Tournament of Iron Maiden Solos: 2nd poll (qualification stage)

Which solo do you like the most? (pick your favourite)

  • 01. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, 1st solo (see 1st link)

    Votes: 3 60.0%

  • 02. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, 2nd solo (see 2nd link)

    Votes: 1 20.0%

  • 03. Mother Russia (see 3rd link)

    Votes: 1 20.0%

  • 04. The Educated Fool (see 4th link)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    5
  • Poll closed .
Good plan.

I wonder if people have considered their least favourite albums. E.g., to the people who dislike the Blaze-era (somewhat), these albums have some fantastic soloing going on there. It would be good to give them another spin in case it was a while ago. Just saying.
 
In order to make sure I didn't miss anything while making my list, I was looking at a list of Maiden songs - just the titles.
 
Well yes, but if one doesn't like a specific era that much e.g. because of the singer, I can imagine one doesn't have the greatest memories on most of the songs he sang on. Thus only looking at titles seems enough.

However, this is not about the singers, nor is it about the quality of the complete songs (unless solos are so important that they can lift up the whole thing; that happens to me at times).

So if one didn't play these songs in a while (which I can imagine if one doesn't like them that much), it is not unlikable that one can forget how a guitar solo itself goes.

To put it short, as stupid as this may sound:
Put love and hate for (a) certain song(s)/album(s) aside and judge the solos. Just saying this to give all the material the same chance.

Naturally, this works different for different people, and the words above are no instruction.
Everyone can do it their own way! :)
 
I'd agree with that. There are songs that I'm not overly fond of (& ones that are generally panned) that have decent solos; & there are a few solos out there, that are good standalone pieces, but don't really fit that track particularly well. I know this opens a can of worms, but I have two, maybe three, live versions of solos that I just can't help mentioning. A couple are simply "this is great already --but live it's even better". However one only really exists live & it will definitely make Janick's top 10.
 
One may select live versions, but studio versions would be more convenient since I'll add those to some "overall" statistics.
 
Oh, I forgot about that. I'll keep it to a minimum! :)

I'm up to BNW in my personal review. I have to admit that almost every album is struggling to get anywhere near some of the stuff on SiT...
 
Hehehe, I expect to encounter the same "problem".

I started with focusing on Janick so first I'll do 1990-2010 (taking Dave and later Adrian along) and then 1980-1988. Up next: Virtual XI.
 
I admit that not giving each and every album a careful listen might result in me not giving the same attention to all songs. But what we're doing is a list of personal favourites, so I believe that each of us has heard the albums enough times to know what we like.
 
Indeed. But, as I said, there a definitely a few average tunes with fantastic leads 'em.

I just glanced at your H list, Ariana, & can't say I disagree with much on it anyway. Some are just so memorable.
 
Forostar said:
Well yes, but if one doesn't like a specific era that much e.g. because of the singer, I can imagine one doesn't have the greatest memories on most of the songs he sang on. Thus only looking at titles seems enough.

To put it short, as stupid as this may sound:
Put love and hate for (a) certain song(s)/album(s) aside and judge the solos. Just saying this to give all the material the same chance.
Click to expand...

Well, luckily for me, I love a lot of the Blaze era stuff, and there's very, very few Maiden songs that I actively dislike. Of course, there are some that I consider to be lesser/weaker songs, but very little that I actually don't like.

Interestingly enough, one of my fave Janick solos is from a song that isn't amongst my faves, although I do like it. I won't mention what it is now though, as it will probably be in my top 10! lol :P
 
Interesting strategies here. When I compiled my Adrian list, I wrote down the two that I knew no matter what would be the top two, and then I went and listened to every solo he's done and wrote down ones that were sublime. I think I got 22 sublime solos. Then I just listened to those 22 solos and deleted the weaker one survivor-status until I got to the top 10. Arranging them from there was the easy part.

That's why I've been procrastinating on Dave. There's so much material! When I was going through the Adrian solos, I listened to Dave's solos if they came right after, and now I'm already up to 15 on my Dave list. I didn't even put Phantom yet, and I know that'll be included.
 
Plus, you (we all) genuinely don't have as much to pick from with Janick --so his 10 is always likely to be a little weaker. Or at least that's what I anticipate, although I haven't quite finished listening to everything yet.
 
I strongly beg to differ with that reasoning (less to pick, thus his best 10 are less strong), but more in his defense when the time comes.
 
I actually really enjoyed making up my Janick list. I must admit it was the first time I really consciously concentrated in his solos, isolated from everything else, and I found that although they tend to sound a bit similar after you hear 20 of them, some of them sound extremely good.
 
Despite having far less material to glean from, and being considered the weakest of Maiden's 3 guitarists, for me at least, there are a surprising amount of solos from Janick that I would consider to be stand out solos. Around half of my top 10 for him had already picked themselves, as to me they really could be classed as classic Maiden solos, that can stand proudly next to the more lauded work of Sirs Murray and Smith.

Funnily enough, one of my fave Janick solos is not eligible to be in this top 10, as it's not in a Maiden song, but in the Bruce Dickinson song "Tattooed Millionaire". Which is a very tastefully done, classic hard rock solo. Very unlike most of his solo guitar work in Maiden. I really feel that Janick is a better guitarist than most give him credit for, and I also love how his style is very distinct from Adrian and Davey's. :)
 
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