Steve Harris
- Thread starter Night Prowler
- Start date
Moon Child
Ancient Mariner
This is one of the songs I didn't mind on the record. Video is pretty cool. Just kind of odd seeing Steve in a video outside of Maiden. I felt the same watching Primal Rock Rebellion videos with Adrian.
I will also add.....silly guitarist, stop trying pretend you're Adrian
I will also add.....silly guitarist, stop trying pretend you're Adrian
That was odd. One of the few times I've watched a video and it increased my enjoyment of a song.
Probably a mix of the fact it was the first time I got to see the band playing and the spectacular scenery.
That particular track reminds me a fair bit of Black Country Communion. I've grown to quite like it.
Foro, can you tell me more about the filming? At first blush it look like it may have been Banff National Park and/or Lake Louise. I'd recommend a trip there to anyone. Is the city stuff in Canada too? And if so where, and when did he film it? During Maiden's Canadian jaunt this summer?
Probably a mix of the fact it was the first time I got to see the band playing and the spectacular scenery.
That particular track reminds me a fair bit of Black Country Communion. I've grown to quite like it.
Foro, can you tell me more about the filming? At first blush it look like it may have been Banff National Park and/or Lake Louise. I'd recommend a trip there to anyone. Is the city stuff in Canada too? And if so where, and when did he film it? During Maiden's Canadian jaunt this summer?
Sebas-hero1995
Nomad
I think another song would've worked better but oh well... The video is nice, very nice shooting and editing, I quite like it. Very beautiful landscapes in Canada, and I found funny the coincidence that right now we are seeing Canada in geography class in my school
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
I was going to ask the same of you.
I had a hunch it was Canada but when I saw that Canadian Pacific train @ 2.00I was sure. I have no clue where exactly it could be. I guess the city scenery was done in your country as well (hard to deduce which city I guess?).
Finally the CD arrived
Review soon!
Review soon!
It had me pulling out the family photo albums. Pretty sure we were in some of the same places four years ago.
First one is my daughter at Lake Louise, where I'm positive some of that video was shot at.
Second one is at the Jaspar train station, which may have been used too.
And the final one is my wife in what looks a very similar spot to where a lot of Taylor's singing scenes were shot. Think that was in Jaspar National Park too.
No idea on the city, but Calgary and Edmonton are the closest to the Canadian Rockies. These places are 10 or 12 hour drives from me and probably four days drive for LC in the other direction — Canada is big country.
Second one is at the Jaspar train station, which may have been used too.
And the final one is my wife in what looks a very similar spot to where a lot of Taylor's singing scenes were shot. Think that was in Jaspar National Park too.
No idea on the city, but Calgary and Edmonton are the closest to the Canadian Rockies. These places are 10 or 12 hour drives from me and probably four days drive for LC in the other direction — Canada is big country.
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
quote taken from here:
http://forum.maidenfans.com/threads/did-steve-write-the-lyrics-for-british-lion.23781/#post-365472
Do you mean Liederman? I am pretty sure he was a bandmember. He must have been the bassist of the band before 'Arry himself took over. Gary Liederman played bass with Adrian in Psycho Motel (on both albums) and later he was also involved in The Untouchables, if not mistaken.
Remember this part of the interview:
http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/features/iron-maidens-steve-harris-on-british-lion-solo-project/
So where did the impetus for British Lion come from?
How it started was that Graham Leslie came to me with a cassette of songs – which shows how long ago it was! – and I thought they were really good, so I said I’d try to help his band do something. I ended up managing them and producing them and writing with them, although I kept that fact under wraps, to the point where even some people in the band didn’t know. Anyway, when that band imploded I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got to do something with this’, because I thought the songs were so strong.
So in the beginning "just" Steve helped. He wrote, recorded etc and later he decided that he himself would join.
At bass, to be precisely. It's not exactly said like this, but I read it in between the lines.
So, at that point he wrote and recorded more songs with the current line-up. The booklet refers to drums and vocal recordings in some cases, but I don't think they recorded without bass. Liederman must have been out there. So, in a few cases, older line-up recordings were used and Steve re-recorded his bass lines at some later moment.
http://forum.maidenfans.com/threads/did-steve-write-the-lyrics-for-british-lion.23781/#post-365472
Do you mean Liederman? I am pretty sure he was a bandmember. He must have been the bassist of the band before 'Arry himself took over. Gary Liederman played bass with Adrian in Psycho Motel (on both albums) and later he was also involved in The Untouchables, if not mistaken.
Remember this part of the interview:
http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/features/iron-maidens-steve-harris-on-british-lion-solo-project/
So where did the impetus for British Lion come from?
How it started was that Graham Leslie came to me with a cassette of songs – which shows how long ago it was! – and I thought they were really good, so I said I’d try to help his band do something. I ended up managing them and producing them and writing with them, although I kept that fact under wraps, to the point where even some people in the band didn’t know. Anyway, when that band imploded I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got to do something with this’, because I thought the songs were so strong.
So in the beginning "just" Steve helped. He wrote, recorded etc and later he decided that he himself would join.
At bass, to be precisely. It's not exactly said like this, but I read it in between the lines.
So, at that point he wrote and recorded more songs with the current line-up. The booklet refers to drums and vocal recordings in some cases, but I don't think they recorded without bass. Liederman must have been out there. So, in a few cases, older line-up recordings were used and Steve re-recorded his bass lines at some later moment.
425
Starblind
That would certainly make more sense. I wasn't really considering the history of the band when I made that list. I just looked at the part of the booklet that said who played on what tracks and saw that he wasn't listed there, then happened to see him in Leslie's acknowledgements. Your explanation makes a great deal of sense.
I like the album. Vocalist is a bit weaker, but generally OK. I wish they'd gotten some other producer. The album would sound so much better with more modern and punchier production.
Cornfed Hick
Ancient Mariner
This, by itself, speaks volumes. This isn't an album of complex epics, it's an album mostly of straightforward rockers. If it were a great album, you'd know it by now. As I posted earlier, it's not a bad album per se (the professional review saying it is the worst album of the year was just stupid), just not really a grabber, or a grower. I revisit it again every couple of days, frankly hoping it will grow on me, but it really doesn't. It is simply okay, and given that this is just a side project, I'm fine with that.
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
I feel some songs are grabbers and some are not (e.g. I despise Eyes of the Young). As an album, it's not the greatest metal record I've ever heard, neither is it worse than my expectations (I knew it wouldn't sound like a Maiden, a Bruce or an Adrian record). I am quite happy with it.
So, here's my thoughts on the album so far.
When I got it, I had a pretty clear concept of what awaited me. Everybody and their grandmother had been singing from the rooftops that this is neither anything like Maiden, nor a direct tribute to Steve's heroes from the seventies. I read this thread, I read magazine reviews and interviews with Steve. I knew the album had been conceived in the early nineties, and been in the works ever since. I knew I was to expect the worst with the production, and that I should not expect to be blown away by the album. With all that in mind, my expectations were neither particularly high nor particularly low. I tend to have a more positive view on things than the great bulk of people who post on the internet, so I expected to like the album. Well, do I?
I think the first thing that shows is that this really is an album from the early nineties. It would have been a hit in 1992, and I'm pretty sure that Eyes of the Young would have gotten a lot of airplay. Richard Taylor is the Graham Bonnet/Doogie White type of soft-voiced singer that Britain was pouring out in gallons at the time. You can tell that he doesn't have an awful lot of skill, but he is pleasant to listen to (so in that sense, the exact opposite of Michael Kiske in my opinion, as I hope you all know by now). Then again, he really lacks excitement. He just kind of plods away without much that you remember. Occasionally, he tries to do something different but that pretty much forces me to think "what the hell was that?", like during the barely audible spoken-word passage in This is My God. Other than that, he doesn't have any great failures, but there are also no highlights to speak of.
As for Steve, and to us he is the focal point, I don't think that he is particularly noticeable except for a few points here and there. He sure sounds a lot different than with Maiden, if you even hear him at all. The only really prominent bass line I can think of is in The Chosen Ones, a song that sounds pretty much like a watered-down The Who number, but actually contains some memorable instrumentals. I can't picture 'Arry doing his machine gun on stage for this, but I don't have problems accepting that it's him playing there.
Musically, I find the first three songs to be underwhelming. They are terribly engineered, and musically bland. It does pick up with Us Against the World - I kind of like what Taylor does there - and really shines with A World Without Heaven and Judas. Those two songs are the highlights of the album for me, and also the two most memorable ones. They are actually the only ones that really do stick with me and that I actively remember after the album has finished. I can picture A World Without Heaven as a Maiden recording, and Judas is just simply a brilliant, brooding piece with some original ideas. Eyes of the Young is a song that came out twenty years too late to make any kind of impact. As I said, it would have been a radio hit in 1992, but nowadays I'd say it is a completely insignificant piece of music. These are the Hands builds a pretty neat atmosphere. As for The Lesson, it constructs a very cheesy setting with all those synth strings and whatnot, but actually manages to become poignant.
So, how does the album hold up in general? I'm a child of the nineties, I love that decade, and therefore the record inevitably touches a soft spot with me. It has that nice tragicomic feel of an old vinyl found in the "five for the price of three" box in the corner of a second hand record shop that you picked up because you kind of liked something about the sleeve. You know, like all those Wolfsbane albums we all have and we all tuck away in the back of our record collection. The thing is, it can pass for a nice, tame and pleasant piece of music, and I've always thought that was the worst thing you could possibly say about a hard rock album. The music is supposed to be wild and provocative, and maybe it would have been in 1992, but it certainly is no longer.
In summary, A World Without Heaven and Judas are numbers that grabbed me, and there is no really bad song on the album. But in general, if it wouldn't say Steve Harris on it, I kind of doubt I would have listened to it more than twice or three times.
When I got it, I had a pretty clear concept of what awaited me. Everybody and their grandmother had been singing from the rooftops that this is neither anything like Maiden, nor a direct tribute to Steve's heroes from the seventies. I read this thread, I read magazine reviews and interviews with Steve. I knew the album had been conceived in the early nineties, and been in the works ever since. I knew I was to expect the worst with the production, and that I should not expect to be blown away by the album. With all that in mind, my expectations were neither particularly high nor particularly low. I tend to have a more positive view on things than the great bulk of people who post on the internet, so I expected to like the album. Well, do I?
I think the first thing that shows is that this really is an album from the early nineties. It would have been a hit in 1992, and I'm pretty sure that Eyes of the Young would have gotten a lot of airplay. Richard Taylor is the Graham Bonnet/Doogie White type of soft-voiced singer that Britain was pouring out in gallons at the time. You can tell that he doesn't have an awful lot of skill, but he is pleasant to listen to (so in that sense, the exact opposite of Michael Kiske in my opinion, as I hope you all know by now). Then again, he really lacks excitement. He just kind of plods away without much that you remember. Occasionally, he tries to do something different but that pretty much forces me to think "what the hell was that?", like during the barely audible spoken-word passage in This is My God. Other than that, he doesn't have any great failures, but there are also no highlights to speak of.
As for Steve, and to us he is the focal point, I don't think that he is particularly noticeable except for a few points here and there. He sure sounds a lot different than with Maiden, if you even hear him at all. The only really prominent bass line I can think of is in The Chosen Ones, a song that sounds pretty much like a watered-down The Who number, but actually contains some memorable instrumentals. I can't picture 'Arry doing his machine gun on stage for this, but I don't have problems accepting that it's him playing there.
Musically, I find the first three songs to be underwhelming. They are terribly engineered, and musically bland. It does pick up with Us Against the World - I kind of like what Taylor does there - and really shines with A World Without Heaven and Judas. Those two songs are the highlights of the album for me, and also the two most memorable ones. They are actually the only ones that really do stick with me and that I actively remember after the album has finished. I can picture A World Without Heaven as a Maiden recording, and Judas is just simply a brilliant, brooding piece with some original ideas. Eyes of the Young is a song that came out twenty years too late to make any kind of impact. As I said, it would have been a radio hit in 1992, but nowadays I'd say it is a completely insignificant piece of music. These are the Hands builds a pretty neat atmosphere. As for The Lesson, it constructs a very cheesy setting with all those synth strings and whatnot, but actually manages to become poignant.
So, how does the album hold up in general? I'm a child of the nineties, I love that decade, and therefore the record inevitably touches a soft spot with me. It has that nice tragicomic feel of an old vinyl found in the "five for the price of three" box in the corner of a second hand record shop that you picked up because you kind of liked something about the sleeve. You know, like all those Wolfsbane albums we all have and we all tuck away in the back of our record collection. The thing is, it can pass for a nice, tame and pleasant piece of music, and I've always thought that was the worst thing you could possibly say about a hard rock album. The music is supposed to be wild and provocative, and maybe it would have been in 1992, but it certainly is no longer.
In summary, A World Without Heaven and Judas are numbers that grabbed me, and there is no really bad song on the album. But in general, if it wouldn't say Steve Harris on it, I kind of doubt I would have listened to it more than twice or three times.
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
A good read! Need to get something of my back though (purely my 2 cents).
But no one actually dislikes the song, or part of it? I think there's a certain part where he is not pleasant to listen to. And that's an understatement. Check this out, to see what I mean. Pay special attention to 3.44-4.25 (the longest seconds of music I have heard for a long while).:
It's appalling! A most horrendous vocal melody! When I play that part I can't stand it anymore. SKIP
This is one of the few songs that I have ever skipped in my life when playing a full album. I can't even think of an other example where the urge was so huge. Stomach turning stuff! I get all kinds of visions and some of them contain hobbits smiling and staring at each other. F**k, how on earth could this non-representative piece of shit have landed on the album?!
Alright. This needs a response. All I see is that people mainly "complain" about the song's music style, and some even say that this song could have been a hit in older days...
But no one actually dislikes the song, or part of it? I think there's a certain part where he is not pleasant to listen to. And that's an understatement. Check this out, to see what I mean. Pay special attention to 3.44-4.25 (the longest seconds of music I have heard for a long while).:
This is one of the few songs that I have ever skipped in my life when playing a full album. I can't even think of an other example where the urge was so huge. Stomach turning stuff! I get all kinds of visions and some of them contain hobbits smiling and staring at each other. F**k, how on earth could this non-representative piece of shit have landed on the album?!
Now this is an en-ti-re-ly different song. My favourite song of the moment. Well constructed, strong melodies.