Pibroch_Whistler
Educated Fool
Fortunes of War is one of Maiden's better live performances IMHO - the entire song is constructed for and fits Blaze's voice perfectly.
Live versions of Fortunes of War are interesting from a Steve Harris bass-playing standpoint.
I don't remember many other instances where he holds two bass guitars at once.
1:54
It's great! Listen also to Nicko's drumming during the instrumental section - just wow.Murray's lead guitar during the intro sounded so powerful live!
You are right in all your remarks φιλε. However the thing that almost brings me to frustration is that the intro is a tasteless rip off of the Afraid melody, the pre/post solo melodies are a re-hash of the Wasting love melody, while the drums do nothing at all. Most of TXF should have never seen the light of day in my opinion.This one foreshadowed a style of Maiden song that would start appearing far more often in the reunion era.
We get a quiet intro with some interesting melodies. We also get to hear Blaze's approach for more reserved singing. They should've tried to get more performances because he definitely could've delivered something better than what we ultimately got.
The song settles in a mid-tempo groove with some interruptions here and there for Steve's acoustic bass. We also get some lead guitar over it as it goes on as well as countermelodies on the keyboards on the later repetitions. It's not terribly exciting and drags the song down in my opinion.
The verse continues with the same tempo until we get the first variation of the chorus. Just like the previous song, it's not bad, but it's not great either. In a sense it is worse for art to bore you than it is to elicit a negative response, in my opinion. If a song sucks I can talk and rant about it, but if it's just boring it'll only lead to apathy, which I find disappointing.
With that out of the way, the song gets better once we get to the instrumental section with twin leads in octave and a much faster pace. This smoothly leads into the solo section with some gallops in the rhythm, while Janick delivers some tasteful shredding (for his standards). Dave's solo tone here is pretty weird and I never liked it to be honest. The solo itself is inoffensive and before you think about it it's already over. We get a fast variation of the chorus (something Dream Of Mirrors would do a handful of years later as well). Then, another sing-along section, which feels kinda forced, before returning to the slower version of the chorus again. A reprise of the intro again (how post-reunion of them!) and Steve couldn't help himself from reprising the acoustic bass riff as well.
A 6 is the best I can muster. There are some cool ideas, but the whole thing feels pretty undercooked and could've been cut or rewritten into something better.