Is Maiden's Music Really Better Live?

Come on, people. Remember that Maiden is a LIVE band before anything else. A Maiden concert is a unique experience. [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/smile.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\":)\" border=\"0\" alt=\"smile.gif\" /]
 
The first live album I heard from Maiden was RIR, I must admit I was slightly dissapointed with their earlier live releases when I first heard them, certainly in comparison to RIR. Bruce's vocals do sound a bit tired sometimes on LAD but this dosen't really bother me, the actual crowd participation is what makes a live album for me, and on the earlier albums you can often barely here it. RIR and DOTR seem to capture this a lot better, but hey thats technology for you. One thing about seeing Maiden live is, as has already being said, you get the atmosphere, the musky smell of beer and sweat, the amazing sticky floor, the drunken guy who's wandered in and moshes into everyone, stuff like that. Maiden Live albums are generally all good, a little more variety in their setlists would be appreciated however.
 
[!--quoteo(post=131554:date=Mar 11 2006, 05:37 PM:name=Hunlord)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Hunlord @ Mar 11 2006, 05:37 PM) [snapback]131554[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
But what if its a bootleg of a show you have attended? Porn and sex at the same time? ::
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Home video? ::

[!--quoteo(post=131559:date=Mar 12 2006, 12:24 AM:name=Cowboy Dan)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Cowboy Dan @ Mar 12 2006, 12:24 AM) [snapback]131559[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
The first live album I heard from Maiden was RIR, I must admit I was slightly dissapointed with their earlier live releases when I first heard them, certainly in comparison to RIR. Bruce's vocals do sound a bit tired sometimes on LAD but this dosen't really bother me, the actual crowd participation is what makes a live album for me, and on the earlier albums you can often barely here it. RIR and DOTR seem to capture this a lot better, but hey thats technology for you. One thing about seeing Maiden live is, as has already being said, you get the atmosphere, the musky smell of beer and sweat, the amazing sticky floor, the drunken guy who's wandered in and moshes into everyone, stuff like that. Maiden Live albums are generally all good, a little more variety in their setlists would be appreciated however
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I think another reason for the lack of crowd participation on LAD is that the American audience just wasn't as enthusiastic as the Germans on DotR or the Brazilians on RiR. I wouldn't say it's technology as such, the recording quality hasn't improved dramatically in the past 20 years, at least not as far as live albums are concerned. And the setlists are always going to be a sticking point for a Maiden live album, but if you're at the concert, are you going to stop and yell out 'Hey, you've played Wrathchild before about 20 times, play something else!'? No, you're going to be headbanging your heart (head?) out and singing along-which is why Maiden are such a good live band. They could play 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' and get the crowd singing along!
 
[!--quoteo(post=131519:date=Mar 11 2006, 02:04 PM:name=Silky)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Silky @ Mar 11 2006, 02:04 PM) [snapback]131519[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
And if you think about it, if Maiden have live albums for the two history tours, we could eventually end up with every Maiden song live! Although they've never played Prodigal Son live :: , and probably never will... [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/sad.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\":(\" border=\"0\" alt=\"sad.gif\" /]
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Certainly not, mate. I hope you meant "every song Maiden ever played live", which is also a mistake. The release of "The Early Days" and the subsequent tours did no coverage of the following songs which were played live by Maiden:

Strange World
Purgatory
Genghis Khan
Twilight Zone
Innocent Exile
I've Got The Fire
Still Life
To Tame A Land

Live versions of "I've Got The Fire" and "Still Life" can be found on official releases, but the rest can only be found on bootlegs.
 
That will teach me to shut up [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/sleep.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\"-_-\" border=\"0\" alt=\"sleep.gif\" /]
 
[!--quoteo(post=131682:date=Mar 12 2006, 05:40 PM:name=Perun)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Perun @ Mar 12 2006, 05:40 PM) [snapback]131682[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
Certainly not, mate. I hope you meant "every song Maiden ever played live", which is also a mistake. The release of "The Early Days" and the subsequent tours did no coverage of the following songs which were played live by Maiden:

Strange World
Purgatory
Genghis Khan
Twilight Zone
Innocent Exile
I've Got The Fire
Still Life
To Tame A Land

Live versions of "I've Got The Fire" and "Still Life" can be found on official releases, but the rest can only be found on bootlegs.
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Yes, I know there are certain songs Maiden have never played live before, that's why I made the comment about Prodigal Son. And if you take those songs as being the only ones left off the Early Days tour, we'll still have the majority of the early Maiden works covered. And if they planned their next few live albums carefully, we could potentially get 99% of all Maiden album-songs (not counting B-sides), plus Still Life is on as a b-side to one of the 7th son singles (can't remember which one). So even without bootlegs, there won't be many Maiden songs without a live representation.
 
I'm not going to check right now, but all the songs performed on the Early Days tour have been covered by live releases already.
 
I have only seen Maiden at Ozzfest last summer, but even if Bruce's voice didn't stack up to the studio recordings, the guitar playing beat every single live, studio and bootleg recording I ever heard when I was drunk/stoned/etc!

Up the Irons!
 
[!--quoteo(post=132247:date=Mar 16 2006, 08:02 PM:name=Ascendancy)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Ascendancy @ Mar 16 2006, 08:02 PM) [snapback]132247[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
I think that Bruce's live version of 'The Clansman' on Rock On Rio is even better than Blaze's studio version.
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I think I should stop raising my eyebrows, else I'll wear out the muscles [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\":p\" border=\"0\" alt=\"tongue.gif\" /]
 
[!--quoteo(post=132259:date=Mar 16 2006, 08:34 PM:name=Perun)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Perun @ Mar 16 2006, 08:34 PM) [snapback]132259[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
I think I should stop raising my eyebrows, else I'll wear out the muscles [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\":p\" border=\"0\" alt=\"tongue.gif\" /]
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Now, now, Perun-some people don't like his version, for very good reasons
(although I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or condescending... :: )
 
As you might know, I belong to the table-pounding pro-Blaze camp, so you can guess what kind of reaction that was [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/wink.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\";)\" border=\"0\" alt=\"wink.gif\" /]
 
[!--quoteo(post=132450:date=Mar 19 2006, 11:34 AM:name=Perun)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Perun @ Mar 19 2006, 11:34 AM) [snapback]132450[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
As you might know, I belong to the table-pounding pro-Blaze camp, so you can guess what kind of reaction that was [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/wink.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\";)\" border=\"0\" alt=\"wink.gif\" /]
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Actually, I didn't know that. Well, not that you were one of the hardcore Blaze fans, ready to flame any Blaze-bashers into oblivion (a job suited to your wit and tongue). I would have loved to see you on the IMbb...actually, you probably would have developed a migraine within five minutes.

I don't really see how you can justly compare the Blaze-era work from the albums with those reproduced live by Bruce. Maiden is a live band, after all, and so even comparing the vocals alone will often be biased towards the live versions-only a few people can strip away the music and experience and compare the vocal performances alone without being influenced by the maelstrom of beautiful music flowing around them. Strangely, those most able to focus their minds like this (in a highly scientific and analytical way) are those who are the ardent pro-Blaze supporters-I'm looking at you, Mav and Perun [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/wink.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\";)\" border=\"0\" alt=\"wink.gif\" /]...
...or maybe they just support Blaze to be different ::
 
I'm one of the people you discuss. As anyone around here can tell ya, lyrics is my thing. I think you have to compare the live versions of songs like Sign of the Cross and The Clansman with Bruce and Blaze. There are quite a few good bootlegs from the VXI tour that you can listen to - I recommend Madrid. The vocal comparisons can thus be made more easily. I find Bruce fails to live up to Blaze on Blaze-era songs, for the same reason Blaze failed to live up to Bruce. They have different voices, scaled differently, with different speeds and different intonations.
 
I've listened to several Blaze-era bootlegs. I have to say Blaze does not always live up to his studio works live. Especially towards the end of the shows, his voice tends to wear out. However, I have noticed this, and sometimes to an even more radical extent, with Bruce too. Sometimes Bruce has brilliant nights, and sometimes he sounds... not quite that good (I don't want to say "bad" or "horrible", because that is untrue too).

Bruce does justice to some of Blazes songs, let's not get carried away here. He is good on "Futureal" or "Man On The Edge", and I have not been able to damn him so much on "Sign Of The Cross" -even though I prefer Blaze on the song by miles.

Blaze does justice to some Bruce songs too. Let's pick out "Afraid To Shoot Strangers", "Fear Of The Dark", "Heaven Can Wait" or my all-time favourite song, "The Evil That Men Do" (playing right now, coincidentally). Blaze is good on them. Maybe not as good as Bruce (except maybe on ATSS), but good enough to take the claim of being the singer.

There are counter-examples for both singers, without question.


I think TXF and VXI are among the best things Maiden ever did, and I also think that Blaze deserves a lot of credit for it. However, I also do not want to overemphasise his role in these two albums. Blaze wrote the lyrics and vocal lines for many songs, and I think he did a brilliant job there. But the bulk of songwriting still lies on Steve, Jan and Dave. I stated elsewhere that the guitar sound on VXI is pretty much my favourite (maybe next to BNW). I also like the dark mood of TXF and the more dominant bass on that album (even though I'm not that much a bass guy, I still prefer the guitar to every instrument).

To sum it up, I love the two Blaze era albums because I think the songs on them are absolutely fantastic, one and all. No other album in Maiden's discography goes so happily through without one single let-down track or let-down moment (and please, let's not have that tiresome repetition discussion again). Blaze's vocals are great, the songwriting is great, the musicianship is great, it's all as close to perfect as it gets.
 
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