Deconstructing Eddie: My Iron Maiden Songs & Albums Countdown

I agree with the sentiment that Iron Maiden, the song, is given an inordinate amount of esteem by Iron Maiden, the band.
And that it's a simple song with a dumb lyric.
But I don't want to lose sight of the fact that every time I've seen the band perform it, it has been hell of a lot of fun.
As much as I love the deeper Maiden material, they are rock band. I'm glad they step away from the deep material and just let loose every once in awhile.

I think I'd probably rate both songs higher than this; I'd say they are both in the middle third of my list with a whole bunch of other good, not great, songs.
And that's probably the area most difficult to rank. I'm guessing you probably feel the same way.

More importantly, Happy Birthday!  :shred:
What do you do to celebrate in the Phillipines?
 
mckindog said:
I agree with the sentiment that Iron Maiden, the song, is given an inordinate amount of esteem by Iron Maiden, the band.
And that it's a simple song with a dumb lyric.
But I don't want to lose sight of the fact that every time I've seen the band perform it, it has been hell of a lot of fun.
As much as I love the deeper Maiden material, they are rock band. I'm glad they step away from the deep material and just let loose every once in awhile.
Click to expand...

Agreed on all counts. Especially that the middle third is hardest to rank. That's so true.

mckindog said:
More importantly, Happy Birthday!  :shred:
What do you do to celebrate in the Phillipines?
Click to expand...

Thanks! I have now outlived Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrisson, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain - otherwise known as "The 27 Club" :p Now let's see if I can outlive Bob Hope and George Burns. LOL.

I guess we celebrate here just in the same way as most folks around the world: With gifts, family dinners and getting pissed drunk with friends :D
 
I've always thought the song Iron Maiden as more of a soundtrack to an event than a song to be taken terribly seriously on its own. 

As a song on its own right, it would rank pretty low on my Maiden list.  Certainly lower than you have it ranked here.

However, as a live staple and the height of the Iron Maiden live experience (Eddie) it's greatness can't be overstated.

So, I don't know.  I've gone and confused myself and lost my train of thought haha.

Great list val, and Happy Birthday.
 
Deconstructing Eddie: My Iron Maiden Songs & Albums Countdown - Songs #108-106

Thanks for the greetings again folks!
108. The Angel and the Gambler (Virtual XI) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWH_LzVuej8
"Don't you think..." (repeat 66 times)

When I first heard TAatG, the initial feeling was that it was different but in a good way. It sounds very much like what an early 90's mainstream hard rock band would dabble with if they wanted to put out a pop-influenced single. It has accessible melodies, a groovy rhythm, bordering-on-tastelessly-cheesy synths and easy lyrics that bombards the listener with relentless repetitiveness. Not counting the length, the masses would eat the song up with fervor. I did.

Somewhere along the way though, TAatG has fallen from grace with me somewhat. I still find it fun and catchy, but the initial novelty of it which I appreciated has grown old and the repetitiveness of it has finally become tiring. It's like going on a candy binge: It's an easy fix that gets one addicted and leads to a sugar rush; but the longer one gobbles up the goods, the more it gets sickening and eventually leads to a sense of fatigue that is otherwise known as a “sugar crash.” It's fun and doesn't quite deserve the criticism it gets, but it's the opposite of a “grower” and just doesn't stand the test of time.
107. Journeyman (Dance of Death) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Iws71CMz0
"We have cheated Death and He has cheated us"

There doesn't seem to be any other composition by the band that shows such a marked contrast in songwriting quality between the verses and the chorus than this song. On one hand, we have a handful of verses containing refreshingly poignant and thoughtfully profound poetry that might be among the best that the Bruce has written. And on the other hand, there's this overused expression exclaimed repetitively like sort of a throwaway line that the band tries to pass off as a chorus.

Beyond the lyrics though (which I usually don't care for as much as the music anyway), the all-acoustic mid-paced approach of the song is an interesting idea that doesn't really fly. More than on any other of their tracks, this one had to be perfectly arranged, paced and built-up so that it wouldn't have climaxed too soon than it should have, which is the case here as far as I'm concerned. Most of the second half of the song ends up dragging and unfortunately ends Dance of Death with a whimper.
106. Futureal (Virtual XI) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqnW0zdw5VI
"I can't sleep at night / In the day, feel like death"

Short, tight, sharp and a bit catchy; “Futureal” is a fist-pumper for sure, but it just doesn't get my motor running. A lot of the aloofness towards the song is really just for it being forgettably average. There's also something about the lyrics that's too ambiguous to connect with or at least associate a certain idea to, which contributes to its lack of being memorable. My relative bias against the quicker "rockers" by the band doesn't help this song's cause as well.
 
I can't agree with you on almost anything here. I thought TAATG was horrible (well, no, but for Maiden it is) from the very first time, and I would rate it lower.
The Journeyman is a -great- song. I agree that the lyrics for the chorus are a bit... I dunno, but the rest of the song is amazing.
And Futureal is always awesome. Short and to the point with a really fun solo by Dave.
 
I also discovered that his taste is certainly not mine but let's not forget that we're getting close to 100, which means the following: These songs are not that low on his rankings. They belong in the worse half, but there are around 50 songs worse in his opinion. I wonder how "low" or our how "high" these songs would get in my rankings.
 
-From the point of view of a huge Maiden fan- the top 100 would consist out of strong/awesome songs, I might even love no. 100.

So if we don't like these recent choices, we may wonder which other songs we would rate lower than these.

Vala has been focussing for aeons on the nineties albums. Now it's going to be tough because he's almost running out of these songs.

If I had to choose one song, I find his most outrageous choice

Blood on the World's Hands  --> no. 143!!!   :blink:
 
I like TaatG, musically it has a nice Deep Purple vibe and it fit Blaze's vocals nicely.  I do think with a bit better editing, it could have been a better song, though I think it is not ideal for a single.  Journeyman sounds great live, I prefer the Death on the Road version to the album, but in terms of the Maiden catalog is nothing special.
 
Disagree with both Journeyman and Futureal. Infact, Futureal is in my top 40, but I suppose these aren't my rankings.

Futureal just has a ton of energy, the lyrics aren't that great, but the music more than makes up for them. It's job is to get the blood pumping for the rest of Virtual XI is completed with flying colours.  :rocker:

Journeyman is an interesting song, as a acoustic piece. I really like the lyrics and think that the song is much better than you make it out to be.

Oh, and happy birthday valacirca for a couple days ago, seems I missed it.
 
  I am on board with these selections.  I love the Journeyman.  It is a beautiful yet powerful acoustic song and I could not agree more that the only time it gets lost is with the repetitive "I know what I want" chorus..  TAATG is the only Maiden song [other than satellite 15] that is just too long, in my opinion..  A shorter condensed version would have been great.  Futureal is catchy,and strong but the placement on your list fits..  All of these are good here in the low 100 area.  This is getting repetitive, but great job here Val!
 
I'm with LC in that I fully enjoy TAATG. And I'm with Foro in that an enjoyable song can still could easily be lower than 100 on my list.
Journeyman's an excellent song and so is Futureal; I think I'd rate both higher, particularly Futureal.
But I'd say Maiden has about 100 songs I'd rank as 7s, 8s and 9s.
All three are in that broad band where two songs that are very close in quality can be dozens of places apart in the order.
In that context, I can't say there is anything radically out of place here.
 
bornless1 said:
TAATG is the only Maiden song [other than satellite 15] that is just too long, in my opinion..  A shorter condensed version would have been great.
Click to expand...
There's a version that's 4 minutes shorter, although I'm not familiar with what was removed from the original version :p
 
I can only say that I disagree on "Journeyman", that's some more-than-awesome acoustic work there. It just drills through your soul. But I guess you're right. There are much better Maiden epics. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top