DorotheaMe
Trooper
To disprove Juras' stupid claims/predictions about Maiden playing in Wacken 2025? No, I don't understand it either.
How unfortunate for you.
Bruce's Singing
- Thread starter THESEVENTHMARINER
- Start date
To disprove Juras' stupid claims/predictions about Maiden playing in Wacken 2025? No, I don't understand it either.
How unfortunate for you.
CA Bryers
Ancient Mariner
Maybe my memory's foggy, and that it was a different song that really got bungled on Donington. I think I only listened to that bootleg once, and then finally found the official release and listened to that ever since. However, the differences are pretty stark and undeniable on the Eternal Flame boot vs. the B-Side overdubbed release of TETMD from '95. My memory's not foggy on that one.
But yeah, the Fortunes track on there is...yikes. The crowd singing it to him to get him back on track. It was still early in the tour, so I imagine Steve cut him some slack on that.
dickinson1978
Ancient Mariner
Was evil that men do for sure. But only a few words.Maybe my memory's foggy, and that it was a different song that really got bungled on Donington. I think I only listened to that bootleg once, and then finally found the official release and listened to that ever since. However, the differences are pretty stark and undeniable on the Eternal Flame boot vs. the B-Side overdubbed release of TETMD from '95. My memory's not foggy on that one.
But yeah, the Fortunes track on there is...yikes. The crowd singing it to him to get him back on track. It was still early in the tour, so I imagine Steve cut him some slack on that.
AncientMariner_Essex
Ancient Mariner
Really! So according to you Bruce only had 1.5 tours where his singing was good and the rest of the 80’s he’s was a load of shit bar odd performance?
This thread should be renamed as the “let’s slag Bruce’s singing off”.
I’m all for a bit of constructive criticism but honestly, I wonder why some people are even fans of the band as I see way more negativity and slagging off than I do praise.
As for live after death, Bruce sounds perfectly fine to me both on the album and video and I said that with a straight face.
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Murder of Rue Morgue
They're never gonna find me!
It's not "according to me".
Bruce's live singing WAS inconsistent in the 80s. This is not really debatable or a question of being more fan or less fan, it's a matter of fact. It's common knowledge in the fanbase that Somewhere on Tour was disastrous, and all it takes to judge Seventh Tour, if you don't want to listen to tons of bootlegs, is to listen to how poorly he sounds on Maiden England. Same for Live After Death.
He simply didn't know how to control his voice, meaning he didn't know to sing, the only possible outcome being - which, guess what?, is precisely what happened - that he used all of it in the first dates and begun to crash more and more miserably as the tour progressed.
He was, and still is, a great frontman, but back in the days also was a technically mediocre singer. Period. And again, he may sound fine to you on LAD, but I wouldn't bet on him having hit half of the correct notes on the whole concert. Most of the times he was just casually screaming the words (and I add, with very poor articulation at times). Again, this is a matter of fact. He just screwed up the notes.
The comparison between LAD and Rock in Rio (post-solo career!) is actually embarrassing for the former. It's like they hired a different singer.
Sorry for hurting your feelings, but lying on something doesn't make it true.
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matic22
Ancient Mariner
I might add that the World Slavery Tour combined with his singing inconsistency probably resulted in the damage of his voice which lasted until FOTD tour.
A good example of how Bruce didn't know how to control his voice is the begining of NPFTD. The "You got nothing to lose" line is sung without any feeling and with no control even on the studio take IMO. I would love to hear how he would do that now.
Edit: He sounds constipated on all verses of NPFTD. Would love to have a current Bruce version of that.
AncientMariner_Essex
Ancient Mariner
Lol you haven’t hurt my feelings at all
Maiden England is my personal favourite maiden live album and I enjoy listening to Bruce’s singing on the album.
Same with live after death, I have no issues with Bruce’s singing.
Im just glad, to my ears, that I can enjoy Maidens live releases from the 80’s.
I’ll leave you to it and let you get back to your Bruce bashing now.
I think Maiden England is a decent performance for 80s Bruce but still not comparable to his performance on Beast Over Hammersmith or most live albums from 2000 to 2010. The Monsters of Rock performance from BBC Archives is a better example of Bruce's struggles on that tour captured officially IMO.
Murder of Rue Morgue
They're never gonna find me!
In most of the album he sounds random to say the least. Holy Smoke is another example, or the end of Mother Russia. And yes, screaming for 300+ gigs all around the globe for nearly two years between '84 and '85 at that pace definitely destroyed his voice. It's like hurting your ankle and taking a 30-miles walk. It's not going to be good for your ankle.
Truth be told, he was a bit better on Fear of the Dark.
I might have already brought the comparison up, but this is exactly the problem Kai Hansen has had for all his career. Great voice, no idea on how to use it. Sounds INCREDIBLE in studio and on lucky nights, barely sounds on the others. I remember hearing Gamma Ray at a soundcheck years ago, way before they hired the new singer (around the time they were promoting To The Metal I think, surely Empire of the Undead wasn't out yet and maybe Skeletons & Majesties Live wasn't either). Kai was astonishing, astonishing I say, it was like hearing Somewhere Out In Space-Kai. But on stage.
Sadly, that was it for the day. He used all his voice there and had nothing left for the actual show.
(Plus Kai smokes, but that's another question.)
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Vaenyr
Ancient Mariner
Maiden England had a sick Bruce, which explains why he sounded so breathless at many parts. Seriously, listen to how out of breath he sounds in the verses of Still Life. He barely makes it through.
Live After Death is a strain fest and full of dodgy performances. It's a legendary record, but Bruce didn't sound close to how good he could theoretically.
If you were to analyze Bruce's live performances in the 80s by looking at if he hit the correct pitches for every word in a song (sorta like the singstar games on the PS2 lol) the results would be disastrous. I've said it before and I'll say it again: On Beast Over Hammersmith, which was long before he damaged his vocal chords, he is all over the place constantly overshooting every high note, sometimes being flat and not reaching the needed pitch. People are entitled to like the performances of course, but as Murder said: That's something objectively measurable, it's not just an opinion.
Live After Death is a strain fest and full of dodgy performances. It's a legendary record, but Bruce didn't sound close to how good he could theoretically.
If you were to analyze Bruce's live performances in the 80s by looking at if he hit the correct pitches for every word in a song (sorta like the singstar games on the PS2 lol) the results would be disastrous. I've said it before and I'll say it again: On Beast Over Hammersmith, which was long before he damaged his vocal chords, he is all over the place constantly overshooting every high note, sometimes being flat and not reaching the needed pitch. People are entitled to like the performances of course, but as Murder said: That's something objectively measurable, it's not just an opinion.
GhostofCain
Ancient Mariner
Constipated as in full of shit or do you mean he sounds as if he had a cold?
matic22
Ancient Mariner
Like he is struggling for no reason. The reason is up to you.
AncientMariner_Essex
Ancient Mariner
You are probably right about the technical aspects of Bruce not hitting notes or not reaching the correct pitch etc but to my ears he sounds perfectly fine on both live after death and maiden England.
Honestly, 30+ years ago when I first got into Maiden and started buying their albums I never listened to any live album of there's and thought Bruce sounded terrible. I remember their headline performance at Donington 1992 and it was broadcast live on the radio (albeit with a small delay to beep out any swearing) and I was like a pig in shit listening to it and never gave any thought to “oh Bruce’s sounds rough, positively unlistenable” and that was before it was officially released with maybe studio touch ups.
Fast forward to 2024 and now we have the internet and technology has changed a lot we have forums full of nerds who scrutinise every single nuance of maiden. Forums with threads where people will discuss the odd bum note on a specific song at a specific gig or how Bruce missed a note in a song back at a gig in 1985 etc.
It baffles me how some people sound like they do nothing with their lives other than analyse maiden to the smallest detail and then can’t wait to jump on the internet and bash them.
Now, I’m not saying Bruce sings perfectly all the time; far from it. But, when I started reading this thread it sounded like people were literally bashing the shit out of Bruce and from what people have said you’d think both live after death and Maiden England were literally that bad they were unlistenable. If that was the case why are they both revered so much by the fan base. Why is live after death considered a legendary live album if Bruce sounds so bad.
Luckily most of the fan base doesn’t sit and critically analyse every little thing about Maiden.
dickinson1978
Ancient Mariner
Balancing on the evilenge lol
GhostofCain
Ancient Mariner
Oh, I see.
My comment was made because there is a funny false friend in Spanish/English: “constipado” in Spanish means to have a cold, which is not the same as being constipated…
dickinson1978
Ancient Mariner
Come on,was he sick in all live cds? Dotr mi and notd. No, in maiden england he sounds good as good as he was singing in that year.
dickinson1978
Ancient Mariner
I love how he sings in that year. He was singing really good.
Vaenyr
Ancient Mariner
@AncientMariner_Essex your opinion is valid, not trying to take anything away. I'm just offering a different perspective. Personally I never liked how Bruce sounded on the 80s live albums, even when I first heard them. I don't think it's a "nerds nowadays have too much time" problem; people simply have different standards and that's okay. Personally it's rather grating to listen to a singer who constantly strains to reach high notes. I love Bruce's vocals for large parts of his career, but there are some things I see (or rather hear) much more critically.
I haven't listened to all STOAST bootlegs, but let's assume that ME was his best performance in that year. That doesn't make the criticisms of him being sick, singing breathlessly and strained suddenly go away. I like that album much more than LAD, but there are definitely rough parts to it.
Three had him sick, the Real Live/Dead One albums had him checked out, Live After Death was at the end of a grueling tour that literally damaged his voice and had him almost burn out and quit the band. They also tend to go for some of the last shows of a tour when releasing live albums which doesn't help either.
I haven't listened to all STOAST bootlegs, but let's assume that ME was his best performance in that year. That doesn't make the criticisms of him being sick, singing breathlessly and strained suddenly go away. I like that album much more than LAD, but there are definitely rough parts to it.
karljant
Ancient Mariner
Amen! NPFTD's vocal take on the studio version always sounded mega strained to me (the man even gets off key). Which is strange because of the variants (controlled ambient, multiple takes). Because, come on... take SIT i.e. : when it comes to Bruce's performance in the studio to me that's the zenith of his form. And yet my opinion is that his live performance took somewhat of a slump when compared with the previous tour. Was it fatigue and attrition from 4 straight years? Was it the fact he got severely ill during the beginning of the tour (check the Sheffield gig on October 86... the man should be in bed)? Don't know, but the fact is Somewhere on Tour and Seventh Tour Bruce isn't the same animal as the three previous tours.
YET, on the other hand, Bruce seems to have recovered his form almost 100% during the No Prayer On The Road (Wembley is a great example): every single gig I've heard him sing NPFTD he sounded 1000 times better live than the studio version to me! And to be fair it's not just that song: this is my favorite tour post 1985 when it comes to Bruce's voice. Then it got somewhat worse during Fear Of The Dark (both studio and live) and Real Live Tour. But then during this period... I don't know... I think his mind wasn't there anymore. To prove it there's Live at the studio A: just check how tight that guy nails such a demanding tune like Gods Of War only 2 years after such lackluster performances.
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