Adrian Smith

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
If I recall correctly (probably not) the guy that posted it said that he could only really isolate Adrian, as Janick & Dave were both in the same mix/channel. But Zare sounds like he/she knows a bit more about all this than me...

Either way, I think all harrisdevot is saying, is that it isn't perfect. Not that we should expect it to be, since it's live. Most guitarists listen to albums, try & play rhythm & lead parts & (if you're pretty average), don't quite sound like their idols. Two problems with this. One, on an album, leads (for example) are recorded on their own; & guys often have loads of attempts. Secondly, the whole sound of an album is a professional mix, with lovely studio effects. It's hard to replicate either of these, even if you are a great guitarist, if you don't have professional effects. So... when you get to hear just the guitar track from a live performance it's encouraging to hear that it isn't that unlike your own playing. That's what I think, anyway...
 
I think we're all aware of this and that is why I think that you can only be disappointed if you know that somebody did not do their best to play well. We do not know that. What we do know is that on this particular gig there were multiple PA problems and for many hours it was not even clear whether there was going to be a show. The guys had spent hours backstage, went on stage at 2am and were under huge psychological pressure. These are not excuses, these are circumstances.
 
No, he'd do it for free! :p

Of course it's biased! I never claimed I was objective.

EDIT: Something tells me I'll regret this post one day. :D
 
I liked hearing this bit of RiR, warts and all. Like Ariana, I never claim to be wholly objective, but the historian in mean strives for that. I still think he plays well, but considering the circumstances (thanks Ariana) and the fact we cannot hear the other two guitarists, I think it's a bit rash to say "Eh, Adrian sucks" (especially based on one performance). Knowing what a perfectionist he is, he probably wasn't pleased that night and even moreso that this video is up on YouTube. As for not playing much on songs he had no real part in creating (Sign of the Cross, Fear of the Dark, etc.), we must remember that this was still somewhat early in the reunion and perhaps his was not familiar with them and thus content to let the others carry the load. I also don't think he much cared for the Maiden songs from the 90s (FoTD is an exception). He made a comment around the time of the Ed Hunter Tour that the songs the pulled from the 90s were "the best of the lot" or some other disparaging remark. On RiR, one thing Adrian did try to introduce into the Maiden sound was the drop tuning you'll hear on a few songs (I think Run To The Hills was one particular example). I think he's playing "The Molossian"- the Jackson King V with the bass string on it. To me, it sounded great, especially on the songs he didn't have much of a part to play, so he changed up the sound for those songs. It didn't continue, though, as I think it ran too close to Steve's bass range and that's a no-no. ;)

Now, by way of comparison and possibly setting myself of for a lynching, I don't care for how his guitar sounds on LAD. I know- blasphemy! I'm not talking about his playing, which is very good, but rather the excessive overdrive and "gritty" tone, especially when he solos. He's cut back on that since, thank goodness. You can't really hear the naturally beautiful tone of his Les Paul or the Lado, IMO. Instead of watching LAD and being a bit mesmerized by H in concert (I'm a dude and it still happens to me), just put the CD on and listen, instead. Compare it to Dave's cleaner sound. Perhaps the bad tone could be attributed to burnout at that point in the World Slavery tour, perhaps it got mixed wrong from the get-go, or maybe he just wanted his sound to be that dirty. Now, the other comparison to make with RiR is En Vivo!. Personally, I think it contains some of Adrian's best playing. And, he's also uncharacteristically "out there" in terms of his fills, riffs, and added bits. Normally, he just plays the songs as is, nothing added. On En Vivo!, he jumps into the empty spaces of songs with some brilliant licks and fills, he adds some subtle texturing to other songs (slight chords or a variation in tone), and his rhythm playing seems crunchier than usual (WTWWB, for example). Everything is spot-on: tone, sound, playing, solos, rhythm, etc. Like a fine wine, he's getting better with age!
 
"Bass string on it"? --I'm pretty sure he's just playing his regular guitar(s) with the E string tuned to D --he even talks (in the video posted above) about how his (now signature) Jackson can be D-tuned & the intonation is still great. There is nothing complicated about this & it's nowhere near Steve (--although I realise you were kidding.) All he's doing is allowing one chord to be played down an octave (D). Or did I miss something?

I think the words you were searching for were: Dave's better sound! :D

Also, nobody said he sucks --but there's three other guitarists on stage too; one of them certainly his equal (--but let's not get into that here, in this H love thread...)

Lastly, I'll watch LaD & be mesmerized by Dave instead then! :p
 
I read it in a paper mag back in the day but here a 1999 interview with Bruce:
http://losferwords.free.fr/1999_!!_ill17_uk_itv.htm

As far as your solo band is that on hold or over for now?
It’s on the back burner because I want to commit all my time and resources to the Maiden album. There will be a natural space that develops when I can make a new studio record for my solo stuff. The dynamic is completely different from making a Maiden record. I come out here to LA for two weeks and write a record with Roy (Z-guitarist/producer). Chemical Wedding took 2 weeks and Accident At Birth was done in 10 days. You have a couple people who are fearless about their ideas and they don’t mind throwing stuff away and you get this great energy going and you wind up creating something natural.. Chemical Wedding was s struggle because I wanted to exceed Accident At Birth. That album was deliberately retro. I drew a line in the sand and it was everything I had ever down summed up in one record. There’s nothing on Accident At Birth that I had never done but it just came at a time where it sounded fresh. So having done that I sat back and thought that everyone would be pleased if I did the same again but then people would think it was all I was capable of doing. Chemical Wedding started as a sonic solution where Roy came along with these guitars that were de-tuned and using bass strings so the sound was immense and so we stared writing songs. I got the idea of writing an album about alchemy so I started looking at lots of pictures and books and about 3-4 songs into the album I hit a wall and was bored with it. It wasn’t a history lesson, it’s rock ‘n roll, and the songs were starting to sound like shopping lists. One of the figures who kept popping up was William Blake, loads of stuff on Blake with pictures and poems. I went to the book store and got some books on Blake and I was hit by a runaway train. It was like a whole book of heavy metal lyrics. I started really researching Blake and it was like the muse for the album.. Yes, it was about alchemy, but it was also about Blake and his ideology and his internal demons and his mythology. He created demons, and infernal places where he was a prisoner of his creativity. It was great stuff. I looked at the album as a vision and I finished it all up in a couple weeks. I was really happy singing this stuff, it was constructive, it blew my head off. I got a really nice letter from the William Blake Society in England who operate out of his old house on South Bolton Street where he had the vision of the ghost of the flea which is the album cover. I never did get around to seeing them but they loved the words to the album and felt it was a faithful interpretation true to his spirit. That really meant a lot to me.

CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
I was referring to Maiden.
Click to expand...
It's not unlikely that H tried it for Maiden, is it? (I haven't noticed myself though but I wasn't looking for it either; I assume Chris is more into that).

But Adrian is still playing downtuned bits in Maiden, I'm 100% sure of that (bass strings or no bass strings).
He referred to it in a relatively recent interview. So I believe the following is not correct if we're purely speaking of the tuning here:
Chris R. said:
It didn't continue, though, as I think it ran too close to Steve's bass range and that's a no-no. ;)
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top