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harrisdevot said:
Come on, you get the idea. And one can mention what he wants, the problem is to prove it. I was more global: Harris has received tons of bullshiting in the past from former bandmembers, and I'm sure it doesn't affect him that much.
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No, as a matter of fact I don't. I can't understand how and why a Maiden fan should doubt, deny, or openly ridicule ex-members' input. It's all part of the band's history. As for proof, I don't think any of them thought - or bothered - about having to prove anything in the then dim future, but don't you think that with the recent reunion of most of the 1970s members and the resulting media attention, if one of them was telling tall tales, some of the others would contradict? Each of them is very specific about their contributions, eg Dennis Willcock's or Paul Day's lyrics which, if you have a close look, are indeed quite different from Steve's, or Terry Wapram's and Tony Moore's parts of Phantom Of The Opera. Haven't you noticed how diverse the first two albums are, compared to later material?
 
matic22 said:
I think that the majority of the disputed songs were at least 90% Steve. They probably added a riff or a bridge and that is about it. The only song that is credited strangely is Sanctuary, which was apparently written by Dave's friends and is credited to Iron Maiden. It would be interesting to see if they are paid via the Iron Maiden LLP.
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Magnus said:
Only Strange World by Paul Day, Charlotte's lyrics are by Dennis Willcock.

Once again on Sanctuary - track by Bob Sawyer written long before he became a Maiden member, played and recorded with his band Nitro before Dennis Willcock joined Nitro, then recorded once again with Nitro with Dennis on vocals. [Info from http://www.legacyproject.co.uk/bob-sawyer-interview.html]
Then taken to Maiden (where DW was already a vocalist); Maiden apparently kept playing it after Bob left. Bought off fair and square from him when they wanted to record it for Metal For Muthas. Once bought off, I guess they could put whatever credits they wanted, I mostly remember it as being credited to "Iron Maiden". :)
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I think maybe Rod wanted to keep money "in the family", so the managment decided that it's better to drop some credits than leak money. Since Rod was stacking money until the World Slavery Tour (even the band members made only 100 pounds per week) that makes sense IMHO. It's also possible that some compensation money was paid.
 
matic22 said:
I think maybe Rod wanted to keep money "in the family", so the managment decided that it's better to drop some credits than leak money.
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Sure, that's why I said I suspect it's Rod rather than Steve that should answer for that in the first place. There's a rather revealing quote by Rod in Running Free, "before 1979 Iron Maiden weren't a band, they were a hobby" or something similar, I'm quoting from memory.
matic22 said:
It's also possible that some compensation money was paid.
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Sure it is, and that's one part of the story we'll never know. It's a fact on at least one occasion (Bob Sawyer and Sanctuary).
 
Magnus said:
Yup, Quest For Fire is such an improvement to Phantom Of The Opera
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Quest for Fire might have mediocre lyrics, but miles better than cringeworthy stuff like Charlotte the Harlot or Prowler. Phantom of the Opera, if indeed written by Dennis, might have caught him on a rare day showing some talent. :D
 
GhostofCain said:
Quest for Fire might have mediocre lyrics, but miles better than cringeworthy stuff like Charlotte the Harlot or Prowler. Phantom of the Opera, if indeed written by Dennis, might have caught him on a rare day showing some talent. :D
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I love both Charlotte and Prowler.
The songs I mean.
 
My love for Maiden started with hearing Prowler. Hooked immediately. And the discography would lose something without it and many other raw, aggressive and atmospheric Di'Anno era songs.
 
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The problem I see with claims from past members to their contributions in the early days, is that if they were all true then you would expect Steve to need a lot of collaboration on later albums too. I suspect there was some input from people, particularly with lyrics, but not enough to warrant a writing credit bar from people writing lyrics. I suspect there was pay off for the lyrics.

RE: Pay offs. We know there was a pay off for Sanctuary. There was also a case of Thunderstick looking for credit for a drum roll in the ideas of March but the courts decided that rather than Thunderstick deserving a credit it was in fact Steve who deserved a credit for Samson's version. I suspect if any of the other members had a leg to stand on re:credits the previous members would have pursued them in the early days, and I also think Maiden would have been pro-active in paying off anyone who deserved a credit to preemptively rule out any trouble like what we have now from Beckett, as we have evidence they did that with Sanctuary.
 
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