Bruce Dickinson

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Confeos said:
And if I remember correctly, Bruce has said that, basically, Steve's only contribution to the Maiden song was naming it "The Wicker Man" (and perhaps doing a bit of arranging), meaning that Adrian probably wrote the music and Bruce the lyrics (I'll see if I can find a source for it).
So, with a different title, it sounds pretty likely it would've featured on a third Bruce-album in an alternate timeline :)
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Well Wicker Man for me was always some kind of Road To Hell part II musically.
 
Confeos said:
And if I remember correctly, Bruce has said that, basically, Steve's only contribution to the Maiden song was naming it "The Wicker Man" (and perhaps doing a bit of arranging), meaning that Adrian probably wrote the music and Bruce the lyrics (I'll see if I can find a source for it).
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I'm pretty sure he mentions this in "The Voice of Crube", the talkie bit on his "Best of".
 
Jer said:
Bruce had commented that Skunkworks as a band was kind of coming apart creatively and wouldn’t have lasted much longer. If you listen to the Sack Trick albums those guys went off and did you can understand why that might have been the case. I’m sure the commercial failure of the album didn’t help, either.

If they’d stayed together I’m concerned that the music would have taken on some more bizarre qualities, a la Sack Trick or Mr. Bungle. Stuff like “Americans Are Behind”. Might have been interesting, but not satisfying. But in the alternate reality where the bandmates were still interested in their original direction, it could have been tremendous.

I still think Skunkworks has some of Bruce’s very best songs, and “Strange Death In Paradise” is my personal favorite.
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Thanks @Jer . I agree, Skunksworks works as a stand alone in his discography and it stands alone. Very different from his other output, but still very fulfilling. He rarely gets personal ever, but here he does and boy did that end quickly.
 
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Jer said:
A discussion in the setlist thread about what we know a third Blaze-era Maiden album would have contained in an alternate universe got me wondering the same thing about a third Bruce / Adrian / Roy Z. album if it had happened in 2000 or 2001 without Bruce and Adrian returning to Iron Maiden.

We know that “Believil” and “A Tyranny Of Souls” had come out of the writing sessions for what would have been The Three Tremors / Trinity, so these songs would have definitely been in the mix. Let’s assume “Broken” and “Silver Wings” would be in there too. The rest of the TOS songs were demoed in 2003, so they wouldn’t be in play.

Looking at the songs Bruce and Adrian contributed for Brave New World, we can probably assume variants of at least “The Wicker Man” and “The Fallen Angel” would have shown up on this one.

And stretching a bit further, we know that Adrian already had “Savage World” and “Search For Bliss” written before he originally met Mikee Goodman in 2006/2007 (which led to the Primal Rock Rebellion project in 2012), so let’s guess that he’d had those kicking around for a while since they never would have made it onto a Maiden album. Maybe they already existed in 2001...?

So what does that give us?

Bruce Dickinson - Savage World (2001)

1. The Wicker Man
2. Broken
3. Savage World
4. Believil
5. The Fallen Angel
6. Silver Wings
7. Search For Bliss
8. A Tyranny Of Souls

...and probably another new song or two thrown in there somewhere.

Definitely a very different feel from the Tyranny Of Souls album we got in this timeline. I wonder how folks would have reacted to this one, and what Bruce would have done with the vocals on the PRR tracks...?
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And fuck you're good at Pondering!
 
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Confeos said:
And if I remember correctly, Bruce has said that, basically, Steve's only contribution to the Maiden song was naming it "The Wicker Man" (and perhaps doing a bit of arranging), meaning that Adrian probably wrote the music and Bruce the lyrics (I'll see if I can find a source for it).
Click to expand...

I'd guess the final woah oh oh section is Steve's.
 
Jer said:
Bruce had commented that Skunkworks as a band was kind of coming apart creatively and wouldn’t have lasted much longer. If you listen to the Sack Trick albums those guys went off and did you can understand why that might have been the case. I’m sure the commercial failure of the album didn’t help, either.

If they’d stayed together I’m concerned that the music would have taken on some more bizarre qualities, a la Sack Trick or Mr. Bungle. Stuff like “Americans Are Behind”. Might have been interesting, but not satisfying. But in the alternate reality where the bandmates were still interested in their original direction, it could have been tremendous.

I still think Skunkworks has some of Bruce’s very best songs, and “Strange Death In Paradise” is my personal favorite.
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According to Jack Endino, there was a lot of compromising on the Skunkworks album. Bruce wanted it to be more Sabbathy while the others were pushing in a different direction. I do not think a second album would have worked, with one band member wanted to go in a heavier direction the rest were not into.

I quite like the album and agree with @Jer that Strange Death in Paradise is an absolute gem of a song!
 
GhostofCain said:
According to Jack Endino, there was a lot of compromising on the Skunkworks album. Bruce wanted it to be more Sabbathy while the others were pushing in a different direction. I do not think a second album would have worked, with one band member wanted to go in a heavier direction the rest were not into.

I quite like the album and agree with @Jer that Strange Death in Paradise is an absolute gem of a song!
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More Sabbathy, interesting.
I think he also mentioned Soundgarden often during this period. Oh yeah, the Fastgarden and Slowgarden songs are the mentions I mean.
Skunkworks was definitely the alternative album of his, he also always said people would get it in 20 years, which I don't think is the case.
I really enjoy his lyrics on the album as well. He never really went back to those personal lyrics again.
 
Black Bart said:
Let's say, not after "Accident of Birth", released one year later. It kind of represents a transition between the era of personal lyrics and the return of the "war dragon's tongue in cheek" lyrics.
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The lyrics from that album and subsequent releases (with or without Maiden) might not be as personal as some off Skunkworks or Tears of the Dragon, but have a lot of depth and different layers, and are much more than "war dragon's tongue-in-cheek" lyrics.

I recommend Brigitte Schön's book (Bruce Dickinson Insights) for an in-depth scholar analysis of Bruce's lyrics. Really interesting read.
 
GhostofCain said:
The lyrics from that album and subsequent releases (with or without Maiden) might not be as personal as some off Skunkworks or Tears of the Dragon, but have a lot of depth and different layers, and are much more than "war dragon's tongue-in-cheek" lyrics.

I recommend Brigitte Schön's book (Bruce Dickinson Insights) for an in-depth scholar analysis of Bruce's lyrics. Really interesting read.
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I was referring more to the themes than to the quality of the lyrics itself. ;)
 
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