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

Kalata

Kalata

Out of the Silent Planet
We discussed this kind of topic in the news thread (a year ago, I think) and for me it is an interesting topic. I'm curious to know. It requires a lot of researches.

So, let's see how it goes:

IM:
Killers:
TNOTB:
POM:
Poweslave:
SIT:
SSOASS: The Clairvoyant
NPFTD:
FOTD:
TXF:
VXI: Como Estais Amigos
BNW: The Wicker Man
DOD:
AMOLAD:
TFF:
TBOS: Shadows Of The Valley, Death Or Glory, Speed Of Light and If Eternity Should Fail
 
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We know that The Clairvoyant started the idea for the concept album and in Wikipedia it says that it was the first song written for the album.

Also on Wikipedia it says that the first songs written for TBOS album were SOTV, DOG, SOL and IESF (the first recorded song for the album was TGU).
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In the 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 first day sessions with Adrian - I remember reading somewhere that Lord Of Light was the first song written for the album.

I also remember reading somewhere that Isle Of Avalon was the first song written for TFF album./ <-^I have to research again to find where I've read that.

We know that The Nomad, Dream Of Mirrors and The Mercenary were originally written for the VXI album. According to Steve, work has also begun on Blood Brothers during that period, but it was not completed at the time.../ But I think we should consider the first song they have written when Bruce and Adrian were back - probably it was The Wicker Man? Bruce said that they had 5 songs written for the album by 1999 and mentioned here (under the band's picture in Eddie's bar) that The Fallen Angel and Ghost Of The Navigator were one of them.

Blaze wrote Como Estais Amigos in Argentina in 1996 (source).

The first song recorded for TNOTB was Gangland (I think), but which was the first written....?

Maybe the first song written for DOD was Wildest Dreams ?


- for the other albums, I have no idea. More research needs to be done...
 
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From wikipedia-entry of Brave New World:
According to an interview with Adrian Smith, "The Nomad", "Dream of Mirrors", and "The Mercenary" were originally written for 1998's Virtual XI, and former vocalist Blaze Bayley claimed to have provided some lyrics for "Dream of Mirrors", but was not credited.[7] According to Steve Harris, work had also begun on "Blood Brothers" during that period, but it was not completed at the time.
 
Considering all of the reunion era albums have had leftovers from previous album sessions, I don't think we can conclusively say anything for the ones that haven't been directly confirmed by the band. For BNW we do know what the leftovers were but for the rest it's a mystery. AMOLAD definitely, absolutely has leftover material from DoD since Adrian actually mentioned it in an interview. Whether those were complete songs is another question.
 
On AMLOAD, Different World was one of the first, but not sure if THE FIRST one.

Powerslave, the song was already demoed when Mission From 'Arry happened. Wasted Years was written in the session which Nicko and Adrian did with The Entire Population of Hackney (Silver And Gold was also one of those songs) and Steve liked it.
 
Ruflux said:
AMOLAD definitely, absolutely has leftover material from DoD since Adrian actually mentioned it in an interview.
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Can you find that interview ?
matic22 said:
On AMLOAD, Different World was one of the first, but not sure if THE FIRST one.

Powerslave, the song was already demoed when Mission From 'Arry happened. Wasted Years was written in the session which Nicko and Adrian did with The Entire Population of Hackney (Silver And Gold was also one of those songs) and Steve liked it.
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Maybe Different World was the first one, because Adrian says: ''the first song we worked on''.../ It's either Different World or Lord Of Light.

We can assume that Powerslave (the song) was the first one written for the album, since it was demoed back in 1983, World Piece Tour... ?

Never knew that for Wasted Years - thanks for the info./ And since this gig (The Entire Population Of Hackney) was in 1985, and Maiden began work for SIT in 1986... so, Wasted Years was the first one.
Mosh said:
I remember reading that When the Wild Wind Blows dates back to the 90s.
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That's true. But the last songs written for TFF album were WTWWB, The Alchemist and TMWWBK. When they went to the studio to record the album, they had more or less 7 songs finished. The other 3^ were done in the studio.

I remember reading somewhere that IOA was the first song written for the album.... I searched yesterday (for Lord Of Light too), but I have found nothing.
Ironalice said:
www.bassplayer.com

Steve Harris names his 6 favorite Iron Maiden basslines

The most iconic bass riffs in the metal giants' catalogue, according to the man himself
www.bassplayer.com www.bassplayer.com


Phantom was one of the very first if not the first for the debut. Innocent Exile for Killers based on his notes
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Thanks for the link./ I knew that POTO was a very early song, but for the debut album I think we should consider which was the first song/s written around 1975/1976 when the band was formed.

Same goes for the Killers album. Well, only 4 news songs were written for the album (the rest were written before the album). The 4 new songs were the title track, MITRM, Genghis Khan and Twilight Zone./ But in this article that you shared, it seems that Innocent Exile was written (the opening riff) before Maiden - the rest of the song was changed later. And Steve says that he wrote the intro riff around the same time he wrote Burning Ambition, which was the first proper song that he ever wrote. Wrathchild is also a very old song (written in 1975/1976?).
What should we count (for Killers) - the 4 newly written songs or the ones that were written in the 70's ?

It has a very good thread here about songs and productivity of Maiden in the 70's:

Lineups, Live Songs and Productivity in the 1970s

@lira, you shared this overview somewhere else (Iron Maiden Pub - facebook) and I hope you don't mind that we can disclose this on Maidenfans as well. First I thought about doing it here and/or here, but then I thought that the seventies deserve a place of their own. It would be great to build a...
forum.maidenfans.com
 
Almost certain I heard Iron Maiden was the first song specifically written for Iron Maiden
 
Black Bart said:
Moot point: to what extent is the oldest song that appears on TNOTB "22 Acacia Avenue" (whose riff was penned for Urchin by Adrian Smith a few years earlier)?
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Good question.
Magnus said:
Iron Maiden and Strange World must definitely be older.
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I think you're right. On the thread about the songs and productivity of Maiden in the 70's it says: Iron Maiden and Strange World were written around 1975/1976, while POTO was written around 1977/1978.
 
Killers: probably "Innocent Exile" as it was written as early as when Steve Harris was in Gypsy's Kiss (who found it too complicated) -I think I read that in the 1995 biography called Infinite Dreams;
No Prayer For The Dying: I think I remember reading that "Run Silent Run Deep" is a rocked-up version of one of the tunes that Bruce had submitted before Somewhere in Time.
The Final Frontier: just a guess based on what I can hear, "The Man Who Would Be King" really sounds like as if it had been written for Blaze's voice, to me at least.
 
Black Bart said:
Killers: probably "Innocent Exile" as it was written as early as when Steve Harris was in Gypsy's Kiss (who found it too complicated) -I think I read that in the 1995 biography called Infinite Dreams;
No Prayer For The Dying: I think I remember reading that "Run Silent Run Deep" is a rocked-up version of one of the tunes that Bruce had submitted before Somewhere in Time.
The Final Frontier: just a guess based on what I can hear, "The Man Who Would Be King" really sounds like as if it had been written for Blaze's voice, to me at least.
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For Killers it's either Innocent Exile or Wrathchild/Another Life/Purgatory (then ''Floating'')/Drifter - all these songs were written around 1975/1976....., but since Innocent Exile was written before even Maiden, then it is the first one./ But maybe we should consider the 4 newly written songs for Killers... what you think about that?

About NPFTD, it's probably Run Silent Run Deep (originated from 1986.../*I think Bruce only saved some of the lyrics from '86 for the song). Steve had said that when he and Bruce met together for a writing session in 1990, they wrote Tailgunner, RSRD and Holy Smoke for one day - although we do not know if it was the first writing session.../ But what about BYD... TTS - it was already written by Bruce in 1989.

TMWWBK was written in the studio when they already had 7 songs finished/ready to be recorded.
 
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WTWWB is interesting because Steve have the demo of the song from the 90's (FOTD era, if I'm not mistaken), but we do not know if the song was the same as the one we have on TFF album.... of course it's not the same - during that period (1992) Maiden were more for the rock type of songs and WTWWB is a prog epic./ But WTWWB was one of the three songs to be written in the studio for TFF album (when the rest of the songs were already finished), so I don't know if we can count it as the first one.

22AA is also curious. Not only the riff, but I think the whole song was modified for Maiden. And let's not forget that Invaders is an updated version of the song Invasion (which is a song from 1979 (The Soundhouse Tapes) or earlier).
 
PhantomOfTheOpera said:
From wikipedia-entry of Brave New World:
According to an interview with Adrian Smith, "The Nomad", "Dream of Mirrors", and "The Mercenary" were originally written for 1998's Virtual XI, and former vocalist Blaze Bayley claimed to have provided some lyrics for "Dream of Mirrors", but was not credited.[7] According to Steve Harris, work had also begun on "Blood Brothers" during that period, but it was not completed at the time.
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In the aftermath of the "Hallowed" / Beckett legal debacle, I kinda suspect we're gonna hear about this again. Might not be this year. Might not be this decade. But if Blaze is telling the truth...
 
Deuces High said:
In the aftermath of the "Hallowed" / Beckett legal debacle, I kinda suspect we're gonna hear about this again. Might not be this year. Might not be this decade. But if Blaze is telling the truth...
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Allegedly he was paid at the time.
 
Kalata said:
WTWWB is interesting because Steve have the demo of the song from the 90's (FOTD era, if I'm not mistaken), but we do not know if the song was the same as the one we have on TFF album.... of course it's not the same - during that period (1992) Maiden were more for the rock type of songs and WTWWB is a prog epic./ But WTWWB was one of the three songs to be written in the studio for TFF album (when the rest of the songs were already finished), so I don't know if we can count it as the first one.
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If you sort of strip WTWWB down to pieces and take the core melody or the first verses, for example, and compare (and adjust it in your head to FOTD sound) it to songs like Afraid to Shoot Strangers or Fear of the Dark, it's not that far off. Actually, even though not quite as folk-y, I could see Childhood's End being pretty much within the same musical frames. There are some elements in the WTWWB harmonies that might reminiscent the "musical mindset of 90's Steve."

Let's put it this way: if all the mentioned songs had matching sound and were recorded within the same sessions, they'd fit together well enough. Then again, you could say that from a lot of more or less randomly selected Maiden songs, but there are some musical similarities within those which indicate that some core elements of WTWWB were existing in the early 90's.

It might be that I'm just seeing these connections simply because I'm looking for them though... :D
 
srfc said:
Allegedly he was paid at the time.
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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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