A
Anonymous
Guest
So here's the deal. I'm in a band and trying to turn my guitarist on to more Iron Maiden, but not in any-old listening kind of way. More of a songwriting way. Basically, he has all sorts of musical theory training and such, and I'm just a guy who bangs on the drums and makes vague attempts to write metal music. 
Basically, I want to take a CD, hand it to him and go, 'Here, these are some of Maiden's best-written songs'. But I'm trying to avoid the inevitable temptation to play favorites, and trying to spread things out over the first thirteen studio albums (I already lent him A Matter Of Life And Death, so he doesn't need to hear that), while focussing more on the song-writing aspects. And I'm trying to keep a decent balance of short, medium, and long length songs. And also trying to go for diversity, so not just all up-tempo Aces High/Trooper/Number Of The Beast rockers...
But I'm having trouble, naturally. I only have about seventy-eight minutes to work with, and I don't just want to drop a Greatest Hits collection into his lap. I'm finding myself with only twelve tracks or so, and I'm not really certain about the ones I have.
I guess what I'm asking for is help deciding how to allocate seventy-eight minutes worth of Maiden, while highlighting the writing (and progressions and time changes and tempos and lyrics and whatever). Let me show you what I have so far...
Alexander The Great - The first song that jmped to mind, because of its insane lyrics, the multiple tones and seamless shifts, historicality, and overall whatnot. Don't really want to cut this one, but it's eight and a half friggin' minutes.
Prodigal Son - Pretty much self explanatory. The start-stop shifts are what I like to highlight, as well as the 'earlier' side of Maiden.
Purgatory - This one I want to use as an example of Maiden's ability to write straight-forward rockers, but I am wondering if this slot might be better served by, say, Sun and Steel or Can I Play With Madness...
Paaschendale - The dynamics of this song are awesome and something I really want to show off to him. Also, the historic lyrics and bombastic, artillery-style blows are nice, it's an epic I really want to keep.
Journeyman - A beautiful acoustic song. This one is a lock.
Dream Of Mirrors - I wanted something from Brave New World but I was not sure what to select, I thought of this one for its shifts from regular to double time, as well as its multiple vocal movements, but it's well over nine minutes...
The Trooper - The galloping pace, start-stop first verse, the harmonics and leads are to die for. Also noteworthy because it really has no chorus, so I want to include this one.
Powerslave - Not sure about putting on Powerslave, but I like the Egyptian sound and think the main riff is spiffy. The shift to double-time is nice too, but I'm not sure if I should keep this one or Dream Of Mirrors.
Futureal - Again, another quick straight-forward rocker, headbanger type song.
Hallowed Be Thy Name - Another lock.
Mother Russia - I don't really know if I want to keep this song. I don't like it much, but I think the multiple riffing patterns and the overall flavor and 'darker' tone of it might be inspiring.
The Clairvoyant - I wanted a bass-driven song, and the intro certainly counts, but I'm also not too sure about it. I could also use Tailgunner, but I like the shift in time signature in this song's chorus.
The Edge Of Darkness - Originally I was going to have Fortunes Of War because of its quiet-loud-quiet overall structure, and it begins and ends with softer, almost spoken lyrics. But Edge Of Darkness has an interesting riffing pattern, as well as the tempo shifts, especially the one near the end at the line 'I understand why the genius must die'.
Total time : 80:25, even with cutting the intros down and eliminating pauses between tracks, so that is obviously not going to work.
Other thoughts: Clairvoyant vs. Tailgunner, Edge Of Darkness vs. Fortunes Of War, Purgatory vs. Be Quick Or Be Dead, and should I fit either Fear Of The Dark or Afraid To Shoot Strangers in here? Should I work 'Number Of The Beast' in for its strange time signature? Or The Unbeliever?
Basically, I want to take a CD, hand it to him and go, 'Here, these are some of Maiden's best-written songs'. But I'm trying to avoid the inevitable temptation to play favorites, and trying to spread things out over the first thirteen studio albums (I already lent him A Matter Of Life And Death, so he doesn't need to hear that), while focussing more on the song-writing aspects. And I'm trying to keep a decent balance of short, medium, and long length songs. And also trying to go for diversity, so not just all up-tempo Aces High/Trooper/Number Of The Beast rockers...
But I'm having trouble, naturally. I only have about seventy-eight minutes to work with, and I don't just want to drop a Greatest Hits collection into his lap. I'm finding myself with only twelve tracks or so, and I'm not really certain about the ones I have.
I guess what I'm asking for is help deciding how to allocate seventy-eight minutes worth of Maiden, while highlighting the writing (and progressions and time changes and tempos and lyrics and whatever). Let me show you what I have so far...
Alexander The Great - The first song that jmped to mind, because of its insane lyrics, the multiple tones and seamless shifts, historicality, and overall whatnot. Don't really want to cut this one, but it's eight and a half friggin' minutes.
Prodigal Son - Pretty much self explanatory. The start-stop shifts are what I like to highlight, as well as the 'earlier' side of Maiden.
Purgatory - This one I want to use as an example of Maiden's ability to write straight-forward rockers, but I am wondering if this slot might be better served by, say, Sun and Steel or Can I Play With Madness...
Paaschendale - The dynamics of this song are awesome and something I really want to show off to him. Also, the historic lyrics and bombastic, artillery-style blows are nice, it's an epic I really want to keep.
Journeyman - A beautiful acoustic song. This one is a lock.
Dream Of Mirrors - I wanted something from Brave New World but I was not sure what to select, I thought of this one for its shifts from regular to double time, as well as its multiple vocal movements, but it's well over nine minutes...
The Trooper - The galloping pace, start-stop first verse, the harmonics and leads are to die for. Also noteworthy because it really has no chorus, so I want to include this one.
Powerslave - Not sure about putting on Powerslave, but I like the Egyptian sound and think the main riff is spiffy. The shift to double-time is nice too, but I'm not sure if I should keep this one or Dream Of Mirrors.
Futureal - Again, another quick straight-forward rocker, headbanger type song.
Hallowed Be Thy Name - Another lock.
Mother Russia - I don't really know if I want to keep this song. I don't like it much, but I think the multiple riffing patterns and the overall flavor and 'darker' tone of it might be inspiring.
The Clairvoyant - I wanted a bass-driven song, and the intro certainly counts, but I'm also not too sure about it. I could also use Tailgunner, but I like the shift in time signature in this song's chorus.
The Edge Of Darkness - Originally I was going to have Fortunes Of War because of its quiet-loud-quiet overall structure, and it begins and ends with softer, almost spoken lyrics. But Edge Of Darkness has an interesting riffing pattern, as well as the tempo shifts, especially the one near the end at the line 'I understand why the genius must die'.
Total time : 80:25, even with cutting the intros down and eliminating pauses between tracks, so that is obviously not going to work.
Other thoughts: Clairvoyant vs. Tailgunner, Edge Of Darkness vs. Fortunes Of War, Purgatory vs. Be Quick Or Be Dead, and should I fit either Fear Of The Dark or Afraid To Shoot Strangers in here? Should I work 'Number Of The Beast' in for its strange time signature? Or The Unbeliever?
), Prodigal Son, replaced Purgatory with Can I Play With Madness, Dream Of Mirrors, and replaced Edge Of Darkness with 2AM. I added The Nomad (is it just me or do the 'ahhhs' remind me of Spinal Tap?), but I still wound up with only about 66 minutes. Hallowed Be Thy Name, The Trooper, Powerslave, Can I Play With Madness, The Clairvoyant, Mother Russia, Fear Of The Dark, 2 AM, Futureal, The Nomad, Paaschendaele, Journeyman
r I missed what he said]. He is concentrating on lyrics. The last song needs to be under 6 mins. Both Holy Smoke and Fear is the Key are different in their writing. I think he wanted a variety. 
He wanted to focus on more than just lyrics. I realize I'm rambling. I'm having a bad day OR I'm having real trouble multi-tasking today.