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Spot on, most modern Harris are kinda similar, too long and sometimes boring
No one can create long songs, intros and melodies (and in general, songs) like Steve! No one. Far from being similar or boring.
A Finnish Maiden podcast made... somewhat humoristic video about the songwriting, playing and composition tropes of Maiden, with particular focusing on Steve Harris and at the end of the video there is a "parody-tribute"/demonstration of that - The Yeoman. :D

Timestamped at the beginning of the song. I think that at least the intro is very, very spot-on. ;) A bit of a Mother Russia meets The Nomad, Dance of Death and Death of the Celts/Hell on Earth or something.
Cool intro and melodies.
 
Some live-reports about this 3rd and last leg of the LOTB world tour (in french, in german and in polish). :)





 
No one can create long songs, intros and melodies (and in general, songs) like Steve! No one. Far from being similar or boring.

No one can come up with chorus repeat of The Angel and the Gambler and put it out as a first single and just walk it off like Steve. No one.

Right, right... I agree that Steve has a brilliant sense of drama and melodies and the way he wiggles it with E-C-D is magical and quite unmatched. However, I think the criticism also has it's place. While Steve's stubbornness is probably the reason why Maiden still exists on this level, it's also one of the main reasons behind the biggest issues on their output over the past couple of decades. :p I suppose it's bit of a ying-yang thing or whatever.

love ya, 'Arry!
 
No one can come up with chorus repeat of The Angel and the Gambler and put it out as a first single and just walk it off like Steve. No one.

Right, right... I agree that Steve has a brilliant sense of drama and melodies and the way he wiggles it with E-C-D is magical and quite unmatched. However, I think the criticism also has it's place. While Steve's stubbornness is probably the reason why Maiden still exists on this level, it's also one of the main reasons behind the biggest issues on their output over the past couple of decades. :p I suppose it's bit of a ying-yang thing or whatever.

love ya, 'Arry!
The single was shorter tho, it was the actual runtime, the album version had a copy pasted pasted chorus in the mastering stage which is even worse. At least with the angle and the gambler an even shorter version exists.
 
The single was shorter tho, it was the actual runtime, the album version had a copy pasted pasted chorus in the mastering stage which is even worse. At least with the angle and the gambler an even shorter version exists.

Yep, that is a fair point!
I think the single edit isn't that great though, as the repetition is still there and the third verse which, in my opinion anyway, actually does the song and it's narrative some favours, is completely omitted. It makes the song fall very flat towards the end; not that the album version had a huge climax either... Anyway, I think the single edit is neither a very good song or a funny/interesting curiosity where as the album version at least manages to be... well, significant in a debatable manner, eh.
 
at 9:30 never heard Maiden do this before. Could someone have an explanation why they decided not to play this part? I would understand If it was something like Top of The pops where they have Time limit , but this is regular concert
 
No one can come up with chorus repeat of The Angel and the Gambler and put it out as a first single and just walk it off like Steve. No one.

However, I think the criticism also has it's place. While Steve's stubbornness is probably the reason why Maiden still exists on this level, it's also one of the main reasons behind the biggest issues on their output over the past couple of decades.
The long version of TAATG was a mistake, I agree (Steve wanted this to be the live version of the song). On the other hand, the single short version should have been with a third verse and both solos. When you remove the repetition, this is actually a decent song (4-6 minutes long). Since we have both a long and a short version of the song, I think Steve realised his mistake.

Anyway, now let's talk about Steve. I want to share my opinion.
The production of the albums - Steve probably has the final say, some fans don't like the production of the albums since 2003 (and for TXF & VXI), but it's not like the sound is terrible, right. Yeah, it could have been way better for some of the albums, but at least the production is distinctive from all modern productions (Maiden prefer the old way, as we know) and every album has its own sound (that's something I will always praise).
The production of the live albums - the answer for the live stuff is Kevin Shirley, it's simple (he is great with the live sound). The only live albums of Maiden with not so good production imo are A Real Live Dead One/Live At Donington '92 (although the rough sound is really suitable for that era and I like it) and Nights Of The Dead (which is strange since the sound of Live Chapter is very good imo, the concert video has remarks though. The production team is the same!), but it's not garbage by any means (maybe because the whole thing was done very quickly and more as a bonus the production is not great)... tbh, I prefer a concert video from the LOTB tour more.
  • And just to clarify, I think Metallica's live sound in 2022 is excellent.
About his writing style (mainly the epics) - some fans says that the songs are too long, repetitive and they have the same intro/outro motif, but his songs are always the best songs on the albums, right. To say a song is too long is subjective. Some of his long songs (and of the other band members too... IESF, EOTC, DOFP to name a few) are repetitive, yes but every song (especially the epics, because you are almost obligated to repeat the main parts/idea of the song at least twice... I wish I can say that about Hell On Earth, it's still a masterpiece though. In the short songs is different) is more or less repetitive (TAATG aside) and the repeated parts are almost always great, so I don't have a problem with that. Steve's songs in the 80's also have repetitive parts or intro/outro motif (like for example Invaders, WED, Trooper, TTAL, HCW and even SOTC). He primarily writes longer stuff and if Adrian or Bruce write more long songs, then the songs will also have repetitive parts for sure (we talk about 8-10 minutes long songs). The repetitive parts and the same intro/outro motif is always expected in longer songs. And btw, every song is more or less similar in style, if you think about it.

P.S. I don't want to mention some of the album covers, because Maiden still have the best covers in metal.
 
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A Finnish Maiden podcast made... somewhat humoristic video about the songwriting, playing and composition tropes of Maiden, with particular focusing on Steve Harris and at the end of the video there is a "parody-tribute"/demonstration of that - The Yeoman. :D

Timestamped at the beginning of the song. I think that at least the intro is very, very spot-on. ;) A bit of a Mother Russia meets The Nomad, Dance of Death and Death of the Celts/Hell on Earth or something.

That is hilariously spot on! :lol:
 
Well, it picks up a song structure that often occurs with Iron Maiden. But this is not a special insight.
Other than that, I found this boring, not what Steve writes.
It neither has the interesting harmonic major scale or raw bass of ”The Parchment” nor the jazzy guitars of the “Hell On Earth” intro or the beautiful guitar tone of “Dance Of Death”.
 
--But this is not a special insight.
Other than that, I found this boring, not what Steve writes.

Yep, but it's rather reassuring that while it's easy to break down the elements of a typical Maiden track and parody and dublicate the basic Steve Harris tropes, it takes the master himself to actually be able to find, reach and capture the Maiden magic. :D
 
Finally listened to “The Yeoman” and I actually liked it. It’s silly but there’s a lot of interesting Maiden Easter eggs in there and I am always a sucker for a cinematic epic with the Steve Harris chord progression. All it needs is some retouching and the Maiden members playing on it (Bruce is the most sorely missing here) and I will happily accept it as canon lol.

(I do think it could’ve stopped after the first quiet comedown post solos but I still had fun.)
 
No one can come up with chorus repeat of The Angel and the Gambler and put it out as a first single and just walk it off like Steve. No one.
Come on, that was 24 years ago! How can you rely on such an old example to make a judgment? He has certainly written some mediocre/average or even bad songs, but he has penned so many masterpieces.
 
at 9:30 never heard Maiden do this before. Could someone have an explanation why they decided not to play this part? I would understand If it was something like Top of The pops where they have Time limit , but this is regular concert
Maybe it was edited by Harris/Newton co.
Seriously I have no idea.
 
Come on, that was 24 years ago! How can you rely on such an old example to make a judgment? He has certainly written some mediocre/average or even bad songs, but he has penned so many masterpieces.

Well I wasn't making much of a judgement... :p Just underlining how defining Steve's decisions and mindset is for Maiden, for better and - sometimes - worse; but given everything we've got, I'd say it's a good bargain anyway. :)
 
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Come on, that was 24 years ago! How can you rely on such an old example to make a judgment? He has certainly written some mediocre/average or even bad songs, but he has penned so many masterpieces.

Agreed. When you write many songs you are more likely to come up with some stinkers too.

That being said, Steve’s songwriting has become more formulaic, which is a shame as you can easily imagine how the songs he has written are going to turn out before listening to them and that was not the case in the past. These days I find myself enjoying the songs he co-writes with others more than the ones he pens himself.

Either way, even with his evident flaws, he is a great songwriter.
 
You can clearly see the video is not edited they just decided to not play the bass/drum solo. Only time i heard they do that.

The audio is edited, probably by the TV station to make the duration of the music clip fit the segment.

Look at the drums, he's playing the fills from the midsection of the song, you can see him hitting the toms, but the audio has the straight beat of the verse.
 
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