Prowler

[Luisma]

Creepy lyrics, but characteristic of early Maiden. And that introductory riff is so easily recognizable. So I give it a 6.

A song Steve Harris wrote in 1976 serves as the powerful opener of the debut album. It contains great melodic leads, a strong rhythm, memorable vocals from Paul & lyrics that talk about a degenerate who goes around stalking and flashing city girls… Pretty deep huh?

Trivia

One of the songs performed at Paul Di'Anno's, Dave Murray's & Bruce Dickinson's audition.

July 12, 1979 – Hammersmith – The Swan - Paul Di'Anno gets arrested before the show, forcing the band to play as a three-piece. They played a mainly instrumental set with the exception of 'Prowler' (Steve on vocals!).

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[Diesel 11]

It’s time for my always inevitable discography listen of Maiden’s catalogue. Man did they kick things off with a bang. The riff is instantly recognizable, the sound is dirty and Paul’s raspy voice works as part of the effect. The lyrics to this song are dumb but fun, while the music is constantly ripping through the speakers. That instrumental section in particular is awesome. The band would get better as time went on, but man, this is a great start to their career. 8/10

 

[Vaenyr]

One of the main reasons why I wanted to join this forum was to participate in the song discussion threads, but it hadn't worked out until now.
I'll go through the whole discography the next few days to gather my current opinions on all of the songs.

I'll judge the relative to the entire discography, not relative to their albums, which will lead to some songs getting rather low ratings. That doesn't mean that I necessarily dislike or hate a song. It's simply not as strong as other tracks in my opinion.

With that out of the way, let's get started! Early Maiden isn't bad, but it's not really my cup of tea. Coupled with the lacklustre production of the first album and the weird and even off-putting lyrics, the score will be rather low. Musically Prowler is a great early rocker and I used to love the 88 recording. The original has some great performances and is an interesting first piece to hear Paul. Unfortunately my English got better with time and I started understanding the lyrics and the song suffered because of it. I think a 6 is a fair score in my opinion.

 

[Night Prowler]

Starting off my ratings from here. I'll quote my initial ratings each time to see how they compare 12 years later.

Great song. I especially like that fast part (Got me feeling myself and reeling a.../Got me talking but nothing's with me...). I prefer the version from 1988 so I'll give it 9/10.

My opinion and grade is exactly the same now

 

[Riggatoni]

Really dig this song; my favorite from the album. I was kinda disappointed by the album as a whole; Other than a few great tracks (such as Transylvania and Phantom of the Opera), the rest of the songs never quite reached the same level or higher than Prowler, where I would listen to them again.

 

[Deathstroke2830]

awesome opener, especially for a debut album. really showed that maiden wasn’t messing around. dave’s wahs sound awesome and the chorus that plays during the fast part of the song flows perfectly. admittedly, the lyrics are a bit goofy and i don’t like how the verse repeats, but that doesn’t stop it from being a killer song.

9/10

 

[Magnus]