Bruce Dickinson

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chaosapiant said:
Who writes most of Bruce Dickinson's solo stuff? Is it Roy Z and Bruce just writes lyrics and sings over it? Or does Bruce also have his own riff ideas and such? As much as I adore all of Bruce's solo work, I'm not a fan of the ego behind artists having a "solo project" where they write less than half of the material.
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According to Bruce's book Roy writes most of music and arrangements, while Bruce writes vocal melodies and Lyrics. At least AOB was written like that. I would assume same with H's contributions.
 
Edington said:
I assume that means Bruce had little involvement with the music and just wrote lyrics and melodies to Roy's songs.
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Melodies are music, right? You could say Roy probably just writes the riffs and has little to no involvement with melodies, lyrics and the whole concept of the albums. That said, I hope Bruce creates a great new solo-album f*cking!!!
 
jazz from hell said:
Melodies are music, right? You could say Roy probably just writes the riffs and has little to no involvement with melodies, lyrics and the whole concept of the albums.
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I meant the vocal melodies, but there's no reason Bruce couldn't have come up with some of the guitar melodies/harmonised parts. It's probably true the Bruce comes up with the concept of the albums too, the idea of basing The Chemical Wedding around William Blake's work seemed to be solely his idea.

jazz from hell said:
a great new solo-album f*cking.
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I don't wanna know what this involves...
 
I wish Bruce would gather all his (main) guitar players and songwriters over the years for his next (last?) solo album, that is Janick, Roy Z, Alex Dickson and H. Something like Slash's 2010 album would suit me perfectly. :)
 
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The new album should've been there instead of Maiden England cabaret tour, it could have had Adrian on it, and his riffs that ended up on PRR record. Right now it seems to be TOS 2.0 which, no matter how much i like it, is a run of the mill album for Bruce. TCW was a band effort and the band was out there to prove something (at least Bruce, Roy and Adrian). Tyranny, on the other hand, is based on styles already established by AoB/TCW, not being heavier than those albums, directly using sounds from TCW, using material that was written for another project (w Halford/Tate), and recalling some themes and melodies from Skunkworks era (Devil on a Hog). It's a fan only album. Perhaps Bruce doesn't have an urge to write albums that don't break new grounds. Maybe he doesn't want to release just another BD/Z record 15 years after.

The sad truth comes down to it, maybe the material they have feels generic to Bruce and he isn't that keen to release it. Especially after knowing it's gonna be in news due to the 15 year gap.
 
Zare said:
The new album should've been there instead of Maiden England cabaret tour, it could have had Adrian on it, and his riffs that ended up on PRR record. Right now it seems to be TOS 2.0 which, no matter how much i like it, is a run of the mill album for Bruce. TCW was a band effort and the band was out there to prove something (at least Bruce, Roy and Adrian). Tyranny, on the other hand, is based on styles already established by AoB/TCW, not being heavier than those albums, directly using sounds from TCW, using material that was written for another project (w Halford/Tate), and recalling some themes and melodies from Skunkworks era (Devil on a Hog). It's a fan only album. Perhaps Bruce doesn't have an urge to write albums that don't break new grounds. Maybe he doesn't want to release just another BD/Z record 15 years after.

The sad truth comes down to it, maybe the material they have feels generic to Bruce and he isn't that keen to release it. Especially after knowing it's gonna be in news due to the 15 year gap.
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Maybe Bruce and Adrian want to save their best material for the band that pays the bills.
 
Zare said:
The new album should've been there instead of Maiden England cabaret tour, it could have had Adrian on it, and his riffs that ended up on PRR record.
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The Maiden England tour was going to happen, no matter what, and Bruce et al. knew this by 2009. Around that time Adrian was busy working on Primal Rock Rebellion, so I do not think he would have contributed to a Bruce solo album (in the same way as he did not contribute to Tyranny of Souls).

If I am not mistaken, Bruce only started working on the solo album with Roy Z in March 2013 (I think they wrote 6 songs for it). Maiden touring commitments leave plenty of time to work on solo stuff, but since he started his aviation company it seems that the latter takes more of his time and energy when he is not touring or recording with Maiden.

Zare said:
Right now it seems to be TOS 2.0 which, no matter how much i like it, is a run of the mill album for Bruce. TCW was a band effort and the band was out there to prove something (at least Bruce, Roy and Adrian). Tyranny, on the other hand, is based on styles already established by AoB/TCW, not being heavier than those albums, directly using sounds from TCW, using material that was written for another project (w Halford/Tate), and recalling some themes and melodies from Skunkworks era (Devil on a Hog). It's a fan only album. Perhaps Bruce doesn't have an urge to write albums that don't break new grounds. Maybe he doesn't want to release just another BD/Z record 15 years after.
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You make some very valid points here. Out of all the Bruce albums with Roy Z, Tyranny of Souls is the one that feels more like a run of the mill album to me. Perhaps it has something to do with it being recorded the way it was (i.e. Roy Z playing most things and session musicians filling in when needed, rather than working on it as a band). Sure, it has some great songs (Tyranny of Souls, the song that was written for the shelved project with Halford and Tate, is outstanding and Kill Devil Hill, Navigate the Seas of the Sun, River of no Return and Believil are also top drawer material) but also some pedestrian generic metal tracks. I might be alone in thinking this, but to me Devil on a Hog reminds me more the material off Tattooed Millionaire than Skunkworks.

Zare said:
The sad truth comes down to it, maybe the material they have feels generic to Bruce and he isn't that keen to release it. Especially after knowing it's gonna be in news due to the 15 year gap.
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That could well be the case, although it seems that Bruce was surprised there was such an appetite for a new solo album when he started doing book shows. Now it remains to be seen if all the talk about a new album really translates into the album really being finished and released.
 
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Zare said:
The new album should've been there instead of Maiden England cabaret tour, it could have had Adrian on it, and his riffs that ended up on PRR record. Right now it seems to be TOS 2.0 which, no matter how much i like it, is a run of the mill album for Bruce. TCW was a band effort and the band was out there to prove something (at least Bruce, Roy and Adrian). Tyranny, on the other hand, is based on styles already established by AoB/TCW, not being heavier than those albums, directly using sounds from TCW, using material that was written for another project (w Halford/Tate), and recalling some themes and melodies from Skunkworks era (Devil on a Hog). It's a fan only album. Perhaps Bruce doesn't have an urge to write albums that don't break new grounds. Maybe he doesn't want to release just another BD/Z record 15 years after.

The sad truth comes down to it, maybe the material they have feels generic to Bruce and he isn't that keen to release it. Especially after knowing it's gonna be in news due to the 15 year gap.
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I think you have nailed it. In other words, better no new album than an average new album (and I think TOS was not indispensable however pleased I was to have a new album to listen to. But such cobbled together, overtly protooled and poorly promoted album is probably not good enough for a justified megalomaniac like Bruce).
 
I would love to hear a new single from him at least. Releasing singles without an album would be a pretty unusual thing to do by Bruce, though.
 
KidInTheDark666 said:
I would love to hear a new single from him at least. Releasing singles without an album would be a pretty unusual thing to do by Bruce, though.
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"Eternal" (first released worldwide on Scream For Me Sarajevo) could have functioned as one for those who hadn't heard it on the Japanese edition of TOS. Still, the Internet has made fans more of completists than they ever used to be, so I guess it hasn't been a "surprise new song" for many people. ;)
 
GhostofCain said:
I might be alone in thinking this, but to me Devil on a Hog reminds me more the material off Tattooed Millionaire than Skunkworks.
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That's true. Is there any doubt about that? :huh:
KidInTheDark666 said:
I would love to hear a new single from him at least. Releasing singles without an album would be a pretty unusual thing to do by Bruce, though.
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If I'm not mistaken, ''Abduction'' was released as a single from the TOS album.
 
Kalata said:
That's true. Is there any doubt about that? :huh:
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It's a way better track than anything on TM though. If it didn't have such a stupid title it would get more notice, probably my favourite track on the record (I can't choose between it and kill devill hill and navigate the seas of the sun)
 
KidInTheDark666 said:
Oh yeah, I meant that it would be cool but unusual for him to release a separate single that won't be a part of any album
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''Broken'' was also released as a single and it's not part of any album aside from the compilation album The Best Of Bruce Dickinson.
 
srfc said:
It's a way better track than anything on TM though.
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Agree. I think Bruce had said that the only worth song on the Tattooed Millionaire album is ''Born In '58'' The only song he had played live after the album tour is the title track.

My favorite songs on the TOS album are ''Abduction'' and ''Power Of The Sun''.
 
srfc said:
Born in 58 and Son of a Gun are great tracks and the title track is harmless fun, the rest is pretty disposable.
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I wish they had played "Gypsy Road" and "Hell on Wheels" better on Dive! Dive! Live!. These renditions are disappointing (much too fast) compared to the studio versions, in my opinion.
 
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