Bruce Dickinson

[mtmccox]

What are you guys smoking?

The more time passes after the Mandrake's release, the more I realise how very little in common I have with other Maiden fans, music wise.
But that's just how it is.

Jazz.

Please don't tell me you mean Jazz by Queen, cause that's one of my favourite albums they did.

 

[Sth2112]

Please don't tell me you mean Jazz by Queen, cause that's one of my favourite albums they did.

I love the early Queen albums, but some of Jazz is not on the same level I think. They certainly were not afraid to experiement, which is great, but I think they missed and failed with some of them. But it’s great you love Jazz, many fans do so

 

[Spaldy]

So I’d say X factor had some meaningful, long songs (barring a few) unlike Fear of the Dark and the album wasn’t a drag. I’m not saying FOTD was a drag but quality of tracks was crappier than that on X.

TXF is the dictionary definition of a drag. Nearly every song has the tempo of a dead tortoise and additionally, how many extended bass intros does one album actually need?

 

[FTB]

Found it on a Facebook metal group.

View attachment 34787

Thats actually pretty accurate. At least for me.
Not too keen on Bruce's latest Output.

Blaze's Album blows it out of the water.

 

[Vaenyr]

I disagree with a lot of the takes regarding Wasting Love in this thread.

It's un-Maiden? How so? Twin lead guitars, soaring vocals in the chorus. There are multiple half-ballads in their career including Remember Tomorrow and Children Of The Damned.

It's musically far more interesting than your typical power-ballad from the same time frame. The acoustic interlude is also used as a crushing riff before the solo. The final chorus with the additional solo is also awesome. The lyrics are great as well.

I guarantee that if this song was on an earlier album its reception would've been entirely different. I have the feeling that many people nowadays don't judge the music on its own terms and let their earlier opinions and thoughts on the album and the era colour the perception of the song.

 

[Iron Lurker]

I think I should have asked him this: "I like Heavy Metal, but I want to play Heavy Metal with Synthesizers. What do you suggest?" Well, will do next time.

You also could have asked him when are they ever going to play Alexander the Great live...

 

[Iron Lurker]

Thats actually pretty accurate. At least for me.
Not too keen on Bruce's latest Output.

Blaze's Album blows it out of the water.

I will never know

 

[Sth2112]

I disagree with a lot of the takes regarding Wasting Love in this thread.

It's un-Maiden? How so? Twin lead guitars, soaring vocals in the chorus. There are multiple half-ballads in their career including Remember Tomorrow and Children Of The Damned.

It's musically far more interesting than your typical power-ballad from the same time frame. The acoustic interlude is also used as a crushing riff before the solo. The final chorus with the additional solo is also awesome. The lyrics are great as well.

I guarantee that if this song was on an earlier album its reception would've been entirely different. I have the feeling that many people nowadays don't judge the music on its own terms and let their earlier opinions and thoughts on the album and the era colour the perception of the song.

For me it is a little copy of Don’t cry (GNR)

 

[redandtheblack92]

TXF is the dictionary definition of a drag. Nearly every song has the tempo of a dead tortoise and additionally, how many extended bass intros does one album actually need?

Well the entire album does have a very dull & gloomy vibe not denying that but I think the tracks are pretty catchy. This again is subjective & so our opinions may clash

 

[Dick Brucinson]

You also could have asked him when are they ever going to play Alexander the Great live...

Or simply what he thinks of my artist name Dick Brucinson.

 

[Manic Gers]

I disagree with a lot of the takes regarding Wasting Love in this thread.

It's un-Maiden? How so? Twin lead guitars, soaring vocals in the chorus. There are multiple half-ballads in their career including Remember Tomorrow and Children Of The Damned.

It's musically far more interesting than your typical power-ballad from the same time frame. The acoustic interlude is also used as a crushing riff before the solo. The final chorus with the additional solo is also awesome. The lyrics are great as well.

I guarantee that if this song was on an earlier album its reception would've been entirely different. I have the feeling that many people nowadays don't judge the music on its own terms and let their earlier opinions and thoughts on the album and the era colour the perception of the song.

I suspect the problem isn't a case of 'judge the music' as much as 'judge the lyrics'.

By the time FOTD rolled around, Maiden fans had a clear idea of what they liked about Maiden and surely that must have included the lyrics. 'Wasting Love' exemplifies the album's lyrics generally - I've just listened to the album for the first time in ages....and I'm still not interested in hearing Bruce waffle on about Robert Maxwell / motorbikes / the AIDS epidemic / football / lost childhood / unsatisfactory sexual encounters etc etc

More than happy to hear him sing about 'Fear Of The Dark' though! (also he doesn't sound like Shirley Bassey on that track)

I'm not convinced that Wasting Love (or a song like it - lyrically it is 1992 personified) would fit in on an earlier Maiden album *musically* although I take your point that maybe it could. But lyrically? Not really.

 

[TheMercenary]

The Metal Voice is comparing 'The Mandrake Project' with 'Invincible Shield'.

 

[Terry1958]

I have never cared about rings (I am married and do not have one as we did not exchange rings), but I wonder where did Bruce’s previous wedding rings go? Were they melted and are now an appendix in Black Bart? Have they been added to a plane simulator at Caerdav?

In the end maybe they are all one ring? It is possible to remodel them and even change the metal. So, good news: If eternity should fail, there's no need to panic about how to get rid of all the rings!

I wonder if I could ask him that at an autograph session?

 

[Iron Lurker]

The Metal Voice is comparing 'The Mandrake Project' with 'Invincible Shield'.

Kind of apples and oranges but whatever

 

[Melony]

By the way, in the editorial of Rock Hard magazine it says how infectious Bruce's enthusiasm for "The Mandrake Project" was and that many scheduled interviews took longer than planned, but that he gave up his lunch break for them without grumbling.
You really have to give him a 10 out of 10 for his hard work in promoting the album.

 

[Nomadd]

By the way, in the editorial of Rock Hard magazine it says how infectious Bruce's enthusiasm for "The Mandrake Project" was and that many scheduled interviews took longer than planned, but that he gave up his lunch break for them without grumbling.
You really have to give him a 10 out of 10 for his hard work in promoting the album.

Yeah! Great work, the album hasn't been released in Japan so far - I patiently checked the main release schedule of the albums in Japan this March - no Bruce's album. Finally, he achieved what he wanted down here in Europe and Britain. The Mandrake Project had a bigger promotional rush than Senjutsu, but in 2021 we faced pandemic restrictions and a social distance policy

 

[CA Bryers]

Found it on a Facebook metal group.

View attachment 34787

Opposite for me. I gave it another listen right after maybe my fourth listen of Mandrake, and there's just no contest. The title track is great on Blaze's, but the album overall is so trapped in the Blaze/Absolva sound and there's barely any divergence into new territory. The little bagpipe intro track for "Circle of Stone" is about it. I feel like I've heard it before, and done better to boot. Definitely a step down from War Within Me, IMO.

Bruce swings and misses a good few times on Mandrake, but I certainly didn't spend the majority of the album thinking, "ugh, I've heard this before," like I did with CoS. And don't get me wrong, I love Blaze solo, and even this lineup has done some great albums. But Mandrake wins solidly for variety, a bit of experimentation, and some great songs...even if my final ranking puts it behind the rest of his Z collaborations.

 

[Vaenyr]

I suspect the problem isn't a case of 'judge the music' as much as 'judge the lyrics'.

By the time FOTD rolled around, Maiden fans had a clear idea of what they liked about Maiden and surely that must have included the lyrics. 'Wasting Love' exemplifies the album's lyrics generally - I've just listened to the album for the first time in ages....and I'm still not interested in hearing Bruce waffle on about Robert Maxwell / motorbikes / the AIDS epidemic / football / lost childhood / unsatisfactory sexual encounters etc etc

More than happy to hear him sing about 'Fear Of The Dark' though! (also he doesn't sound like Shirley Bassey on that track)

I'm not convinced that Wasting Love (or a song like it - lyrically it is 1992 personified) would fit in on an earlier Maiden album *musically* although I take your point that maybe it could. But lyrically? Not really.

Because Maiden never had written songs of questionable quality up to that point? Like Charlotte? Let me quote a verse in the case you forgot:

Giving a swish with your arse in the air
Don't you know what they're saying?
Charlotte, you're so refined
When you take all the love that they're giving
Sticking with every man that you find
Don't you know what they're after?
Charlotte, you've got your legs in the air
Don't you hear all the laughter?

There are plenty of songs on the first couple of albums, as well as some that came later like Quest For Fire, To Tame A Land, Alexander The Great or a lot of the material on No Prayer For The Dying that have been criticized for their lyrics throughout the years. The lyrics for Wasting Love are genuinely well written in my opinion:

Maybe one day I'll be an honest man
Up 'til now I'm doing the best I can
Long roads, long days
Of sunrise to sunset, of sunrise to sunset
Dream on, brothers, while you can
Dream on, sisters, I hope you find the one
All of our lives covered up quickly
By the tides of time

I'll give you Robert Maxwell, motorbikes (though it's a Charlotte sequel) and football, but what's the issue with songs about the AIDS epidemic, lost childhood (even though that one's a bit more generally about problems of the world) or the general concept of Wasting Love? Characterizing it as simply being about "unsatisfactory sexual encounters" is almost misleading. What about being home sick due to being on tour like Wasted Years? Why is that "okay"?

Don't get me wrong, there is no right or wrong on this and you are entitled to your opinion. I just pointed a few things out because I found the criticism to be somewhat unfounded, but if you really feel that way then that's valid.

 

[AncientMariner_Essex]

Fillers:
Fear is he Key

No way is that song filler

 

[Manic Gers]

Because Maiden never had written songs of questionable quality up to that point? Like Charlotte? Let me quote a verse in the case you forgot:


There are plenty of songs on the first couple of albums, as well as some that came later like Quest For Fire, To Tame A Land, Alexander The Great or a lot of the material on No Prayer For The Dying that have been criticized for their lyrics throughout the years. The lyrics for Wasting Love are genuinely well written in my opinion:


I'll give you Robert Maxwell, motorbikes (though it's a Charlotte sequel) and football, but what's the issue with songs about the AIDS epidemic, lost childhood (even though that one's a bit more generally about problems of the world) or the general concept of Wasting Love? Characterizing it as simply being about "unsatisfactory sexual encounters" is almost misleading. What about being home sick due to being on tour like Wasted Years? Why is that "okay"?

Don't get me wrong, there is no right or wrong on this and you are entitled to your opinion. I just pointed a few things out because I found the criticism to be somewhat unfounded, but if you really feel that way then that's valid.

I agree about Charlotte (and would add 22 Acacia Avenue, among others) - one of the worst lyrics by any band ever. Now I'm no longer 13 years old, it absolutely makes me cringe.

I'm not trying to make a case for Maiden being great poets, they've always had bad lyrics scattered through their catalogue. I suppose my point is that Fear Of The Dark seemed to me to be a whole album of bad lyrics. Also, 'Wasting Love' would be a good lyric on an album like 'Tattooed Millionaire' - but on a Maiden album it just isn't what I am looking for (nor, I suspect, were many fans circa 1992).

I did think about 'Wasted Years' vs 'Wasting Love' when I made my original comment. What makes it different? I think 'Wasted Years' has a lyric which is personal to the writer but communicates incredibly effectively with the audience - a highlight of what I would call Maiden's 'outward looking' years. By the 1990s, their lyrics strike me as increasingly 'inward looking' (perhaps even self indulgent). It's as if they couldn't work out what they wanted to say anymore and the lyrics became a bit more navel gazing as a result (I'm finding it a bit difficult to explain my meaning properly, so please forgive me!).

Another example might be 'Aces High' (or 'Where Eagles Dare') vs 'Afraid To Shoot Strangers' (a 1992 song which I do like). Perhaps I have faulty expectations of what a war-obsessed Maiden song should be, but the 'Strangers' lyric seems ponderous against Maiden's previous standards. It's as if Maiden wanted to have something IMPORTANT to say for the 1990s but didn't have the necessary tools as writers (at that time) to express it effectively. Fortunately, I'd say they rectified this by the time of AMOLAD.

Despite that, I do get a slight glow of nostalgia from that album after all these years - glad you're still loving it! There's enough variety in Maiden's discography to keep us all happy!