The Prisoner. The intro from Clive is superb....before taking off. A very good song showcasing the new line up perfectly.
I love The Prisoner so much. Probably my favorite song on TNOTB. I love the TV show, so the intro is an added treat. The whole band is just incredible. Steve's bass playing during the pre chorus is maybe his best ever, and Clive's drumming, oh my!
The Prisoner What a great track! Simple drum beat (that I think Bruce actually came up with) that just carries the song and I love the chorus. Very fun to sing along with kinda the first time that Maiden had a chorus sung in the more traditional sense rather than just repeating the title over and over ala Running Free or Wrathchild or Invaders.
I’ve always liked “The Prisoner” though as a young kid I had no idea what the intro was about. I had seen the show listed in the TV guide but had no clue what it was. I thought it was about a guy actually in prison (incidentally, if you haven’t seen the show, do so, it’s a trip; especially the final episode). To the song: I kind of think the intro is a bit dorky and wasn’t totally necessary to sell the song, but whatevs. No doubt the catchy riff came from Adrian and the content from Harris. Just a really good tune and a real winner for this album. Great, tasteful bass playing from Steve. It really adds to the vibe as opposed to distracts (which is sometimes the case).
The Prisoner I've still never seen an episode of this TV show and I've always wanted to, solely because of this song. Clive's intro drum part here isn't over complex, but it's incredibly catchy. This is another song where all five of them play so brilliantly individually, but also come together as a band and make great music. Bruce has such a wonderful snarl to his vocals on this song. Oh, it needs to be mentioned here, since it also wasn't mentioned in Children of the Damned (but was in the initial NOB/Invaders write-up), but Bruce deserves writing credit for this song. Sure, he made a "moral contribution" to The Prisoner. Or, in real life, he most likely wrote the words with Adrian and Steve writing the music. That's how it sounds to me - these words sound like Bruce and I know he was a mega-fan of the TV show...and you can tell by the way he sings these words that it's really important to him. Anyway, back to the song. The pre-chorus is fantastic...in construction, in Steve's playing and esp. in how it leads into the chorus. Perfectly written; I love that whole thing. Adrian comes up with a cool riff for the middle section and we after that we get great solos from both H then Davey. Dave's solo in particular leads perfectly to the final round of choruses. I love Steve's choice of notes for the chorus. He does the arpeggio of the chord and holds out the other notes, which isn't how he usually approaches playing. This song has quite a few instances of Steve holding out notes where in later songs he'd play something more driving. Fun bit of trivia: when I was in high school I always used to crank this on the last day of school. I'M A FREE MAN! Oh, and I love this song so dang much. My favorite on the album.
They should have led the album off with The Prisoner. The sampled intro, mentioning numbers, would have tied nicely to the spoken intro on side 2, also talking about numbers!
Glad you brought that up, Bruce was involved in the writing of three of these songs but for legal reasons related to Samson, he couldn't take credit
Yeah, Children of the Damned also seems more like Bruce lyrics to me, though he and Steve could've written them together. I'd love to ask Bruce exactly what were his "moral contributions" to Children, Prisoner and Run. I'm such a nut for this stuff that I always want to know who wrote exactly what riff and exactly what line for each song.
Killers recap The Ides of March/Wrathchild- I don't care about the instrumental nor do I think it fits well going into Wrathchild. Wrathchild is a stone cold Maiden classic. Best song on the album hands down. I prefer Paul doing it than Bruce. Definitive version on Maiden Japan. Murders In the Rue Morgue - Another classic Maiden song and is part of the Charlotte trilogy which is really cool. Bruce does a good job of covering this and can go either way with whoever is singing. Another Life- very speed metal here rather than punk. A precursor of things to come for fast Iron Maiden songs. Good song. Genghis Khan- decent instrumental but never sticks with me and forget how it goes until I play the album again. Innocent Exile- Another fast one. Decent song not a favorite. Cool guitar solos though. Killers - Like the riff here and the punk-ish vocals from Paul. I feel like later Bruce songs have the same type of structure going on here. Blueprint for the next era I guess. Prodigal Son - Maiden goes folk!! Is this the softest song they ever done? Cool change of pace but I wouldn't purposely throw this on. Purgatory - Another fast one and short one. Never made my Maiden tape comps. Drifter - OK song- no great shakes here. Twilight Zone - My least favorite song on the album but not bad by any means. Doesn't really fit on the album. I don't love this album and aside form 2 classics the rest is good to OK. I'd rather here Maiden Japan or something else. Excited to get to the Bruce albums. PS- Maiden Japan is one of the best EP's of all time.
THE PRISONER Love this song. I always end up cranking it. I remember the transcription for it in one of the guitar magazines, and it made mention of the "heavy-a$$ drums" in the beginning. I also recall it featuring in an episode of Beavis & Butthead where they went to prison as part of the "Scared Straight" program but instantly hit it off with the guy in their cell because he had a Maiden tattoo, and they all started singing "The Prisoner," somewhat ironically. One of them was definitely not a "free man"! It was so awesome seeing Maiden live in 2012 (when they recreated the Seventh Son tour; Alice Cooper was the opening act when I saw them)--and they did this song live for the first time in (apparently) a very long time. It sounded killer. I think this is the tour where they dropped "Hallowed By Thy Name" for the first time in decades, IIRC.
Trying to catch up here. I hope to have more to say on the Bruce stuff than the Paul stuff. I like the first 2 albums but I don't feel much attachment to them. Invader- I agree that this isn't a very strong opening to what can be argued as their best album. Sounds like Bruce is trying to wrap his vocals around an instrumental which could be the case here. Solo is good and the performance is tight as they are firing on all cylinders here. Children of the Damned- It took me a long time to get into this song. I think the studio version isn't that great. It is way better live as it goes to another level. The studio performance is restrained while when played live the band stretches out more. Prisoner- Just on the intro alone I give it an A+. I don't care about the Prisoner TV show at all but it's one of the coolest soundbite intros in rock- right up there with Civil War by GNR and another song on this album we are talking about . Clive's drumming is perfect and is the star of the show here. However, Bruce is right behind as as he lays down one of his best vocals EVER. Great lyrics and a perfect Maiden song all around. Not played enough live.
The Prisoner Not much to add to what's been said...love the opening TV clip, and the band is firing on all cylinders. I really like how Steve hangs back through much of the song, then comes in with a sort of counterpoint during the chorus.
This thread didn't pop up in my notifications so I'm behind. Invaders: Like the riff and the verses. I find the chorus to be a bit shrill. When I was in high school, I thought this was an outer space alien song. Not sure if I was just a stupid kid or if my stereo was so bad, I couldn't make out the lyrics. Children of the Damned: Maybe a top 10 Maiden song of all time for me. Monumental vocals. A song, possibly the only song, that I prefer the studio version to the "Live After Death" one. That is saying a ton. "Live After Death" is a desert island album for me. Prisoner: Not one of Maiden's best but a really fun song that makes me feel young again. I always have to bang my head a bit and do Steve Harris type mouthing vocals to the chorus. If only I had a monitor to plant my leg upon...
The Prisoner Opens with a clip from the TV series The Prisoner the premise of which the lyrics are based on. The intro kicks off with a B power chord and the pattern goes thru fifths mostly. A cool rhythmic hook supports the chords changes. The verse chords start at 1:11 and the tempo picks up. The verse riff is mostly descending still based around B (minor). A pre chorus enters at 1:47 and has a cool use of an A pedal note open fifth string under C and D chords. At 1:56 a fine use of power chord notes but in upper register with G-F and then a awesome turnaround at 2:03 that gets us to the tonic B and Bruce kills it with the line "I'm Coming Out" in declaratory fashion. Next into a fantastic chorus in E Major .....one of my favorites from the band. The unique thing about the chorus is the use of the open top two strings after each chord of E B and A. The open E and B strings add a cool suspended sound to the chorus that makes it sound haunting. The open strings in fact add suspended 4ths and 2nds to the chords. Great guitar arrangements and brilliant use of something other than just power chords. The verse follows and then the pre chorus and chorus follow in the same pattern however the second chorus is doubled this time with added lyrics. At 3:43 the intro riff returns but now is played in more staccato fashion in the quicker tempo with some repeating pulloff lines from Adrian. Adrian's solo follows in B Minor. At 4:36 DM follows with another face burner in B minor. The chorus follows at 4:54 and is repeated until at 5:47 the boys hold the E chord and the song ends. Brilliant song from this album and one of my favorites from the band. Great use of key changes and the guitar arrangement and use of chord inversions is perfect. Rhythmic changes are great as well. The chorus is outstanding in every way and like I said before the smart use of open strings that repeat was a fine idea that lifts the chorus to greatness and gives it an orchestral touch.
Even if you go by just Children of the Damned and The Prisoner, you can tell how special this lineup is. It is a shame they only made one album together.
The Number Of The Beast (album) This was the album that seriously got me into Maiden. I first heard the band during the Powerslave period, then Somewhere in Time, but they never really caught my interest then. They always seemed very distant and very serious. The band with the singer with the weird fringe. The poster with the band sitting around a table, ready to feast on a brain, didn't help. Then came the Seventh Son album and somewhere around that time the Live After Death show aired on Finnish TV, with subtitles to the lyrics and all. I guess I was semi-interested by then, but then I heard the Beast album that a cousin had on pre-recorded tape. That sounded absolutely amazing. I knew some of those songs from Live After Death, but I thought they sounded so much better on the album (the chorus to Run to the Hills!). That even got me joining the fan club, if only for a year. This would be the year with the First Ten Years maxis and Adrian Smith's project and leaving the band but let's not go there yet. Anyway, to me it's a perfect album, no negative comments about any of the songs (although the lyrics of Children Of The Damned don't make me want to sing along).
Catching up with the thread now, Im still pretty hyped over the fact that I met Bruce on monday and also got the fullsleeve tattoo finished yesterday. "Children Of The Damned", this was the point that made me think there's actually much more to the album when first heard it. I like the clean acoustic, mellow feeling of the beginning and then building it a bit by bit towards the distorted part towards the end. This was going to be the formula that would be later used a lot in the Maiden songs, it's sort of blueprint but also other bands have had their influences taken from this approach. On paper it might seem like simple plan, but once you hear this song, it just works great. I remember that I liked the opener already but on this song things go to totally new level. This was classic Maiden all the way. With Bruce on board now, he's got remarkable voice and caliber that no other person could have handled as he did. Bruce is one of the most remarkable musicians of alltime, you cannot pass the facts, he's got great charisma, stage-presence, voice-range, caliber, songwriting all the things considered and needed for worldwide star. I think this song sounds still great even after all these years, I really, I mean totally love it, it's just great performances from all and I've been delighted that it got back in the setlist for the past few tours. I deserved it as it still sounds so great and fresh on live-concert.
"The Prisoner", steady start from Clive and takes off nicely. There's nice balance and feels like this shows the true spirit and musicianship bond between the members. There's some serious groove and feeling present, like you have said here @The Hud , it's pity that this lineup didn't record any further albums.. I like the whole intro (it's in fact one my favorites throught the years) as it serves perfect introduction with the voices and sets the mood for the song and it's original inspiration. Clive's drumming is so precise and groovy here, I totally dig Steve's bass here as usual it's the beast really. Never seen the original-series this song is based on, so I have to check it out one day. Bruce's vocals are huge and this is one his best moments ever. Melodic riffing in the middle is briallian and the solos are great (as it usually goes with Murray & Smith guitar duo). Very catchy song and I think it's also remarkable that this song (along with Children Of The Damned) found it's way back to setlists and has been played live in the recent years. I have always loved this one and it's always a great song to crank and play at loud. Hope to hear this live again on some tour...
Heh, well, I've never thought of it as an anthem as such, but I guess it kind of is. I will say I don't like the chorus as much as the verses, so there's that.
Easily my most favorite Maiden members ever. Both horribly underrated, especially considering Smith consistently SMOKES Dave in the soloing department.
