Bruce Dickinson

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So Bruce just posted Real World & Return of the King on his YouTube page a couple of hours back. Possible songs for the upcoming shows?
 
So Bruce just posted Real World & Return of the King on his YouTube page a couple of hours back. Possible songs for the upcoming shows?
That would be interesting. I suppose “Real World” would sound odd being played in tune, after getting so used to hearing the “oops, we slightly botched the recording so everything sounds a half step higher” version…
 
So Bruce just posted Real World & Return of the King on his YouTube page a couple of hours back. Possible songs for the upcoming shows?
Idk, I think he just uploads all of the bonus songs to his channel. For them to be more noticeable and like part of the actual albums.

For today's show, it looks like they played Road To Hell again and Jerusalem stayed in the set for a second show in a row.
 

Bruce on classic metal albums with some interesting comments:

Deep Purple - In Rock

Classic. Amazing album. Great cover.

Jethro Tull - Aqualung

Amazing, fantastic album. For me, it's his most perfect album. I love a lot of his records, but this was my first album.

The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown - The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown

Maybe not the greatest cover, but one of the great albums for me. One of the first concept albums ever. The best song is 'Fire' and the album is very trippy. One of my favorite vocalists.

AC/DC - Powerage

It's AC/DC — what can I say? — with Bon Scott. And for me, I've gotta say I like what AC/DC are doing now with Brian Johnson, with the latest albums. I like that more than 'Hells Bells' and definitely more than 'For Those About To Rock'. They've kind of taken back control of their sound and changed it slightly to suit Brian's voice. But the first years with Bon, up till the end of 'Highway To Hell' — wow. And that live album, 'If You Want Blood, You've Got It', God, that's just incredible. So, yeah, that lineup. Some of the songs are hard to sing, because Bon had a kind of interesting voice, but it was very, very flexible, his voice. And it was a strange mixture of styles in his voice, but there was some blues in there. He could do really good blues. One of my favorite AC/DC songs, it's called 'Ride On' and it's got this heartbreaking guitar solo. It sounds like he's like channeling Paul Kossoff from FREE in the guitar. I mean, it's great. I love that song.

Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

I was a kid when I got this album. What a great album. What a great comeback album. But, yeah, the first two records are amazing. Well, no, I mean, 'Vol. 4' was incredible as well. What a consistent band. And it's Geezer and Tony. I mean, if you look at all the people, all the different vocalists, not just Ozzy, they've all been great. 'Born Again' [with Ian Gillan on vocals], great album. Everybody goes, 'Oh, forget that one.' No, it's a great album.

Rainbow - Rising

For me, that was the record where I discovered Ronnie Dio on vocals. I was, like, "Who is that voice?' You know? And I was, like, 16 years old, and go, 'What the hell? That's Ritchie Blackmore.' And I didn't know that RAINBOW kind of existed. And it was on a little transistor radio in a garage. And I went, 'That sounds like Ritchie Blackmore.' And I waited till it finished. And the guy said, 'That was RAINBOW and 'Stargazer'. I went, 'Oh, my God.' It's one of the shortest albums ever made. It's like 35 minutes long, the whole album. But it's a classic. I'll take that over a 90-minute-long boring yawn fest. Six really incredible songs that changed the face of music. It really did. That was a game changer. And it gets not enough respect from people outside of the metal world. I loved Graham Bonnet on 'Down To Earth'. I mean, 'Eyes Of The World' is one of my favorite RAINBOW songs, bar none. 'Lost In Hollywood', 'Eyes Of The World'. I mean, 'Since You Been Gone', yeah, okay. But 'Eyes Of The World', to me, is just… Oh, it's fantastic.

Judas Priest - British Steel

What can you say? That's one of their best covers. They had a very mixed… I found their covers confusing. I'm, like, "What is this?' Like 'Point Of Entry'. I was, like, 'What is this?' That one, you know what that is. That's obviously a metal record. It's already got an edge to it. It's got something to it. I actually really started getting into PRIEST when I toured with them. So I was quite a late… I mean, I knew who they were — 'Sad Wings Of Destiny', all that stuff — but I really started to understand what they were about when I toured with them with MAIDEN, and it was on the 'Screaming For Vengeance' tour. God, what a record that was. And then all the stuff before. I mean, Adrian was very into PRIEST, more so than me, but then when I saw them live, I was, like, 'Yeah, these guys are really cool.

Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime

For me, this was one of those records that was unique. Other bands have tried to make such albums, but Mindcrime is just perfect and so intelligent.
 

Bruce on classic metal albums with some interesting comments:

Deep Purple - In Rock

Classic. Amazing album. Great cover.

Jethro Tull - Aqualung

Amazing, fantastic album. For me, it's his most perfect album. I love a lot of his records, but this was my first album.

The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown - The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown

Maybe not the greatest cover, but one of the great albums for me. One of the first concept albums ever. The best song is 'Fire' and the album is very trippy. One of my favorite vocalists.

AC/DC - Powerage

It's AC/DC — what can I say? — with Bon Scott. And for me, I've gotta say I like what AC/DC are doing now with Brian Johnson, with the latest albums. I like that more than 'Hells Bells' and definitely more than 'For Those About To Rock'. They've kind of taken back control of their sound and changed it slightly to suit Brian's voice. But the first years with Bon, up till the end of 'Highway To Hell' — wow. And that live album, 'If You Want Blood, You've Got It', God, that's just incredible. So, yeah, that lineup. Some of the songs are hard to sing, because Bon had a kind of interesting voice, but it was very, very flexible, his voice. And it was a strange mixture of styles in his voice, but there was some blues in there. He could do really good blues. One of my favorite AC/DC songs, it's called 'Ride On' and it's got this heartbreaking guitar solo. It sounds like he's like channeling Paul Kossoff from FREE in the guitar. I mean, it's great. I love that song.

Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

I was a kid when I got this album. What a great album. What a great comeback album. But, yeah, the first two records are amazing. Well, no, I mean, 'Vol. 4' was incredible as well. What a consistent band. And it's Geezer and Tony. I mean, if you look at all the people, all the different vocalists, not just Ozzy, they've all been great. 'Born Again' [with Ian Gillan on vocals], great album. Everybody goes, 'Oh, forget that one.' No, it's a great album.

Rainbow - Rising

For me, that was the record where I discovered Ronnie Dio on vocals. I was, like, "Who is that voice?' You know? And I was, like, 16 years old, and go, 'What the hell? That's Ritchie Blackmore.' And I didn't know that RAINBOW kind of existed. And it was on a little transistor radio in a garage. And I went, 'That sounds like Ritchie Blackmore.' And I waited till it finished. And the guy said, 'That was RAINBOW and 'Stargazer'. I went, 'Oh, my God.' It's one of the shortest albums ever made. It's like 35 minutes long, the whole album. But it's a classic. I'll take that over a 90-minute-long boring yawn fest. Six really incredible songs that changed the face of music. It really did. That was a game changer. And it gets not enough respect from people outside of the metal world. I loved Graham Bonnet on 'Down To Earth'. I mean, 'Eyes Of The World' is one of my favorite RAINBOW songs, bar none. 'Lost In Hollywood', 'Eyes Of The World'. I mean, 'Since You Been Gone', yeah, okay. But 'Eyes Of The World', to me, is just… Oh, it's fantastic.

Judas Priest - British Steel

What can you say? That's one of their best covers. They had a very mixed… I found their covers confusing. I'm, like, "What is this?' Like 'Point Of Entry'. I was, like, 'What is this?' That one, you know what that is. That's obviously a metal record. It's already got an edge to it. It's got something to it. I actually really started getting into PRIEST when I toured with them. So I was quite a late… I mean, I knew who they were — 'Sad Wings Of Destiny', all that stuff — but I really started to understand what they were about when I toured with them with MAIDEN, and it was on the 'Screaming For Vengeance' tour. God, what a record that was. And then all the stuff before. I mean, Adrian was very into PRIEST, more so than me, but then when I saw them live, I was, like, 'Yeah, these guys are really cool.

Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime

For me, this was one of those records that was unique. Other bands have tried to make such albums, but Mindcrime is just perfect and so intelligent.

Thanks for sharing!
 

Bruce on classic metal albums with some interesting comments:

Rainbow - Rising

It's one of the shortest albums ever made. It's like 35 minutes long, the whole album. But it's a classic. I'll take that over a 90-minute-long boring yawn fest. Six really incredible songs that changed the face of music.
Interesting, I wonder how Bruce feels about the length of Maiden albums nowadays. Surely he must feel they are a bit long, just look at the length of The Mandrake Project (59 minutes) compared to Senjutsu (82 minutes).

Personally, I think we could use 1-2 less long Steve epics. Orrr, they could cut some of the shorter songs, which are less interesting than the long songs to me. I’d like another single disc Maiden CD. And the 3 disc vinyl versions of Maiden studio/live albums are a bit too heavy!
 
Interesting, I wonder how Bruce feels about the length of Maiden albums nowadays. Surely he must feel they are a bit long, just look at the length of The Mandrake Project (59 minutes) compared to Senjutsu (82 minutes).
My thought's always been that Bruce got comfortable again in Maiden after getting Brave New World out of the way. His big demand was to get a top-notch producer and make a great-sounding new album. They did that...and then Steve started meddling with the sound shortly after that (not mastering, live sound, yadda, yadda).

Fairly sure it was a case of playing in front of tens of thousands of people again meaning more to him than whatever the albums sounded like anymore (or how long they are). You never heard a peep from him about how the later albums sounded, despite fans and critics certainly noticing a downward trend. So, he likely lets Steve make the albums he wants to make, adds his input, and probably has the attitude of, "oh, this song I wrote isn't going into a Maiden album? That's fine, I'll use it for my next solo album."

Just my armchair (hero ;)) observations of things.
 
Interesting, I wonder how Bruce feels about the length of Maiden albums nowadays. Surely he must feel they are a bit long, just look at the length of The Mandrake Project (59 minutes) compared to Senjutsu (82 minutes).

Personally, I think we could use 1-2 less long Steve epics. Orrr, they could cut some of the shorter songs, which are less interesting than the long songs to me. I’d like another single disc Maiden CD. And the 3 disc vinyl versions of Maiden studio/live albums are a bit too heavy!
Bruce certainly prefers to write shorter and simple in structure songs (Roy too, instant hook; and his solo career has never been about longer and more complex songs, ofc with a few exceptions) and I think he writes that way on purpose, but some of his recent Maiden songs are not short and definitely have a lot of repetition. For AMOLAD he co-wrote the longer songs. Plus when he praises songs from a new Maiden album, he always cites the long songs written/co-written by Steve. He's a vocalist, so that's understandable, but Maiden are just too good with the long songs. I don't want to lose this.

For Maiden I think we should get 1/2 more shorter songs per album for better balance, but the length of the album will increase more. Cut the shorter songs? Please, no. The next album could be a single CD, but it would be normal for Steve to write more (long) songs on his own. He can drop 1 long song for 2 shorter ones, but he prefers to write long and complex songs (complete opposite to TMP songs) and he does that great. Yeah, some of the intros/outros are a bit too long (but they always work and if you remove them the songs lengths would be 7-9 minutes, which was normal for the band in the 80's) and some parts are repeated once or twice more (which seems to be an issue for some fans), but the songs are always interesting, especially instrumental-wise (unlike TMP). And Maiden are with 3 guitarists, we shouldn't forget that plays a role. They would never make an album like TMP (in every aspect), the only one was NPFTD.
My thought's always been that Bruce got comfortable again in Maiden after getting Brave New World out of the way. His big demand was to get a top-notch producer and make a great-sounding new album. They did that...and then Steve started meddling with the sound shortly after that (not mastering, live sound, yadda, yadda). Fairly sure it was a case of playing in front of tens of thousands of people again meaning more to him than whatever the albums sounded like anymore (or how long they are). You never heard a peep from him about how the later albums sounded, despite fans and critics certainly noticing a downward trend. So, he likely lets Steve make the albums he wants to make, adds his input, and probably has the attitude of, "oh, this song I wrote isn't going into a Maiden album? That's fine, I'll use it for my next solo album."
I think you could have a point, Bruce's demands were only for the BNW album, but Steve really let Bruce's creative input more since the Reunion and he co-writes most of the songs. About the sound of the albums, after TMP, I don't think Bruce cares that much.
What you said about Bruce's songs, it's true that he can use them for his solo stuff with some changes. When Bruce gave If Eternity Should Fail to Steve, he disagreed with him that the song needed a second verse and to be longer, but at the same time he said something along the lines of: ''since you want it and like it that way''. The point is, there have to be compromises in a band, especially with the level of Maiden's songwriting. I can't imagine how many great ideas are shelved or can go unused/no further work.
Bruce gets it.
Yep. Eyes Of The World is classic rock/metal/Rainbow. Bruce should write a song with a similar feel for the next solo album. Mistheria will love it (Lost In Hollywood even more, Roy too). It would be cool. Also, in one of the recent interviews, he compared Tattooed Millionaire song vibe to that of Since You Been Gone.

Come to think of it, considering all of his solo albums, Bruce only left do to power/speed or more thrash-y metal.

He mentioned that Adrian was very intro Priest back then - and I think that can be felt with some riffs in his SJ songs or Great Unknown.
 
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