk-song. History The horse was foaled in 1741 and originally owned by Francis Godolphin, 2nd Earl of Godolphin, and later sold. ...

", employs an effective counterpoint between a banjo and an electric guitar. The album was notable for having a textured "gatefold" sleeve and inner pages on its original release. This was paid for by the band but cost more to print than the album generated in profits, meaning the band lost money on each album sold. It appeared as such on the Pegasus and Mooncrest labels. None of the re-releases have included the original number of pages of liner notes. The album's curious title and subtitle require some explanation. A 'mop' or ' mop fair' is a late medieval term for a job fair, where labourers come looking for work. (The song "Copshawholme Fair", from the band's first album '' Hark! The Village Wait'', is about such a fair.) The conceit was that the band was out of work and job-hunting. A 'ten man mop' would be a very poor show, since there would be few potential employees to choose from. The even more curious subtitle is a reference to Reservoir Butler, who had originally performed one of the songs covered on the album. The band was so struck by his unusual name that they decided it needed to be saved from obscurity. The photograph on the sleeve was taken by

John Benjamin Stone Sir John Benjamin Stone (9 February 1838 – 2 July 1914) was a British Conservative politician and photographer. Life and career Stone was born in Duddeston, Birmingham the son of a manager at a local glass works. The business passed into th ...

in about 1900. Entitled "'Sippers' and 'Topers'", it is of two villagers at the Bidford Mop, an annual fair held at

Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, a ...

in the village of

Bidford-on-Avon Bidford-on-Avon is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Warwickshire, very close to the border with Worcestershire. In the 2001 census it had a population of 4,830, increasing to 5,350 at the 2011 census. History Ryknie ...

, Warwickshire. The village has a centuries-old reputation for heavy drinking.

Bonus tracks

When Castle Music re-released ''Ten Man Mop...'' it added a substantial number of bonus tracks. On the first disc, these included "General Taylor" and three versions of the

Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas ...

song "

Rave On! "Rave On", also written "Rave On!", is a song written by Sonny West, Bill Tilghman and Norman Petty in 1958. It was first recorded by West for Atlantic Records, which released his version in February 1958 (as Atlantic 45-1174). Buddy Holly recor ...

". A second disc was included that contained a recording from ''Radio One in Concert with John Peel'', dated 26/9/71 (following British dating conventions). The quality of the recording was quite variable, but the bonus tracks include a number of pieces not released on any album.

Personnel

;Steeleye Span *

Maddy Prior Madelaine Edith Prior MBE (born 14 August 1947) is an English folk singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span. She was born in Blackpool and moved to St Albans in her teens. Her father, Allan Prior, was co-creator of the police dr ...

- vocals, spoons,

tabor Tabor may refer to: Places Czech Republic * Tábor, a town in the South Bohemian Region ** Tábor District, the surrounding district * Tábor, a village and part of Velké Heraltice in the Moravian-Silesian Region Israel * Mount Tabor, Galilee ...

* Tim Hart - vocals, dulcimer,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

5-string banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

* Peter Knight -

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

, tenor banjo,

, vocals,

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

Martin Carthy Martin Carthy MBE (born 21 May 1941) is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, and later artists such as ...

- vocals, guitar,

Sandy Roberton Alexander William "Sandy" Roberton (7 July 1942 – 25 July 2022) was a British record producer and music business owner, whose 60-year career spanning record production, artist management, record label ownership and producer management made hi ...

- producer Sippers and Topers c1900 Stone

Track listing

Original album released by Pegasus Records PEG 9 in 1971. Re-issued by Mooncrest Records CREST 9 in 1974, CREST 009 (vinyl) in 1991 and CRESTCD 009 (CD) in 1991: #"

" #"Jigs: Paddy Clancey's Jig / Willie Clancy's Fancy" (instrumentals) #"

Four Nights Drunk "Seven Drunken Nights" is a humorous Irish folk song most famously performed by The Dubliners. It is a variation of the Scottish folk song " Our Goodman" ( Child 274, Roud 114). It tells the story of a gullible drunkard returning night after n ...

" #"When I Was On Horseback" #" Marrowbones" #"Captain Coulston" #"Reels: Dowd's Favourite / £10 Float / The Morning Dew" (instrumentals) #"Wee Weaver" #"

" Additional tracks on the Castle Music re-issue CMQDD 1252 in 2006: :10. "General Taylor" (studio outtake) :11. "Rave On" ('scratched' effect, original single version) :12. "Rave On" (cleaned-up 'two verse' version) :13. "Rave On" (cleaned-up 'three verse' version) Additional tracks on the Castle Music re-issue CMQDD 1252 bonus CD in 2006: ''BBC "Peel's Sunday Concert" 15 September 1971'' :01. "False Knight on the Road" :02. "The Lark in the Morning" :03. "Rave On" :04. "Reels: £10 Float / The Musical Priest" :05. "Captain Coulston" :06. "Martin Carthy: Handsome Polly-O" :07. "Martin Carthy: Bring 'Em Down / Tim Hart: Haul on the Bowline" :08. "Four Nights Drunk" :09. "When I Was on Horseback" :10. "Tim Hart & Maddy Prior: I Live Not Where I Love" :11. "Peter Knight: The Wind That Shakes the Barley / Pigeon on the Gate / Jenny's Chickens" :12. "Female Drummer" :13. "General Taylor" :14. "College Grove / Silver Spear / Ballymurphy Rake / Maid Behind the Bar"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ten Man Mop, Or Mr. Reservoir Butler Rides Again 1971 albums Chrysalis Records albums Steeleye Span albums