Forostar
Ancient Mariner
That's funny, today I came across this folk/progressive rock album, recorded in 1978. Also I found out something else (read on).
Title: Fear of the Dark
audio part 1
audio part 2
(beautiful music by the way!)
According to allmusic.com Steve Harris co-wrote the title track (which is nonsense, the site must have mixed up his 1992 song).
More important: check the logo of the artist on the cover:
I am pretty sure Steve Harris' inspiration for the Iron Maiden logo must have come from one of Gordon Giltrap's albums. Big chance it might have been this earlier, 1976 album Visionary.
.. on which the music is inspired by the words of poet William Blake(!)
Maybe some of you already knew this, but I can't imagine 'Arry hadn't seen this record sleeve. He surely was into such music, and this stuff came out around the time Maiden started playing concerts.
Of course this whole theory is wrong if we can find out if Steve had created the band's logo before the album came out. I don't know the exact release date of Visionary, only that it must have come out in 1976 (probably in the second half of that year).
I also tend to believe that Bruce might have known this artist, who maybe increased his interest for William Blake.
Charming detail: On Visionary we can find "Revelation" (audio link) and "Jerusalem" (audio link).
More on Giltrap from wiki:
Gordon Giltrap (born 6 April 1948, at the British Home for Mothers and Babies, Brenchley, Kent) is an English acoustic and electric guitarist and composer, whose musical styles cross multiple genres, including folk, blues, folk rock, pop, classical and rock.
Giltrap started to learn the guitar at the age of twelve. Never receiving any formal tuition on the instrument, he gradually developed his own style and technique.
His musical career started to take off in the 1960s, when he played the folk scene in London alongside contemporaries such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and Mike Oldfield. Giltrap cites Jansch as a great influence....
... While popular on the folk and university circuit, Giltrap reached a turning point and received much greater recognition during the 1970s. During this time Giltrap started to concentrate on more purely instrumental pieces, and in 1976 released the album Visionary, based on the art and poetry of William Blake.
The success of this album prompted Giltrap to move on from the singer-songwriter approach and form the Gordon Giltrap Band, which toured extensively in the UK at that time.
Title: Fear of the Dark
audio part 1
audio part 2
(beautiful music by the way!)
According to allmusic.com Steve Harris co-wrote the title track (which is nonsense, the site must have mixed up his 1992 song).
More important: check the logo of the artist on the cover:
I am pretty sure Steve Harris' inspiration for the Iron Maiden logo must have come from one of Gordon Giltrap's albums. Big chance it might have been this earlier, 1976 album Visionary.
.. on which the music is inspired by the words of poet William Blake(!)
Maybe some of you already knew this, but I can't imagine 'Arry hadn't seen this record sleeve. He surely was into such music, and this stuff came out around the time Maiden started playing concerts.
Of course this whole theory is wrong if we can find out if Steve had created the band's logo before the album came out. I don't know the exact release date of Visionary, only that it must have come out in 1976 (probably in the second half of that year).
I also tend to believe that Bruce might have known this artist, who maybe increased his interest for William Blake.
Charming detail: On Visionary we can find "Revelation" (audio link) and "Jerusalem" (audio link).
More on Giltrap from wiki:
Gordon Giltrap (born 6 April 1948, at the British Home for Mothers and Babies, Brenchley, Kent) is an English acoustic and electric guitarist and composer, whose musical styles cross multiple genres, including folk, blues, folk rock, pop, classical and rock.
Giltrap started to learn the guitar at the age of twelve. Never receiving any formal tuition on the instrument, he gradually developed his own style and technique.
His musical career started to take off in the 1960s, when he played the folk scene in London alongside contemporaries such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and Mike Oldfield. Giltrap cites Jansch as a great influence....
... While popular on the folk and university circuit, Giltrap reached a turning point and received much greater recognition during the 1970s. During this time Giltrap started to concentrate on more purely instrumental pieces, and in 1976 released the album Visionary, based on the art and poetry of William Blake.
The success of this album prompted Giltrap to move on from the singer-songwriter approach and form the Gordon Giltrap Band, which toured extensively in the UK at that time.
