Is the first name credited on the writing credits the primary songwriter?

valacirca

Trooper
On sites such as ironmaidencommentary and the album pages on wikipedia, the writing credits are generally in a certain order. Is the first name there the primary songwriter?

Meaning "Charlotte The Harlot" & "Deja-Vu" would be Dave's songs... "The Prisoner", "Die With Your Boots On" & "Gangland" would be Adrian's... "Revelations" & "Sun and Steel" is Bruce's... etc etc etc?

Is the songwriting process for the band such that each member brings in his own songs in and then the rest of the band works on it so that it's good enough for the album?
 
Generally is: the first is who brought the main idea and perhaps the lyrics (like in Sun And Steel, The Mercenary, The Pilgrim), the second the one who added some parts and helped in the arrangement, and the last one who wrote the lyrics (in DWYBO this pattern is broken as it's a Smith/Dickinson/Harris, but Bruce wrote the lyrics and Harris made the chord sequences on the verse).
 
Nowadays, it seems that the first to be credited is the one who came with the idea of the song. Then, most parts are added to it, mainly by Steve. From what Adrian and Dave recently stated in an interview with a french Metal magazine, Steve is more concentrated on the melodies of the sung parts, although he obviously writes musical parts. I'm sure there's another factor in line : when Bruce quitted in 1993, he said that Maiden was no more a democratic band (or even less than befoire) 'cos Steve produced the albums, recorded them in is own studio and was making all the decisions. After that, Steve cowrote all Madien songs, his name often beeing the first listed. This pattern changed completely after Bruce and A
. This pattern changed completely after Bruce and Adrian came back. I assume that : 1/ He decided to change the writing process by meeting separaltely all the other song writers, beginning with Adrina. 2/ That he decides to be named second, also because of the financial implications of the order of appearance ; this may be a concession to Dickinson. But may be I'm wrong.
Plus, Steve is the one who decides the structure of the songs, and, more important, the one wh decides what is going to be kept or rejected. He, for instance, turned Dave's ideas for two songs into a single tune ; so, the so-called progressive turn in Maiden music is clearly his choice.
 
harrisdevot said:
Nowadays, it seems that the first to be credited is the one who came with the idea of the song. Then, most parts are added to it, mainly by Steve. From what Adrian and Dave recently stated in an interview with a french Metal magazine, Steve is more concentrated on the melodies of the sung parts, although he obviously writes musical parts. I'm sure there's another factor in line : when Bruce quitted in 1993, he said that Maiden was no more a democratic band (or even less than befoire) 'cos Steve produced the albums, recorded them in is own studio and was making all the decisions. After that, Steve cowrote all Madien songs, his name often beeing the first listed. This pattern changed completely after Bruce and A
. This pattern changed completely after Bruce and Adrian came back. I assume that : 1/ He decided to change the writing process by meeting separaltely all the other song writers, beginning with Adrina. 2/ That he decides to be named second, also because of the financial implications of the order of appearance ; this may be a concession to Dickinson. But may be I'm wrong.
Plus, Steve is the one who decides the structure of the songs, and, more important, the one wh decides what is going to be kept or rejected. He, for instance, turned Dave's ideas for two songs into a single tune ; so, the so-called progressive turn in Maiden music is clearly his choice.

Wow, that's a lot of info... thanks :) Then it would be really difficult to determine how to group together the songs for a "Best Adrian Song Contribution" or "Best Bruce Song Contribution" poll  :p
 
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