Bruce Dickinson

Black Abyss Babe said:
Well, you've found two yourself. I'd add "Look for the Truth" and "The Unbeliever" to the list.

There's also "I want to leave my life on my own". But it doesn't need to be autobiographical in order to be personal. "Educated Fool" is a series of thoughts/musings but they seem (to me at least) to be particularly heartfelt. I think it's just things his mind was running on at the time.
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The Apparition lyrics are personal and biographical.

Wasting Love as well. Happened before Bruce left. There is more to Bruce's I Want Out than lyrical content.
 
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Forostar said:
There is more to Bruce's I Want Out than lyrical content.
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Exactly, he wanted to be in Steve's role. And he also saw Maiden as being on the way down, becoming old hat etc. so he left like a rat off a sinking ship.

It was a midlife crisis that thankfully didn't last too long and we got a few good albums out of it, and it didn't do Maiden too much harm in the long run.
 
srfc said:
It was a midlife crisis that thankfully didn't last too long and we got a few good albums out of it, and it didn't do Maiden too much harm in the long run.
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True, as him leaving made his return (and Adrian's) possible. He came back a much better singer than when he left and the band are now bigger they have ever been.

At the end of the day, the band is much greater than the sum of its parts and, in my humble opinion, excels when you have Adrian, Bruce and Steve together firing on all cylinders.
 
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Not only where they reinvigorated by the return of Bruce and Adrian as song writers, but the 3 guitar line up gave them a unique selling point that maybe they had been struggling to find in the 90's. Instead of trying to change with the times (and failing badly a la FOTD) or struggling to go back to past glories a la NPFTD and VXI, they were able to indulge their prog leanings that had always been there, but at the same time it marked a distinct change from what had gone before, and it allows them to exist on their own terms outside the trends of the metal scene .

They would not have been able to come to that position if Bruce had remained in the band unhappy during the 90's.
 
srfc said:
Instead of trying to change with the times (and failing badly a la FOTD)
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FOTD was a great success at the time,
it got through to mainstream audience big time (probably helped by recent success of Black album), those 3-4 songs were radio/mtv friendly and were played all the time. Any album with 3-4 hits counts as 'fantastic' in non-hardcore-maiden-fans universe
 
I wouldn't say it was a great success. It was somewhat successful initially, going in at number one, BQOBD charted highly on release (FHTE did not,it was the only non-top 10 single in 6 years) and the appearance at Donington, with the live version of FOTD single obviously a huge and lasting hit, the biggest since RTTH arguably, in terms of impact on the wider consciousness.

However, what I was getting at was that Maiden made a lot of noise at that time of how they were dragging themselves kicking and screaming into the 90's and tackling issues like AIDS and the Gulf War etc. and in that respect I don't think they were successful in forging an identity as a "modern band" off the back of songs like Fear is the Key or Wasting Love.
 
srfc said:
Not only where they reinvigorated by the return of Bruce and Adrian as song writers, but the 3 guitar line up gave them a unique selling point that maybe they had been struggling to find in the 90's. Instead of trying to change with the times (and failing badly a la FOTD) or struggling to go back to past glories a la NPFTD and VXI, they were able to indulge their prog leanings that had always been there, but at the same time it marked a distinct change from what had gone before, and it allows them to exist on their own terms outside the trends of the metal scene .

They would not have been able to come to that position if Bruce had remained in the band unhappy during the 90's.
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srfc said:
I wouldn't say it was a great success. It was somewhat successful initially, going in at number one, BQOBD charted highly on release (FHTE did not,it was the only non-top 10 single in 6 years) and the appearance at Donington, with the live version of FOTD single obviously a huge and lasting hit, the biggest since RTTH arguably, in terms of impact on the wider consciousness.

However, what I was getting at was that Maiden made a lot of noise at that time of how they were dragging themselves kicking and screaming into the 90's and tackling issues like AIDS and the Gulf War etc. and in that respect I don't think they were successful in forging an identity as a "modern band" off the back of songs like Fear is the Key or Wasting Love.
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Wise words my friend. I wholeheartedly agree with you.
 
These views on FOTD, on if that made them modern or not. Unimportant.

Not for Bruce. He wanted to do other stuff. I am glad about that because I loved both Balls to Picasso and TXF. Both their first outputs since he left.
 
I don't think Bruce ever disliked traditional heavy metal. I think he wanted to explore some other areas of music. He did that, then he went back to making "proper" heavy metal on his own. That process certainly helped draw him back to the Iron Maiden camp. Now, Steve lets him explore within the confines of the band far more than he was allowed to do so in 1988, and it seems to work for everyone.
 
Myke Gray played guitar on these 12 released Bruce Dickinson songs:

(with Skin members)
01 "(I Want to be) Elected" - 4:36
02 "The Breeding House" - 5:18
03 "No Way Out...To Be Continued" - 7:31
04 "Winds of Change" - 4:14 (Dickinson, Janick Gers)
05 "Spirit of Joy" - 3:13 (Arthur Brown cover) (Arthur Brown, Michael Harris)
06 "Elvis Has Left the Building" - 3:23
07 "Fire Child" - 6:24

(with Keith Olsen)
08 "Tibet" - 3:02
09 "Tears of the Dragon (First Bit, Long Bit, Last Bit)" - 8:20 (Last Bit: Dickinson/Chrichton/Baker)
10 "Cadillac Gas Mask" - 4:09
11 "No Way Out...Continued" - 5:21 (Dickinson, Crichton, Baker)
12 "Over and Out" - 4:32 (Dickinson, Jim Crichton, R. Baker)

All, apart from the first, to be found on the bonus disc from the 2005 Balls to Picasso re-release.
 
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Forostar said:
Are you implying that Roy might not play guitar on The Breeding House ?
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Hang on a minute, are you saying that Roy might not play guitar on The Breeding House? :lol:

Joking aside, I am happy to have shed some light on the source of those Balls to Picasso B-sides to some. I thought this was common knowledge among people who had followed Bruce's solo career.

Thanks for the information you have posted, which I guess comes from Myke Gray himself. :)
 
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Forostar said:
Nope it wasn't. If Bruce had mentioned these people on his records, it could have been, who knows.
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Well, in addition to the songwriting credits you had interview(s), such as the one with The Bruce Dickinson Well-Being Network from 1996!! To be fair, that was one of the few sources of information about Bruce's career to those interested in it during the early days of the internet. :)
 
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