Can I Play With Madness?

How good is Can I Play With Madness? on a scale of 1-10?


  • Total voters
    13
A

Anonymous

Guest
Here, you can read other visitors' comments on 'Can I Play With Madness' as well as post your own. Any contribution to the commentary will be much appreciated, may it be cultural references relevant to the song (links to related websites, interpretations that may have been overlooked in the Commentary, and the like) or personal essays related to the topic of the song. Just be aware that messages that are either off-topic or too wacky may be deleted.
 
'can I Play With Madness'

This is the worst song on the album but again, it's not bad. I, like many others, think that the mood of the song is too happy for the lyrics which aren't so good either. The lyrics are like an actual conversation between the prophet and whoever he is talking to. The solo, if you would even call it a solo, is somewhere around only 10 seconds long and sounds like something Adrian put together just so they could say the song had a solo (it would've been better without one). The chorus is probably the best part of the song.

Stranger's definitive rating: 3 stars.
 
'can I Play With Madness'

i hate to admit it stranger, but you are right. i always fast forward this song whenever i watch maiden england. but apart from this one, every song of SSOASS is a gem in itself. i really wish they'd worked a little more on this song to make it fit the great album of all times.
 
'can I Play With Madness'

I actually could have gave it five stars, but i havn't heard it in a while, because I havn't listened to seventh son in a while, but i have allways liked this song. Its one of those happy sounding rockers that i (for some reason) like pretty much. The same sort of song like wildest dreams. I just dont get whats wrong whit them. I enjoy both songs very much. And for the so called solo, it sounds pretty good to me. A little bit of short (and awful live with Janick on Real live/dead one) and simple, but in my opinion, it kicks major butt! [!--emo&:lol:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/lol[1].gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'lol[1].gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
'can I Play With Madness'

There is a very poppy feel to this one. It does not fit into the album and does not really feel like a Maiden song. I think Maiden have had a good sense to use Synths in a way that it would improve, in the worst case not ruin, a song; but here, all I ever hear are those HORRIBLE synths in the background.
The chorus (if you want to call it that) sounds horrible to me. It may be worth something live, but in the studio, it sounds horrible. The whole song is very superficial despite the good lyrics. I gave it 2 1/2 stars meaning that I can listen to it, but don't really like it.
 
'can I Play With Madness'

Stupid lyrics, annoyingly happy and definetly overrated. I gave it two stars. Worst song on SSOASS, and one of Maidens' weakest songs ever
 
'can I Play With Madness'

I agree with you guys : worst song on the album, too 'Hit single' for me. I don't like backing vocals and especially those ones. On live at Donnington they're completly out of tune ! [!--emo&:angry:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/mad.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'mad.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

But the video is great, so I give 2,5/5
 
'can I Play With Madness'

About the lyrics :

I don’t think they are so bad. They are part of the whole concept of the album.

The Seventh Son realize that he can’t control his powers on his own. He his conscious of his powers : “Don’t need no key to unlock this door”, but he can use it in the good or the evil way.
So he need a guide : the ‘Prophet’, the ‘Old Man’, who learn him he has no experience of life, he’s too young and didn’t have yet chosen the right way between Good and Evil : “he said you’re blind, too blind to see”.
But the young Seventh Son begins to be angry against the Old Man and accuses him to lie. ” I screamed aloud to the old man, I say don’t lie, you don’t say you don’t know”. So the prophet tell him he’s taking the wrong way and he will go to Hell if he doesn’t change: “your soul’s gonna burn in a lake of fire”.

He must understand that he doesn’t have all the powers, even if his are strong : he has some responsabilities because of them, he can’t play with madness.
 
'can I Play With Madness'

Agree with most of you on this one, it's a slight throwaway number and doesn't really fit to the rest of the album. Easily the worst song on the album, but compared to some other tunes in the maiden catalogue it's still fairly average. The video for this is quite hilarious and well worth seeing.
 
'can I Play With Madness'

I just saw an "interesting" and "essential" question asked over on the official Maiden BB: in the lyrics, should the sentence "Can I play with madness" have a question mark?

They mention that my transcription of the lyrics has a question mark and discuss the issue over several pages, one even mentioning that "The poor, deluded person who wrote down the lyrics on Maidenfans.com obviously thought it was a question too and so added the question marks, but they haven't faithfully copied the lyrics across from any official Maiden source". [!--emo&:rolleyes:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/rolleyes.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'rolleyes.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

One thing is sure: they can really play with madness on the official forum, no question about that! [!--emo&:p--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
'can I Play With Madness'

Yeh but

Can They Play With The Adrian Smith Appreciation Society?
Can They Play With The Bearded Nun?
Can They Play With The Squirrel Riding Geoff's Trainset Mum?

I think not! [!--emo&:howdy:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/wavey.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'wavey.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

Anyway thats there, this is here. Big difference.

Anyway, on topic, this song has never really done it for me. It doesn't have enough punch to become anything more than an album filler. End of case. They should have released a single of Only The Good...
 
'can I Play With Madness'

Can anyone tell me where the scene with the teacher and class at the start of this video was filmed? We thought it was Rievaulx Abbey but now we're having 2nd thoughts.

Thanks
 
'can I Play With Madness'

Do the guitar riffs just before and after the chorus remind anyone of Bring your daughter to the slaughter?
 
'can I Play With Madness'

I like the song and gave it four stars. I think it serves a purpose within the concept, as a necessary stop in between earnest and ominous tunes. So it contributes to the album's good flow.
This is a point where at least one person I know won't agree with me.

The chorus is fine. What I don't like is not the happy sound but the rather simplistic guitar lines.

I object to the criterion "extremely short" which is used in the commentary to rate the solos. A good solo in my eyes can be short and brilliant. Take the solo in "Sea of Madness" just before the slow part. Or my favourite one, in "Murders".
Which is not to say the solos in this song aren't perfunctory. [!--emo&:)--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/smile.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'smile.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
'can I Play With Madness'

Hi i'm a newbie of forum from Italy
Please someone of you can help me?
I would like to know where is the church where Maiden made the video Can i play with madness??
Thank you
 
'can I Play With Madness'

someone mentioned to me today that it was filmed at Tintern Abbey? [!--emo&:unsure:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/unsure.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'unsure.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
'can I Play With Madness'

When I lived in Surrey I actually knew the guy who as a kid played the boy in the CIPWM video, an odd claim to fame. His name is Ben Francis, he'd been to stage school but ended up as a talented amateur actor and singer, and I think later played with a band around Surrey.

Racking my brains to think of where it was filmed, I used to know but yes I think it's Tintern Abbey
 
'can I Play With Madness'

[!--QuoteBegin-Guest_Jonathan_*+Oct 28 2005, 07:01 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Guest_Jonathan_* @ Oct 28 2005, 07:01 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]Racking my brains to think of where it was filmed
[snapback]121511[/snapback]​
[/quote]Sometimes there's no need to rack your brain, it's enough to read the previous posts [!--emo&:p--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
Back
Top