Bruce Dickinson

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While I was looking for more info about the 20 songs which Roy presented to Bruce for the Tyranny Of Souls album (and Bruce used only 8 of them), I found this interesting interview with Roy from 2005:

www.bookofhours.net

Bruce Dickinson

www.bookofhours.net

Some curious things:

Roy and Bruce wrote a bunch of stuff right after TCW album, but they did not use much of it for TOS.

Roy had 6 demos in 2001 (for the next solo album). Out of all the songs they wrote, they used only ''Broken'' and ''Silver Wings'' for the The Best Of album. They still have some stuff from that timeperiod put away but the ones they ended up using were ''Believil'' and ''Tyranny Of Souls''.

They have started the writing sessions for TOS album in 2003. Roy loves to write songs.

''Eternal'' was originally to be part of TOS, but at the very last minute they decided to not include it.

According to Roy, maybe ''Eternal'' and ''Believil'' were also part of the ''Trinity'' project.

Roy's favorite songs from TOS album are probably ''Soul Intruders'' and ''Believil''. He likes them all.

There was quite a few acoustic stuff in those 20 songs for TOS.

Roy's favorite solos in TOS album are the ones in ''Soul Intruders'' and ''Navigate The Seas Of The Sun''.

They lost some mean, mean songs during AOB and TCW that just were not in the right key.

Roy said that Adrian is a unique talent, he plays so melodic, he writes incredible lead lines and he is brilliant. He can't play like him.
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I wonder if they will use some of those 20 songs for the new album... oh, and please no intros like ''Mars Within'', we need a proper song to fill the space. But since it will be half of a concept album, I guess there will be.

Another cool interview from 2001:


^ Roy would have liked to do an extension of TCW, a next phase.

Roy thinks AOB is the closest to the sound of Maiden (I agree).

Roy likes progressive stuff too... maybe we will hear that in the new album.

Bruce wrote the melodies and lyrics of ''Accident Of Birth'' (the song). They both wrote ''Chemical Wedding'' (the song) in less than a whole day.

Bruce didn't liked the original drum sound in AOB.

Roy thinks BTP is a great album (''Cyclops'' and ''Tears Of The Dragon'' are his highlights), but he never liked the production. He wants to remix ''Tears Of The Dragon''.

Roy's favorite sound is the one for TCW album.

Roy, if he's going to produce Maiden: ''Well without saying anything I think the songs are too long. The arrangements needs to be looked at. They try to have too many epics on one album, every song has to be like a grandiose movie. I think its more effective if you have maybe two on the album instead of maybe six. I did like parts of the last album but I like early Maiden. I like two or three albums with Bruce and the first two are incredible. I like more of the punkier stuff. Its heavy but it has got speed, it's fast and the songs are short. I wouldn't change anything, except I would just look at the arrangements and try out different sounds for the guitars. I wouldn't change the drum sound or the bass sound I wouldn't change Bruce but I would update the guitar sound. I would have used those three guitars. I would have turned them into an orchestra''.

Roy's favorite bands are Pink Floyd, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. His favorite guitarists are Schneker and Uli Jon Roth.

Roy: ''My role when I was playing with Bruce was more the young speed gun guy and Adrian was more the phrasing guy. He threw in some licks too. He was picking up licks left and right. I don't know if Adrian is gonna work with us any more so maybe I'm gonna get to a bit more just big leads not to flashy. Cause we were trying to balance it. Its boring if everyone is doing the same thing. It gets boring. I hope Adrian one day does a solo album with instrumentals or whatever and gets to show people cause he is amazing. Great feel. You can't figure out his timing, but its so good''.

P.S. The interviews were such a great read, they are new for me and I thought it will be great to share the curious bits. :)
 
Digging through some old interviews with Bruce, like those:


I thought it will be nice to share the most curious bits here (some new and interesting things for me):

He thinks ''Believil'' sounds a lot like a song from TCW album (I agree, especially if we consider that the song was written in 2001).

According to him, Dave Murray likes AOB very much.

He thinks that AOB is better than SSOASS! (''Everything else after 1986 which I've done with Maiden. If we had made an album like it... I wouldn't have left'').

He thinks that the song ''Broken'' is in a classic Maiden style with a 1985 Maiden type riff and Bruce doing Maiden '85.

According to him, AOB has two really good songs that never made it onto the album - the songs are ''The Ghost Of Cain'' and ''Wicker Man'', I guess.

He enjoyed the AOB recordings the most.


And something about Maiden:

Bruce: ''The X Factor is really pretty similar to the style that we would have written, had I still been in the band''.

He was surprised that ''Flight Of Icarus'' was not included on the Best Of The Beast compilation album.

He likes ''Futureal''.

He thinks ''The Clansman'' is a terrific song.

He thinks BNW is the best sounding Maiden album ever (the interview is from 2000).

Bruce: ''If Steve has an idea that everyone else is unsure of he does back off''.


And a little bonus: He thinks Blaze's Silicon Messiah is a cool album.
 
Kalata said:
He thinks that AOB is better than SSOASS! (''Everything else after 1986 which I've done with Maiden. If we had made an album like it... I wouldn't have left'').
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Thanks, interesting, but I think we should not trust him when it comes to dates. He might well think that ssoass was made in 86.
 
Kalata said:
Bruce: ''The X Factor is really pretty similar to the style that we would have written, had I still been in the band''.
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^ Given what Bruce said here, I tried to come up with an album if he hadn't left:

1.Sign Of The Cross (a Harris solo composition and it fits Bruce's voice just perfect)
2.Lord Of The Flies (a Harris/Gers song and Bruce sings it great)
3.Man On The Edge (Janick with the music and Bruce with the lyrics... I know Blaze is one of the writers, but I run out of songs lol)
4.Blood On The World's Hands (a Harris solo composition again and I think Bruce will sound good on it. The bass solo is mandatory)
5.When The Wild Wind Blows (someone had said that Steve had the demo of the song around FOTD era and if you think about it, the structure of the song is similar to that of ''Fear Of The Dark'' itself)
6.Man Of Sorrows (Bruce had the demo since 1990)
7.The Breeding House (the song was written in 1994 and it's one of the most Maiden-sounding songs of his solo career)
8.Tears Of The Dragon (Bruce presented the song to the band in 1986 and in 1992, iirc)

This would have been a great album. ''Fortunes Of War'' (Harris), ''Judgement Of Heaven'' (Harris), ''The Unbeliever'' (Harris/Gers) and ''Justice Of The Peace'' (Harris/Murray) - I don't think Bruce's voice is suitable for these songs.
 
Kalata said:
^ Given what Bruce said here, I tried to come up with an album if he hadn't left:

1.Sign Of The Cross (a Harris solo composition and it fits Bruce's voice just perfect)
2.Lord Of The Flies (a Harris/Gers song and Bruce sings it great)
3.Man On The Edge (Janick with the music and Bruce with the lyrics... I know Blaze is one of the writers, but I run out of songs lol)
4.Blood On The World's Hands (a Harris solo composition again and I think Bruce will sound good on it. The bass solo is mandatory)
5.When The Wild Wind Blows (someone had said that Steve had the demo of the song around FOTD era and if you think about it, the structure of the song is similar to that of ''Fear Of The Dark'' itself)
6.Man Of Sorrows (Bruce had the demo since 1990)
7.The Breeding House (the song was written in 1994 and it's one of the most Maiden-sounding songs of his solo career)
8.Tears Of The Dragon (Bruce presented the song to the band in 1986 and in 1992, iirc)

This would have been a great album. ''Fortunes Of War'' (Harris), ''Judgement Of Heaven'' (Harris), ''The Unbeliever'' (Harris/Gers) and ''Justice Of The Peace'' (Harris/Murray) - I don't think Bruce's voice is suitable for these songs.
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My dream : the whole The X Factor album sung by Bruce !!! <3
 
MindRuler said:
Is it weird to say my dream would be to hear some Brave New World and Dance Of Death songs sung by Blaze?
Especially Blood Brothers (sounded allready great with Thomas Zwijsen), Dream Of Mirrors, The Fallen Angel, Nomad, No More Lies,...:)
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I share your dream. I also dream of Blaze joining the band for just one song
 
MindRuler said:
Is it weird to say my dream would be to hear some Brave New World and Dance Of Death songs sung by Blaze?
Especially Blood Brothers (sounded allready great with Thomas Zwijsen), Dream Of Mirrors, The Fallen Angel, Nomad, No More Lies,...:)
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Why not ? :) It could be fun and interesting to hear. :cool:
 
TheMercenary said:
My dream : the whole The X Factor album sung by Bruce !!! <3
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It would be interesting and something I definitely want to hear (VXI too), but the songs were written for Blaze's voice and I think the album will be perfect only in its original form.
MindRuler said:
Is it weird to say my dream would be to hear some Brave New World songs sung by Blaze?
Click to expand...
It's curious to hear ''The Nomad'', ''Dream Of Mirrors'', ''The Mercenary'' and ''Blood Brothers'' with Blaze (the songs that were written for the VXI album).
 
Poto said:
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Thanks for sharing !!! :) That's a great cover and Blaze's voice is perfect on this song that Steve has written during Blaze's era !!! <3 <3 <3

That's why I'm really angry about Maiden not doing a third and last album with Blaze Bayley at the time. A record containing Blaze's 'Silicon Messiah' songs such as "Born As A Stranger", "The Brave", "Reach For The Horizon", "The Launch", "Stare At The Sun" plus Maiden's 'Brave New World' tracks such as "The Nomad", "Blood Brothers", "The Mercenary", "Dream Of Mirrors" would have been a real killer album !!! :rocker:
 
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