Tag: music

Heart (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week9 Comments

For this week I’m pulling out one of rock music’s greatest transformation albums – a band shifting their sound to fit with the times. Some call that selling out, others call it the smart play. In the case of Heart it was very much the latter, and the group would land the biggest success of their career by fully embracing the glitz of 1980’s hair and glam rock.

Heart – self-titled

Released June 21, 1985 via Capitol Records

My Favorite Tracks – What About Love?, If Looks Could Kill, The Wolf

Heart began in the 1970’s and released a string of renowned albums that resided in the hard rock/folk rock realm, an interesting combination not heard every day. The band gained notice with their unique blend of music and also for their front-line sisters, guitarist Nancy Wilson and lead vocalist Ann Wilson.

Then the 1980’s came and rock music changed. Heart entered the decade well enough but had two dud albums through the early ’80’s. It could be said that Heart’s musical transition was started on those albums, though the true fruits of the change would arrive with this self-titled record in 1985, just as hair metal and its associated sounds were becoming the music of the day.

The songwriting on Heart is its own tale, as some of the songs were shaped by the Wilson sisters and several others were done by outside songwriters. I won’t be running down each individual one, just a few of the more notable ones, because it would make this post 10,000 words long. Credits are available in the album’s liner notes and in many places on the Internet for those curious. The album was produced by Ron Nevison, who was one of the go-to producers of the 1980’s.

Heart boasts 10 songs in 39 minutes so not an overly stuffed album, but half of these songs were singles and a few were major hits so there’s plenty to talk about here.

If Looks Could Kill

The album opens with a cover tune of a song also done in 1985 as a dance song. Heart took a more rock approach and fashioned a pretty cool song out of it. It’s very synth heavy, which would figure since it came from the dance/disco world but it’s translated well to the melodic rock environment. The song sees a cheating lover being the object of scorn.

If Looks Could Kill was the album’s fifth and final single, and also the only one not hit the Billboard 100’s top 10.

What About Love?

Another cover song, this time from Canadian band Toronto and one that group did not release originally. Heart would up with the song and would make hay with it, hitting the top 10 of the Billboard 100.

While unfortunate that Toronto did not get to enjoy the original fruits of their labor, this song fits the Heart album like a glove. It is a defining power ballad of the ’80’s and was the keys to the car for Heart’s comeback. It is a song that reminds people who are chasing their “way to the top” that love is still out there and is a more important force than whatever comes at the end of the rat race.

Two notable guests appear to help with backing vocals – Grace Slick and Mickey Thomas from Starship.

Never

Another album single and one that would get to the 4 position on the Billboard 100. This is an upbeat, very poppy melodic rock offering about being disgruntled by love but being ready to give it another go.

These Dreams

Up next is another single and Heart’s first chart-topping hit. The song was originally written by the songwriting duo of Bernie Taupin and Martin Page, two folks who’ve had hands in countless hits. The pair offered the song to Stevie Nicks, who turned it down. Heart were more receptive to it and the rest is history.

Heart switched tack on this song as Nancy Wilson handled the vocals. Nancy had been ill during recording and the production team was quite happy with her raspy take, so much so that she’d be asked in the future to “get sick again” to emulate her style here.

These Dreams is an atmospheric track with the lyrical concept of going to a different world while sleeping and getting away from the issues of regular life. The album’s liner notes dedicate the song to Sharon Hess, a fan who was battling leukemia and met the Wilson sisters during the recording of the song. Hess died just before the album’s release.

The Wolf

Here we hit the first of a few songs that weren’t singles. This is a very nice track that’s all rock and deals with a man out on the prowl who isn’t worth the trouble he brings. This song didn’t get the attention of the hit singles obviously, but it’s well worth a listen as it’s a great ’80’s rock song.

All Eyes

Its 2 for 2 on album deep cuts here with another good rock song. It’s a nice song about hooking up, pretty standard fare for the time. So far the album’s deep cuts compliment the singles well and make for a nice album listening experience.

Nobody Home

This one is a slow ballad that also kind of throws things off for a moment. It is very keyboard driven, which is not a problem in and of itself but the key part sounds like the soundtrack bits of a Final Fantasy video game. FF didn’t exist when this song was recorded but it’s the vibe I get from the song.

The song doesn’t pick up much steam as it goes along even with other instruments coming in. It’s a nice enough sentiment about someone finding no one around when they inevitably fall, but the song doesn’t do a lot for me.

Nothin’ At All

This was the album’s fourth single and also the fourth straight to hit the Billboard 100’s hallowed top 10, hitting exactly that position. This is a very easy-going rock track about how sometimes love just happens super easy without any fuss or drama. The video for this one was pretty popular and features the band simply goofing around.

What He Don’t Know

It’s back to the rock, this one is a fairly tame number but it does pick things back up after that last song. This one puts the shoe on the other foot in contrast to the opening song, as this time a couple is cheating while the singer’s significant other is unaware. It was fairly scandalous song material for the day as adultery and cheating was a huge deal back then, but no one gives a damn today. I don’t recall this song catching any actual grief though.

Shell Shock

The album closes on one more really cool song, it’s a straight ahead rock song. Ann Wilson is going a bit rapid fire in the verses here, it’s a neat way to wrap up the record.

Heart was not only a return to commercial success for the band, this was the peak of their album success. The record topped the Billboard 200 and was on the charts for 78 weeks. It has been certified 5 times platinum in the US and 6 times in Canada. Along with four straight singles in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, and this was a massive win for Heart’s ’80’s glam makeover.

Heart were successful in updating for the times and re-energizing their career, though for some it was too drastic of a move away from the classic sound that made them popular in the first place. I personally have no issue with it at all – while I think their ’70’s output is spectacular, I also love their ’80’s hair era. The songs were there and the band rode the wave of big hair and power rock/pop, usually doing it better than many others in the same era.

This would mark the start of a three-album run that saw Heart churn out more hits, including the biggest single of their run in 1987. After the “big hair” era ended, the Wilson sisters would return to their roots and explore more of the work that put them on the map in the first place. But they certainly left their mark on the 1980’s.

In On The Scam – Rip Offs for Live Tickets and Records

On By bigbadburchIn Controversy7 Comments

The past few weeks have seen an uptick in the dark art of scamming, and some of it relates to music. The worlds of live ticketing and record buying have both been hit with a flood of scams, mostly related to the modern age of electronic payments and digital goods.

In today’s world many concert tickets are digital codes. Simply show the QR code on your phone to the door person, they scan the code, you’re in. Physical tickets do still exist but the COVID era has seen a huge rise in the amount of paperless ticketing going on.

And with that comes the scam – a person on a Facebook group (where a lot of this is going on) says they have tickets for a show, at a decent price compared to the predatory resale market. Someone agrees to buy the tickets. The buyer pays the seller through PayPal or Venmo (same company, btw). The seller gets the money then vanishes into the ether, leaving the buyer hanging for tickets that never truly existed.

I’ve heard about this happening with concerts but I’ve personally witnessed it in the sports world – St. Louis has a new Major League Soccer team and it’s been a hot ticket so far with a massive resale market. Scammers have popped up in Facebook groups offering non-existent tickets quite a bit the past few weeks. It’s the only stuff I’ve really seen, but I’ve heard these same scammers are floating around with fake concert tickets too.

The easiest way to not be scammed like this is obviously not to buy from an untrusted source, which is tough if you want decently price resale tickets. Using the Goods and Services option through PayPal does provide a measure of protection, it is an absolute red flag if a seller asks for payment via the Friends and Family option, no one should ever make a PayPal purchase through that unless the person selling is a family member or friend. But buying from some random poster on a Facebook page is not really the way to go, even if legit sales do happen.

This will continue to be a thing as concert tickets go digital. I don’t know what real solutions are for this, the digital ticket market kind of lends itself to needing an official resale outlet- which is just what the few companies who engage in that trade want, of course. It used to be pretty easy to buy a paper ticket from someone who needed to sell, now it’s a whole other ballgame.

The other realm seeing scam activity is the secondary vinyl market, and specifically on the Discogs site. Discogs has become the premier place to catalog records as well as sell them. It’s a mostly convenient site for doing anything vinyl-related, though the scam bug has infiltrated it as of late.

Most of the information I’m using here comes from the Discogs subreddit. There’s been a lot of discussion about scammers in the past while, though there’s also been some misplaced hysteria over it too.

The Discogs scam goes like this – someone lists a record for sale, usually a hot item that goes for a few hundred bucks. For awhile the going price on these scam listings was around $80. A susceptible buyer jumps on the deal, then the seller disappears and the money with them. Even with word getting around about this type of scam, it appears plenty of buyers have fallen for it.

Discogs offers a few degrees of protection that the concert ticket thing does not. There is a seller and buyer feedback system, though the scammers are usually long gone by the time feedback means anything. There is also a reporting system for suspicious listings, and it seems to have some effectiveness. The typical method of payment is also PayPal Goods and Services, which provides PayPal’s own protection that often favors a spurned buyer. A seller seeking payment through means that circumvent PayPal G&S is an auto red flag and also against the Discogs terms of service.

There are a lot of if, and’s and but’s about this whole thing. Discogs themselves issued a message about scamming on Friday, April 28th to all users. They are going to take action on the matter, including a waiting period for new sellers. It’s a good move but it also affects me, since I am getting ready to sell on the platform. But I can’t really bitch since they are taking active steps to stem the scamming tide.

The actual email Discogs sent outlining their response to scamming

One bit BUT to this is the issue of user feedback. The feedback is essentially a score on Discogs, and in all honesty it doesn’t work out that great. I’ve only been a buyer on the platform to this point and all of my transactions have cleared without issue, about 50. I have a 24 score in feedback, all positive, and all on the buyer side. That’s less than half of what I’ve truly bought on there. Many sellers have reported getting less than 50% feedback on successful transactions as well.

The mitigating factor is that you don’t need a massive buyer score. Mine is 100% and is totally fine, even if it doesn’t represent half of my actual purchases. For a seller? Discogs feedback is massively important. A new seller might ship off three records to three different buyers and get dinged on one for some odd reason. The 66% seller feedback rating is a killer for them. To add in new metrics that affect new sellers is another hurdle to clear that sometimes isn’t practical.

The big issue which is sort of in the background here is the scammers and their accounts. No one should buy a cheap record from a new account, that ought to yell out scam to anyone. But – scammers have also been hacking accounts of established sellers and pulling this same crap. I don’t know how often it’s happened but there has been a bit of talk about it on the reddit forum.

Some have wondered just how much scamming was really going on through Discogs. Some feel the issue is overblown, while others point to a fair amount of clear scam listings as well as testimony from people who got ripped off. And an official response from the site itself would indicate it’s a big enough issue, at least in perception, to make official policy around it.

There are a mess of other issues entwined in this – what about the person who actually wants to sell a record cheap? Some personal collectors do fire sale their stuff because they need money pretty badly. Selling below the Discogs median will still net far more money than what most local shops will pay. These scams have been far below the price line so hopefully it won’t catch up anyone truly needing to make a buck or the lucky person who scores a nice haul out of it.

And yes, buyers do scam too. One common one is to pretend the item never showed up and get a refund. Another is to order a clean, nice condition record, request a refund and then return a damaged record to the seller. This is a thread I intend to pick up in a separate post.

In the case of Discogs scams, the easiest way to protect yourself is to not buy listings that are far below the median price. No one is selling a rare Cure record for $200 less than its median price. PayPal does offer its usual degree of buyer protection, but it’s still far easier to not get caught up in the scam to begin with.

This issue will likely crop up again, as it’s clear that the digital money age has lent itself to a whole host of predatory people. I don’t know how the live concert/digital ticket market will shake out, that one is kind of a frontier. I do expect the Discogs saga to relent some but that’s just a gut feeling, I could be totally wrong about that. Either way, be careful out there with your money, it’s a shark tank.

The Clairvoyant – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series33 Comments

The Iron Maiden Singles Series is now on to Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, the band’s seventh album. As noted previously and also via the list below, I don’t have the first two singles from this album so they aren’t part of the series at present. Today I’ll get into the third one, which actually represents live material and is a bit of a gem in that the songs aren’t from a full-length live record of any sort.

The cover art today is pretty trippy – it’s Eddie’s head in some kind of occult/crazy configuration. Out in left field for sure but you gotta do something off the wall once in awhile, and it does fit the song’s theme. Don’t drop acid and look at this (I wouldn’t know, just seems like good advice)

There are several versions of the single available – the usual 12-inch and 7-inch versions, as well as some picture discs, clear vinyl and even a shaped picture disc. The singles from this album were also issued on CD, which as far as I know are the first CD singles for Maiden. My single is a typical black vinyl 12-inch version, though it is housed in a very nice gatefold sleeve as opposed to the thin paper stuff many of the singles came in. And, in a change of pace, there actually is a pretty big difference between the 12-inch and 7-inch singles as it relates to the lead track. That’ll be covered in a minute.

All of the live performances on the record came from the Monsters Of Rock festival in Donington on August 20, 1988. That was the day after I turned 11 for anyone wondering. These are the only songs I know of from the performance that were released in an official capacity. I’d guess this has bootleg versions but I honestly have never looked for them.

As usual with these, this first video has the two sides from the 7-inch single. We’ll get to the difference between versions right in the first track, though the fact that the lead single doesn’t sound very live should tip most people off.

The Clairvoyant

The feature song today is one of the pivotal moments from the sort-of story being told on the Seventh Son… album. The title character has gained the gift of clairvoyance but becomes troubled by it, and also very ironically cannot foresee his own death. The music is pretty spectacular on this song, as it is throughout the album. Very nice, almost prog-lite guitar work on here and the chorus is very nicely done even with being a mouthful of words.

Steve Harris has said that the song was inspired by the death of British psychic Doris Stokes. This person seems to have been a giant fraud and died just when the band was cooking up new song ideas, and Steve came up with the central premise of a clairvoyant being blind to their own death.

Now, here’s the kicker as far as different versions of this single go – on most 7-inch pressings of the single, The Clairvoyant is the studio track. On the 12-inch versions and a very few 7-inches, the live cut from Monsters Of Rock is present. To add to the confusion, the band shot a video featuring live shots from Donington but the song is the studio track with bits of live crowd noise rather badly cut in. So to have this single with the more desirable live cut on side A, a prospective collector should seek out a 12-inch record.

The Prisoner

The first B-side is a cut from The Number Of The Beast and is a more low-key favorite of quite a few fans, myself included. The song was inspired by the late ’60’s British sci-fi drama of the same name, and the show was also the inspiration for Powerslave’s Back In The Village.

This one flies a bit under the radar on the hierarchy of Maiden songs but in my view it is an excellent song. This live performance is well captured and presented without any issues. The Prisoner would get more time on the Maiden England tour, which was presented as a live album.

And it’s worth noting that all versions of the single have the same live cut of The Prisoner – unlike The Clairvoyant, there are not different presentations.

Heaven Can Wait

The 12-inch “bonus” B-side is a nice cut from the Somewhere In Time album. It is also live from Donington and also the same across all versions it appears on. It too is well done and nicely presented, no crappy live audio or anything. It’s nice to have live versions from this album because any official presentations are few and far between. I assume that will change once the next tour and inevitable live album from it is presented.

That wraps up today’s pretty interesting single. On deck is another live cut, this time from the Maiden England tour and album. And also next week we’ll have something we haven’t had in quite some time – a departing band member. Until then.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Live! + One

Running Free

Sanctuary

Women In Uniform

Maiden Japan

Purgatory

Twilight Zone/Wrathchild

Run To The Hills

The Number Of The Beast

Flight Of Icarus

The Trooper

2 Minutes To Midnight

Aces High

Run To The Hills (live)

Running Free (live)

Stranger In A Strange Land

Wasted Years

The Clairvoyant (you are here)

Infinite Dreams

Bring Your Daughter … To The Slaughter

Holy Smoke

Be Quick Or Be Dead

From Here To Eternity

Virus

Out Of The Silent Planet

Rainmaker

Different World

The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg

Empire Of The Clouds

Orange Goblin – Healing Through Fire (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week5 Comments

This week I’m actually grabbing an album from this century, it’s back to 2007 and the very general genre descriptor of “stoner metal” for an ace of a record that would cast a new spotlight on a long-running band.

Orange Goblin – Healing Through Fire

Released May 21, 2007 via Sanctuary Records

My Favorite Tracks – They Come Back (Harvest Of Skulls), Cities Of Frost, The Ale House Braves

Orange Goblin of London, England had been active since 1995 and were on their sixth album at this point, and also first for what was a semi-major record label with Sanctuary. While the record deal would not really pan out as Sanctuary would essentially fold a year later, Orange Goblin would see expanded interest with this release.

Healing Through Fire is not a concept album but does tie a few themes through its songs, the theme being the Great Plague of medieval Europe. The plague’s worst years were in the 1300’s, though this record does reference events and people of 1600’s England as well, a century which also saw plague outbreaks.

Orange Goblin’s lineup had been stable through this point, with Ben Ward on vocals, Joe Hoare on guitar, Martyn Millard on bass and Chris Turner with the drums. Keyboards on the album were provided by Jason Graham. The album is a fairly lean affair with 9 songs in 43 minutes. Note that there is a deluxe reissue version with a ton of bonus and live tracks.

The Ballad Of Solomon Eagle

The opener kicks off loud and groovy with some very active riffing that clearly separates Orange Goblin from the more monotonous strains of stoner rock out there. The song deals with Solomon Eccles, also known as Solomon Eagle. Eagle was from 1600’s London and had been a composer, but later denounced his prior life and became a Quaker. This group were religious pariahs during this time. Solomon was known to go through public with few clothes on, if any, and denounce civilization. His proclamations of the end were fueled by the Plague as well as the 1666 Great Fire of London. He is a pretty curious person to feature in song, something he wouldn’t have liked as he considered music a sin after his Quaker conversion.

Vagrant Stomp

Another loud and stompy song that gets into some gross medical stuff from the time period. The song also uses the phrase “terminal spirit disease” in its lyrics, that also being the title of a 1994 album from Swedish melo-death pioneers At The Gates. No idea if the reference was meant for anything.

The Ale House Braves

This one is a faster-paced slammer that paints a picture of economic class disparity in medieval England. The destitute have nothing to lose and are coming for the well-off, a tale as old as time. There’s a very nice old-school guitar jam in this one too.

Cities Of Frost

Things slow down a bit here, which in stoner/doom parlance means it gets even heavier. This excellent song is a death march through a town being destroyed. No real clue what this is about, possibly the London Fire but it’s not specifically mentioned. Could be some random stuff that doesn’t tie into any real theme. While Orange Goblin are clearly their own entity, this is a song that gets a bit into High On Fire territory.

Hot Knives And Open Sores

Another one about the Plague and how gross everything was. I can’t imagine how nasty it would have been in the days before modern medicine when people were using every stupid thing in the book to try and treat the disease.

Hounds Ditch

More classic rock-based groovy stuff, again dealing with the piles of bodies around plague-ridden London and all the things that come to feed on the dead. This one switches to a pretty heavy end section to really emphasize the problem with lots of diseased dead bodies laying around.

Mortlake (Dead Water)

A quick and quiet instrumental gives a bit of a break here before jumping right back into the plague-laden mess.

They Come Back (Harvest Of Skulls)

This amazing song truly spells out the cost of the plague and its all-consuming nature. The dead themselves were a source of infection and would claim the living. This song has some very cool tempo changes and really brings the point home about how people thought the plague was a punishment from God and that it would be the endtime judgment a lot of people were waiting for.

Beginner’s Guide To Suicide

The closing track takes a left turn and lays out a slow blues-based effort. The lyrics are a haunting depiction of someone choosing suicide by poison as opposed to suffering from the plague. It’s a pretty harrowing position to be in but I’m sure plenty had to make that choice. The song is very well done and caught a lot of interest, today it stands as the band’s most-streamed track on Spotify.

Healing Through Fire was a watershed moment for Orange Goblin. While the album did not bust through charts, it truly put the band on the map and established their sound after several years of occasionally wandering through different parts of the rock and metal universe. The stoner genre had always been a constant presence though with a bit of a low ceiling in terms of dynamics and creativity, Orange Goblin were one band who showcased a higher degree of songwriting and arrangement to make something truly special out of the music.

The band’s choice to shape the songs around a theme was interesting and clearly paid off. It’s no secret among metal bands that the Great Plague is a fertile ground for lyrical inspiration, it was one of the most brutal times in human existence. Orange Goblin did fine work with the Plague as their creative backdrop.

The next decade would go well for Orange Goblin, three albums through the 2010’s would see the band’s stock continue to rise. While now an entity for nearly 30 years, it’s fair to say they really hit the nail on the head in 2007 with Healing Through Fire.

Wasted Years – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series32 Comments

Today it’s time for one of Iron Maiden’s most known songs, and also the most talked about B-side from their long career. And also perhaps one of the least talked about B-sides from their long career.

The cover art here is different in that it doesn’t feature Eddie front and center and that was by design. The single was going to release before the album and management didn’t want the full Somewhere In Time Eddie reveal before then, so Derek Riggs did up a time machine console thing with Eddie being the one piloting the machine. Just a glimpse of Eddie’s reflection is available. The cover art doesn’t stand as iconic compared to many of the other singles but it was done for an understandable reason and is still a nicely presented concept.

The version thing is the same here as with others – several 12- and 7-inch releases and a few on cassette. I have the 12-inch so we get the bonus B-side.

Wasted Years

The single is again one of Maiden’s most recognized songs. It was composed by Adrian Smith and it features a very distinctive riff that is instantly recognizable anywhere. The lyrics explore the concept of being away from home out on the grind of tour, something Smith was feeling big time after the huge World Slavery tour Maiden were on prior to this album.

The song’s chorus implores the listener to stop searching for things outside of their scope and appreciate the moments they’re in. It’s a simple message but one that resonates pretty hard and this bit of simple wisdom from Maiden remains one of their top songs to this day.

Reach Out

The first B-side is the most talked-about “bonus track” in Iron Maiden history. It is the subject of a lot of discussion on forum posts and is often hailed as the group’s best B-side. There’s a lot to get into here, though I covered some of the general history last week on the Stranger In A Strange Land release.

Reach Out is a song written by Adrian’s friend Dave Colwell. Colwell had played in Samson just prior and would later go on to be a part of Bad Company, Humble Pie and many others. Reach Out was a song Colwell had in the can and he brought it to the Entire Population Of Hackney jam/show that Adrain, Nicko and others put on during Maiden’s downtime in 1985. Steve Harris suggesting using songs from that show to use as B-sides and that’s exactly what happened. Maiden did a studio rendition for the single, though they kept Adrian at lead vocals. Bruce does provide background singing here, and of course is instantly recognizable.

Reach Out is an obvious departure from Iron Maiden material and is more of a ’80’s radio rock/AOR track. It is a pretty good song and Maiden do an admirable job performing it. It does excite a lot more of the fanbase than it does me personally, though I have nothing against the track. I do think their most interesting non-album track lies a bit further down the road, but we’ll get to that in due time as it’s one of the singles on this list. But no matter what I think, Reach Out is a massive part of Iron Maiden lore and is a stone cold lock for many as the best non-album track they’ve done.

Sheriff Of Huddersfield

The 12-inch “bonus” B-side is, to be brief, a total shitshow. It is a joke track recorded loosely along to the song Life In The City from Adrian Smith’s prior band Urchin. The song is poking fun at the band’s longtime manager Ron Smallwood, who had recently moved to Los Angeles and was complaining about the move. The song has at Smallwood and his cushy kingdom in the Hollywood Hills. Smallwood himself was not aware of the song until just before the single was slated for release.

I won’t act like this is my favorite Maiden B-side, but then again a band who releases tons of material ought to be able to have a joke here and there. This wouldn’t be the last time Maiden used a B-side to poke fun of Smallwood either.

That does it for this one and the Somewhere In Time singles. Up next is Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son and also the portion of the list where my collection is incomplete. I do have the third single released from that album but not the first two. Those will hopefully make their way to me someday but for now I’ll just roll through the series with what I have.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Live! + One

Running Free

Sanctuary

Women In Uniform

Maiden Japan

Purgatory

Twilight Zone/Wrathchild

Run To The Hills

The Number Of The Beast

Flight Of Icarus

The Trooper

2 Minutes To Midnight

Aces High

Run To The Hills (live)

Running Free (live)

Stranger In A Strange Land

Wasted Years (you are here)

The Clairvoyant

Infinite Dreams

Bring Your Daughter … To The Slaughter

Holy Smoke

Be Quick Or Be Dead

From Here To Eternity

Virus

Out Of The Silent Planet

Rainmaker

Different World

The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg

Empire Of The Clouds

Tales From The Stage – John Mellencamp

On By bigbadburchIn live music11 Comments

Going back now to 2016, and yeah it’s still weird that it was now seven years ago. The occasion was John Mellencamp in concert. I had never seen him live before so I jumped on the chance when he booked a local show.

The show was at the Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts on the campus of Missouri State University. Sure it’s a mouthful to say but it’s a great place to see a show. It is a theater type of building with balconies that look basically right over the stage, meaning there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. I was up in one of the first few rows of the first balcony and had a great view of the stage, even from up a bit in the air.

Opening the show was Carlene Carter, the first-born daughter of June Carter and a performer since the mid ’70’s. She had been collaborating with Mellencamp and this would continue into the next year when they released a joint album. Carlene played a set that featured some old Carter Family standards like Will The Circle Be Unbroken as well as her hits from the early ’90’s, including Every Little Thing. She was very engaging and put on a really nice show. I wish I had more to say about it but this was seven years ago and also not a single person uploaded a setlist of hers from any stop on this tour so I’m a bit hosed on that. Had I known that I would have kept track of it that night but I’m not bright enough to do that.

Between sets Carlene was reportedly giving free hugs in the main lobby by the merch stands. I missed out on that because there was a beer vendor just off to the side of my section. Them’s the breaks, I guess.

Here is a bit of very good footage of Carlene from the same year in North Carolina.

After the break, John Mellencamp came out with his band, or at least the first iteration of it. For these shows John was splitting things into two mini-sets – one with more country-oriented instruments such as fiddle, and the second with the standard rock package.

Mellencamp opened with two songs from his most recent album, 2014’s Plain Spoken. Lawless Times and Troubled Man were the cuts. I wasn’t overly familiar with them but they were good songs to kick the show off with. He then went into two old classics, Minutes To Memories and Small Town.

John filled the time between songs with some banter, telling short stories about stuff his kids were up to and things like that. The set would run through several songs from different eras – hits like Human Wheels and Check It Out as well as other cuts from albums more recent.

The oldest album Mellencamp went back to for a song was 1982’s American Fool. He made sure to let the crowd know that he personally didn’t want to do the song but he knew everyone would riot if he didn’t, and then went into Jack And Diane. It is one of his bigger hits but also does get a fair bit of flack. John has not been shy about not liking the song but hey, you gotta play your hits. The crowd was into it so I guess that’s the important part.

The first part of the set rounded out with two collaborations with Carlene Carter – Indigo Sky and My Soul’s Got Wings. Both of these would appear on their joint album the following year. Then some instrumental parts led to a brief set change to set up the rock half of the show.

And when I say rock, I mean rock. Mellencamp and company came out to absolutely shred. The guitars were distorted and turned up to 11 and the band pounded out the hits. Rain On The Scarecrow led the way, with other hits like Paper In Fire, Authority Song and Crublim’ Down following. The set would close on Pink Houses and then Cherry Bomb.

That would wrap up the night. I was very glad to have finally seen Mellencamp live as he had been one of about a million artists I’ve missed over the years. It’s far easier to see someone when they play local as opposed to dealing the hustle and cost of travel to a major city, and this show was literally a few miles from my house. It was off into the night for me, with one more artist checked off my bucket list.

This video is not good at all but the sound is ok and it’s from the very show I was at.

Soul Asylum – Grave Dancer’s Union (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week6 Comments

This week I’m taking a look at one of the breakout alt-rock albums of the early ’90’s. Soul Asylum had been a long-running independent band by 1992, but a massive single would propel them to the top of the board.

Soul Asylum – Grave Dancer’s Union

Released October 6, 1992 via Columbia Records

My Favorite Tracks – Without A Trace, April Fool, Black Gold

Soul Asylum found the stage for success when rock music turned on its head in the early 1990’s. What was alternative and independent was now mainstream, and Soul Asylum were gearing up their sixth album by this point. The band was experienced and ready to break out.

The lineup at this point had been stable for awhile but was going to experience a shift. Dave Pirner was the band’s frontman and rhythm guitarist, Dan Murphy provided lead guitar and Karl Mueller was on bass. Grant Young was the band’s drummer but issues cropped up during recording and Sterling Campbell was brought in to supplement the drumming. Each drummer played on roughly half of the album. Young would remain the band’s drummer for the tour but Campbell would take over before the next album.

The album’s cover photo was a curious choice, it is a 1970 photograph by Czech artist Jan Saudek titled “Fate Descends Toward The River Leading Two Innocent Children.” Other Saudek photos have been used in cover art over the years, this being the most prominent one.

The album runs through 12 songs in fairly quick 44 minutes. There is a reissued version with live bonus tracks but I’ll be tackling the main release today.

Somebody To Shove

Opening with the album’s lead single and very nice song. It has a great hook and a nice concept about being frustrated with trying to fall in love. This was Soul Asylum’s introduction to the world at large and it worked well, as the song landed toward the top of the Alternative and Mainstream Rock charts.

Also of note – both this and the Black Gold music videos were directed by one Zack Snyder. Not sure if there are Snyder Cuts of these videos, I’d assume not.

Black Gold

The second single kept the ball rolling for this album until the train was ready to leave the station. Though a very sad song, the chorus keeps things squarely in the rock realm. The lyrics do offer a ton of room for interpretation, though it is generally given that the song is about the Persian Gulf War of 1991. For me the lyrics hit pretty hard, especially the parts about being in a small town, and as it turned out my ticket out of there was the military.

Runaway Train

Probably not a more fitting name for a song that would become the vehicle to smash success in music. The song itself is a forlorn ballad that Dave Pirner wrote about depression. The song also features a cameo – Booker T of the MGs provided keyboards.

This desperate single would climb to number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was everywhere on release. It was aided in great part by its music video, which took a different tack and featured pictures of missing children. The video and missing kids were changed for each major territory, and in the US there were 3 versions of the video each with different missing children.

The video is credited with helping locate at least 26 of these missing kids. This doesn’t have the happy ending it might convey, as many of the missing kids were murder victims. And several of the featured children were never found.

While the truth behind the video’s children might be stark, the song Runaway Train was a huge leap for Soul Asylum. The single itself went gold in the US and won the Best Rock Song Grammy in 1994. Its success would also fuel sales of the album and this would wind up being a runaway hit.

Keep It Up

After the weight of the prior song, this is a more uplifting tune both in music and theme. On its own it’s not a song I’d be all that into, but it does serve a great place in the album’s sequencing to come just after Runaway Train. And in general it was a more uplifting alternative to the gloomy grunge of the day.

Homesick

Another sad song, this one is hauntingly quiet as the narrator longs for a place they’ve never actually been. Not a ton to say about this one but it’s pretty well done.

Get On Out

Again keeping with the sequencing of going sad/uplifting, this one hammers at the depression and bad thoughts. This is a pretty good one and very well written.

New World

Another sad and quiet one though this one is a bit more abstract in theme. It does have to do with being stuck in a small town but it gets into some other territory as well. Like most everything else on the album it works pretty well.

April Fool

As the album winds toward its last third we take a detour into massive riffs. April Fool is a great song that combines riffs that are near heavy metal with some silly lyrics to paint a picture of cool and hip. It’s a departure from the album’s norm and it’s a wonderful back-half gem, though we’re just getting started on that front.

Without A Trace

The late-half gems continue with this amazing song. This did actually get released as a single toward the end of the album’s life cycle. While many of the songs here are either sad or not, this one combines all sentiments and distills them into an essence greater than the sum of its parts.

Dave Pirner wrote the song about always being on the move to try and find something new or try and get away from the trappings of the old place. And the guitar hook on this is just spectacular. It’s like a ’90’s country song but put on rock steroids.

Growing Into You

This one is a pretty straightforward alt-rock slammer. It doesn’t quite hold up to the two preceding tunes but it’s a nice song worth the time.

99%

One more hidden gem before the album winds down. This is a sloppy, distorted mess, which is always right up my alley. It’s also a pretty accurate treatise on love and how it’s a 99% thing. Not much else to really say about it, just a nice, dirty love song.

The Sun Maid

The album closes on a quiet and very melancholy track. It’s a departure from the songs prior to it for sure. The song in and of itself is not bad by any means but I’ll admit I’m one of the people who aren’t’ all that into it. It just crashes the mood after all the rocking out that just happened. I know some people passionately defend this song and I’ve had arguments over it in the past, but I’m not gonna be swayed off my position after 30 years.

Grave Dancer’s Union was the album that put Soul Asylum on the map. It charted at number 11 in the US and held high spots in many European countries. It has at least two US platinum certifications and maybe even three, this information is a bit hard to nail down sometimes.

It would not be a long stay in the mainstream eye for Soul Asylum. Their next album would produce another hit single but the band would ease back into the independent scene after that. This was more their moment in the sun than a great arrival. Soul Asylum are still an active outfit today.

For me I very much enjoyed this album when it came out, even though at the time I was mostly exploring the extreme metal scene. These songs had the right amount of creativity, sadness and wit to stand out from others in the alt-rock crowd. This is decidedly a rock record but it certainly has shades of country to it. It was fantastically written and played, and it remains a staple of the ’90’s alt-rock era.

Stranger In A Strange Land – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series32 Comments

Moving along with the Iron Maiden singles, we are now to the band’s 6th studio album Somewhere In Time. This beings the two-album “synth” arc that saw the band expand their sound a bit and, while opinions vary of course, this period is well acclaimed.

It’s also worth noting that my decision to use my Discogs stuff as my reference for this list is biting me in the ass right now – today’s single is out of order and was the second released from Somewhere In Time. No real big deal to me, but this series has been attracting quite a bit of attention and I wanted make sure it was stated that I’m aware of the order not being proper.

Today’s single features the lead track as well as two pretty unique and worthwhile cover songs. And the covers have pretty deep ties to Maiden lore and trivia so there’s a fair bit to go over. And we have again very nice and unique cover art. Here Eddie is decked out like an Old West cowboy, though also sporting the futuristic bells and whistles fitting of the album’s cyber sci-fi theme. Eddie’s pose was based on Clint Eastwood’s famous “Man With No Name” character from the old Western movies. The cover’s background setting gives a bit of the Star Wars cantina vibe to everything. There are a few cool easter eggs on the playing cards, I’ll let people go over those on their own.

There were quite a few different versions of this single, with several 12-inch and 7-inch releases, as well as a cassette. I have a 12-inch version and thus the extra B-side. And, for the first and only time in this series, I also have a 7-inch version. This was a 2015 reissue the band did of their singles, I saw it at a record store for not much one day and figured what the hell, I’ll snag it up.

As is usual with these, this first video includes the single and the first B-side as it represents the 7-inch version.

Stranger In A Strange Land

The feature track is a mid-tempo song that eases off the acceleration a bit and lets the song operate through its atmosphere. Lyrically it’s about an explorer who was frozen to death exploring harsh cold climates and then found many years later, the song bears no relation to the novel of the same name. Adrian Smith was the songwriter here and he also gets a fair bit of time on an absolutely beautiful solo that is a prime example of how a solo can be complimentary to the music without needing to be guitar wankery to be good.

This is one of my absolute favorite Iron Maiden songs, probably second or third if/when I get to the business of actually ranking them. I love everything about it and anytime I’m debating on what Maiden album to play, the chance to hear this song again often influences me to go with Somewhere In Time. It’s one I’d give a kidney to hear live, so hopefully it’s in the set for the next tour which focuses in part on this album and the band make a run through the US with it.

That Girl

The first B-side is a cover from a band with deep connections to Iron Maiden. The band in question is FM, in this case the British band and not the Canadian one. The story leading to this cover version is not a short one but it has bearing on both B-sides so on we go.

FM originally formed in the early ’80’s and secured a record deal based on the strength of a demo, which included That Girl. In 1985, Iron Maiden were taking time off after a grueling world tour and Nicko McBrain got bored. He called up Adrian Smith and the two hatched a plan to get together with some friends and play a few secret gigs. The first and more famous of these gigs was under the title The Entire Population of Hackney. Appearing with the Maiden duo was Andy Barnett, formerly a bandmate of Smith’s in Urchin, as well as Dave Colwell and Martin Connoly. Each brought songs from various points in their careers to play at this gig, which included this FM song as both Barnett and Colwell had some early involvement with the group. (Barnett would later join FM)

So after the secret gig, Maiden decided to work up a full band version as a B-side. It’s a very well done song and fits the vibe of the full album pretty well, something both of these B-sides do fantastically. It’s also interesting because the cover is based on FM’s original demo recording. FM had reworked the song a bit before releasing their debut album and went more melodic AOR rock with it, very fitting for the time.

It’s also interesting because Maiden’s cover was released barely a few months after the original was out. FM’s debut album Indiscreet came out a week before Somewhere In Time and this single was released just two months later. So this was two versions of a song out at essentially the same time.

Juanita

This song was also done at the secret gig outlined above. Even more interesting than the last one is that the original of this was never actually released. The song was originally composed by a group called Marshall Fury, of which Martin Connoly had been a member. The band never released the song and info on the group is scarce – in fact, looking them up on Wikipedia redirects to this very single.

There’s no original to compare here, but Juanita is a pretty well done track for a Maiden B-side. It’s a straightforward rocker and the band handles it very well.

That (finally) does it for this single. If you thought there was a lot here, wait until next week. Another song from the secret gig will be there and it’s probably the most-discussed Maiden B-side in existence. And someday I’ll get into the bootleg of The Entire Population of Hackney, but the bootlegs are a ways off so don’t hold your breath waiting for that one.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Live! + One

Running Free

Sanctuary

Women In Uniform

Maiden Japan

Purgatory

Twilight Zone/Wrathchild

Run To The Hills

The Number Of The Beast

Flight Of Icarus

The Trooper

2 Minutes To Midnight

Aces High

Run To The Hills (live)

Running Free (live)

Stranger In A Strange Land (you are here)

Wasted Years

The Clairvoyant

Infinite Dreams

Bring Your Daughter … To The Slaughter

Holy Smoke

Be Quick Or Be Dead

From Here To Eternity

Virus

Out Of The Silent Planet

Rainmaker

Different World

The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg

Empire Of The Clouds

Remembering Headbanger’s Ball

On By bigbadburchIn Memories7 Comments

I’m going with the anniversary theme again today, and this one wasn’t something I was originally planning on but it fell in my lap so I decided to run with it. On April 18, 1987, MTV aired the first episode of Headbanger’s Ball. The first episode featured guest hosts Lemmy Kilminster and Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor of Motörhead. This was the start of an institution that ran for 8 years on Saturday nights on MTV.

While MTV had previously flirted with an all-metal show called Heavy Metal Mania, hosted by Dee Snider, Headbanger’s Ball would become the true home of metal through the late ’80’s and early ’90’s. It was blocks of all metal music videos, with interviews, live footage and occasional off-the-wall content sprinkled in.

Guests hosts filled the first handful of episodes, then MTV VJ’s began hosting the gig. Kevin Seal was an early host, then Adam Curry ran the show for a few years. In the ’80’s, MTV kept the programming mostly true to the music of the time – hair metal. There were heavier bands played at times though, and Headbanger’s Ball was the only time on MTV to see thrash, power metal and other forms not related to the hair bands.

For me personally I saw occasional episodes of the Curry-hosted shows, but it would be into 1990 when I became an every-week watcher of the Ball. By this point Riki Rachtman was the host and the show transitioned away from hair metal and into the more aggressive strains of the genre. The studio got a set designed by Rob Zombie at one point, the hours were expanded and Headbanger’s Ball was one of the most-watched programs on MTV.

The early ’90’s period of the Ball saw a slew of bands get airtime – thrash mainstays like Slayer and Megadeth, legends like Ozzy, and a lot of new blood from a lot of metal avenues came up on the show. The new grunge acts got some Ball time, like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. Rap metal like Biohazard was around before nu-metal was a thing. The “alt-metal” scene was very well represented on the Ball, with acts like Danzig and Type O Negative getting frequent appearances. And extreme metal also got in the act a bit, with Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel getting some airtime.

I don’t remember exactly when it was, I’ll peg it sometime in 1994, the writing kind of started to appear on the wall for the Ball. The show would lose an hour of true programming and that got swapped with something called The Countdown to the Ball. The countdown played ten videos that were popular elsewhere on MTV, stuff like Pearl jam and whatnot.

The end of the main era of Headbanger’s Ball came at the turn of the year in 1995. In typical corporate TV fashion, no announcement or farewell episode was given. Rachtman and the staff were simply called and told not to come back to work after filming what wound up being the final episode. MTV ran a show called Superock in the old Ball timeslot awhile later, before airing re-runs of The Real World 24/7 and giving up on music videos altogether.

I was one of many pretty upset with the sudden demise of the show. It was a fantastic place to learn about new bands and upcoming releases. Remember, this was just before the Internet became a household thing – this kind of information was not at everyone’s fingertips or instantly accessible. It was a few years before the Internet became a reliable source of news and commerce. Seriously, you should have seen some of the websites up in 1995 – it was unreal.

So Headbanger’s Ball went away. Metal went into a fairly dark place in the late 1990’s, but then came roaring back in the early 2000’s. And with it, MTV saw fit to bring back the Ball. It showed up on MTV2, again with guest hosts in the beginning but with a long run from Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta at the helm. The show has gone through various cancellations and renewals over the years both on MTV and online, so its status today is murky at best.

For me and many other young metalheads that watched over the 8 years that Headbanger’s Ball ran, it was Saturday night church of the metal variety. We got to see some videos that we knew would be played during the time, and we got to see a lot of stuff we never would have otherwise. This wasn’t MTV, it was a small subset of MTV that happened to catch on with a large fanbase and last even through music’s most seismic shift in 1991.

We also got to see a lot of stuff we wouldn’t have otherwise in the pre-Internet era – we got a candid interview with Ozzy Osbourne after No More Tears released. We got Megadeth skydiving somewhere “in the vicinity” of Area 51. Alice In Chains went down a waterslide, Soundgarden went bowling, and a bunch of acts went across the Iron Curtain to play the Moscow Peace Festival, with MTV and Headbanger’s Ball right there on the action. Even in more simple TV studio interviews, we got candid talk from bands all over the metal spectrum.

For the 2000’s MTV2 revival, I’ll say this – the show did a lot to put metal back into the consciousness, and also brought a lot of the 2000’s era extreme metal into a new light. The show would be hosted for awhile by Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta, still today an advocate for heavy music far and wide.

But nothing for me will replace the original. It was Saturday nights, skipping over the run of Saturday Night Live and choosing instead to wreck my neck for a few hours with first Adam Curry, then mainly Riki Rachtman and the truly heavy tones that came from his tenure on the gig. Riki today is doing spoken word tours across the country recounting any number of experiences, including Headbanger’s Ball, and I hope to catch one someday.

It was Saturday nights from 11 to 1, for me in the Central time zone. Then for awhile 10 to 1, then 11 to 2, then one day it all went away without so much as a thanks. But the work done by Riki and the Headbanger’s Ball staff, the fans of metal worldwide, and most importantly the bands themselves, lives on all these years later. Headbanger’s Ball was how we found this stuff and was our church, and is very responsible for a way of life that continues 28 years after the show originally went off the air. It’s one memory of sitting in front of the TV that I’ll truly never forget.

This is an apparently unofficial compilation of a bunch of HB highlights over the years. Worth checking out if the video stays up.

Iron Maiden (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week10 Comments

As of last Friday, April 14, Iron Maiden’s debut album is 43 years old. Seems like as good of time as any to explore it here.

Iron Maiden – self-titled

Released April 14, 1980 via EMI

My Favorite Tracks – Iron Maiden, Transylvania, Phantom Of The Opera

Iron Maiden had spent five years playing in pubs and shifting line-ups in advance of their full-length debut, but the actual recording process for the record took all of 13 days. The band had mis-fired on two attempts to record the month prior and went through two producers before settling on Wil Malone. This would not be a fruitful partnership as Steve Harris recalls that the band did most of the actual production.

The recording line-up would be bassist and band founder Steve Harris, Dave Murray and Dennis Stratton on guitar, Paul Di’Anno at vocals and Clive Burr on drums. By album four, only Harris and Murray would remain of this line-up.

The cover art depicts the band’s legendary mascot Eddie. This was not Eddie’s cover debut as a shadowy form of him appeared on the Running Free single and the Japanese single release featured Eddie in full form, but this album still serves as the popular introduction. Derek Riggs was the artist behind Eddie’s appearances through Iron Maiden’s first decade of operation.

The album would release with 8 tracks, but I will be covering the US version which also offered the song Sanctuary. This was added to subsequent re-issues later on, though the current day pressings seem to omit it.

Prowler

The opener slams in with great guitar work between the Murray-Stratton duo and the signature rumble of Steve Harris’ bass. Di’Anno sings a desperate tale of a depraved man out to stalk and flash women.

I am warmed to the album’s production after decades of hearing it, but I will admit that Prowler is one song that maybe could have used a bit more work in the mixing stage. Still a very nice track but I can hear where it could be cleaned up a touch.

Remember Tomorrow

A remarkable song that starts out slow and contemplative but later launches into a Maiden guitar fireworks show fast break, showing that the band would forego typical pop-based song structure in their expressions. The song’s title was a phrase Di’Anno’s grandfather used frequently.

Running Free

This was the band’s debut single and still lives today as an iconic track. It is a simple banger that would get an extended live cut with a call and response passage added. The song is about the simple pleasures of being a wild and crazy youth and was based in part on Di’Anno’s young lifestyle.

For more on the single of this song, visit my recap of it as part of my Iron Maiden singles series.

Phantom Of The Opera

We move now to an extended cut and one with shifts and movement as Maiden take on the famous novel which has been adapted musically far and wide. The groundwork for the Iron Maiden sound to come can be found here, with a focus on epic storytelling. Phantom remained a staple of the live set long after Paul Di’Anno’s exit from the band and the song is hailed as one of the best from the early era.

Transylvania

Up next is the band’s first instrumental. The song was originally intended to have lyrics but after hearing the instrument cuts they decided to keep it as is. This is a fantastic song that plays out just fine without words and I’d say ranks at the top of the band’s handful of instrumental tracks. Transylvania would see a fair bit of stage time in the band’s early years and then again in 1993.

Strange World

Now it’s on to a song that’s aptly titled as this is very strange and a huge departure from what is recognized as the Iron Maiden sound. This is a trippy, atmospheric track that doesn’t feature the distinctive Maiden rumble at all. The song is maybe about vampires, or drugs or who knows what. It’s very odd and it’s jarring to hear when set against the rest of the album but it’s not bad in and of itself.

Sanctuary

The US bonus track slots here on original pressings of the album, note that re-issues can have it in different spots. This song about a killer on the run from the law would be a mainstay of early Maiden setlists. For more on this one, head to my rundown of the Sanctuary single.

Charlotte The Harlot

Here we have one of just a few songs written entirely by Dave Murray. This is celebrating a woman of the night and Murray has stated it’s based on a true story, though that story has never emerged. While the song itself is not the most celebrated track from this album, Charlotte would make three further appearances in Iron Maiden songs before her story was completed in 1992.

Iron Maiden

The album closes with an eponymous song, which is always a treat when a band does that on a self-titled album. And this one is truly a gem – there is no more signature Maiden sound than the guitars and bass on this song. Just as the chorus says, Iron Maiden’s gonna get you, and that they did with this track. This is the band’s most-played song live.

Iron Maiden marked the start of a heavy metal legacy. The album would hit number 4 on the UK charts and get platinum certifications in the UK and Canada. Critics took to Maiden right out of the gate, and the band found ready and willing audiences when they entered new countries to play there for the first time. The days of grinding in London pubs were over and the world was waiting. The New Wave of British Heavy Metal had been bubbling around England for years and Iron Maiden helped bring it into the light for the world to experience.

The raw production gave the album a “metal meets punk” feel, though band members insist they were not chasing punk as a sound. But the identity would follow Maiden through the Paul Di’Anno era and a subset of fans lament the turn toward something more akin to power metal that Maiden took when Bruce Dickinson stepped into the singer’s role. Those fans represent a minority of course, but they are out there.

For me I was a hair too young to catch this on release, I was not quite 3 years old when this album hit. It would be several years later when I got into Maiden and backtracked through the early stuff. This one was always a favorite of mine, I loved the raw energy yet still finding a lot of the band’s signature sound that was present on later albums.

This album was the start of something very special and a legacy that has now run close to half a century. All things must end, but they also must begin and Iron Maiden’s start was a great thing.