Iron Maiden Musical

Agree with Flash, disagree with Perun: the lyrics of "To Tame a Land" are stupendously cheesy, and awful to boot. Musically it's awesome, but the ridiculous lyrics knock it from a 10 to an 8.
 
How about a movie called Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, based of the album
 
Cornfed Hick said:
Agree with Flash, disagree with Perun: the lyrics of "To Tame a Land" are stupendously cheesy, and awful to boot. Musically it's awesome, but the ridiculous lyrics knock it from a 10 to an 8.
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OK, I admit I have trouble taking those lyrics seriously. But I really love the song, and I always thought that I don't get the lyrics because I haven't read the book, so I never really looked into them.
 
The lyrics represent the book and the film. Nothing wrong with it. They might sound funny, because there are unearthly words in it. But since many Maiden fans are into Sci-Fi, I don't expect they have much trouble with it. We know where they come from.

And the idea of a Maiden musical is so horrendous, that I don't even wish to read the opening post. (Sorry, I loathe the concept of musicals)
 
No. It's not the selection of words that I have a problem with. (they do sound funny at times though) It's the meaning. Dune is much more than what Steve Harris wrote about, frankly To Tame a Land's lyrics sound like a Manowar song with a sci-fi touch.

Reminder : To Tame a Land is currently my 3rd favorite Maiden song. So appreciation to the song is unrelated in this case.
 
It isn't peanuts to put such an epic work in a 7 minute track.
To be honest, I haven't read the book, but I don't see how it didn't do the film justice.
Hmm, just realized that the film was released one year after the song.

Which elements do you miss?
 
It just doesn't fit, it's not the elements of the book I'm talking about. The lyrics have a "He has the power" "He's this" "He's that" "Hail the king"ish edge to them. It doesn't feature a message, a meaning. It just states some facts with words from the book. Steve overused the words, didn't focus on their meaning. Lyrics make me say "Okay, Steve, I get you've read the book." and nothing else.

Exactly the same problem Alexander the Great has.
 
Then I wonder if you have read the book or have seen the film. If you haven't, then why be so bothered?

Because, it is difficult to understand if you haven't. So, yes, as I thought, and as stated on The Iron Maiden Commentary, the lyrics don't make sense if you don't (want to) know anything about it. That's the downside of the lyrics. But it doesn't mean they are meaningless.
 
I know what the lyrics are about. Your response to my post is unrelated anyway. I wrote why I'm bothered. The words have meaning, the lyrics doesn't have any message, they're just facts.

I know Alexander the Great's life and I'm mad about the lyrics of that song because they only state facts. I'm listening to a song, not reading a page of an encyclopedia. I don't buy it as a tribute, sorry. Same applies to To Tame a Land. I'm listening to music, not reading a book summary.
 
You're evading my point.

As long as you suggest you don't know Dune (book or film), then I maintain to say that you cannot judge the meaning of these lyrics.

And if you have read it, or have seen the film:
What do you miss?
 
Forostar said:
You're evading my point.

As long as you suggest you don't know Dune (book or film), then I maintain to say that you cannot judge the meaning of these lyrics.
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You both have points.

Speaking of Alexander. I don't have to know everything about Alexander to think the lyrics are crap. Because they are. Crap. Same thing with To Tame A Land. You will need to know about Dune to understand it. But, you don't really need to have read it to think the lyrics are lacking. Because really, if you truly need to read a book to enjoy a songs lyrics, then the lyricist has failed.
 
Forostar said:
You're evading my point.

As long as you suggest you don't know Dune (book or film), then I maintain to say that you cannot judge the meaning of these lyrics.

And if you have read it, or have seen the film:
What do you miss?
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What are you looking for I don't get. I explained what I missed. I've read the book (series, to be precise) but it's a whole different universe. So stating what I miss as in chapters, parts etc. would be foolish. I miss a message when one does talk about the book. There has to be some message, some interpretation you come up with if you're writing about a book.

And what Steve tries to come up with is a "He has the power", "Hail the king" approach which is cheesy hence its place in this discussion.
 
I remember several lengthy discussion on the Alexander lyrics, and at this point I don't feel in taking part in that for the zillionth time. Perhaps next month. ;)

Yax said:
Because really, if you truly need to read a book to enjoy a songs lyrics, then the lyricist has failed.
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That's true. But I don't see how they fail for people who read the book, so these lyrics still have meaning.
 
Alright. First the Manowar thing. I never had that idea. Naturally, Herbert wrote about a powerful individual, so the topic lends for that style.
The Flash said:
What are you looking for I don't get. I explained what I missed. I've read the book (series, to be precise) but it's a whole different universe. So stating what I miss as in chapters, parts etc. would be foolish. I miss a message when one does talk about the book. There has to be some message, some interpretation you come up with if you're writing about a book.
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Why always this almost religiously kind of longing for a message?
Dune is already so large and epic, that I am not surprised that a small summary is already difficult enough.

Let's have a look at Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
E.g., there is this message about that you have to love all creatures. But that message came from Coleridge.
Harris did not add an own interpretation, he did not add an own message.

Where are the complaints?
 
A message is not just something you create, it's something that you can interpret from an already existing one. The thing is, Rime tells the story perfectly well, so I'm not looking for his own interpretation on that one (so I'm not "almost religiously" longing for a message). But Tame lacks a good story telling plus a message. Now that's a negative.

It basically tells that "if you don't have water or a special suit on desert, you'll die" and "he has the power so he can make this/that". This is cheese.
 
To answer that question, I'd have to get into both the poem and Dune. I don't have time to do that. But Rime's lyrics give me the idea that Steve was really inspired by the poem. Tame's lyrics give me the idea that Steve really loved the book and wanted to pay a tribute, but he was not nearly as inspired as he was for Rime.

To be honest, every person who listened to Tame and read Dune I've come across have the same idea as me. The lyrics are cheesy, far from the power of the book, lacks a good story telling, overuses the words.
 
It's also possible that the poem itself is more inspiring than Dune, to many people.
And not unimportant: easier (in a practical way) to translate into words for a song. The words in the song Rime have remained as written in a poem. Some parts were literally taken from the poem, others sound like modified parts. Steve remained very true to the original, the biggest thing he had to do was cutting out most of it.
 
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