Which song was written first... for all of the 16 albums

I'm fairly certain Beckett (or whatever his name was) got paid, but it was the other guy in the band who didn't get anything who sued.
 
Poto said:
I'm fairly certain Beckett (or whatever his name was) got paid, but it was the other guy in the band who didn't get anything who sued.
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Yeah, I think it was kinda like that... some in the band were paid, but others (allegedly) contributed substantially & weren't. Who knows for sure? But clearly, the lyrics were lifted... at least, a few lines... and Steve / IM had to open their wallets.

I know in Hollywood, there are considerable union / guild protections for film writers, which is why screenwriting credits are so important (and why they fight over 'em). And hey, I'm a Bruce Guy & not a Blaze Guy... but if the band legit fired Blaze, took his music / lyrics & didn't credit him, and then profited from his work by repurposing it for a future album / tour(s) & didn't compensate him further... that's kinda shitty.
 
Deuces High said:
Yeah, I think it was kinda like that... some in the band were paid, but others (allegedly) contributed substantially & weren't. Who knows for sure? But clearly, the lyrics were lifted... at least, a few lines... and Steve / IM had to open their wallets.

I know in Hollywood, there are considerable union / guild protections for film writers, which is why screenwriting credits are so important (and why they fight over 'em). And hey, I'm a Bruce Guy & not a Blaze Guy... but if the band legit fired Blaze, took his music / lyrics & didn't credit him, and then profited from his work by repurposing it for a future album / tour(s) & didn't compensate him further... that's kinda shitty.
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I'm sure Blaze probably got paid out he would have been dumb not too and have all his credits erased on future albums haha
 
It seems like Blaze and the band get along well and a lot of previous band members as well. My guess is that Maiden deal with these things in a good way, and that's all we need to know.
 
Deuces High said:
Allegedly, so was Beckett!

I dunno if there are standard union/guild rules for songwriting credits, or if Blaze somehow contracted it all away. Seems to me, tho', if a band fired my ass & then used my original lyrics or music to monetize a new album / tour, I might not go so softly into the night...

And contract or not, it seems a bit exploitive by the band, IF Blaze legit wrote those lyrics. I mean... why not give him credit??? Who's it gonna hurt?
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I presume it's just an ego thing. Although they were happy enough to credit H for Hooks in You. Maybe Blaze is lying? I think the lyrics, especially the chorus do not sound like standard Steve lyrics though.

I believe Blaze got a nice "severance package" which basically financed his solo career, and lets face it, only Maiden fans listen to him, so I reckon he would not have a lot to gain by taking any action against Maiden.
 
I doubt Blaze is lying. Why would he? He's got nothing to gain by badmouthing Steve (who he obviously still respects) and making accusations the band could easily disprove if they cared to. He got fired pretty unceremoniously and replaced by Bruce in one fell swoop, it makes perfect sense that the band would want a clean break from the much-maligned Blaze era, including not having a song on their new album crediting him. So, Rod approached him and said "we'll pay you in exchange for ownership of the lyrics". Done.

Blaze might've regretted it since and that's why he brought it up later, but I don't think he'd outright fabricate a story about his lyrics being used without credit. At most he might've left out the part where he got paid for it because that kind of undercuts his complaints.
 
Ruflux said:
I doubt Blaze is lying.
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As do I, in case that wasn't clear.

I believe Blaze himself has claimed to have contributed to DOM recently. But it had been rumoured for a very long time before he said anything, as far back as when the fact that 4 tracks on BNW were leftovers emerged.

I don't think the lyrics are typical steve, as I said above, which as far as I'm concerned is enough to cast doubt as to whether the official writing credits are correct.
 
Back on topic. Let's recap the info that we gathered so far:

- given the info from the ''Songs and Productivity of Maiden in the 70's'' thread, the first songs written for the first album were Iron Maiden and Strange World (both written around 1975/1976).

- for Killers, the songs Wrathchild/Another Life/Innocent Exile/Purgatory (then ''Floating'')/Drifter were also written around 1975/1976, but since Steve has said that he had the intro riff for Innocent Exile even before Maiden, we can say (at this stage) that it was the first song written for the Killers album.

- for TNOTB, 22AA was modified from an old Urchin song, Invaders is an updated version of the song Invasion (written around 1976/1977) and in Download 2007 Bruce said that COTD was one of the very first songs that he rehearsed with Maiden after he joined them in 1981. Soooo, idk... ? (*the first song recorded for TNOTB album was Gangland, though).

- for Powerslave, the title track was demoed by Bruce during World Piece Tour in 1983, so we have a winner.

- for SIT, Wasted Years was already written by Adrian in 1985, so we have another winner.

- for NPFTD, some of the lyrics (or the whole song?) for Run Silent Run Deep were written by Bruce in 1986, but Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter was written in 1989 (and his solo version of the song is not so much different from the one we got on the NPFTD album)..... so, if we can prove that RSRD was written in 1986 (not only some of the lyrics), then it would be it. But for now, it is BYD... TTS.

- for BNW, The Nomad/Dream Of Mirrors/The Mercenary were written for the VXI album. Work had also begun on Blood Brothers during that period - so we can count them./ but on Wikipedia says that the first song the band rehearsed for the BNW album (since Bruce and Adrian are back) was The Wicker Man..../ What should we consider as the first song/s - the leftovers from the VXI album or the first rehearsed song for the BNW album ?

- for AMOLAD, (from AMOLAD documentary), Adrian says that the first song they worked on for the album was Different World and Steve says that Lord Of Light was written during the very first day sessions with Adrian (and I've read somewhere that Lord Of Light was the first one written for the album?). I tend more to Different World, because on that very first day session with Adrian we do not know if other song was written before Lord Of Light (probably Different World) and I still cannot find where I've read about Lord Of Light being the first one, so for now, it is Different World.

- for TFF, we know that Steve had the demo of WTWWB since the 90's (FOTD era), but that song was one of the three last songs to be written in the studio for the album (when the other 7 songs were already written). And I again can't find where I've read that Isle Of Avalon was the first one written for the album, so for now, it is WTWWB.
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What about POM, FOTD, TXF, VXI and DOD (Wildest Dreams probably?) ?
 
It probably would have been much easier if we have a documentary about the albums in the 90's.... :innocent:


For DOD, Wildest Dreams was played live before the album tour, so that's why I thought it could have been the first one, but the same was with El Dorado, but it's not the first song written for TFF album.
 
Does someone knows if Run Silent Run Deep was written in 1986 (full song) or Bruce just used some of the lyrics that he has written in 1986 (during the writing sessions for SIT album) for NPFTD album ... ?
 
I've no idea.

I suspect probably not a lot of the song was written, as Bruce's ideas were mentioned as being acoustic/Physical Graffiti style stuff, and not much of RSRD fits that description. There isn't a lot of clean tone music in the song, and the lyrics would sound very corny* over an acoustic guitar.

* even cornier than "a cunning fox in the chicken's lair" already sounds!
 
In Death On The Road documentary Nicko says that they already had 7 songs (rehearsed and written) in the rehearsal period before Christmas - the other 4 songs were written in the studio during the writing sessions for the DOD album.

Only if we knew these 7 or 4 songs, it would have been a little easier to find out which was the first song written for the album.
 
Wickerman for BNW if we aint counting what was left over from the VXI sessions

According to Dickinson, 'The Wicker Man' initially started off as a riff that Adrian Smith was "bouncing around with". Dickinson thought that the riff sounded good and he began to add a catchy melody to the song. Then Steve Harris began to play along to the riff. Dickinson stated that the song was written without even trying to get a single-length track. It was also the first song that the band rehearsed together since the return of Dickinson and Smith.
 
H said he researched the topic in the library, so unless he left the studio to go to the library then I'd say he had worked on it before the studio.
 
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