Drifter

How good is Drifter on a scale of 1-10?


  • Total voters
    25
...this is not the interesting material I wanted to get to, Drifter! Sorry, but you're not a very notable song either. Better than Twilight Zone, definitely but there's nothing that really jumps out at me here.

It's far more interesting, however, to talk about this song's reputation on Maidenfans. Scrolling back to the previous pages in this thread, I can see a slight 75-25 dichotomy at play. Either people seem to quite like the song or they absolutely despise it, vehemently hate its guts. Most people seem to choose the latter alternative and I'm heavily confused as to why that is. Is it because it's too happy? Why would that be a problem? Just because we've had a album full of songs with dark subject matters (although mostly the same matters) doesn't mean we can't have a happy ending? Is it that people don't like when Maiden's songs have a "joyful" feeling to them? Why? Does every song have to have a dark subject matter?

...anyway, I'm going on a tangent, I should stop with it. Yes, I'm confused as to why this song gets so much hate. Perhaps it's the lyrics, the simple, "silly" lyrics? I don't know, people just seem to hate it a lot. And I really don't know why because the song isn't bad at all. It's not really that good either. But I do have a soft spot for the song. A 6/10 suits this one fine.

Shame, Di'Anno could have used a better sendoff than this. I guess it's a decent concert number, so there's that? But now, let's not worry about that because Bruce Dickinson joins the band. And everything changes!

...kinda.
 
Good closer, but not good pretty much anywhere else. The instrumental holds probably the single worst moment in Maiden's discography. Whereas "Another Life" and "Innocent Exile" are bland and lazily put together, "Purgatory" and "Drifter" are better crafted, but come out worse. During the ending I actually zoned out and found myself thinking of how great "Ides of March" is. Eh. 2/10.
 
Fun song but there's this one line that sounds like "I'm gonna get my son a kangaroo" and I really really hate it. Petty but it ruins the song completely for me :mad: Also ending and starting the song twice I don't like makes it feel like Angel and Gambler repetitive.
 
Boring still gets a 6/10?
Yeah. I mean, it is boring compared to most songs by Iron Maiden. But I give the ratings compared to other music in general. If I rated this song by "how good maiden song it is", I would probably give it 2-3/10.
 
Worse than "Purgatory" but not quite as bland as four other songs in Maiden's discography, "Drifter" nonetheless hold's the band's worst moment... ever - that godawful instrumental piece. Eugh. Thankfully the rest is just a bit better to keep it from getting the lowest rating possible. 2
 
'Drifter' is one of Maiden's oldest song, having being born in 1973 (early maquette).

Garry Bushell comments on his review of Sanctuary that when played live the song features the audience-interaction with the familiar "Yo yo yo" routine supposedly to make fun of The Police's song 'Walking On The Moon' that was a very big commercial hit at the time the song was born. However, Paul states that he "stole that part from Bob Marley!" (Paul Di'Anno for Greg Prato - Iron Maiden: '80 '81' - 2015)

Like info like this? Subscribe to https://www.subscribepage.com/luisma666 and get my book, full of trivia from every Maiden song released!
 
The opening of the song is great with the long note from Di'Anno. The verses are quite good. The bluesy part from Dave is a great addition - fast drumming from Clive after that part. Great bass playing from Steve, of course. The solo from Adrian is so good - love it! I also really like the second long note from Paul near the end of the song (and the scream at the end is just great). At first I thought that this song is a filler and one of the Maiden's worst songs, but now I think it's a fun melodic song. I listen to it a lot recently. 7/10
 
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