Are the longer Iron Maiden songs overshadowing the shorter ones?

Stardust

Stardust

Rainmaker
For example, look at the results of the many survivors we had. This year, or should I say last year and this year, only Wasted Years made into the Top 10, and got eliminated at #10. The Trooper, my favorite Iron Maiden song and my favorite song of all time didn't even make the Top 10. You could argue that Wasted Years is not a short song. But it's way shorter than the rest of the Top 10!

I feel that songs like The Evil That Men Do and the already-mentioned The Trooper are better than songs like
Paschendale and Sign Of The Cross. And by the way, about Paschendale. I don't hate it anymore. I actually like the song now. Really much, in fact. Maybe I was just sick from war-themed Iron Maiden songs at that point (I heard it after I heard AMOLAD). It's still not in my Top 30, however.

But back on track. I have a question for you all. Do you like the longer songs better because they have more complex arrangements and due to the fact that they are longer, they get more time to shine which makes then have more highlights. Okay, songs like Phantom Of The Opera and Rime Of The Ancient Mariner are shock-full of highlights. The shorter songs, however have only one or two highlights in them. But the highlights are so great and awesome that it can stand up to the songs with a million highlights.

See it this way: The Trooper is one big highlight and it's a timeless Iron Maiden classic. Rime has a good verse riff that keeps you going, a instrumental section that rivals the instrumental section of Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son.
About these two songs. Have you noticed the similarities in structure between them? Just take a listen and you'll see what I mean. Okay, let's get back on topic!

The one great highlight of The Trooper, which means the entire song is, for me, better than the highlights on Rime. Okay, what would you rather have? One highlight that is so awesome and great that it's not funny or many highlights that are all great? Take your pick.

Yes, I'm sure you all will disagree with me when I say that The Evil That Men Do is better than Paschendale.
And that only proves my point.

This thread may sound useless, and maybe it is, but honestly I don't care. This is my opinion and no one can change it! (cue Journeyman chorus)

Replies are very appreciated however.

Okay, I'll see ya later.
 
I worked out a mean average run-time for my 15 favourite Maiden songs and got 7:21, so in between the run-time lengths of Fear Of The Dark and Caught Somewhere In Time. While my list has WTWWB and Rime, it also has Aces, Evil and Trooper, which balances it out somewhat. Seeing as Fear and CSIT are in my Top 4 songs by Maiden, I think that's pretty accurate to my desired track length. Try it out for yourselves with the tracks you consider your favourites.

Answering the topic, it really comes down to the fact that the songs reaching the midway point like Hallowed, Paschendale, CSIT, Fear etc have a lot more to work with than longer songs, but less to haul than longer songs. If a longer song is handled well like Rime and WTWWB, that's great, and Maiden often know what they're doing when they write longer tracks, but tracks like Dream Of Mirrors suffer from having very boring parts due to their length and having less care and delicacy put into them than more revered Maiden epics.

That's not a gibe at the shorter tracks though. They're great songs and I would consider Aces my favourite Maiden song if you put a gun against my head. However, well-crafted longer songs are often going to revered more than well-crafted shorter songs due to their length. Likewise, poor longer songs are going to be hated more than poor shorter songs.
 
Maiden know how to write great epics. A lot of the time, the highlights on a Maiden album for me are the epics. This isn't always the case, but it's often enough and naturally if I was to compile a top ten, it would be more epic driven because of this.
 
The longer songs often labelled as epics and celebrated for this, but some of the shorter ones are a lot of goodness condensed into a short space, and are distinctive and memorable. I like both The Evil and Paschendale for different reasons.
 
I have to admit that it used to be the case for me. Over time I became more interested in quality songwriting and overall flow of a piece than the amount of ideas thrown into it and it resulted in a growing appreciation for shorter songs. To give you an example, I used to enjoy Flash of the Blade more than The Duellists but when it came to rating the songs, I rated Duellists higher because it features a bigger amount of good musical ideas. Not anymore.

With that being said, my Maiden Top 5 still consists of 5 long songs (Starblind, Rime, Tame, Hallowed, Alexander) They just know how to deliver epic masterpieces.
 
Two thoughts:
1) A lot of bands, Maiden included, can write great short songs. Maiden is one of the few that can consistently write good long songs. It's a big part of what makes them unique and makes us fans.
2) We are psychologically tuned to associate "great," and "best" with being big and profound. It gives the long songs an unfair advantage. :D
 
mckindog said:
2) We are psychologically tuned to associate "great," and "best" with being big and profound. It gives the long songs an unfair advantage.
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You put it better than me, but that's what I was trying to say! There's a lot of adoration of the epics.
 
For me, it's not about how long the track is, but how long I wish the track would be.

If the song ends and I wish it would keep going, that makes it a great track. If the song ends and I think it was just perfect that makes it a superb, top 20 worthy track. If the song ends and I'm not really noticing, it's average. And if the song ends and I'm thankful (Looking at you, Chains of Misery), it's a shite.
 
I agree with what everyone has said already. I will also add that I think Maiden has gotten better at writing epics over the years, to the point where they write better long songs than short ones. A lot of their current short songs sound half-baked or derivative of older material, they don't have as much soul as the epics these days. The fan view that "epics are better" seems to be a symptom of the times.

In the last twenty plus years, we've had very few incredible short songs. Sure, we've had plenty of decent tunes, but only a few truly amazing short songs: Wicker Man, Rainmaker, and Futureal.

When you look at the epics, though, we've had: Isle of Avalon, Starblind, Talisman, When the Wild Wind Blows, The Legacy, For the Greater Good of God, The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg, The Longest Day, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, Paschendale, Dance of Death, No More Lies, Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Dream of Mirrors, Blood Brothers, Ghost of the Navigator, The Clansman, and Sign of the Cross.

There's just no comparison. How can the long songs not overshadow the short songs when there are simply more (and arguably) better long songs being written?
 
Up to FOTD, the epics stood out amongst the shorter rockers and, being rarer, may have been given more respect. Since then, the opposite has been true. Longer songs are the norm.

For me, the earlier epics, even the holy trinity of Rime, Alexander and Seventh Son, all have many structural and musical similarities. The long songs from the last two albums, though, IMO couldn't be any shorter. They are SONGS, which just happen to be 6 or 7 minutes plus long. They fit Loose's just perfect description above.
 
These are my favourite longer songs since 2000 (plus their position in my top 50 (all Maiden songs)):

18. Brave New World
25. Dance of Death
26. Ghost of the Navigator
29. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns
30. Paschendale
33. Isle of Avalon
40. Starblind
42. Lord of Light

I also like Dream of Mirrors and Breeg a lot, and some passages from The Nomad.
 
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I always like the longer songs better, but the shorter songs can also have that epic feel to them. The longer songs feel more epic because they have more parts to them and have a lot more going on.
 
My favourite IM song is Run To The Hills which is a shorter song. I do however like the longer songs a lot however my top 3 IM songs is of the shorter variation.

There are however times when I feel that people love Rime Of The Ancient Mariner just because it's an epic. This is rare but it does happen. I would actually place Rime on the top 5 of my favourite IM songs as it is a masterpiece.
 
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