Iron Maiden Deep Cuts Gonna Get Ya No Matter How Far

Picking a favourite episode among the 41 (!) shows we’ve done is a bit like picking a favourite child.  Impossible to do!  But I took a real shine to this week’s instalment:  the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Iron Maiden Deep Cuts.

Each of us had our own personal criteria to determine if a song was a “deep cut”.  For example, I chose no songs from Live After Death, or any leading tracks from an album.  Harrison the Mad Metal Man decided that he would include no single A-sides, and no songs that were played live…ever.

As an added bonus to this episode, we brought back Geoff from 1001albumsin10years.  The Graph Alchemist himself had to be involved, to track all these crucial Iron Maiden songs.  In particular I wanted to see what albums were dominant.  Geoff then went above and beyond the call of duty by bringing us a four-way Venn diagram showing all the songs that the panel had in common.  Ever seen a four-way oval Venn before?  You will!

The panel tonight consisted of:

  • LeBrain (Yours truly)
  • Harrison the Mad Metal Man
  • Aaron from KeepsMeAlive (in absentium)
  • Uncle Meat

These four lists were all graphed and included in the episode’s statistics.

We also had three “bonus lists” that we ran right at the top of the show.  These bonus lists were submitted by:

  • Reader KK
  • The Mighty Holen
  • Michael the Box Set Wizard

Finally this episode also marked the debut of the brand new LeBrain Train theme song by T-Bone.  So good that I played it three times.  Everybody loves the song and video — let me know what you think too.

Best show ever?  Definitely top five.

Shoot, do I have to do a Nigel Tufnel Top Ten LeBrain Trains now?*

Click to enlarge the graphs:

 

 

* Foreshadowing.

 

 

 

81 comments

    1. This surprised me only partly. I knew Harrison wasn’t picking anything every played live, so that nixed a lot of the Di’Anno era. Meat I wasn’t 100% sure about. My list just evolved on its own.

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      3. I’m glad I got to engage with people through the comments because it was fun and so cool seeing what everyone thinks about Maiden! Aaron really? I’ll ask him more about punk rock then! Thanks!

        I bookmarked your punk album review so that I can read it on my own time!

        What’s the agenda for next week Mike? Sorry if to ask, but I’m so pumped for the next show already!

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        6. Well Paul Di’Anno’s stuff with Maiden was cool, that had a punk vibe. Oh, I’ve always wanted to check out The Ramones and The Sex Pistols, but I have no idea which tracks to start with.

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        7. I like the first two Maiden records for that reason!

          Ramones: get the first four records: Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket To Russia, and Road To Ruin. Play them religiously!

          Sex Pistols: Probably all you need is Never Mind The Bollocks.

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        9. If that’s too much Ramones to start, try Ramonesmania or the 2CD comp set called All The Stuff (And More!), or any other comp to get you started.

          The Pistols had a bunch of releases after they were gone, only one while they were afoot, but I’d say that main album is what you need as a primer.

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        10. Oh no those aren’t too many CDs! Winter break is right around the corner, so I got time. I just have to balance that and all the other albums I’m trying to listen to, and all the albums you guys review that I’m interested in lol!

          Got it! I’ll admit it is sad what happened to Sid Vicious. With his death and what he’s been through!

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        25. Me? I like tons, probably too many to name. I like Stooges (especially the first three), Black Flag, and Minor Threat, if you wanna try other stuff. Try The First Four Years comp by Black Flag. It’s like a bomb going off in your stereo. And then try Damaged (the first album after ROLLINS joined the band). Play it LOUD. The song this blog is named for is on that record.

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        26. Ah Stooges, I only know who they are because Phil Collen recreated their Raw Power album cover for Def Leppard’s ‘Yeah!’ album haha. Listening to the Black Flag now, maybe it’ll just take some getting used to. The Ramones, Sex Pistols, Black Flag are all similar yeah?

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        27. Raw Power is amazing, I love it so much. Ha no, I wouldn’t say those three bands are too similar, but maybe I’ve been listening so long I can pick out more differences.

          Did you play the Flag’s Nervous Breakdown with Keith Morris on vocals yet? Oh man. OH MAN!!

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        28. I’ll add Raw Power to the list then. And perhaps I’m not there yet to distinguish between the different punk bands.

          Not yet, but I’ve got that down on songs to check out!

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        30. Thanks for recommending them and I don’t feel as stressed anymore about checking out these new bands. Knowing that I have all the time in the world helps a lot. I checked out Neurotic Outsiders last night and they’re awesome!

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        35. Ok so far, for the Sex Pistols, I don’t like the lead singer’s voice, which is a shame because the name Sex Pistols is so cool!

          Is the Ramones lead singer better?

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        39. Shucks cause Paul Di’anno’s voice is fine for me! I thought the Sex Pistols would have a similar vibe, but I guess not! The songwriting is different as well for punk it seems. More rebellious and straight forward. Ok listening to Ramones right now, maybe punk isn’t for me! Though I will say, I like the Ramones lead singer more than the Sex Pistols’ lead singer! Thanks for the suggestions though!

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        42. Lots of bands still play real instruments, it’s just punk is a whole different ethos and vibe altogether. It influenced a lot of later stuff too, but it was mostly a reaction to the bloat of 70s rock as much as it was political and cultural.

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        45. Hahah well next week’s subject was (I believe) brokered by John Snow. It is Bands We Love That You Probably Never Heard Of. You are going to love it. Not sure who will be on the panel yet but Sarah and Aaron have expressed interest once again!

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        47. I love that idea!!! I bet there will be some bands that will catch my eye (or in some cases, I’ve heard of but never knew it was their song till much later). Hooray for Sarah and Aaron! John should take part in it since he came up with the idea?

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  3. Amazing. Who doesn’t love Maiden? Could u maybe do a top 11 of greatest hits comps? That’s a tough one. Do u guys listen to compilations? From Maiden my favorite is Ed Hunter, just cos for years that was the only comp from them I had.

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    1. Thanks for your list KK!

      I do listen to compilations, and Harrison was raised on Best of the Beast. A best compilations show? It’s possible, but some of these guys like Deke and Meat don’t really listen to them.

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      1. What a great gift u got coming (I hope), only heard the singles so far. Do u get yourself cd’s as gift too? It’s been my yearly tradition as long as I remember to get myself a couple of cd’s for Christmas. This year I ordered a bunch of older cd’s that were on sale..alter bridge, Myles solo forgot the rest…Just got a punch of Skillet cds as well. Not your cup of tea I take.

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  5. Cheers, Mike – Alchemist might be my favourite job description yet!
    And my first priority after the show was to check out Only the Good Die Young, if it’s good enough for Harrison/Aaron/Meat/LeBrain, it sounds good to me – and what a riff, I see why it ended up on each list!

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    1. Hey Geoff! Here is a question for you. If you ever want to appear as a regular guest for a non-list show, what kind of things might you be interested in chatting about? Aaron and I have some ideas cooking for 2021.

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  6. Not a bad list by any of you…
    …well, not entirely true. You all had cuts from AMOLAD, but aside from that, Meat won by default for the first five picks, alone.

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  7. Hey guys, excellent show all around! I was indeed in absentia as I was attending an online Hawksley Workman Christmas house concert at the same time as your chat, a Christmas gift from my lovely wife. It was an awesome gig!

    Thanks for including my list as part of the rounds. All I did was re-listen to Maiden songs I might want to pick… and there I got overwhelmed. Coulda been 111. All this shows to me is how amazing the band is, and how I need to listen to them more. And then more. And then more…

    Anyway, I am newer to Maiden, relatively speaking, and I don’t know what’s on what single, etc, so I just checked Wiki to see what were the official singles for each record (to make sure I didn’t get disqualified) and figured everything else was fair game. I ought to have known that, with Maiden, there are songs that weren’t singles that may as well have been, according to fans. I also don’t care if it was played live or not – a deep cut is a deep cut, bands play stuff other than the singles all the time.

    Excellent work on the charts, Geoff! Shout-out to T-Bone for the awesome theme music! To Meat and Harrison for really bringing their knowledge and passion to the show! And to Mike, the host and curator, for making all of this happen and for keeping us all connected during these, let’s face it, shite-y quarantine times. Cheers everyone!

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    1. Imma go read about Hawksley shortly!

      I really enjoyed doing this last episode, and I appreciate that you guys can stay connected this way. That was always the goal — connecting during these shite-y quarantine times. Hopefully we’ll see you next week with the topic we discussed earlier!

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      1. I think I told you ages ago you needed to get to Hawksley – he’s awesomeness! Yeah, James can’t get rid of me now, ha! I will try to meet the paramters of the challenge for next week – as I said, though, I don’t know how much I have here that fits. Or maybe I just assume everyone knows more than me…

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    1. Ahh sorry man I mis-spoke. Just in the overall discussion is what I meant to say. But I think you answered a lot of those questions! We were curious when you got onto the Maiden train etc.

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        2. Of course! I mean, I knew of them before of course, and owned a few of them already, but it was your series going through ever record (and my own mirrored series in tandem) made me pay a lot more attention.

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        3. Meant to add, I’m still nowhere near the level of expert you guys are. I was awed a bit by the depth of knowledge from you and Harrison and Meat. You guys are deep into it!

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