Good move in skipping it, but it should be posted for completeness sake. We just don't need a whole day dedicated to talking about an interview.
My Generation Nicko's the star of the show here. This one is more about the drums than it is the bass. I mean, sure, Steve sounds good here, but as Musicman1998 said, The Ox absolutely owns this track. Blaze's voice works much better here and I'm so glad he didn't go with the stuttering. This track is full of energy and life. Covering this song has a similar feel to the idea of Maiden covering Led Zeppelin (Communication Breakdown), but they pull it off SO much better here. Good version of this and I always enjoy cranking it.
My Generation. This has never been a favorite Who song of mine and just because a song is significant in a bands' catalogue doesn't automatically elevate it to a listener years later. And I don't like this version. Faint praise though it may be to Blaze, this would have been much worse with Bruce singing it.
My Generation These guys have a good rhythm section, they might go far if they keep at it. Otherwise, there are some songs that I don't see the point of covering, yet people keep doing it. This is one.
I was going to say there's so many good Who songs that its disappointing they want for this one really. I thought something like 'The Real Me' would've been a good choice. Very much centered around the rhythm section with plenty of opportunity for Arry to solo. Dave and Janick could've done some soloing to cover for the brass on the original version.
Stanley did some amazing high vocals on the Crazy Nights album! My Way is one of the highlights, along with I'll Fight Hell To Hold You.
My Generation I love this song. As for the cover, it's indeed rather unnecessary, but it's fine, at least they put up an effort. I like it better than the Sweet version which I never really cared for. I agree that it's good that Blaze doesn't try to do the stutter. He does just fine here. You know W.A.S.P. did quite a killer version of that one a few years earlier, Frankie Banali's drumming and all.
My Generation Not bad. Blaze sounds fairly good on it. It's just weird to hear them cover a mainstream song by a well known band. Usually Maiden covers were obscure songs from bands that weren't exactly household names. Because of this, hearing them cover a song that's been heard on the radio for over twenty years, will never end well. I say cover the B-sides of your inspirations, but that's just me.
My Generation This one doesn't kill me. I even got a little head bobbing going on while it played (And NO! I Wasn't Sleeping!) It's just not a track I listen to that much, even when The Who sang it and, I surely wouldn't be queuing up a Blaze/Maiden attempt.
Can someone else who has the original and 1998 US CDs of Powerslave please confirm something for me? I swear the original CD I just received cuts off the beginning of Aces High by a fraction of a second. It might be a function of how iTunes ripped the CD; I’ll to check the actual CD later. But it sounds to me like the song starts a fraction into that first blast. On the 1998 CD, there’s a brief silence before takeoff.
It's shocking how acceptable "My Generation" is. It even has a punk looseness to it that's bot un-Maiden-like and very welcome. If I had to hear this song I'd prefer Maiden's cover to the original but let me be clear: I never, ever need to hear this hoary chestnut again in any iteration. There is no reason for anyone to cover songs everyone has already heard to death. But again, hats off to 1995 Iron Maiden for doing a decent job.
My Generation Nicko channeling his inner Keith Moon! Blaze sounds good here until the latter part of the song, where he's weak. A pretty cool cover, and this is what b-sides are for. Blaze Bayley Interview Kinda interesting interview, and I always like hearing British accents. He comes across as a nice bloke, who takes his job seriously. Which makes me feel a little bad for what I'll be saying when we get to the next album...
My very last comment about The X Factor is this; It's interesting to note the different approaches between a band like Maiden and a band like Metallica back in the mid-1990's... the latter took advantage of the changing musical climate of the time, stretched their creative wings, and delivered an album(s) that still sound interesting and fresh two decades later... whilst the former got a new singer, basically plowed along, business as usual, and didn't seem to stretch themselves and/or feel the need or want to take themselves out of their comfort zone, delivering a largely moribund, uninspired, and frankly depressing album that remains the nadir of their career to date as a result. It pretty much sums up the different approach/attitude between a band like Maiden and 'Tallica... one is/was determined to push forward on all fronts and keep things interesting (whether it ultimately works or not)... the other played to their base, kept it all rather safe, not rocking the boat, if ain't broken it doesn't need to be fixed... and the results were telling. Load remains a terrific (and deeply underrated) album... The X Factor, on the other hand, could be marketed and sold as an effective cure for insomnia. Just a little personal rumination from myself on that particular time period, for what it's worth. Blaze is indeed a good bloke, but he was totally wrong for what Maiden were doing back then when he was in the band... if they'd stripped it all down and taken the rawer approach they went with on No Prayer for the Dying, taking no more than a few months to make the album instead of belaboring over it in excess of a year like they did, it might have turned out better... who knows though?
I will say more on this when we get to Doctor Doctor, but I actually was very surprised by how much I ended up liking this cover. I had downloaded this a long time ago, listen to it once and promptly forgot about it when I didn’t hear Bruce’s voice. As I have mentioned, I downloaded TXF and listened to it for the first time on a long airplane flight from Beijing to Los Angeles. As part of that listening experience, I also dusted off and listened to this cover of My Generation (and Doctor Doctor, to be discussed tomorrow). I actually thought that all of the very legitimate complaints about TXF were nowhere to be found on this cover version. I love the fact that they rearranged the song, I love the energy that the band brought to it musically, and I actually thought that Blaze s voice sounded good on this cover. It is still not a patch on anything that Maiden did with Bruce or Paul, but the high-energy of the song and what sounds like a more appropriate style of singing for blaze at least shows what might have been if Steve Harris haven’t been in such a dour mood at the time of the recording of TXF. Since I have committed to listening to the Blaze era songs as part of my participation in this thread, I am hoping to come out of this with at least enough songs to create a short playlist. I have not listened to Virtual XI as yet, but I’m getting ready to start that process now. My assumption is that there will be three or four songs on that album that i like enough to help fill out a short playlist. That said, without the rockin’ versions of My Generation and Dr. Dr., I’m thinking that playlist would be a pretty boring experience.
Mine was the opposite. I had an original US Powerslave CD and it was perfect, but the '98 remaster clipped off a fraction of a second from Aces. Also, the '98 CD tacked the intro breathing of Powerslave onto Back in the Village. I stupidly sold all of my original 80's CDs when the remasters came out. DUMB MOVE!
You're totally right about that, except for me I thought Metallica failed in their experiment. I appreciate them trying something different, but the results leave me cold. Sure, some riffs here and there were good, but mostly I don't like those albums at all. But then, I don't like a lot of the S/T Metallica album either. I'm fine with that, me and Metallica parted ways a long time ago and while it makes me a little bit sad, mostly it doesn't worry me. I still haven't bothered to listen to Hardwired except for the first song they released, which made me not want to go any further. I will one day, but I'm in no rush.
It’s a good record. Could have used a little trimming (I’m sure that’s the last we’ll hear of trimming the fat in this thread), but overall, a very respectable release. And I might someday do a thread like this for Metallica (thank @SizzleVonSizzleton for the idea)
Hardwired is one of the best albums Metallica has made since Justice. Everything on it is good except for maybe 2-3 songs depending on your taste. It might be worth a listen through you could be surprised. Full disclosure though I like all Metallica albums including Black Album, Load, Re-Load, St Anger, S&M, Death Magnetic, etc... The only one I can't stand is Lulu...
I personally wouldn't and don't think it's a failure at all, but I completely agree with others - James Hetfield included - that Load/ReLoad has too many songs and should have been tightened down to a single double-album (I even started a thread regarding a hypothetical of that a while ago)... either way, both of those albums are light years ahead of what Maiden was doing at that time... so was Bruce's solo material as well!!!