The World of Solo Maiden

Diesel 11

Diesel 11

As you scream into the web of silence...
Maiden is a pretty big staple of my everyday listening experience, and I enjoy going through the solo work that its band members have put out too. It's been a while since I went through each of their extracurricular discographies, so I figured it was time to dive back in. Having enjoyed reading through @Mosh 's The Maiden Years thread, and going through band discographies with people like @MrKnickerbocker (latest example being Nightwish), I thought it would be fun to jot down thoughts here in this thread and maybe bring in some interesting discussions as I do this.

This thread will revolve specifically around four Maiden members' discographies: Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris, Adrian Smith, and Blaze Bayley. These four are the ones that I've found to have had the most interesting solo material from the band's historical lineup of musicians; honestly, I just don't care about Paul's post-Maiden career at all, and I'll leave exploring Nicko's and Janick's pre-Maiden work for another day. I plan on going through these core four members' work as fully as possible, including all studio albums, some bonus tracks and EPs, live releases, and even bootlegs. I good chunk I've already heard many times before, but there will be new things to uncover (I'll finally get around to listening to the new records that Steve, H, and Blaze have released by the end of this project). Bruce is my favorite of the four, and will thus be getting the most in-depth listens, but I'm also open to suggestions if you know of something I should listen to that I've missed.

Bruce Dickinson
1980-81: Samson (Head On and Shock Tactics)
1990: Tattooed Millionaire
1991: Dive! Dive! Live!
1994: Balls to Picasso (and extras)
1995: Alive in Studio A + Alive at the Marquee Club

Adrian Smith
1985: The Entire Population of Hackney
1989: A.S.A.P. (Silver and Gold)
1993: The Untouchables

Bruce's Samson Years

I wanted to start with Bruce's stint in Samson because I've only heard a couple of songs from his time in that band before now and I was curious to know how it holds up in light of everything he's done with Maiden. The answer is... sorta? Both Head On and Shock Tactics are cleanly recorded NWOBHM albums, but they showcase the same band in radically different lights. Head On is more laid-back, feeling influenced by now-classic rock artists like Deep Purple, with Bruce bringing in a lower voice that doesn't get much time to let loose. When he does, like in "Take Me to Your Leader" (a weird and somewhat lovable song that's also dumb), it feels forced. These songs are all very listenable but none of them are all that interesting. The quasi-epic "Walking Out on You" feels as though the band frilled it up more than actually filled it with good material.

But it is interesting for two reasons. The first is the obvious Maiden connection via the instrumental "Thunderburst". In all frankness, "The Ides of March" takes the same idea and makes it way more fun and way more interesting, but it's still cool to hear Samson's version. The acoustic intro, the layers of guitars and even Bruce's voice, it feels like cinematic classic heavy metal. (Also the chorus music in "Hammerhead" sounds like "Run to the Hills"...) Second, this is the first time where I could really sense the Gillan inspiration that Bruce has always cited. There are a lot of mannerisms that he's clearly picked up from his idol that I've heard before in Deep Purple and Jesus Christ Superstar. And where Samson clearly don't yet know how to use Bruce Bruce properly, his approach is just to incorporate his hero worship into a solid but mostly uneventful performance.

But on Shock Tactics this has changed. Suddenly Bruce Fucking Dickinson has a fire in his ass and his performance is frankly stunning. There's less polish than we'd see once he started working with Martin Birch (and had to endure the grueling Maiden touring cycles), but it's not quite raw either. The singing he does on this album is some of the most ferocious I've ever heard; at times I wonder if he missed his calling for melodic death metal instead. Reading his autobiography*, it sounds like this had to have hurt like hell, given that the producer was pushing him into territory that was, at the time, uncomfortable for him. And yet listening to it it sounds so effortless. He just needs a little more control.

The songs have gotten better too. Mostly. The "Riding With the Angels" cover is a cool way to open the album, and "Earth Mother" is a pretty stunning follow-up. The band has material that knows how to utilize Bruce's voice and it's all the better for it. Closing track "Communion" is a much better epic affair with some mournful wintery guitar melodies and another great Bruce performance that acts as a prequel for the 'theater of the mind' concept that he would soon be pursuing full-time with Iron Maiden. What I'm not fond of, though, is the misogynistic lyric content of a lot of songs on this album. "Go to Hell" is the worst example, even though that riff is pretty good. I'm much happier with Bruce singing about history and poetry than about raping women, personally. These albums are pretty fun to listen through, but his talents just were too large to be contained within Samson.

*Also interesting to note, he says in his book that the drum recordings on these albums were a nightmare to track because of Thunderstick's lack of ability. So much for me thinking it was a pretty cool performance on Head On lol.
 
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Diesel 11 said:
Maiden is a pretty big staple of my everyday listening experience, and I enjoy going through the solo work that its band members have put out too. It's been a while since I went through each of their extracurricular discographies, so I figured it was time to dive back in. Having enjoyed reading through @Mosh 's The Maiden Years thread, and going through band discographies with people like @MrKnickerbocker (latest example being Nightwish), I thought it would be fun to jot down thoughts here in this thread and maybe bring in some interesting discussions as I do this.

This thread will revolve specifically around four Maiden members' discographies: Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris, Adrian Smith, and Blaze Bayley. These four are the ones that I've found to have had the most interesting solo material from the band's historical lineup of musicians; honestly, I just don't care about Paul's post-Maiden career at all, and I'll leave exploring Nicko's and Janick's pre-Maiden work for another day. I plan on going through these core four members' work as fully as possible, including all studio albums, some bonus tracks and EPs, live releases, and even bootlegs. I good chunk I've already heard many times before, but there will be new things to uncover (I'll finally get around to listening to the new records that Steve, H, and Blaze have released by the end of this project). Bruce is my favorite of the four, and will thus be getting the most in-depth listens, but I'm also open to suggestions if you know of something I should listen to that I've missed.

Bruce's Samson Years

I wanted to start with Bruce's stint in Samson because I've only heard a couple of songs from his time in that band before now and I was curious to know how it holds up in light of everything he's done with Maiden. The answer is... sorta? Both Head On and Shock Tactics are cleanly recorded NWOBHM albums, but they showcase the same band in radically different lights. Head On is more laid-back, feeling influenced by now-classic rock artists like Deep Purple, with Bruce bringing in a lower voice that doesn't get much time to let loose. When he does, like in "Take Me to Your Leader" (a weird and somewhat lovable song that's also dumb), it feels forced. These songs are all very listenable but none of them are all that interesting. The quasi-epic "Walking Out on You" feels as though the band frilled it up more than actually filled it with good material.

But it is interesting for two reasons. The first is the obvious Maiden connection via the instrumental "Thunderburst". In all frankness, "The Ides of March" takes the same idea and makes it way more fun and way more interesting, but it's still cool to hear Samson's version. The acoustic intro, the layers of guitars and even Bruce's voice, it feels like cinematic classic heavy metal. (Also the chorus music in "Hammerhead" sounds like "Run to the Hills"...) Second, this is the first time where I could really sense the Gillan inspiration that Bruce has always cited. There are a lot of mannerisms that he's clearly picked up from his idol that I've heard before in Deep Purple and Jesus Christ Superstar. And where Samson clearly don't yet know how to use Bruce Bruce properly, his approach is just to incorporate his hero worship into a solid but mostly uneventful performance.

But on Shock Tactics this has changed. Suddenly Bruce Fucking Dickinson has a fire in his ass and his performance is frankly stunning. There's less polish than we'd see once he started working with Martin Birch (and had to endure the grueling Maiden touring cycles), but it's not quite raw either. The singing he does on this album is some of the most ferocious I've ever heard; at times I wonder if he missed his calling for melodic death metal instead. Reading his autobiography*, it sounds like this had to have hurt like hell, given that the producer was pushing him into territory that was, at the time, uncomfortable for him. And yet listening to it it sounds so effortless. He just needs a little more control.

The songs have gotten better too. Mostly. The "Riding With the Angels" cover is a cool way to open the album, and "Earth Mother" is a pretty stunning follow-up. The band has material that knows how to utilize Bruce's voice and it's all the better for it. Closing track "Communion" is a much better epic affair with some mournful wintery guitar melodies and another great Bruce performance that acts as a prequel for the 'theater of the mind' concept that he would soon be pursuing full-time with Iron Maiden. What I'm not fond of, though, is the misogynistic lyric content of a lot of songs on this album. "Go to Hell" is the worst example, even though that riff is pretty good. I'm much happier with Bruce singing about history and poetry than about raping women, personally. These albums are pretty fun to listen through, but his talents just were too large to be contained within Samson.

*Also interesting to note, he says in his book that the drum recordings on these albums were a nightmare to track because of Thunderstick's lack of ability. So much for me thinking it was a pretty cool performance on Head On lol.
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I agree with your take on those Samson albums. Shock Tactics is a massive improvement, both in the songwriting and singing departments, although some of Bruce’s lyrics are embarrassing and cringeworthy (you have already named the worst offender).
 
Is Riding with the Angels definitely a cover?

Russ Ballard obviously had his own albums, but he also wrote stuff for other artists, I always thought that was the case with Riding with the Angels
 
srfc said:
Is Riding with the Angels definitely a cover?

Russ Ballard obviously had his own albums, but he also wrote stuff for other artists, I always thought that was the case with Riding with the Angels
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That is my understanding of this issue. I am not aware of the song having been recorded and released before it was offered to Samson.

Edit: I was wrong. The song appeared on the album Barnet Dogs by Russ Ballard (released in 1980).

 
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Adrian Smith and Project

After the more concise nature of the songs on Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Adrian steps back a bit to a songwriting approach that Maiden had been using on Somewhere in Time. Alongside a host of characters that evolved out of The Entire Population of Hackney*, he takes a few steps outside of Maiden into the world of Silver and Gold, an AOR album that features some of his most interesting songwriting. Every song on here gets stretched to its limit, but at the same time they're more to the point than some of the stuff Maiden (particularly Steve) had been writing. H has always been the poppiest of the Maiden writers, and that's what made his songs sound so sharp amidst the more indulgent Harris tracks. Here he gets to lead a whole album of commercially-oriented rock, and the result is really fascinating.

For a start, Adrian is the lead singer here, and it's so cool to hear his voice in the spotlight. One thing that I'm sad Maiden never explored beyond "Wasted Years" and "Reach Out" is that dynamic between Bruce's soaring vocals and H's more earthy, rough-around-the-edges voice. He has to push himself harder than Bruce does, and that results in a pretty passionate performance. Then there are all the layers that the group has put together to make each song sound expertly crafted within their own little world - various guitars, keyboards, sequencers, this is a high scale pop-rock production and I really dig it. And the backing vocals are great as well (the highlight has to be Stevie Lange in "After the Storm").

The album's weakest strength is probably the quality of the material. You can tell that H's fingerprints are on these tracks if you've heard his work on Sometime in Time, but the message in a lot of these songs seems to be something like, "Push yourself harder, you got this, don't let anyone tear you down." (Also a theme Blaze will use a LOT, but that's a story for a different day.) This, coupled with the fact that each track is built around a pop chorus, means that while the layers are cool, the material feels a little cut-and-dry. The title track is a good example of this: the verses and especially the pre-chorus are awesome, but the chorus itself... it's fine, but I'd have been more interested in hearing the song develop in other ways. Still strong, though. Others aren't nearly as interesting (can't imagine anyone complaining about "You Could Be a King" or "Wishing Your Life Away" being cut completely from the album).

But the majority of the songs here have something going for them, whether it's the cool verses of "Down the Wire", where you can tell that Adrian would've fit right into Def Leppard had Vivian Campbell not gotten the job; or the fun jives of "Misunderstood"; or that catchy chorus to "Fallen Heroes". The two stand-out tracks, though, which rise above just being "solid stuff", are the ones that bookend the record. "The Lion" has a breathless pacing to it, an absolutely dynamite chorus, and leaves you wanting more. Then "Blood Upon the Ocean" is a pretty epic closing ballad, incorporating just about everything there is to love about '80s pop rock into a plea for the world to get along, featuring the perfect chorus to hold up your lighter to. It's cheesy, but it's so good.

Even if the material isn't up to the standards you expect from someone stepping foot outside the Maiden shadow, Silver and Gold is a really unique album from the world of Maiden and you can see that H is beginning to figure out where his calling truly lies. Steve is about to hit the brakes on the band's progression, but the momentum of SiT, Seventh Son, and Silver and Gold will fling Adrian far outside the boundaries of Iron Maiden.

*Just realized that I missed The Entire Population of Hackney in my list of projects to check out. I'll have to come back for that...

† † †​

Tattooed Millionaire

In direct contrast to the seriousness of H's first steps outside of the Maiden bubble, Brucie Bruce Bruce Bruce's first solo offering is anything but. Saving one Janick Gers from a future of teaching sociology, Mr. Dickinson and Company write and record an album in about two weeks... just 'cuz. Where Adrian's songs feel very thought-out with an attempt to flesh them out to their fullest potential, Tattooed Millionaire's tracks are short and to-the-point. The off-the-cuff nature of the record is one of its strongest aspects; I wonder if H felt a bit hurt that his more meticulous offering did worse than the one Bruce practically wrote in his sleep.

The songs here are definitely not the best that Bruce has ever written, but they're a little more fun than both Silver and Gold and No Prayer for the Dying (for which it acted as the direct blueprint, what with Steve nicking "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter" for the Maiden record). The songs are very slick and stripped-back in contrast to Seventh Son, a style for which Janick was born for. As the sole guitarist, his contributions here are just about my favorite that he's ever done. There are some foreshadows of his chaotic style as part of Maiden ("Dive! Dive! Dive!" is a good example), but most of them feel a lot more thought-out and reigned-in, and honestly I can't fault a single one of his solos here. I guess when there's more pressure on you to deliver you come up with gold, but in the Maiden world where you're alongside great players like Dave and Adrian you don't have the need to outdo them.

Honestly having listened to Samson yesterday, this seems like a natural continuation of the sound of Shock Tactics. Bruce's rasp is back, but his voice has way more control than before. The sexual nature of a lot of the lyrics here also provides a bridge, though thankfully they're a lot less rape-y here. But working with Janick, who's a really good songwriter in his own right, means that the quality of the material, even in its worst moments, is better than most of the stuff that Samson slung along.

The best songs are easily the first three. "Son of a Gun" is a wonderful cowboy ballad with a really sinister vocal from Bruce. "Tattooed Millionaire" was the first Bruce solo song I ever heard, thanks to SiriusXM's Hair Nation (despite it being a rejection of the world of hair metal), and it still holds up, Def Leppard riff and all (that chorus is absolute bliss). "Born in '58" is another good ballad, with Bruce utilizing the world of his birth to bring to life a nostalgic track about how the old days were better (rose-colored glasses will be rose-colored glasses I guess). If the record consisted of nothing but tracks of this calliber, I think it would be thought of a lot more fondly in comparison to what he would do later on.

At the same time, the rest of the album isn't bad so much as it feels a bit more hollow than the first three. "Hell on Wheels" is the first glimpse into silly sexual territory, and it's fine; "Zulu Lulu" and "Dive! Dive! Dive!" are way more explicit, but also a little more fun, and I just can't hate them for simply being so gleefully obnoxious. "Gypsy Road" wants to hit the same highs as "Born in '58" but doesn't quite get there, being about a fucking roadway and all, but it's a fun sing-along if you forget about the fact that there's a racial slur in the title (though honestly "Zulu Lulu" is way worse). "All the Young Dudes" is an enjoyable cover, and I really like closing track "No Lies", particularly the chorus and extended wasteland outro. "Lickin' the Gun" will always remain the worst track on the album, feeling like utter filler from beginning to end.

Even if the album has shortcomings, it holds up really well as the kind of album you put on when you don't want to do too much thinking. Janick's guitarwork is awesome, Bruce's raspy voices is strong, and the songs don't stick around long enough for you to get sick of them. The good stuff on here is absolutely great, the bad stuff is really more just forgettable. I wouldn't say it's the weakest of his solo albums, but where all his other material had so much more effort put into it, I can't blame anyone who would claim that. At the end of the day, for me, this is just a silly little album that's super fun.

At this point in time, Bruce isn't searching to find his voice like Adrian is. That will soon change...
 
Diesel 11 said:
(can't imagine anyone complaining about "You Could Be a King" or "Wishing Your Life Away" being cut completely from the album)
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Imagine harder! Those are both solidly good songs with memorable choruses. And that funky synth lick on “Wishing Your Life Away” is great.

Diesel 11 said:
"Lickin' the Gun" will always remain the worst track on the album, feeling like utter filler from beginning to end.
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Some of the worst vocal riffing of all time, too.

Diesel 11 said:
I wouldn't say it's the weakest of his solo albums
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Interesting. I’m going to guess you think Balls To Picasso is the worst, then…?
 
The Entire Population of Hackney

Also known as The Sherman Tankers, a side project of Nicko's and Adrian's that incorporated a few other friends of theirs, "The Entire Population of Hackney" was a bit of a creative outlet during Maiden's downtime after the massive World Slavery Tour. The outfit played two shows, the first of which is a fairly famous bootleg. Listening through it after seeing the results of this exercise (the A.S.A.P. album) makes it a bit more interesting, to be honest. There are four future A.S.A.P. songs ("Silver and Gold", plus the bonus tracks "Fighting Man", "School Days", and "Fighting Man"), plus three future Iron Maiden b-sides from the Somewhere in Time era ("Juanita", "Reach Out", and "That Girl"). The latter trio are all performed well, although I think Bruce's vocals in "That Girl" are better, and I'm missing his backing vocals in "Reach Out". "Juanita" with Adrian vocals is honestly a really cool concert opener.

The track "Silver and Gold" itself isn't as good as it is on the album. Obviously the production is a big part of it, but the pre-chorus on the album version is easily the best part of the song and it isn't present here. Makes me appreciate the final product even more. Listening to "Fighting Man" and "When She's Gone" again, I honestly wouldn't have minded hearing them replace a couple songs from Silver and Gold, although "School Days" is pretty forgettable.

The rest of the tracklist doesn't do a whole lot for me, consisting of some covers and a couple other original tracks for the project, but when Dave, Steve, and Bruce arrive things get a little more interesting. It's sometimes hard to imagine Iron Maiden as a unit doing a small little show like this when you're used to hearing the band do stuff like, say, Live After Death. But it's a lot of fun to hear Bruce crooning "Tush" and his vocals are awesome on "2 Minutes to Midnight" (I guess at this point his voice had recovered a lot post-touring).

The whole vibe of this bootleg feels like you're going out and seeing the local band performing, even though this 'local band' is comprised of world-famous musicians. The vibe disappears a bit after Bruce enters the scene and immediately takes command of the audience, reminding you that this is still Iron Maiden. It's interesting, the performances are tight, and overall it's an enjoyable trip through history.

I haven't found any bootlegs of the supposed A.S.A.P. promotional tour (anyone have any more information on this?), but this works well enough. Fun shit.
 
Dive! Dive! Live!

Back to Bruce, as he and the gang load up their gear and trek across the States, touring in support of Tattooed Millionaire. For such a silly little album it's really cool that they put so much effort into selling it, and it seems like the band really turned it into a great show with a lot of audience involvement. Obviously this recording is infamous for, paraphrasing Bruce, being dumb and stupid, so much in fact that he apparently "tossed the film in a ditch after the show". I'm glad they saved it, though, because it's actually a good recording and a nice package of the era.

Bruce has a couple rants in here that are very on-the-nose, but otherwise it would be hard to tell that he was pissed off throughout the show. He performs super well and sounds great. The recording quality is a bit of a dud; I listened to it in audio format instead of with the video today (already seen it a few years back) so I was focused solely on the sound of the concert as opposed to the full spectacle of the show - it sounds really thin. Would've been great if they'd had a second guitarist in there to beef up the sound and play the overdubs that Jan did in the studio. Janick isn't bad here, but he feels wasted, and his solos are way more chaotic than on the album itself.

You really have to admire the fact that the band played the entire Tattooed Millionaire here, which means we get to see which songs work live and which don't. I think "Lickin' the Gun" works better here; "Zulu Lulu" meanwhile is way worse, almost like Bruce has realized it's stupid and regrets coming up with it. "Gypsy Road" is a little more sterile, "Hell on Wheels" and "All the Young Dudes" are kinda just there. The three best songs on the album are given solid performances, but don't quite knock it out of the park ("Son of a Gun" in particular is a good example of how a second guitarist could've really kicked it over the edge).

The two biggest highlights for me though are "Dive! Dive! Dive!" and "No Lies". The first one gets nicely expanded to incorporate more crowd work-ups and I feel like it's a track Bruce should've returned to had his solo career continued. It's pretty much built for the live performance. The latter is cool because of Janick's jam extension that's a bit of a mess, but in a loveable way. Also incorporates "Walking in the Air" into the mix!

Looking outside the album tracks, the show is kicked off with a return to the Samson days in a fun rendition of "Riding with the Angels". There's some b-side shit incorporated here, with the woefully awful yet somehow not hateable "Ballad of Mutt", an acoustic version of "Winds of Change" that has really good verses but a flaccid chorus, and the foundational future Maiden hit "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter", which is awesome. Lastly there are the cover songs... "Sin City" is fine enough, but that version of "Black Night" sounds a mess from beginning to end.

Best part of the whole show? Easily "Fog on the Tyne". It sounds fantastic, Bruce and the audience are in sync, Janick's acoustic playing is great, swear to god I wish they'd done a fifteen minute extended jam of it and called it a night. The one moment in the recording where I was absolutely hooked.

In spite of all its shortcomings, Dive! Dive! Live! is one of those "it is what it is" kinds of things. I had far fonder memories of the video, which makes sense. I'm not listening to an album so much as a live document by a film crew. It's not Bruce's best live recording ever, but it's fun enough and it's great that we have it. Would be a shame for this show to just be washed away in a ditch somewhere, even if at times you wonder if they didn't just pull the material out of the gutter.

Also Bruce mentions at the end that the band had plans to do a second album and tour - I wonder when they decided against it? Before or after the Maiden split? When Bruce decided that his solo career had to be Serious and not Silly? One of the great What If's within the wider world of solo Bruce, I guess. Anyway, FOG ON THE TYNE IS ALL MINE ALL MINE, FOG ON THE TYNE IS ALL MINE!
 
Probably before the split.

Bruce tried to record new music before Fear of the dark, and during the break between Fear of the dark tour and A real live one tour. The first attempt with the band Skin. The second attempt was going to be produced by Keith Olsen in LA. I think just a few songs came from the Olsen session, and they sound fantastic, and very different from both Tattooed millionaire and Balls to picasso. Bruce was not so happy with these attempts, so after he left Maiden, he basically emptied his bank acconut, took just Tears of the dragon from the first two sessions, and made Balls to picasso with Roy Z and the Tribe of Gypsies.
 
Sth2112 said:
Probably before the split.

Bruce tried to record new music before Fear of the dark, and during the break between Fear of the dark tour and A real live one tour. The first attempt with the band Skin. The second attempt was going to be produced by Keith Olsen in LA. I think just a few songs came from the Olsen session, and they sound fantastic, and very different from both Tattooed millionaire and Balls to picasso. Bruce was not so happy with these attempts, so after he left Maiden, he basically emptied his bank acconut, took just Tears of the dragon from the first two sessions, and made Balls to picasso with Roy Z and the Tribe of Gypsies.
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Gotcha, makes sense. I didn’t remember the full chronology of how BtP came to be but that makes sense. It’s just interesting that he’s never, to my knowledge, mentioned attempting a second album with Jan and the gang. Possibly as a direct result of Janick joining Maiden, it just dissolved naturally and everyone forgot about it? Maybe there’s an interview I’m overlooking or haven’t seen yet lol.
 
Regarding the genesis of Balls to Picasso and the lost albums, you might find this old post useful:

Bruce Dickinson

Wait a minute... does this mean that the TM b-side is the "winds of change, roll over us" quiet one and the BTP b-side is the "WIIIIIIIINDS OF CHAAAANGE ROLL OOOOOVER UUUUSSSSS" loud one? I just assumed the live version from Dive! Dive! Live! was just done... for the concert. I never realized...
forum.maidenfans.com
 
GhostofCain said:
Regarding the genesis of Balls to Picasso and the lost albums, you might find this old post useful:

Bruce Dickinson

Wait a minute... does this mean that the TM b-side is the "winds of change, roll over us" quiet one and the BTP b-side is the "WIIIIIIIINDS OF CHAAAANGE ROLL OOOOOVER UUUUSSSSS" loud one? I just assumed the live version from Dive! Dive! Live! was just done... for the concert. I never realized...
forum.maidenfans.com
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A lot of this info I already know, but it’s nice to go back over it again and refamiliarize myself with it. Thank you. :)
 
The Untouchables

Now firmly outside of the Maiden world, Adrian Smith takes a break from music and returns with a group called 'The Untouchables'. There aren't many recordings of them and I've only been able to find five songs of theirs: "Judgement Day", "Singing the Blues", "Big Trouble", "City of Dreams", and an extended live version of "Wasted Years". The group sounds like an extension of A.S.A.P. but with a bigger rock 'n' roll flair.

There's not really much to say about them. I thought that "Judgement Day" and "Big Trouble" were middle of the pack numbers, but "Singing the Blues" surprised me because the chorus is really good even though the title sounds super boring. "City of Dreams" is pretty strong too. Interesting to hear Adrian himself singing "Wasted Years" and there are a couple lyric changes to it too.

There are good aspects of this outfit, obviously it would evolve into Psycho Motel in the next year or two, and it's a shame they didn't properly record a record because the good stuff here is great, I can take it alongside the more middling rock n roll stuff. I don't know if anyone knows of other recordings that I haven't found feel free to post them here; maybe I'll return to them down the road.
 
Diesel 11 said:
The Untouchables […] it's a shame they didn't properly record a record because the good stuff here is great, I can take it alongside the more middling rock n roll stuff.
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Bob Richards (one-time drummer for The Untouchables, and the guy who posted the “City Of Dreams” video on YouTube) says that the band recorded an entire album’s worth of demos, and “City Of Dreams” was from those sessions. It’s unclear whether it will ever be released, but one can hope.
 
Bruce Beyond Maiden

Two years after Adrian left Maiden, Bruce found himself at a crossroads as well. The prospect of a solo career would have been enticing for anyone in his shoes. Iron Maiden had put out a couple records on which they first back-pedaled and then couldn't regain a proper identity for themselves. As much as I personally enjoy both No Prayer for the Dying and Fear of the Dark (the latter more so than even Seventh Son, which is the easy comparison point between what Maiden was evolving to and what they ended up becoming), it's easy to see why Bruce chose to dive off the deep end and go it alone. Steve has such a definitive vision for what Iron Maiden can and should be, that on albums like Somewhere in Time Bruce's contributions were ignored outright. Taking control of his career means that he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants.

And that would become the very literal direction of his first serious stab as a solo artist. Where Tattooed Millionaire was just a "throw anything at the wall" kind of record, the new album would have to be something worth fighting for. You can't return to the Maiden mothership if it fails; you have to be putting your best foot forward. And with this in mind, Bruce went about exploring a few different avenues before settling on a style with which to commit to. He worked with the band Skin, disliked the direction; worked with producer Keith Olson (with more electronic vibes), disliked the direction; finally committed to Roy Z and his Tribe of Gypsies, which fit much better and finally resulted in a record, Balls to Picasso.

I wanted to start by listening through the extra songs released on the expended edition of BtP, to get a sense of what the record could have so easily been instead of what it eventually became. Spoiler alert, the album is one of the contenders for my least favorite Bruce album (something I'll unpack in a bit), but its bonus tracks are easily some of my favorites, a weird dichotomy I know. But almost all of these songs were serious artistic statements and that's what helps them hold up.

Firstly there's the material with the band Skin. For some reason I was under the impression that these tracks were collaborations with Roy Z until I re-read @GhostofCain 's old post. The sound is fairly similar to the sound on BtP proper, so it's interesting to realize that they were in fact two different projects entirely. There are four main songs from this session released on the bonus disc: "Fire Child", "Elvis Has Left the Building", "The Breeding House", and "No Way Out... To Be Continued" (I skipped "Winds of Change" since it's just a reworking of a Tattooed Millionaire extra).

"Elvis..." is just fucking around in the studio so we can just quietly forget about it. The other three songs are REALLY strong. I mean, really strong. They'd have been among the best on the album if they were on Balls to Picasso. "Fire Child" has a really shite vocal mix but otherwise is a great, layered cowboy epic with rocking guitars and a cool, spooky post-chorus. "The Breeding House" has some power metal riffing and an absolutely killer performance from Bruce and it will not stop playing in my head. Also very dark subject matter that points angry fingers at the people who allowed it to happen and even participated in it.

Then there's "No Way Out... To Be Continued", which is a really epic track, almost progressive in the way it moves from piece to piece. I love the intro, the riff, the chorus... That acoustic bridge in the middle that retraces some steps of previous lyrics and then goes into a screaming guitar solo struck me this time because of the direct comparison I can make with the Maiden song "Fear Is the Key". In that track the acoustic bridge is just fucking dumb and tanks what is otherwise a solid rock song. Bruce had co-written that song with Janick; somehow just by working with a different group, he pulled off a similar concept with a lot more skill than he did before.

These three songs are rough around the edges, but they feel so much more deserving of attention than as mere bonus tracks. I would happily have taken them over, say, "1000 Points of Light" or "Fire". As I said before, they feel thematically and sonically consistent with the BtP album as a whole.

Then you have the songs he worked with Keith Olson on: "Over and Out", "Tibet", "Cadillac Gas Mask", and "No Way Out... Continued". These tracks are a lot poppier and electronic-oriented, with notes of metallic/rock vibes for flavor. Think of a drier Def Leppard, or even a less over-the-top reaction to A.S.A.P. These tracks don't feel quite as serious, but make up for it with how much fun they are. "Over and Out" has a fucking gospel choir backing vocal; "Tibet" is short but oh-so-sweet with its rapturous chorus; "Cadillac Gas Mask" is a bit funkier with a repetitive and silly but also quite enjoyable chorus that reminds me of Empire-era Queensrÿche. "No Way Out... Continued" is the most serious of the bunch and in many ways even better than the first "No Way Out". Love those verses.

† † †​

So then we come to the final product, Balls to Picasso itself. Maybe I'm less critical of the bonus disc songs because they're just that, bonus material. In contrast, I'm a lot more critical of the actual album because it's like, the definitive statement that he turned in in 1994. I can't fault him for what BtP is because it came at a time when he was soul-searching, trying to discover what his sound was outside of the Maiden bubble. And I need to state for the record that as much as I'm going to tear into the album a little bit, and as cynical as I may sound talking about it, I do like this record a lot. I cherish all of Bruce's solo albums for different reasons. It's just that where you can wave away the flaws on Tattooed Millionaire and Tyranny of Souls a lot more easily because they were side projects done while Bruce's main focus was elsewhere, you can't really do the same for Balls to Picasso: this was Bruce's main focus.

Almost all of the songs on this album are strong compositions. My biggest issue with this album is that Bruce's voice just feels so off. It's not bad when he's singing lower notes, but when he goes to belt in choruses et al it becomes really noticeable. I still can't quite figure out why it is. My guess it that it's part mix and production, and part Bruce himself. A lot of those sharper sounds like S's and T's seem fuzzed. It also feels a bit drier, and maybe he sounds a bit more nasally too? It's something I've really only heard on this album, a bit of Skunkworks, and The Final Frontier. Not a fan.

I could criticize the production too and I certainly think it's the worst solo Bruce production, but I don't hate it. It gives the record a unique sound and it could just use a bit more punchiness to it. There are certain layers that I never noticed before, like the vocal layers in the "Hell No" chorus, that are actually super cool. Roy Z would have been an even better producer than Shay Baby, but he ended up saving himself for material that benefitted his production skills.

So now we come to the songs proper. Ignoring the awful sound of the vocals that mar otherwise stellar material, these tracks are mostly really good. "Cyclops" is such a cool epic with its wavy guitar, killer chorus, and various nooks and crannies that are always so, so worthwhile to explore. Placed right at the start of the record, it makes for an unconventional opener but also a big statement (just as Maiden would end up doing with "Sign of the Cross" on The X Factor). It's Bruce trying to show that he's serious now. Second track "Hell No" underscores this further, with its lyrics about how he's "starting my life on my own in the virgin unknown". Love that almost discordant chord behind the verses too.

One thing that's interesting to me is that Balls to Picasso isn't a complete deviation from Tattooed Millionaire. That record was the first album Bruce was writing for that took a critical view of American politics; No Prayer and Fear of the Dark also continued the trend. Balls to Picasso was his biggest politically-driven record full-stop, with the majority of the songs on it tying back to the cracks in the system that he felt the need to comment on. I also think that at this point in time Bruce was chasing after success in America more than anything else, which he'd finally abandon after Skunkworks flopped. Hence the views he expresses here feel as though he's identifying with Americans while also having the vibes of being an onlooker who doesn't fully belong. It's a bit jumbled, and indeed as he got older he began to identify with the land of his birth more (leading to becoming a Brexit voter lol).

Anyway, the political songs here vary in quality. "Gods of War" is an anti-war track with a really strong chorus that feels almost personal. "1000 Points of Light" meanwhile is a response to Bush Sr. and is very much a "let's just get along" song that ultimately is one of the album's least memorable tracks. "Fire" is even worse; I just don't understand the necessity of this one. The chorus is so meh and the rest of the song is forgettable... it's not bad but I'd almost rather hear "Lickin' the Gun Pt. 2" in its place.

Two other political tracks here tie back into the Tattooed Millionaire concept of "throw anything at the wall, see if it sticks". There's a bit of experimentation in sound throughout the album (particularly coming from the Latino influences of the Tribe of Gypsies), but to hear Bruce rapping might take you aback a bit. Still, he fits it with the music very well and I don't dislike those moments. "Shoot All the Clowns" is overhated and has a really fun chorus. "Sacred Cowboys" is a blazing song with a terrific chorus and I don't hate the spoken word verses, I just feel like it could've been expanded to something better. It had the potential to be the best song on the album if it was just tweaked a bit. These lyric references to Betty Ford don't hold up as well in 2023 than I guess they did in '94 (although John Wayne is still the perfect representation of American idealism vs its brutality).

Then you have "Laughing in the Hiding Bush", the song that most closely sounds like what Bruce would do on AoB and TCW. I know Bruce loves it because the idea stemmed from his son Austin (hence why he played it a lot live), but I don't think it's as good as he thinks it is. It's got strong elements but the chorus isn't anything to write home about. In contrast, "Change of Heart" is a really underrated ballad. Love his voice on that one.

Finally to close out the record we have "Tears of the Dragon", which is basically the definitive Bruce solo song. I think the reason for this has a little to do with how much it stands out in the varied album it's on (AoB and TCW are way tighter as a whole so individual songs are just at a higher level overall) and a little more to do with how well it expresses that Bruce can write great music, Maiden or no Maiden. Everything about it is expertly crafted, from the verses to the chorus to Roy's epic solo and even to the chill-out reggae section. The only flaw here are those chorus vocals, but I can fight through it because it's just such a good song.

As a whole, I still think that Balls to Picasso is a strong album, it's just arguably the biggest mixed bag in Bruce's discography. I don't know if I prefer this one or Tattooed Millionaire, because this one drags more in places but also feels more serious as a whole. Bruce still had some more exploring to do to find his voice in the world of music without Iron Maiden to cling to, but it feels rewarding to go back through these albums and hear all the little stabs he made at rediscovering himself.

† † †​

Finally we come to the part of the post where I suggest that maybe Bruce should've just released all this material as a double album. During the Somewhere in Time sessions Bruce thought that the band could craft their own Physical Graffiti; well why not do that as your first serious solo album? I posted an attempt at this before, but I've tightened up my proposal a lot and I think it works a lot better. "Elvis" is eliminated but the other seven songs released on the BtP bonus disc are included, plus the ten songs from the album proper. Consider, if you will:

Bruce Dickinson
Balls to Picasso (1994)

Side 1
1. Fire Child (6:24)
2. Hell No (5:11)
3. No Way Out... To Be Continued (7:31)
4. 1000 Points of Light (4:25)

Side 2
5. The Breeding House (5:18)
6. Gods of War (5:02)
7. Laughing in the Hiding Bush (4:20)
8. Cyclops (7:58)

Side 3
9. Tibet (3:02)
10. Over and Out (4:32)
11. Cadillac Gas Mask (4:09)
12. Change of Heart (4:58)
13. Shoot All the Clowns (4:24)

Side 4
14. Fire (4:30)
15. Sacred Cowboys (3:53)
16. No Way Out... Continued (5:21)
17. Tears of the Dragon (6:24)

Total Runtime: 1:27:22

As much as I like "Cyclops" as an opener, "Fire Child" has to kick off this expanded record with its wonderful exploration of Native American plains. I'm keeping "Hell No" at track 2 because I like the way it allows Bruce to open the record with a strong stand-alone track and then hammer home the point of "I'm out here on my own and I'm gonna show you what I got". Gotta put "No Way Out... To Be Continued" close to the front so that the second "No Way Out" will feel properly fresh towards the end of the album. To close out Side 1 we can keep "1000 Points of Light" in its position.

Opening Side 2 is "The Breeding House" to kick things up a notch, followed by "Gods of War" for a little variety. "Laughing in the Hiding Bush" shifts us back into second gear, leaving "Cyclops" to close out the first record in a satisfactory manner.

Side 3 begins in a very different space than what we've heard thus far. The first of the Olson songs, "Tibet", opens up the second record in stylish fashion, showcasing that the album has a few different styles to it. "Over and Out" has to follow suit so as to compliment "Tibet". Originally I was going to sadly leave out "Cadillac Gas Mask" but ended up having extra room on this side that I figured it could slot in well right in the middle here. After these tracks we enter a ballad in the form of "Change of Heart", which leads to one of the album's singles, "Shoot All the Clowns".

Finally we're in the homestretch on Side 4, with the hard rock riff of "Fire" giving us a little shove before "Sacred Cowboys" jumps us. Closing out the record is easily the hardest choice to make here, because I think that both "No Way Out... Continued" and "Tears of the Dragon" are satisfactory finales. Ultimately I went with "Tears" as the closer because its ending has a strong braking point, but both of them would be great choices.

Next time I come back to this record I'll likely listen to it in this order. I think it would've been a really unique statement coming from Bruce, but then again, being pulled in all different directions by both outside forces and within his own mind was going to result in a creation like Balls to Picasso anyhow. It's a really interesting period of time for Bruce with some really interesting material, but he would start to really tighten himself up with the next record.
 
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