What is the fourth Virtual Xi song in Brave New World?

Where Eagles Dare

Keep Your Distance! Walk Away!
Hey guys... I know Adrian said that Dream of Mirrors, The Mercenary and The Nomad were all written for Virtual XI and there was a fourth one he couldn't remember. Does any one know which one it was? If I had to guess I would say Blood Brothers. Its got that very dark, sad tone present on Virtual XI. I know it was about the death of his father which took place during the X Factor tour so it makes sense.

What do you guys think?
 
I think I read an interview with Blaze about this once. I'm trying hard to find it again right now.
 
Still, both Nomad & The Mercenary have much older history.
Nomad contains a large part from a seventies song by Beckett and in 2007 I found out the origins of The Mercenary:

-----------copy of old post----------

Recently I downloaded old studio demos from White Spirit.

The directory says:
White Spirit - studio demos 17 March 1981

Today I decided to give it a listen.

One of the tracks is called Till the Kill and it has the same opening riff as The Mercenary (Gers/Harris)!
Interesting to know that the main riff of The Mercenary came from a 1981(!) song of Janick himself.

I haven't heard the rest of the demo tracks yet, we'll see if there's more !
 

The most interesting thing for me in that link is:

"I had a quick chat with Blaze in Istanbul, before his performance in Rock The Nations Istanbul. (Where he did a duet with Paul DiAnno) And in that chat he said that he had written some of the lyrics of Dream of Mirrors but Steve didn't give him a credit for that in BNW. When he saw that he had a little frustration."

I'd read that before, and ever since I've wanted to hear Blaze have a go at singing Dream of Mirrors. He would definitely sing it very differently from Bruce, but I think it would be cool to hear. And some of the lyrics really do sound like his (while some sound like Harris).

Maiden Steve seems to have a policy about not crediting anyone not currently in the band with writing a song. Paul Day (the first vocalist) claims to have written "Strange World", but he was not credited (source). Wikipedia says that Rob Angelo, a member in 1977, wrote "Sanctuary", but the source given is the Metal For Muthas liner notes, so I cannot verify this. The only exception to this policy is "Hooks In You", which is credited to Dickinson/Smith. If I was guessing, I would say that this is because Adrian had been in the band for 9 years, while Blaze had been in for 5, and Day and Angelo had not been in for any significant period of time.

Anyway, as to the original question, since "Blood Brothers" is out, unless it was a case where music was written, but not words yet, in 1998 (which I doubt, given Adrian's phrasing), it would have to be "Thin Line".

On the other hand, here's a thought (this is JUST a thought, nothing more). What if the fourth song isn't on Brave New World? What if it is "When the Wild Wind Blows"? I know I'm going to get called on this, and I don't even know where to begin looking for it, but I know I've seen a video in which Harris says that he wrote that song years before and lost it, and finally found it later and reworked it to put it on The Final Frontier. I know this is completely baseless speculation, but if Harris was remembering four songs they didn't release on Virtual XI and Adrian told us three of them but couldn't think of the fourth... The album only has ten songs, two of which Adrian had written himself. I would think he'd be able to remember that. The conspiracy theory I'm suggesting here is that Harris said he saved four songs, but in reality, only three of them showed up on Brave New World. Feel free to blast my little theory into smithereens.
 
Wild Wind definitely sounds like a Blaze era song. I always thought it was a leftover from one of those albums.

Also, I'm willing to bet that Bruce had a lot to do with H getting a credit for Hooks In You.
 
If it wasn't Blood Brothers I guess it would be Thin Line. I guess I assumed it was on Brave New World because of the way Adrian answered the question.
 
That's an interesting and reasonable conspiracy, 425. Like Mosh stated, When the Wild Wind Blows certainly sounds like a Blaze era song, especially the intro, the way it builds up to the instrumental sections and the instrumental sections themselves. Maybe not as repetitive but Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger, The Angel and the Gambler, also Sign of the Cross are longs songs that are built like Wild Wind is built.

Still, my guess is The Thin Line Between Love & Hate, considering it also sounds like a long Blaze era song.
 
That's an interesting and reasonable conspiracy, 425. Like Mosh stated, When the Wild Wind Blows certainly sounds like a Blaze era song, especially the intro, the way it builds up to the instrumental sections and the instrumental sections themselves. Maybe not as repetitive but Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger, The Angel and the Gambler, also Sign of the Cross are longs songs that are built like Wild Wind is built.

Still, my guess is The Thin Line Between Love & Hate, considering it also sounds like a long Blaze era song.

I'm defiantly confident its Thin Line now that I think about it. It had that NPFTD to Virtual Xi songwriting. Its difficult for me to explain but on those albums Maiden changed the way they wrote songs. Instead of singing about subject the lyrics talked to the listener. I probably sound crazy. I guess the best example is songs like the Apparition. They try to teach you a lesson instead of telling a story. I think that's what ruined there 90's songs.
 
That's an interesting and reasonable conspiracy, 425. Like Mosh stated, When the Wild Wind Blows certainly sounds like a Blaze era song, especially the intro, the way it builds up to the instrumental sections and the instrumental sections themselves. Maybe not as repetitive but Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger, The Angel and the Gambler, also Sign of the Cross are longs songs that are built like Wild Wind is built.
All of that plus the register Bruce sings in. Those melodies sound like they were written for Blaze.
 
Wild Wind is a better guess than most. We know Steve wrote it years ago, there aren't many obvious options on BNW and the style is very reminiscent of the Educated Fool
 
I would like to mention No More Lies in this discussion too. The clean intro sounds very much like The Clansman.
 
I think Blaze would've sounded really well on all the songs that are mentioned, except for Thin Line (he'd sound good on that one's verses too, but choruses and that high noted shouting of the title wouldn't be good for him).
 
Maiden Steve seems to have a policy about not crediting anyone not currently in the band with writing a song. Paul Day (the first vocalist) claims to have written "Strange World", but he was not credited (source). Wikipedia says that Rob Angelo, a member in 1977, wrote "Sanctuary", but the source given is the Metal For Muthas liner notes, so I cannot verify this. The only exception to this policy is "Hooks In You", which is credited to Dickinson/Smith. If I was guessing, I would say that this is because Adrian had been in the band for 9 years, while Blaze had been in for 5, and Day and Angelo had not been in for any significant period of time.
Policy or not, it's wrong. :down:

Edit: As well as "Iron Maiden".
 
Sorry, I don't have a link handy, but I read about it when the album was new. It was an old song he pulled out of the vault.
I'm sure it was talked about on this site.
 
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