Inconquerable wrote:51 pages?! Man that's a lootttttt of homework. But I mean... Greg is reading the Mafia thread as it's going on with my wall posts, I imagine this is the least I can do to return the favour.
And I have read every one of those mafia posts, too!
Alter Bridge was to be opening for these guys at various shows across Europe right now. Sigh...
Here is your syllabus for
Up the Irons 101: Intro To Iron Maiden 6.66 credit hours
Midterms and final exam are optional. Independent study encouraged.
Given their longevity, their sustained and virtually unparalleled excellence through much of that longevity, their lengthy influence on metal and adjacent genres, and their iconic imagery, Iron Maiden is viewed by many as the biggest metal band in history, and mathematical models support this. It is beyond the scope of this intro course to fully explore all aspects of the band, but Maiden history/discography can be loosely broken up into sections to get a reasonable overview of the band's career. This course covers their most successful and influential periods by reviewing almost half of their 16 studio albums and one live album, Live After Death, because of its singular importance in the band's rising status.
The Early years: Iron Maiden and Killers (1980-1981)
Sound based more on 70s rock with a touch of punk. Paul Di'Anno was the singer. As you begin your Maiden studies, it is ok to skip these to get straight to the more relevant classic era.
The Classic years: The Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave, Live After Death (1982-1985)
This is when Maiden became a worldwide metal power with Bruce as the unmistakable vocal sound of the band and spawned tons of "hits" that established the classic Maiden sound and massive stage productions. Essentially zero filler songs during this time. The band began selling out multiple night engagements at large arenas during this time.
Classic Years With A Bit of Prog: Somewhere In Time, Seventh Son of A Seventh Son (1986-1988)
These two albums can be seen as a continuation of the classic years, but these notably added more guitar synths and prog type arrangements and are unique within the classic era, but are still very Maiden sounding. This also included their one very interesting concept album (7th Son). All songs remain fantastic. The band was selling out stadiums and headlining festivals.
A bit of stagnation: No Prayer For the Dying, Fear of the Dark (1990-1992)
Bassist Steve Harris wanted to get back to basics and guitarist Adrian Smith, who pushed much of the prog sound, left. He was replaced by the guitarist from Bruce's solo early albums, Jannick Gers. These two albums have some good moments but also have more than their share of average songs by Maiden standards and are a step back from their classic/prog era. The band maintained their status in terms of concert draw.
The Blayze Years: The X Factor, Virtual XI (1995-1998)
Bruce Dickinson left to pursue his solo career full time and without Dickinson's or Smith's contribution to songwriting, the band's songs lacked variety, and with new singer Blayze Bailey, the sound was different from "Maiden", too. There are a few good songs here but they still sound far better when they play them live nowadays. Ok to skip these albums for now, too. During this era, I saw Maiden play a bar in Houston TX in front of maybe 750 people.
Reunion: Brave New World, Dance of Death, A Matter of Life and Death, The Final Frontier, The Book of Souls (2000-current)
Bruce and Adrian rejoined the band and Iron Maiden returned to their top form with 5 albums that are reminiscent of their classic days, but now with 3 guitarists in the band, as Janick Gets remained, they were able to record and play live with 3 guitar parts and the songs became fuller and typically longer. This era also saw a return to the great songwriting and much more dynamic and diverse albums. Once again the band headlined major festivals and sold out arenas. There are rumors that the band recorded a 17th album in Paris last Jan/Feb.
I would consider any combination of albums from the classic era, the prog stuff, and the reunion as essential, though one can argue about specific albums within those groupings. This course recommends listening to the following albums to start with to get a big picture of the band's development.
The Number Of The Beast
Piece of Mind
Powerslave
Live After Death
Seventh Son of A Seventh Son
Fear Of The Dark
Brave New World
A Matter Of Life and Death or
The Final Frontier
The Book Of Souls
Take in 1 album every 1-2 days and this content can be digested over about a week and a half to two weeks. We can discuss specific albums or songs individually along the way or at selected intervals. While I always encourage supporting the artists by purchasing their work, all albums/songs are available for academic study around the net in a variety of free formats.
This class is a prerequisite for the advanced course,
Up The Irons 201, Becoming Eddie, 6.66 credit hours where we can examine the complete history of the band and go into specific songs from Iron Maiden and Killers, take in all of Somewhere In Time (which is a truly excellent album on its own), look at selected songs from No Prayer For The Dying, breeze through the Blayze years, and then dive deeply into the remaining albums since the reunion that were not covered in UTI 101, including selected B-sides. We will analyze the comparative writing styles of Harris, Dickinson, Smith, Murray, Gers (and McBrain, once) and compare guitar styles of Murray, Smith, and Gers. We will examine two of their multitude of live recordings, particularly Live At Donnington and Rock In Rio, as well as review the documentary Flight 666 and the aircraft which have flown as Ed Force One. We will also track the evolution of Eddie through album art and singles artwork in chronological order and analyze how imagery supported the band's growth. We will look into the events that led to personnel changes throughout the band's history, the most important being the departure and return of Bruce Dickinson, followed by the departure and return of Adrian Smith, and the underrated role of the replacement of drummer Clive Burr with Nicko McBrain for Piece Of Mind. For extra credit, we can look at the solo careers of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith, and their reunion in the solo world before their joint return to Maiden, and the football career of Steve Harris. And almost as importantly, we can enjoy a tasting of the various Iron Maiden themed beers from Robinson's Brewery.
There are many important segments in human history - Early Man, The Stone Age, Ancient Egyptian, Greek, and MesoAmerican civilizations, The Middle Ages, The Renaissance, The Industrial Revolution, Modern History...I would argue none of those are remotely as cool or interesting as the Maiden Ages.
Enjoy the course and Up The Irons!
Professor gbruin, MD (Maiden Doctorate)