I used to think it was "My faith in believing in stronger than life and the dice..." Hey, I was 15 and played D&D!
I can hear the similarity to "I Don't Want It" now that it has been pointed out. However, I think this song was a bigger inspiration for "Twilight Zone" .
Prodigal Son: And we move into the epic "Prodigal Son", the mellow song on here, about a man seeking repentance. The "prodigal son" comes from the parable in Luke 15, but it's not a direct parallel, and I am not a Bible expert, so I apoligize if I get anything wrong. The song starts with an acoustic little riff that reminds me of bands like Rush and Gabriel-era Genesis,it has that spirit of 70s prog, this is by far the proggiest song from the Di'Anno era. I love the way Clive drives the song from :28 to 1:14, with some great little flourishes from Steve, and at 1:15, Paul gives such a great vocal performance on this tune, captures the feeling of atonement and redemption so excellently, and again, the band is so on point, not just individually but as a unit, you really can't go wrong with Murray/Smith/Harris/Burr. And....my.....God. That solo, that sweet beautiful solo at 3:04, Adrian is just so amazing on this song, you really see the feeling and heart he brings to this song and this band, hey, Stratton was great, but seriously, that solo is what you should listen to if you want to know why they wanted Adrian. And of course, not to be left behind, Dave comes in at 3:44 and gives quite a sweet solo himself, and these two just take each other to new heights. Just stare in awe and know you will never do anything that great. You just won't. None of us will. And then we resume at 4:06, with Clive just driving away, and Paul brings it home. This was another song that was a grower when I checked this album out, but I loved it more and more as time went on and now it's one of my favorite songs on here and from Maiden's whole catalog.
Prodigal Son Bloody brilliant! This song makes me rethink my Crankability Scale; might change it from 1 to 5 to 1 to 10 just so I can give this one 11 Cranks. As it is, this is a 5 Crank'er.
For me, "Prodigal Son" is the best song on this album. I like it for a number of reasons, but the chief one is it's more of a mellow tune amongst some really amped up, speedy ones. The lush acoustic guitars mixed with the electric push the song along nicely. The opening riff as always reminded me of another song, but I cannot come up with it (maybe a Van Halen song?). I always thought Di'Anno's vocals, in places, kind of remind of Ian Anderson (excluding the higher/gruffer parts). I think it's something about his phrasing for this one (not necessarily that his vocal is similar). Overall, this is a great song, but for a tune that like this I think it should have a little more space to it, that it is to say, Harris shouldn't feel the need to be in on every accent or be as busy as he is. It's one of the few cases where I think he should have pulled his playing back a bit (like, for instance, listen to "Different Strings" from Rush on Permanent Waves where Geddy is more restrained and it helps the feel of the song). Anyway, a minor quibble as Harris is Harris, but this a fine song and certainly one of the band's greatest achievements in terms of cranking out a melodic, moody rocker that doesn't flatten your face with speed or dexterity. Outside of the bass, it's a pretty tasteful song.
PRODIGAL SON The intro sounds a bit like "You Can't Kill Rock and Roll" from Ozzy's Diary of a Madman. And it's fun to play on guitar. That "first four albums" songbook I used to have was often wrong with its transcriptions, but the transcription for this song was close enough for me. I love the way the beginning is basically in E major but then switches immediately to E minor for the verses. And then at the end, it goes back to E major to end the tune on a high note (I think this is called a Piccardy Third in music theory). I used to think the opening line was Listen to me, lawyer... All in all, a personal favorite that you can play for people who claim that the Di'Anno era was too one-dimensional.
Prodigal Song What a great tune! Loved it the first time I heard it. It was awesome hearing this as a teenager who was kinda new to metal and usually listened to the likes of the Eagles or Si & Gar. A metal band that weren't afraid to pick up an acoustic for a somewhat slower jam. It wasn't until "Journeyman" in 2003 that Maiden returned to this style of song.
Side note but I find it odd that this awesome thread gets absolutely no attention later on as the day goes by. Pacific time for me. Seriously, no comments after 1 or 2 o'clock. Very weird.
I think at the beginning of a song by song thread everybody is pumped and love the idea of it, but only a select few are dedicated enough to participate on a consistent basis. People get busy or other things catch their attention. I can tell you from experience that the first part of song by song threads are usually strong due to the early material usually being very popular. As the thread matures and the albums get further along in terms of the band’s career there’s less and less participation and only the real hardcore people stick around to comment. It’s definitely a case of diminishing returns. I will do the same as a lot of IM’s later material does not interest me in the least.
It's a conundrum, because I know some folks (@TheGreatSouthernBrainfart, bro come back!) can't keep up with the pace of checking it out daily. However, it slips past page 5 or so every day so not enough people see it and moving to a multi-day thing would make it worse. My hope is that it'll pick up once we get to NOB-Piece-Powerslave since that's the band's most popular material. As for trailing off once we get past 7th Son, and esp. Brave New World...eh, whatever. I'll still be here since there's plenty of great material from 2000 on.
Prodigal Son Very cool song and pretty different from what Maiden normally does. I love it when Steve steps outside of his box. He does a lot of cool bass fills and runs throughout the song. Adrian's solo is absolutely fantastic and his best one on the album. I don't really consider this a "slow song", more of a "mellow" one. It still moves at a good pace with the constant 6/8 of the rhythm (with a change to the solo section, of course). For the longest time I had no idea Paul was singing "Lamia" in this. Other than the devil's got a hold of his soul, I still don't have a grasp on what he's singing about. That's why I pay attention to the music! I love this song and it's another highlight from this underrated album.
I'll bump this thread later tonight. I swear I've seen people on here with Maiden avatars who have yet to post.
Prodigal Son. This was my least fav track when the album first came out...and for a long time I used to skip it. I now find myself liking a lot more. Adds a bit of light and shade to a at times...one dimensional album. Also...I'm 54 now not 17!!!!
