Your Maiden blasphemy

How does a song's length or it not being played anymore affect its status as the album opener? Seems more than a bit arbitrary to me.
 
Sign of the Cross is an odd one I suppose. I think it's very strong as an opener to the album, but you're right, I can't see it working as a live opener.

Caught Somewhere in Time is of my favourites. Great opener to the album and live, but you're right again, it will probably never be played. That hurts me too :(

Moonchild is a great way to start both album and concert, whether they use the intro as playback or actually play it.

I think openers should be something longer and more epic feeling to really kick things off. I agree with you that most of the modern openers don't really work - even though I like the songs - mostly due to their short length.
 
Ruflux said:
How does a song's length or it not being played anymore affect its status as the album opener? Seems more than a bit arbitrary to me.
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well, before all, thanks for trying to convince me that what I like are just among the other openers.;)

I did not make a clear distinction between album vs. live openers -- you are right on that. The reason for it was that I rely on a combination of them in evaluating the status that a song acquires in time. For example, I don't see many people recalling the sign of the cross as "an opener", unlike AH, TWM or WED. This is arbitrary of course, but nothing here is systematic except for the fact that all these songs are number 1 in their albums.

As to how the length, tempo or any such variable may affect the status of a song, let me quote some of the fellow members on IESF. I quote them to suggest that their statements are arguable, not that they are right or wrong.


MrKnickerbocker said:
Late to the party, but I must say: I love this track. It's a perfect album opener, even if it doesn't sound like a typical opener.


Could definitely do without the Necropolis part, though.
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BeThyJames said:
Mysterious intro. Strange opener in some respects being target mid tempo. It does feel they are playing within themselves at times here. But that's a tremendous chorus (probably best on the album). Must say I love the outro!


8
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Diesel 11 said:
Let's get it out of the way: This song is a strange one to open an album with given that there's also Speed of Light on it. That said, it still works, especially given that it's an album called 'The Book of Souls'. It fits. It would work even better as the opener to a concept album though, but still, great track, especially the chorus. The ending however is completely batshit weird and comes completely out of nowhere. Like, what the fuck?! Still, it's a good track, and gets a strong 8/10 from me.
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Babo 91 said:
Bruce's solo stuff is rarely over-repetative so imagine the extra chorus was indeed Steve's idea. I dunno though, maybe Adrian wanted more time to solo
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The quote from me is a little dated. I now consider IESF to be a perfect opener, because it jumps straight into the whole "Book of Souls" theme, and "Speed of Light" is better as a second track. I also love the ending to IESF, regardless of how weird it is, it feels natural.
 
EDthedamnHEAD said:
1.Powerslave. 10/10
2.Seventh son of a Seventh son. 9.8/10
3.The Number of the Beast. 9.6/10
4.Peice of Mind. 9.5/10
5.Iron Maiden. 9.3/10
6.Somewhere in Time. 9.5/10
7.Brave New World. 9.5/10
8.Killers. 8.7/10
9.The Book of Souls. 8.6/10
10.The Final Frontier. 8.4/10
11.A Matter of Life and Death. 8.3/10
12.Dance of Death. 8.1/10
13.No Prayer for the Dying. 7.9/10
14.Fear of the Dark. 7.4/10
15.Virtual XI. 6.5/10
16.The X Factor. 6.3/10
This is my list at the moment, of couse as time goes by my opinions change but I have some rule of thumb that I use to rank the albums, It's my more recent rules though. 1.Blaze's albums can never be put over Bruce's or Paul's, It's blasphemy 2. Even if I think some albums are better than others it all depends on how much I listen to the album.
'No prayer.. used to be higher on my list but then I relized while its a good album to me (Way better than Fear of the Dark #sorryFOTDfans) it's not worthy enough to be higher than any of the reunion albums , I mean think about how much harder Maiden worked to make AMOLAD or TFF, took way more effort to make those albums than NPFTD, so unfortunently for me it climbs down lower down the list. I've actually been listening to the reunion albums more latley and have gained a lot of respect for those albums.
Sometimes I feel 'Killers' should be lower on my list too but It has a place in my heart since it was one of the first IM albums I heard as a kid.
NOTE:The way I score the albums isn't 100% accurate for me, Except like 'Powerslave' and a handfull of others but some are just more less for me.
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1. The Number of the Beast
2, A Matter of Life and Death
3, Piece of Mind
4. Powerslave
5. The Book of Souls
6. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
7. The Final Frontier
8. Dance of Death
9. Brave New World
10. Somewhere in Time
11. Iron Maiden
12. Virtual XI
13. Killers
14. Fear of the Dark
15. The X Factor
16. No Prayer For the Dying
 
Jer said:
I think NPFTD is better than BNW.
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Well, I just got through the song-by-song rating of BNW (I did NPFTD a while back), and apparently I was wrong -- NPFTD rated a 7.0 and BNW a 7.4. So my new blasphemy is delivering a fake news blasphemy earlier in the thread. :confused:
 
Speed of Light and Death or Glory are great fun. Final Frontier is dull as dishwater but a lot more enjoyable live. Wildest Dreams is so-so.
 
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