Beyone the BCB 130 - Iron Maiden

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pig bodine
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Beyone the BCB 130 - Iron Maiden

Postby pig bodine » 06 Apr 2015, 21:03

So it's 1980, and I, as a permanently dazed yokel was stumbling my way through high school. Never a particularly gifted student or great athlete (but I tried, at least, dammit) the days just kind of trudged by. I had my friends, a girlfriend, and some fun, obviously, but it was mostly just stasis--I was truly a card carrying member of the blank generation--I didn't give a shit about anything, basically, and didn't see much of a future, either. Now that I have a son on the autism spectrum, my eyes have been opened, and I realize I probably am there as well, but they didn't know these things at the time, so I just tried moving forward with music being a bright spot among all the murk. The last few years had been great on that front, there was punk and the birth of metal, but punk never made it here, and it finally devolved into Oi and hardcore--granted, I was pretty into hardcore--I even was quite the shredder on the skateboard if you can believe it, but it wasn't as good as punk--not until it became post-hardcore around the time of Metal Circus. Metal had gotten over produced, and lacked the edge it had a few years earlier - British Steel was good--it had Walkin' the Dog, I mean Breakin' The Law, but it wasn't Hell Bent For Leather or Stained Class, was it?, so when I read about this new movement in the UK that bands were using the energy of punk and applying it to the classic hard rock sounds of bands like Deep Purple, you can believe that I momentarily shook myself out of my slouch, and sat up straight and took notice. You had Saxon, Angel Witch, Raven, Def Leppard (yes, they were good for two albums, fuck you), Diamond Head etc, but the figurehead was this band, Iron Maiden.

I was at the mall record store thumbing through the new releases and saw their debut with a Sid-like reanimated corpse glaring out at me with urban decay in the background. My first thought was--I'll bet there are no ballads here, no boring boogie-rock bullshit, I'll bet this thing is just what I'm looking for. It was expensive, though--probably 8 dollars, and 8 dollars in 1980 could buy you a house and a mid-sized sedan. It called out to me, though--"This is what you want. There are no new wave quirky bullshit songs here, these songs don't sound like shit you'd raise your lighter and sway to in a hockey arena--this is the ugly, loud noise--buy me." It wasn't a hard decision--it's splatter movie cover and what I had read about Maiden as the next forward step in metal had me convinced. Now I don't think I'm going to convince anybody to my side, here--metal is thought about as the child molester of rock, here, but I'll play nicely and provide some clips.



Their vocalist, Paul Di'Anno bridged punk and metal perfectly and they had the twin Priest, Lizzy lead down pat. They even had a prog edge to some of their songs. I had a new band to obsess with as Preist went in a more commercial direction. Their next album, Killers, remains my favorite, and in my top 20 rock albums list. They basically refined the first album, and I thought things were going to continue to get better.



Of course, they didn't. Di'Anno was gone, they put out a live EP, and got the guy from Samson for their vocalist. Still, I'm okay with Bruce--he knew his shit, and although he could be overbearing at times, he could belt them out with the best of them.. In a few years, they were massive--they were big in Brazil! This is the band that I saw live a few times. They even had some UK hits.





Times changed, however, and thrash was now the big thing--Maiden seemed more and more cartoonish. Still they managed to put out consistently good albums until around 1986, then after a few albums, Dickenson left, rejoined, nobody, including me gave a shit. They're still around now, but the rock era is long over. I'm on old man with a lawn that I constantly shoo kids off of, and look about as metal as Ward Cleaver, but those old Maiden albums still sound great to me. Beats the hell out of the Associates, anyway.

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der nister
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Re: Beyone the BCB 130 - Iron Maiden

Postby der nister » 06 Apr 2015, 21:14

good timing

another metal band where the bassist provided the songwriting direction,
and despite the image used lots of history as his basis

and one of the great guitar tandem teams
It's kinda depressing for a music forum to be proud of not knowing musicians.

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Fonz
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Re: Beyone the BCB 130 - Iron Maiden

Postby Fonz » 06 Apr 2015, 21:39

The Bruce years have been great. The diAnno years great too. A bit formulaic at times, but some great moments. Everything up to and including 'No Prayer...' was top drawer.
They always look like they're having a laugh.
I was a bit unconvinced til I saw a promo shot of the band in a desert or something, with all the band looking serious... But Bruce's pants were round his ankles.. Fun.

I've never seen a picture of Bob Dylan with his pants round his ankles. Nuff Said!
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Re: Beyone the BCB 130 - Iron Maiden

Postby Phenomenal Cat » 06 Apr 2015, 21:48

Like UFO, Maiden was a band just aggressive enough in execution to stay above the punk fray. My brother had the early DiAnno LPs (including Maiden Japan), and I basically learned drums playing things like "The Phantom of the Opera" and 'The Prisoner" (or at least trying - fucking Clive Burr, man!) They became the standard-bearer for the heavy metal lifestyle - skulls, weed, kegs, guitar solos, etc. Sometime around Piece of Mind, I discovered Mercyful Fate, Venom and Metallica and that was the end of my Maiden phase. I recently went back and listened to the first four and they kick ass. I watched that documentary where they fly around in Bruce's plane. It felt good to see them come back. If you were a guitarist, I'm sure there's a lot to enjoy. My brother played bass, so of course he thought Steve Harris was God. He may be.

Great opening post. I'm thinking the only thing we could really debate is whether ditching DiAnno was the right move. Anthrax made a similar move and I think they suffered for it.
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Pool Hall Richard
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Re: Beyone the BCB 130 - Iron Maiden

Postby Pool Hall Richard » 06 Apr 2015, 22:30

I was 16 when they hit for me. 1988. Seventh Son. Maybe a bit too prog or popular for many. 4 top ten hit singles from the album, but it was great. I was just about to leave school and they were big amongst my friends.

For me it was really Seventh Son and their first two with Di'anno that I loved. Harris has always been a hero and if I'd ever gone on to make it in a band I'd always wanted to be the guy at the back on bass, directing things, getting plenty of songwriting credits. A thoroughly nice chap and great bassist/songwriter.

I joined the fan club in the late 80's, bought all those 1990 single reissues with the Nicko interviews on. I don't mind No Prayer For The Dying, its not brilliant but its fine, and Fear of the Dark I like a lot. Then I got tickets to see them play Wembley Area in '93. Janick threw a hissy-fit mid show and pushed his amp over, Dave/Steve followed to see what issue was, Nicko/Bruce stayed on stage and had a bit of a barney as I remember. Obviously issues behind the scenes which were confirmed when Bruce announced his departure.

Then I got a ticket to the Raising Hell filming at Pinewood Studio's in '93. Man the atmosphere was dark, the last show with Bruce and the band could not hide their contempt for him leaving.

The Blaze years were shite then Bruce returned along with Adrian. Took me a while to get back onboard but I'm there now with every release. Seventh Song album gets a regular spin in my house. Great great band

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Re: Beyone the BCB 130 - Iron Maiden

Postby copehead » 06 Apr 2015, 23:22

The first album is in my all time Top 20, it is simply perfect, no filler, punk tinged heavy metal.

The second album was OK, and then Paul Di Anno left and it all went wrong.

I was still on board for TNOTB but that was it for me they were becoming increasingly cartoonish, Dickinson screams to much and his lyrics are out of the Ladybird book of British History.

But the first album is still on fairly constant rotation over 30 years later

I imagine Paul Di Anno was a bit of a dick.
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Re: Beyone the BCB 130 - Iron Maiden

Postby Rayge » 15 Jan 2018, 19:10

bump
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Re: Beyone the BCB 130 - Iron Maiden

Postby Matt Wilson » 15 Jan 2018, 19:34

I like the first two albums fine, but seemingly unlike those who have posted here thus far, like The Number of the Beast better. A primo pre-thrash metal LP for the early eighties. Was there a better one at that time?

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Re: Beyone the BCB 130 - Iron Maiden

Postby Walk In My Shadow » 21 May 2018, 21:11

Forgive me for being almost 64 years old and now starting to dig Iron Maiden.
I started with Flight 666 and like what I heard.
Now I bought From Fear to Eternity (Best 1990-2010).
En effet, they're both compilations so I haven't heard a full album yet.

Their best? What do you think?
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Re: Beyone the BCB 130 - Iron Maiden

Postby copehead » 21 May 2018, 21:52

Walk In My Shadow wrote:Forgive me for being almost 64 years old and now starting to dig Iron Maiden.
I started with Flight 666 and like what I heard.
Now I bought From Fear to Eternity (Best 1990-2010).
En effet, they're both compilations so I haven't heard a full album yet.

Their best? What do you think?


First album without a doubt
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