We used to have piles and piles of CDs, stacked on a unit behind the counter. Due to lack of space, this is where we put stock that was:
1. on hold for staff
2. on hold for customers
3. being sent elsewhere for customer orders
Unfortunately these stacks were visible to customers, although not available for sale to the general public. Sometimes you’d have a situation like this:
“Cool! I can see OK Computer by Radiohead! Is that for sale?”
And it wasn’t, which you’d explain. If the CD was on hold for someone, they’d often ask how long it was on hold for so they could be next in line, provided the other person didn’t pick it up.
When stuff was on hold for staff (who usualy snagged the best stuff and held it for longer periods of time) I didn’t like the customers seeing it. But we didn’t really have anywhere better to put it. I proposed putting it in the back room but that didn’t last long. So what we’d do is disguise it in some way. Instead of having a pile labeled “Mike”, we’d change the name. It sometimes threw the customers off the scent.
At one point, I had all the staff hold piles named after Canadian cities. That way looked like stuff that was ordered by other stores. So for example, we’d have a pile labeled “London” which would be a pile of stuff destined for that store. Next to it was a pile labeled “Saskatoon”. We didn’t have a store in Saskatoon, Saskatoon was a staff member’s pile. We didn’t have stores in Yellowknife or Winnipeg either, but those labels threw customers off the scent. They’d assume the stock was there for another store.
I liked this system, but the staff often preferred nicknames on the labels. Some people liked their nicknames, some people didn’t. There was a girl named Meredith — she really hated being caled Megadeth, for example (I assume that’s true of most Merediths out there). I hated being called Cheeser — so named because I liked what other people refer to as “cheese metal” (although I think Zakk Wylde would be happy to punch somebody in the face for calling his music cheese metal).
Later on, someone had all the piles named after Family Guy characters. At the time, I’d never seen an episode in my life, and I didn’t know it was a bad thing that my nickname was Quagmire! Joke was on me I guess!
IRON MAIDEN – Fear of the Dark (1992, 1996 bonus disc)
I remember staying up late one night, listening to Q107, waiting to hear the new Maiden track. They promised it, and after airing “Burn” by Deep Purple, they debuted “Be Quick Or Be Dead”.
Nice riff, I said. The song took a while to grow on me, because Bruce was still growling a bit too much for my taste. If there was one thing I disliked about Maiden’s previous, No Prayer for the Dying, it was Bruce’s growl. I’d rather hear him sing. He was growling the verses, and singing the choruses. And Nicko was doing some serious steppin’! It was the Maiden writing debut of Janick Gers (with Bruce), and it was a rant on big business. Maiden were the 99% in 1992! I thought it was one of the best songs from the new album, Fear of the Dark.
The second track, “From Here To Eternity” featured the return of Charlotte! Harris wrote this one alone, and it too was a single. It has a shout-along chorus, but too much rinky-dink bass way up high in the mix. This song wouldn’t make my road tape, I never particularly cared for it.
Much, much better is “Afraid To Shoot Strangers”. Steve wrote this one for the men and women who served in the Gulf War, who as Bruce said, “never wanted to kill anybody.” I consider this song to be the birth of the “new” Iron Maiden. The gentle guitar, with the melodic bass in the background, the keys…is it a ballad or an epic? It’s both. Then it picks up with some of the catchiest guitar parts Steve’s ever written. There would be many many Maiden songs that followed this blueprint on albums to come, especially The X Factor. (My friend Andy and I beat this song by a year. In 1991 we wrote a Maiden-inspired tune called “Unleashed in the Middle East” about the Gulf War. Fortunately, it remains unrecorded to this day.)
Did you also noticed Maiden getting more topical? Big business…the Gulf War…it was the 90’s.
The Zeppish “Fear Is the Key” is next. Bruce and Janick wrote this one, but again, I’m not too fond of it. It has a great hook, and it’s technically accomplished, but Maiden and Zep don’t always mix. I don’t think they ever played it live. Do I hear a slide?
“Childhood’s End”, written by Steve, doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the Arthur C. Clarke novel. It is rhythmically complex and melodic and powerful with a soaring guitar melody. I don’t consider this one of Maiden’s greater songs in the canon, but it is one of the better songs on Fear of the Dark.
The triumphant ballad, “Wasting Love” closes side 1. This one may have thrown people for a loop, both by the title and the music. Maiden, singing about love? More Scorpions sounding than Maiden, this one came from Bruce and Janick.
Maybe one day, I’ll be an honest man
Up til now I’m doing the best I can
Long roads, long days
of sunrise to sunset, sunrise to sunset
The song seems to be a reflection on infidelity on the road, but was there more between the lines? “Maybe one day I’ll be an honest man…”
Yes, it’s a ballad, but it is not wimpy. The guitar harmonies evoke mellow Thin Lizzy. I think “Wasting Love” is among the three best songs on Fear of the Dark. “Afraid to Shoot Strangers is another one, and we’ll get to the third in due time.
Side 2 opened with Steve’s “The Fugitive”. It takes a long time to build. It’s OK, nothing special. Again, I doubt it was ever played live. I don’t know if The Fugitive really needed to be made into a song, but Steve beat the movie adaptation by a year!
Bruce and Davey’s “Chains of Misery” follows. I think it’s another OK song, again nothing special and again I doubt it was ever played live. Nice shout-along chorus.
Another Zeppish song is next: “The Apparition”. Steve wrote this one with Janick. See above comments: OK song, never played live. The lyrics start with promise, a ghost story perhaps, but then it turns into a series of pieces of advice from the apparition to the living. Stuff like “You can make your own luck,” etc. And Bruce is doing that annoying growl vocal!
Thankfully, “Judas Be My Guide” gets us out of this slump! Ironically I always found this one to sound kind of Priest-like! I like this tune. Bruce wrote it with Davey, and to me this is the kind of song that Adrian Smith used to bring to the table. Melodic, powerful, anthemic, sing-along metal. I don’t think it was ever played live, but to me this one would have been single material. I would have picked it over “From Here To Eternity”.
The mellow “Weekend Warrior” is one of the oddest on the album. Bruce does his growl vocal (again!) but the song goes from acoustic section to electric section to acoustic again, and it’s quite unlike most Maiden songs. The lyrics seem to be about football hooliganism. I’m not sure if this was a topic that Iron Maiden needed to delve into, but there it is.
Finally, we have the Steve epic you have been waiting for: “Fear of the Dark”. It’s a little simple and repetitive compared to past epics, but it’s solid and has remained in the live set tour after tour after tour. It is a fan favourite worldwide, and I think it’s great. Although it’s simpler musically, I think in a lot of ways it’s one of Steve’s best epics. It’s absolutely perfect live, it begs to be sung along with, and it goes from peak to valley so well! I like big gothic opening riff. The mellow sections, again, would serve as a blueprint for the next era of Iron Maiden. Steve’s melodic bass, backed by quiet keys…
And that’s the album, a fat 12 songs, and although many are in the 3 minute range, there are several over 5 minutes this time. It was a generous slice of studio music from Maiden, never before had they crammed so many songs onto a record. It was also released on DAT, cassette, and CD. The vinyl was a double, and very hard to find. Vinyl was an import here in Canada: Capitol stopped pressing vinyl here in early 1990.
As I mentioned, there are moments here that musically look into Maiden’s future. But changes were already afoot, and in a real way, Fear of the Dark is the first album of the new Maiden. For the first time ever, Derek Riggs’ artwork was absent. Maiden instead chose a painting by Melvyn Grant. Gone were the Riggs trademarks, and a lot of fans reacted negatively to the new art. Eddie looked more Nosferatu than Eddie, and the idea of Eddie being reborn from a tree was…weird?
This was also to be Martin Birch’s final production effort. He retired after Fear of the Dark. Happy retirement, Martin! What can you possibly say bad about the man who produced Machine Head? Nothing. I will say though that this album, recorded digitally for the first time, sounds very thin. I think it was immediately noticeable and this was rectified on future albums.
My 1996 reissue has a bonus disc chock full of B-sides.
“Be Quick Or Be Dead” came with the piano-infused joke boogie tune, “Nodding Donkey Blues”, an ode to plus-sized ladies. It’s actually really great fun. “Ahh, there should be some kind of guitar solo here!” says Bruce before the piano kicks in.
Also from the same single is Montrose’s “Space Station #5” – Sammy Hagar’s first and only writing credit on an Iron Maiden disc! Maiden of course kick this song in the nuts. What an awesome riff. But wait — don’t turn it off. The hidden track “Bayswater Ain’t A Bad Place To Be” is yet another hilarious roast of manager Rod Smallwood!
Second single, “From Here To Eternity” was an oddity of sorts, one of the few Maiden singles to not feature Eddie on the cover. It’s B-sides included a Chuck Berry cover/ode to roadie Vic Vella called “Roll Over Vic Vella”. There were also two live tracks from the previous tour: “Public Enema Number One”, and “No Prayer For the Dying”. Nice to have live versions of these songs, as I doubt they were played again after that tour.
“From Here To Eternity” also supposedly featured a remixed A-side — a “Triumph Mix”. (The name “Triumph Mix” is only printed on the disc itself and not the back cover.) I can’t tell the difference, so don’t get excited. I also haven’t attempted to do a detailed comparison, so if you know more than I do, please comment.
The third and final single was “Wasting Love” which unfortunately had a terribly boring music video. It’s just too 90’s! It had three more live tracks, all from the previous tour: “Tailgunner”, “Holy Smoke”, and “The Assassin”. Same comment as above: Nice to have live versions. But note, none of these songs are on the 1996 reissue with bonus disc! Not one! And this is one of the rarest of Maiden singles. Took me a while to find a copy at a decent price.
There was one bonus included on the 2 CD edition of Fear of the Dark, in lieu of the above: “Hooks In You”, also live from the previous tour. Probably my most hated of all Maiden tunes. It’s actually from a later single, and I’ll get to that when I get to that album.
This was the last of the ten Iron Maiden 2 CD reissues from 1996.
So there you have it: Fear of the Dark. It’s superior to No Prayer, I believe. Both the good songs and the filler are superior. It pointed the way to some interesting new directions, mixing light and shade, and it proved that Janick Gers was an able songwriter in Iron Maiden. He had also begun to gel with Dave Murray as guitar player. Yet the album also had much filler, it would have been stronger at a traditional 9 or 10 tracks. I still have a fond place in my heart for Fear of the Dark, for it was one of many albums that helped me get through the 90’s.
But if you thought the last couple Maiden albums were controversial among fans, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
The Bargain Bin was where we sold our overstock — discs we had three or more copies of — at $5.99 per disc. Which was cheap by 1996 prices. New discs went from $16.99 to $24.99 at the time.
I think it was Trev who made the sign for the Bargain Bin. Trevor was the resident sign-maker because he had some artistic ability, where my boss couldn’t read my handwriting let alone my signs. It was originally called the “Bin O’ Bargains”. It was a big red sign, and it looked something like this:
Bin ‘O Bargains. But yet 90% of customers couldn’t read it. They would always say, “What’s in your Bin Bargains?”
“Bin Bargains”? That doesn’t even make sense!
The Bin O’ Bargains, as mentioned, was a hodgepodge of overstock. Any type of music was fair game, from Alan Jackson to Hammer to Lionel Richie to Hole to the Pumpkins. $5.99 each. We later lowered this, but at the start everything in there was basically the same price. We figured, that was simplest.
Simple to us, but not to everyone else. The Bin O’ Bargains created many questions and problems for both customers and staff! I mentioned that it was for stuff we had three or more copies of. That’s an oversimplification of things, but there were also things that we’d NEVER throw in the bargain bin. For example, if by some weird coincidence, we had four copies of a Queen album: Staff would think maybe, “OK, that’s plenty of copies, I’ll put this copy of The Miracle in the Bin.”
Nooooo! No no nononono!
Queen, Metallica, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Lightfoot, …doesn’t matter how many copies we have or what we paid for them. You never, ever, ever bargain bin bands like that. If we happened to have a bunch of used copies, that’s just pure chance!
You’d also never throw a greatest hits CD in there, because they were good sellers.
Err…except those cheapie greatest hits discs that you can get new at the grocery store for around $5.
Try teaching all that to a highschool kid who just wants to work at a record store to be cool. We ended up selling all kinds of stuff for $5.99, by mistake, instead of stockpiling it. I remember once a kid handed me a copy of Metallica’s Black Album that he found in the bin at $5.99. Lucky kid! That CD never should have been in there, since it was a regular easy sale at full price. (It doesn’t matter what you think of that album, it was huge, people wanted it all the time.)
So, there was that. There was always the confusing aspect that since our Bargain Bin was overstock, you’d find the same album on our regular shelves for $11.99. So people would logically ask:
“This copy is $5.99, and this copy is $11.99. Is that because one is scratched more?”
Oooh. Hated that question. It required a set response that both stated our quality policy (all discs are guaranteed and scratch free) and a quick explanation of overstock. People were often confused and who could blame them?
After you explained the Bin O’ Bargains to them, they’d hold up the $5.99 copy. “So…I should buy this one, right?”
Yes. Yes you should.
Since the bargain bin was a hodgepodge, we just threw stuff in there — nothing was alphabetized. Which caused us problems with lazy customers who didn’t want to flip through the treasures within.
“The other day you had Bryan Adams in here. Can you help me find him?”
ARGH! Why didn’t you buy him the other day? Yeah, I’ll help you find him. Flip flip flip. Flip flip flip. Flip flip flip. I could flip the whole bin in around 5-10 minutes, but still…tedious.
We did brisk business out of the bin. The markup was decent and we might have sold 20 out of there each day. Some people used it to take chances on new music, others to pick up long-ignored albums. It just boggled my mind how many people complained about such a great deal!
“I can’t search through this bin…it’s completely random! I’m not wasting my time.”
“Can you give me a deal if I buy 5?”
We also had this frequent buyer card like a buy-10-get-one-free type of card, but it specifically said, “Not applicable with any other special deals.” The Bin O’ Bargains was already a special deal, so we weren’t allowed to stamp the card with it. Which pissed people off. Which made me wonder, “What are you complaining about? You’re already getting a CD for a quarter of its regular price.”
When the Bin O’ Bargain was full to the brim, and sales were slow, we’d have a Bargain Bin sale. Something like buy two from the bin, get one free. We were still making money and stuff cleared out of there quickly. It was one good way to get rid of all those Lionel Richie Louder Than Words discs.
But don’t worry, the Bin would fill up again in short order. There were always people looking to get rid of their Lionel Richie.
If Tattooed Millionaire had not happened, neither would so many things in Maiden’s history: No #1 single (“Bring Your Daughter…to the Slaughter), Janick Gers might never have joined the band, and so on.
Due to the six months downtime between Seventh Son and No Prayer, Bruce decided to have some fun. He first recorded “Bring Your Daughter…to the Slaughter” for the Nightmare on Elm Street 5soundtrack. This opened the floodgates and before too long, Bruce and guitarist Janick Gers had more than enough songs for an album. (Other band members: Andy Carr – bass, Fabio Del Rio – drums.)
And an album there was, and what a fine album indeed! Bruce made no bones about it: This is not a heavy metal album like Maiden. This is a hard rock album, along the lines of his influences: Deep Purple, AC/DC, Mott the Hoople, and more. What was surprising even to me at time was just how good it was.
The first single, “Tattooed Millionaire” was catchy as hell while still sounding very British and uncompromising. Vocally, the song and album combines Bruce’s classic soaring voice, with his newer style of spitting out the words in a furious assault. The combination is effective; Just listen to “Hell On Wheels”. While innuendo-loaded verses are spat out, the chorus soars in a singalong fashion. “Dive! Dive! Dive!” and “Lickin’ the Gun” tackle similar lyrical territory.
But it’s not all sexual innuendo. Bruce tackles more philosophical topics on songs such as “Born in ’58” (a great single), “Son of a Gun”, and “Gypsy Road”. Meanwhile, “Tattooed Millionaire” pokes fun at the rockers of the L.A. scene, loaded with cash but not too much in the way of brains.
Tattooed boys with expensive toys,
living in a bubble of sin.
Money can buy you most of anything,
fix your nose or the mess you’re in.
Some speculated that this was aimed at former tourmates, Guns N’ Roses. I believe Bruce later said the inspiration was Motley Crue!
Bruce admitted that doing a cover song for a single was “cheating”, but “All the Young Dudes” was a great choice to cover. Fear not; Bruce does it justice. Bruce kicks it in the head. Gers’ guitar work is perfect for the song, and it’s good to have a chance to hear him play a more laid-back style, unlike his usual work.
The album spawned plenty of singles, each with their own B-sides worth collecting. But luckily, the fine folks at Sanctuary put all of this stuff together, along with “Bring Your Daughter”, on a tasty bonus disc.
The bonus disc includes some acoustic music (“Winds of Change”, “Darkness Be My Friend”, and the joke song “Ballad of Mutt”). It also has some kickass live covers: Deep Purple’s “Black Night” and “Sin City” by AC/DC among them. Bonus — there’s also a studio version of “Sin City”, and some live versions of the album’s hits.
Absolutely essential: “Son of a Gun”, “Tattooed Millionaire”, “Born in ’58”.
Great: “Gypsy Road”, “Zulu Lulu”, “No Lies”, “All the Young Dudes”
Are you a young person working in the world of retail? Have you been offered a raise and a salary instead of hourly wages?
If you answered “yes” to both those questions, then sit right back and you’ll hear a tale.
I never much liked working Saturdays, for two reasons. One, it was the longest, busiest shift. Second, when I worked alone at least I picked the music. Saturdays we had two people on, because it was the busiest day. More often than not, I didn’t think much of the music the other people picked.
I mean, I hope it’s obvious by now — I’m a rocker! Unfortunately I didn’t work with many other rockers. On the other hand, they didn’t think much of my Journey discs. We actually later wrote it into the training manual — try not to knowingly pick music that your co-workers disliked! That narrowed the scope for me!
But as I said, Saturdays were our busiest days. Makes sense — kids are off school, a lot of other people have the day off — why not pick up tunes for the weekend?
One day, the boss called a staff meeting. He was giving us store managers a raise, and a salary. The only catch? We had to work one extra Saturday per month. They decided (and logically so) that our best people needed to be working on our busiest days. Therefore managers must work a minimum of two Saturdays a month. Makes sense. Previously we were only working one Saturday per month, and I knew that it was a free ride of sorts. I wasn’t surprised when it ended, although it definitely meant less cottage time.
Later that week, T-Rev called me.
“Have you done the math on your new salary yet?”
“No,” I answered. “Why?”
“Well,” he explained, “Even though he called it a raise, when you account for the extra Saturday we’re working, we’re actually making less money per hour now.”
“No shit,” I answered. “That sucks.” Once we were on salary, we couldn’t go back.
Salaries came with all sorts of interesting loopholes. For example, as managers if we couldn’t get someone to work a shift and we were short people, it usually fell on us to work the hours. Now, we weren’t getting paid extra to do it anymore. Another new duty that came with the salary was stock transfers: Driving stock around town to another store in rush-hour traffic. The gas in your tank and miles on your car? “That’s all a part of your salary”.
Not to mention all the extra hours I started to do in training duty and putting out fires, and the aforementioned twice-weekly stock deliveries. I did the math one time — you don’t wanna know how much more money I would have made on my old hourly wage! Enough to buy several of those new Iron Maiden picture disc sets!
So, young grasshoppers: if you too find yourselves pinned on the horns of a dilemma like this, think hard on your options!
RECORD STORE TALES PART 69: Porn Don’t Go Platinum
Back in June, I posted an old story called Porn Don’t Go Platinum. It was part 69, and how could I resist posting a story about a time that porn came into our stores? It didn’t happen often. Probably less than five times in my experience. People didn’t get it; just because we bought and sold CD’s and DVD’s didn’t mean we bought and sold that kind. Nor did I want to touch somebody’s used porn movies.
Anyway I kind of assumed at the time that I’d start getting random hits for Google searches about porn. Which is what happened. Pretty much every day, I get hits for the following terms.
69 porn
real 69 porn
69porno kiss
Sometimes, throw this one in. Cheaper people, I’m assuming.
free 69 porn
That’s fine, whatever. Then I got this one. Go back and read the original post and you’ll see why:
missing teeth porn -old
But then I started noticing really weird ones. Here’s one for example:
japen lebrains for the first time fuck
If anybody can tell me what that means…don’t. I don’t wanna know.
IRON MAIDEN – No Prayer For the Dying(1990, 1996 bonus disc)
Regrouping after a six-month break, Maiden returned to writing mode a changed Beast.
The Seventh Son of a Seventh Son album was artistically rewarding but the band were eager to return to their stripped down heavy metal roots and make a live-sounding album more like Killers or The Number of the Beast, without the production values and ten minute songs that were becoming the norm.
Both Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson were coming off solo albums (A.S.a.P.’s Silver and Gold featuring Zak Starkey (Oasis, The Who), and Bruce’s Tattooed Millionaire). Bruce’s was successful commercially and critically, Adrian’s less so. Still, it came as a complete shock to the fans when it was announced that Adrian Smith had left Iron Maiden.
Or, perhaps, been nudged out. Steve Harris was worried that Adrian was becoming unhappy, and it was especially obvious during the writing sessions for the next album. While Steve, Dave and Bruce were contributing heavy songs, the usually prolific Adrian had nothing but a song called “Hooks In You” that he had written with Bruce. He was clearly unhappy that Maiden were not progressing down the road pointed to by Seventh Son, and were going heavier. Steve took him aside.
When asked how into it he was, the answer came “about 80%”. Steve has always had a simple policy for membership in his band — you had to be into it 110%, or it wouldn’t work. The fans wouldn’t buy it, and Steve couldn’t look them in the eye knowing somebody on stage wasn’t completely into it. Adrian was out.
The band already knew Janick Gers, and he and Bruce had developed a successful writing partnership on his Tattooed Millionaire solo disc. Janick was nevertheless shocked when Bruce phoned him up and asked him to learn some Iron Maiden numbers. Janick initially said no, because he assumed Bruce was talking about his solo project, and they had already agreed to do no Maiden numbers. When Bruce explained it wasn’t for the solo band, it was for Maiden, Janick was horrified.
Janick Gers was really the only guy I can think of that was right for Maiden, also being from the era of the NWOBHM bands (White Spirit). He’d also been in Gillan (the incredible Magic album) and worked with Fish. The songs for the album were already written, all Janick had to do was head over to Steve’s farm, where they were recording the album, and learn the songs.
But that’s all just background, just context. That’s all important, especially to this album, but what is also important is the bottom line. And the bottom line is that this is the first time Maiden turned in something that was almost universally received as a disappointment.
While some fans were clamoring for a return to basic heavy metal songs, short and bangin’ and to the point, others preferred the epic scale of Seventh Son. And it was clear that you can’t just replace Adrian Smith. The songs on the new album, titled No Prayer For the Dying, seemed less finished and not quite up to standard. Not to mention Janick and Dave hadn’t had time to properly gel together, and never quite sync up on this album the way Dave did with Adrian.
The opening song “Tailgunner” is good enough though, not quite an “Aces High” but certainly adequate. Being tailgunner might have been the worst job on the Lancaster bomber, since it didn’t have a belly gunner! (Neither did Enola Gay, tailgunner was certainly the worst job on a B-29)! But Steve and Bruce failed to really nail it lyrically, with lines such as “nail that Fokker, kill that son, gunna blow your guts out with my gun” not living up to past Maiden historic glories.
Steve and Bruce also wrote “Holy Smoke”, the first single. This reckless fast number showcased a manic Janick Gers solo, demonstrating how different he was from Adrian. Where Adrian used to compose solos with beginnings, middles and endings, Janick just went for it! Dave was also somewhere between the two approaches. Now, without Adrian’s melodic touch, the band were moving sharply to a more live and spontaneous guitar style.
“Holy Smoke” is about TV preachers, and while they always make a good target in heavy metal songs (I prefer Ozzy’s “Miracle Man”) this one also fails to excite. As a song it doesn’t have much in terms of melody. On No Prayer, Bruce is shouting as often as he’s singing, and with the songs’ new emphasis on raw power, there’s less memorable melody to go around. Janick’s manic gonzo solo does fit the vibe of the song!
The title track is third, a number that tries to be an epic in under 5 minutes. It does indeed have all of the trademark qualities of a Maiden epic except the length: Multiple parts, multiple tempos, soul-searching Steve lyrics, and ample anthemic guitar melody. Yet the song fails to nail it home like, say, “Hallowed Be Thy Name” did.
Better is the badly titled “Public Enema Number One”. This Dickinson/Murray rocker is riffy, straightforward with some decent melodic bits. But again Bruce is hoarsely shouting the verses, and the song careens from section to section that don’t feel like they quite all fit together probably. Like other songs on No Prayer, the song sounds slightly unfinished.
And better again is “Fates Warning”, this time written by Steve and Dave. The opening soft guitar part is a nice change of pace, and a great example of Dave Murray’s tremendous feel. Perhaps in a past life he was a bluesman. Nicko then kicks the song into gear while Steve’s lyrics question the seemingly random nature of life and death. In the middle, is an old-school dual Maiden guitar lead, before Dave nails another perfect one of his own.
Side two begins with the stuttery “The Assassin”. Written solo by Steve, it is rhythmically complex as it is propelled forward. It has a fairly decent chorus but it doesn’t quite resolve itself nicely. Some of the guitar and bass melodies are reminiscent of “To Tame A Land” from Piece of Mind.
This is followed by the superior “Run Silent Run Deep” Submarine warfare is a good topic for a Maiden song, and the song chugs forward like those big diesel engines. This is one of the better songs on No Prayer. Steve and Bruce wrote it together, and Nicko’s precise drum fills accent the song perfectly.
Next is the worst song on the album: Bruce and Adrian’s “Hooks In You”. Lyrically this is one of the worst things ever on a Maiden album. Judging by the opening line, “Got the keys to view at number 22,” it sounds like Charlotte is back to her old tricks. Unfortunately, the band subjected people to this song live. I’ll admit it’s got a great little riff, but Bruce’s shout-growl vocals, lack of melody, and lack of any lyrical intelligence just sinks this one.
And then the baffling #1 single, “Bring Your Daughter…to the Slaughter”. This Bruce song is actually an outtake from his solo project. He recorded and released the original version with Janick Gers on the soundtrack to A Nightmare on Elm Street 5. I seem to remember that soundtrack being panned as “the worst soundtrack of all time” at one point. Steve heard the song, went nuts, and said, “Don’t put it on your solo album: I want to save this one for Maiden.”
Somehow, Steve was right, as it went straight to #1 in the UK, the first and only time this has happened to Iron Maiden. I don’t get it. I don’t get what people like about this song.
“Mother Russia” ends the album on a sour note. Lyrically simple, musically pretty good, “Mother Russia” is certainly not up to the standards of past Maiden album closers. Although it tries to be an epic along the lines of “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son” (featuring a similar keyboard section in the middle), it’s just not as great as past epics. At five and a half minutes, “Mother Russia” is the longest song on No Prayer. It is made up of excellent components; I like the melody and the solos big time, but it’s just…not comparable in quality.
Nicko McBrain said on MuchMusic that No Prayer was “the best Iron Maiden yet.” Steve said that the album’s biggest problem is that it didn’t sound live enough without an audience track. I disagree with both. I think the album has an abnormally high quantity of unfinished songs and filler.
Even the cover art was substandard. To go with the live, stripped down sound, Riggs too stripped his artwork of the symbolism and fantasy. Instead, Eddie goes for the throat of a groundskeeper as he emerges (once again) from the grave. All hints to continuity are gone, as Eddie’s lost his lobotomy scar, cybernetic implants, and that bolt that kept his skull on! He even has his hair back. I guess somebody wasn’t happy with the artwork, because it was heavily tweaked for the 1998 remaster, repainting much of it and removing the groundskeeper.
The B-sides to the first single, “Holy Smoke” were the excellent “All In Your Mind” (a cover from somebody called Stray) and Golden Earring’s “Kill Me Ce Soir”. Both songs are pretty damn good. I prefer both to some of the album tracks!
“Bring Your Daughter” had two of its own B-sides: “Communication Breakdown” and “I’m A Mover”. Maiden tackle Led Zeppelin and Free less successfully than they did they other two B-sides. “I’m A Mover” ain’t bad as it allows Maiden to get into a groove they normally wouldn’t, and Bruce seems to have fun with the vocal.
With Geoff’s recent departure from the original Queensryche and his decision to form a simultaneous second Queensryche, I felt I should pull Geoff Tate off my shelf, where it has sat collecting dust for almost 10 years. The web (and comments on this site) has been abuzz with opinions on every side of the Tate situation, so dig in and let me know what you think.
GEOFF TATE – Geoff Tate (2002 EMI)
When I first heard this album 10 years ago, it seemed a lot more “different” than it does now. Now I listen to it and I can hear aspects of it (repetitive drony guitar bits, drum programs, mellow vibes) that Geoff incorporated into Queensryche albums that came later. But this is clearly a Tate album and not a Queensryche record, “Helpless” being one that would not have fit in on any Queensryche album.
Yet try as I might, I cannot get into this album. It has moments that I like (again, “Helpless” is an example with strong vocal melodies and guitar parts), but mostly just fleeting moments. “Helpless” in particular has a nice acoustic guitar solo, flamenco in flavour, that is appealing to me. Yet I find the song still sunk by (what sounds like) awful programmed percussion and bass.
Up next is “Touch”, a nearly tuneless mellow drone with something that sounds like telephones dialing a melody in the background. Ugh. The track after, “Every Move We Make” has a nice simple guitar melody, a pretty one that could have had some feeling in it, but it’s choked under a blanket of samples and effects. Geoff never comes up with a memorable vocal to go with it either. It does have some nice sounding (real) drums, and some cool guitars. “In Other Words” rests itself on piano and acoustic guitar backed by what sounds like viola. The music is pleasant sounding, just not memorable. It picks up steam towards the end. Perhaps this one could have made a most excellent Queensryche album closer, similar to “Someone Else?”, in another world. “A Passenger” has memorable moments, although it awkwardly stumbles from one section to others that sound nothing alike.
Best song: Epic closer “Over Me”. Great cascading guitars, liquid bass, no nonsense.
There’s nothing wrong with albums like this, every artist needs to explore their creative muse. More power to Geoff for doing it. But I’m not particularly into this kind of mellowness. Back in the record store days, if I had no idea who Geoff Tate was, I wouldn’t know where to file it and I guess that’s the point of doing a solo album like this. At no point does it rock, but it’s also too aggressive in spots for Easy Listening and New Age. It incorporates aspects of world music and electronica but couldn’t be called either. None of that is bad — I love a lot of records that can be described in similar ways, when genres collide. (Accidentally On Purpose, by Gillan/Glover perhaps?) The problem here boils down to the songs — they’re just not all that good. Marillion make albums that you might say sound like this — but better.
Maiden’s spectacular Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour seemed the perfect time to do another live home video. Future Maiden tours were to be toned down stageshow-wise for quite a few years. It also enabled Maiden to take a break while Steve Harris took 6 months to edit the video himself. In the meantime, Adrian and Bruce were able to write solo albums. We’ll get into that.
In the meantime, “Moonchild” opens the set. Sadly the acoustic part is just a pre-recorded tape, but Bruce just howls his way through this one. As Bruce welcomes the Birmingham crowd to the show, the band break into “The Evil That Men Do”, probably the best live version of this song available. Steve charges into it and the rest of the band keep up.
This is followed by a deuce of classic Maiden tunes that were-not-but-should-been-on Live After Death! These would be “The Prisoner” and “Still Life”, also available on the single for “Infinite Dreams”. “Still Life” is a rarity to hear live so this is a nice treat; I think it’s an excellent song. One of my all time favourites.
“Die With Your Boots On” was included on Live After Death but I ain’t complaining! You can hear that Bruce has lost a little bit of his range on some of the high notes; it is what it is. It’s an awesome tune and this version has a certain reckless abandon.
The single, “Infinite Dreams” follows, and I always felt it was one of the better Seventh Sontunes. It works live, especially once the band kick it into gear halfway. And if you somehow managed to fall asleep, an especially screamy “Killers” will wake you up.
That’s it for classic Maiden for a while. The next four numbers are all from the most recent two albums: “Heaven Can Wait” (with singalong), “Wasted Years” (which Bruce seems to struggle with), “The Clairvoyant” and the epic “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”. At 10 minutes long, Bruce makes sure the crowd doesn’t fall asleep, getting them to sing along.
The CD closes with a double whammy of classic Maiden: “The Number of the Beast” and “Iron Maiden”. Bruce implores the Birmingham NEC to scream for him, and scream they do.
The VHS version had two extra songs, lopped off the CD for time reasons. They are, unfortunately, an amazing “Hallowed Be Thy Name” and the single “Can I Play With Madness”.
A DVD version of Maiden England with a remastered and complete CD was confirmed by Maiden manager Rod Smallwood to be forthcoming on March 25, 2013.
Maiden England was a good package, and it’s cool to have the Seventh Tour documented on video, with that cool arctic stage set and crystal balls, and all that. Comparing it to Live After Death is just…well…you can’t. Live After Death was 25 minutes longer therefore more comprehensive, and perfectly mixed. Maiden England sounds a little more…I dunno…muddy, maybe?
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