Steeleye Span are "Below the Salt" Quiz

Answer: May

The opening line is "One morning in the month of May" which identifies the time of the year.
The song's plot is quite simple, the singer meets a "charming maid" who has a chat up line, seldom heard (or herd) these days of "I've lost my spotted cow". The singer freely claims to know where the beast can be found and they head off to "yonder grove" where they spend the day from "the dawning of the day" until night time.
The album notes state that this song was collected from Norfolk.

Answer: Violets

The first line runs "It's a rosebud in June and the violets in full bloom" then the line in the question follows on. This song is a typical idealistic pastoral song of young love in a rural setting. The start of the chorus reflects this:

"We'll pipe and we'll sing love. We'll dance in a ring love,
When each lad takes his lass. All on the green grass"

This is a traditional song which the album cover notes this version as being collected in Somerset by Cecil Sharp. However, the album cover also notes that "Reality is a complex of related hypotheses", which in turn is possibly a consequence of "drinking with the parson". Proving don't take all album cover notes at face value.

Answer: The Bride's Favourite

Both of the jigs comprising this track are listed as "traditional". Although music scores may be written for various instruments, I doubt if they normally include spoons. But Tim Hart is credited with playing spoons on this track.

As for the others, "Bach Goes to Limerick" is a jig recorded by Steeleye on the album "Commoners Crown". The jig, "Lumps of Plum Pudding", has been recorded by the Etchingham Steam Band and "Cuckold's All Awry" has been recorded by the Albion Dance Band.

All three bands mentioned here, Steeleye Span, Etchingham Steam Band and the Albion Band were founded by Ashley Hutchings.

Answer: Shepherd

Poor Willie the shepherd offers all his possessions and asks his beloved Dinah to marry him. She wants to wait while she gets a job in service. After she does, she decides that a mere shepherd is not good enough for her.
A more modern interpretation is written on the album cover where the poor lad is an accounts clerk and his beloved ends up as an exotic dancer in Soho.

Answer: The Aboriculturist Meets Superwoman

The plot here is that the "Royal Forester" or aboriculturist, meets an attractive lady, rapes her, then heads off on his horse, back to the court. The woman, while on foot, out paces him, which makes her "superwoman". She gets to the court first and tells her side of the story. It turns out that she is a daughter of nobility and he is the son of a blacksmith.

Various versions of this have been recorded by folk song collectors; some sources refer this story as being similar to Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale". Possibly both draw on the same source material. The album cover claims it comes from a 1293 text called "Half-way to Para-diddle", but this seems to be just a fictional origin.

Answer: A feather bed

The first few lines provide the answer here.
"Let never a man a-wooing wend that lacketh things three
A store of gold, an open heart and full of charity"

I cannot describe this song better than refer to Martin Carthy's description of it as "beauty and the beast reversed". The comment can be found in the booklet that comes with the compilation album "The Carthy Chronicles". The same source also suggests that the story is drawn from Arthurian legends. Martin Carthy was at various times a member of Steeleye although not on this album.

Whatever the origins of the song, it features the knight "King Henry" who after a successful day's hunting is visited by a female described as a "fiend that come from hell". All of his companions depart, the woman makes various demands on him and in the morning, he awakes to finds a beautiful woman beside him. My sympathy is with the animals she has demanded slain to satisfy her hunger.

Answer: Latin

The song "Gaudete" come from a book "Piae Cantiones". This was a compilation of songs in Latin, collated by a Finnish clergyman and first published in Germany in the late sixteenth century. Steeleye Span are stated to have learnt about the song from their guitarist Bob Johnson.
This was the first album by Steeleye which Bob Johnson played on.

Answer: Home brewed ale

The song is all about brewing beer. Various sources indicate that this song was found in print around the beginning of the seventeenth century; there seems some disagreement about just how old it is.
Many recordings of the song have been made by various people and nearly as many theories as to the history of the song. As an example, on the Fred Jordan album, "A Shropshire Lad", the claim is made: "In ancient Egypt, harvesters performed a ceremony in which they begged forgiveness of the corn before they reaped it. Indeed everywhere men have seen a divine power in corn, and sometimes cutting it has seemed close to the killing of the Gods."
The view that I hold to is that its popularity is because it is about beer drinking, and beer drinking goes hand in hand with folk music.

Answer: Drunk

Another common theme, a shallow woman rejects her beau because she thinks he has nothing for her. ""You are ragged, love, you're dirty, love, and your clothes smell much of tar". Then all of a sudden, the sailor proclaims; "I have silver in my pocket, love and gold in great store".
At this point the woman changes her tune "I will marry my dear Henry for I love a sailor lad so well"
But now the situation is reversed and Henry tells her no, "Do you think that I am foolish love? Do you think that I am mad?"
Another song recorded by multiple collectors over the years. The album cover notes that this version was based on a version collected in Sussex. As with other songs on this album, many versions and recordings exist.

Another song with a similar theme is "The Wild Rover", where it is a pub landlady who fails to extend credit to a traveller until she finds he is wealthy.

Answer: Rejoice

The song is in Latin, a language not as widely spoken as it used to be. However, a lot of English words can be traced back to their roots. The refrain starts with "Gaudete, Gaudete" which translates as "Rejoice, rejoice". Not an obvious route between the two words.

The next phrase is "Christus est natus"; Christ is born. Christ/Christus are very similar words. Natus, is close to natal, natal means relating to birth.
The next few words, "Ex Maria virgine" translate as "of the virgin Mary" followed by Gaudete again.