Your Maiden blasphemy

I also remember Bruce being asked about Virtual XI when The Chemical Wedding was released, he praised Futureal as he said it's better when the singer writes the words and vocal melody.
And it can be justified by listening to 95% of Maiden's catalogue! Yes, "Quest for Fire", "The Duellists", "The Prophecy", "BOTWH"... I'm talking to you! :)
 
And don't forget Hallowed! I mean, those lyrics are pretty difficult for the singer. What was Steve thinking when he penned those...

:funnypost:

They are great lyrics, resurrected and refined into a great song. At least Steves' end product did the song justice. Nowadays, especially in the pop and :puke:rap genre, too many great original songs are ripped off and butchered. Then passed off as their own to neive fan bases.
Besides, the lyrics and melodies simply 'seeped into the song from his memory' as I recall reading:bigsmile:...now the turds get some backpay for their support roles in writing Hallowed and a bit of Nomad. Everyone wins.
 
Steve obviously did "accidentally borrow" some lyrics from the said song. At the time, Maiden were just another unknown band, borrowing some lyrics from even more unknown band, who were evidently not going to score any success with it (as it was already 10 years old). Steve probably didn't expect to have problems with it 35 years down the road, due to something called the Internet.
But anyway, Steve & company actually did something out of that song, and had (a lot of) success, unlike Beckett, so evidently those lyrics alone were not crucial for Hallowed's success.
Same thing with all those blues songs, which nobody would ever have heard about were it not for Led Zeppelin's first album. They just made it theirs, and that's that
 
Steve obviously did "accidentally borrow" some lyrics from the said song. At the time, Maiden were just another unknown band, borrowing some lyrics from even more unknown band, who were evidently not going to score any success with it (as it was already 10 years old). Steve probably didn't expect to have problems with it 35 years down the road, due to something called the Internet.
But anyway, Steve & company actually did something out of that song, and had (a lot of) success, unlike Beckett, so evidently those lyrics alone were not crucial for Hallowed's success.
Same thing with all those blues songs, which nobody would ever have heard about were it not for Led Zeppelin's first album. They just made it theirs, and that's that

Morally .... maybe.

Legally definitely not, in this day and age. I have a feeling years back loads of songs could have got into similar trouble if they were still popular and selling now.
 
Does it bother anyone else that hallowed is constantly described as "the 'most popular,', or ' centerpiece', etc. song in the Iron Maiden catalog?"
Whilst it is among the favorite songs by the band, this sort of exaggeration is often used to diminish the songwriting by Steve/ Iron Maiden, IMO. One article and I paraphrase, referred to HBTN as crucial to the bands popularly, is the 'most beloved song' and has been the one that catapulted them to fame.
And yes it is popular and has been beloved . However these are tactics are intended to puff up the article and dramatize the importance of these 'victims' in the bands historical success. Money grab/click bait.
Iron Maiden, as we all know, would have been just fine without HBTN. Number of the Beast was a huge success. And thrust them to the top of the metal world more on the backs of Run to the hills and the title track . Of course they sustained with POS and the rest is history. Here in the states anyway.
 
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I agree. I love Hallowed, but even without it the band would still most likely be a big force in the metal scene. I mean, they have other great songs, maybe even better songs, like Rime of the Ancient Mariner for example. The world might have missed one of the greatest songs of all time, but it's not crucial to the band's success.
 
What? Posting the full song name you mean? Honestly, I think the full name sounds a lot more like 'greatest Maiden song' than just... "Rime". Though maybe you meant something different... :confused:
 
Oh, that! :D

Well, forget those two songs then. There are plenty more that would have kept them in the spotlight - Aces High, The Trooper, TNOTB... oh wait, that one did take a verse out of the Bible, nvm then... :p
 
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Rock was pretty "incestuous" back in the 60s and 70s (and before that) so I consider the Hallowed thing much ado about nothing. Zeppelin, the Stones, The Who, The Beatles etc.. built their early careers off of covers and borrowed ideas. Steve nicked a few lyrics...not the end of the world in my book...though he could have been more transparent about it and given a nod in the liner notes.

The Nomad lifting is actually more eyebrow raising to me.
 
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Which could explain why it was never played despite all the requests

Absolutely, but the fact that they put it on the album in the first place? It makes you question how rushed Brave New World actually was. One song being a reworking of a White Spirit-demo, one having large parts completely stolen...
 
Absolutely, but the fact that they put it on the album in the first place? It makes you question how rushed Brave New World actually was. One song being a reworking of a White Spirit-demo, one having large parts completely stolen...

And three songs were originally written for Virtual XI.
 
And three songs were originally written for Virtual XI.
Four, actually - Blood Brothers, The Mercenary (which came from a White Spirit demo: "'Till the Kill), Dream of Mirrors and The Nomad.

Blaze Bayley recorded vocals on a demo of Blood Brothers and co-wrote Dream of Mirrors with Gers and Harris (he was paid for this track but left uncredited).
 
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