The Genesis of Somewhere in Time

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I'm not a super big fan of saying Iron Maiden is a "lazy" band. They definitely have their way of working and I'd also love some more rare/collectible shits to add to my collectible shit shelf. But for a band that tours and writes new music as often as they do, it's hard for me to call them lazy. I mean sure, 6 years between new albums, but that would've been 4 years if not for the pandemic and both the last two albums were double albums. 170 minutes between two albums in 6 years time is still roughly four albums worth of material going by 80s standards.

So, again, I hate the word lazy. Especially because, as a consumer, I have no idea what is going on behind the scenes. I have no idea what material they're sitting on, what archival footage, etc. Lazy implies they have tons of shit they could be doing, but they're not. But we don't know that they can produce anything because it might not exist. It's splitting hairs because, at the end of the day, I agree and want more super rare shit also. I do kinda feel that if Maiden really recorded all their shows, they'd have released better live albums than they have. They seem to say ahead of time "that'll be a great gig, lets record that!", and then they do, and if it's shit, it still gets put out. It's why Live After Death is Long Beach and not, say, the better sounding Rock In Rio. Or the Mexico City show from 2019 instead of, say, any fucking show from 2018 where the band played the same songs and they sounded much better.

Or, maybe they DO record everything and they ARE super lazy. But as I have no idea either way, I hate to presume that.
 
It would be interesting to know, fo sho, if Mosh or SRFC has the right of it. Both options are possible, I think. But also, I like to hope that they will release a lot of interesting shit post retirement. If dvds aren't commercially viable then maybe you get a code for video content along with a cd or vinyl release or something or the website and/or fan club will have video to buy. I find it unfathomable that they will not bring the History thing to completion at some stage.
 
Christopher Baines said:
I suppose they did put more work in in the 80's when they were working to get to the top but yeah from 90's onwards they put an album out and they tour but that's about it, not an awful lot more for the fans. I compare to Metallica as there are bands of similar stature, but Metallica release so much more and make it for more interesting for fans. Ok that might have something to do with Lars wanting to fill his wallet but I do think Maiden could do more for us.
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I agree with you. Though it’s not about Lars only, it’s about Metallica having a much better (and modern) Management.
Some people think the same for Maiden but in my opinion Rod is last century good Manager.

Another differentiating factor is that Metallica is 2 men’s business while Maiden only one’s. And those two, unlike Steve weren’t afraid to change.
 
I couldn't give less of a shit about collector's box sets and endless live releases of the same songs over and over again. What do Metallica fans get out of hearing progressively worse versions of Enter Sandman time and time again? If anything it's a lazy cash grab that cheapens the music. I'm glad Maiden typically steer away from that stuff (aside from 100 variations of beer and 37 different greatest hits compilations)
 
Zare said:
The Nassau album contained 9 songs, all around 5min mark. If you disregard ATG and cut intros from the some of rest, you can get 7 songs of about 5 min mark from Somewhere in Time. The Nassau album also contained an instrumental. So, how do we go from 5min instrumental + 5min of X = Alexander the Great? Harris says that he wrote ATG at the beginning of the "recording of the LP" in two weeks, which clearly does not correspond with the state of the album as of May 1986.
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Could the 9th song be Run Silent Run Deep? Bruce told in an interview that he wrote the lyrics one during SIT sessions but the song never made it then.
 
____no5 said:
Could the 9th song be Run Silent Run Deep? Bruce told in an interview that he wrote the lyrics one during SIT sessions but the song never made it then.
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Here's the thing, I don't think the band's lying about this era, albeit the secrecy. So if Dickinson says he brought acoustic material and it got rejected, which in turn made him focus 100% on the performance, I believe it to be true - it's in the Mick Wall biography.

So how does this indication of him actually having a credit in early album stages fit?

I believe every possibility is valid - it was written as ballad and rejected, it was written after the rejection as an concise attempt to write something less experimental, the music was possibly written by Smith back in 1986, and so on.

Consider the outro on the song, it may be how it originally sounded in acoustic. Although the rest of the song is bog standard classic (and high quality) Maiden. So I see it really fitting on Somewhere in Time. And I think it wasn't that hard to develop the song from that melody and theme that's present in the outro-chorus. So it might be the 9th song, Dickinson credit, in its 1986 variant.

@Luisma I believe heard the demos and he can probably answer this with yes/no :)
 
Zare said:
Consider the outro on the song, it may be how it originally sounded in acoustic. Although the rest of the song is bog standard classic (and high quality) Maiden. So I see it really fitting on Somewhere in Time. And I think it wasn't that hard to develop the song from that melody and theme that's present in the outro-chorus. So it might be the 9th song, Dickinson credit, in its 1986 variant.
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Spot on! The main riff is definitely Harris and I've totally forgotten the outro. Brilliant thought Zare!
Yeap, in the interview Bruce tells us how Harris brought that riff and told him it will perfectly fit with his submarine SIT lyrics.
Which in the background tells us that Steve was well familiar with those lyrics, which they have probably tried them with some form of music (i.e. outro /chorus).

As a side note, Run Silent Run Deep stands out not only in NPftD but in the entire Maiden discography.
Though it sounds instantly and without any doubt as a classic Maiden, I can't think of any other song before or after with such a clean riff and fast marching tempo.
 
____no5 said:
Spot on! The main riff is definitely Harris and I've totally forgotten the outro
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And the vocal delivery (of the outro) is quite bluesy, especially the last few words. Certainly smells like the Dickinson material from the day, by his own descriptions.

____no5 said:
As a side note, Run Silent Run Deep stands out not only in NPftD but in the entire Maiden discography.
Though it sounds instantly and without any doubt as a classic Maiden, I can't think of any other song before or after with such a clean riff and fast marching tempo.
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TRATB, sort of, although the "clean riff" is bass part and it's really messy, sort of a "risk and lose" type of atmosphere.

flat iron said:
I would even go as far and say that they used some ideas of RSRD in the instrumental part of Davey´s Deja Vu. Ever noticed how similar the twin guitar runs sound? I remember when I heard RSRD in 1990 I thought it was the first time they really repeated themselves.
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NPFTD sounds like Somewhere in Time in a lot of places.
I really don't think they did any sort of 180 deg turn in 1990, in regards to music.

There's a "brass section" in Mother Russia's main riff, can you hear it? Only two notes, but right where they need to be.
 
Zare said:
And the vocal delivery (of the outro) is quite bluesy, especially the last few words. Certainly smells like the Dickinson material from the day, by his own descriptions.
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It actually reminds me a bit of Omega from AoB. I think there's been some speculation that that song in particular might be rooted in Bruce's acoustic sessions from 1986 and it definitely has that vibe to me.
 
Perun said:
The prime argument against Maiden being lazy is that they kept touring all the time. The only touring hiatus was in 2015, and that was because of Bruce's cancer treatment. And in that year, they released a new album.
It's not so natural for a band this big and this old to be on the road this much.
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I would not call touring for 3-4 months in a calendar year "touring all the time"...
 
There are a few touring hiatus to be honest:
1989, 1994, 1997, 2002 (just the 3 Brixton Academy shows to help Clive), 2015 (Bruce's cancer), 2020, 2021 (cancelled tour due to COVID)
 
GhostofCain said:
I would not call touring for 3-4 months in a calendar year "touring all the time"...
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No man it's exhausting. For their age and status it's quite a lot, kudos to them. But it's not the point. I call them lazy not because they aren't good "workers" which they are by and large. Their laziness -in my opinion- is that they don't try new things.
  • Identical setlists during a tour.
  • Same ol' formula Album Tour -Legacy Tour since 20 years with few surprises if at all.
  • Refusal to play songs that they know will please their fans.
  • No separation between eras i.e. Somewhere Back in Time contained songs from Early Days. Many of them.
  • No dedicated tour for the reunion era.
  • Dozen+ of same ol' lives but not for AMOLAD, and so on.
That's for touring. For recording they also applying made for efficiency formulas such as writing songs in the Studio, following same pattern slow intro -main -slow outro (Harris), most of their guitar solos last 40 seconds etc.
 
Ruflux said:
It actually reminds me a bit of Omega from AoB. I think there's been some speculation that that song in particular might be rooted in Bruce's acoustic sessions from 1986 and it definitely has that vibe to me.
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I just listened to Accident of Birth and realized I actually meant Arc of Space, obviously, since it's acoustic and everything. How the hell did I confuse two songs that are completely different, I can't help but wonder.
 
____no5 said:
No man it's exhausting. For their age and status it's quite a lot, kudos to them. But it's not the point. I call them lazy not because they aren't good "workers" which they are by and large. Their laziness -in my opinion- is that they don't try new things.
  • Identical setlists during a tour.
  • Same ol' formula Album Tour -Legacy Tour since 20 years with few surprises if at all.
  • Refusal to play songs that they know will please their fans.
  • No separation between eras i.e. Somewhere Back in Time contained songs from Early Days. Many of them.
  • No dedicated tour for the reunion era.
  • Dozen+ of same ol' lives but not for AMOLAD, and so on.
That's for touring. For recording they also applying made for efficiency formulas such as writing songs in the Studio, following same pattern slow intro -main -slow outro (Harris), most of their guitar solos last 40 seconds etc.
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Agree with all those points but I then I think to myself WTF would I do without them lol. I havent seen Maiden for 5 years now and am due to see them in July. It just fills me depression to think of the day I can never see them live again. I just think we could have had more interesting release and content from them over the years.
 
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