"That Girl", very good song and excellent cover here. Nice little song be it the Maiden-version or some other, but I really like the Maiden's take on this song as the modified it a bit by changing the melody and I read somewhere that even tweaked the lyrics a bit aswell. All in all, this is good 80's AOR with little Maidenized take and it's my so called preferred version. This has to be one of the best b-sides, you might really wonder why, but surely it's that forgotten and special song how as it done by Adrian, Nicko and Bruce. I like it and think Im gonna take this aswell to my playlists of songs that desperately need more revisiting.
"Juanita", very energetic and upbeat rocker. This has the drive going, Bruce surely has the fun and it's good, but still I feel it might be shadowed by the other b-sides of this era. This is good as the rest b-sides though. All the singles b-sides from the SIT are interesting and (That Girl & Juanita) sort of form this special group of songs, done by the 3 people: Adrian, Nicko and Bruce. The results were very high quality, but unfornately now it seems that these songs are a bit forgotten. I agree with you @Musicman1998 that this feels a little stock. Anyways, it's really great to visit these b-sides and there's few coming later that I haven't much at all revisited for sometime..so it's surely correct time to refresh memories here. And as I forgot to reply to you @Cheevyjames I think I don't actually have recording of the "Entire Population of Hackney" show in my collection, but definitely have to get it. I remember that I've seen it got plenty mentions on all the fansites. Thanks for reminding here.
Juanita Same as on That Girl, this was originally performed at the Entire Population of Hackney gig and recorded entirely by Bruce, Adrian & Nicko. I can't think of another song Maiden covered where the original band (Marshall Fury in this case) never even recorded it! Musically it fits in with what Maiden were doing, but lyrically it's another out of left field like That Girl was. Juanita rocks more, but it's just an average song for me. I really like what Nicko's doing in the middle section, some quality drumming there. I also like how Bruce slips in "I'm never going down on you, Juanita" at the end. Cheeky! So yeah, decent and enjoyable B-side, but nothing substantive. So when I was listening to this album's "Listen With Nicko" (posted a couple days ago), when he's talking about how he and Adrian recorded That Girl and Juanita on their own, at one point he says "those three songs" (emphasis mine). Could he be referring to Reach Out as well? I've never heard anyone say that Reach Out didn't have Steve and Dave on there, but it wouldn't surprise me since it was another from the ...Hackney gig and one that Steve and Dave probably didn't know beforehand. If I ever meet either of them, that's one of my burning questions. Anyone know for sure?
Jeez, all these b-sides! Each day I come back, hoping we've started Seventh Son. Some of the b-sides, I don't know how to review since they're obviously "novelty" songs and would not fit on the albums proper.
Most of the B-sides wouldn't fit on the proper albums. The only one that really would is Total Eclipse. The rest are just covers, except for Sheriff of Huddersfield which is definitely a novelty song. Hell, we've got another one of those coming up as one of Can I Play With Madness' B-sides.
Seeing that we’ve covered all the songs from SIT and it’s single related B-sides I’ll get us started on what I consider the pinnacle of Iron Maiden song writing. The excellent concept album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. First track being... Moonchild An Adrian Smith/Bruce Dickinson piece. Bruce has stated that the entire concept of the Seventh Son story that Harris pitched completely brought him back on board, and he was inspired to write again. This entire album sees input from all members (short of Nicko who’s only ever contributed one song as far as writing). This new found energy is clearly heard throughout this entire album. Just top notch in every aspect. Writing, playing, lyrics, imagery, and stage show. Just a pure masterpiece.
Before we get into 7th Son tomorrow wanted to post this gem from the Somewhere on Tour. It's a guitar solo that Dave & Adrian would do following Mariner. I would LOVE to see this officially released some day. It's freakin' excellent.
I guess my view on this is the same as the last few b-sides from SIT, good rockers but not quite worthy of Maiden. If these three songs (I am ignoring Sherrif of Huddersfield, which I don’t think is intended to be taken seriously) were recorded by any number of B or C level artists, they would be great, but when compared to an A list band like Maiden, it just falls short. Fine, it’s a b-side, so knock around and have fun. I have a play list comprised of only Maiden b-sides and rarities, and the playlist in general and all three of these songs, are great fun. ...they are just not on a level with RotAM or their other classics, which are just too many to mention. As far as the song itself, good rocker, raunchy riff, fun to sing along with..
Classic Maiden. Add this to the set list we’d all like to see that’s comprised of songs played once (or just rare). Man oh man I love Somewhere in Time and the tour that supported it!! Thanks for posting this!!!
Really loved this add-in and how it relates in to the Song-by-Song breakdown, no complaints here I like taking it nice and slow.
That's bad form to jump ahead of the OP on a song by song thread or album by album thread. Let the OP set the pace (even if you don't like how fast or slow it's going). You're new here so you'll learn, but you just don't do that.
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is the seventh studio album by English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, released on 11 April 1988 by the EMIlabel in Europe, and its sister label Capitol in North America. It was re-released on 2002 by Sanctuary/Columbia in the United States. It is the first Iron Maiden release to feature keyboards. Like The Number of the Beast and, later, Fear of the Dark, The Final Frontier and The Book of Souls, it debuted at No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart. It also marks the first appearance of many progressive rock elements which would be used frequently in later albums, seen in the length and complex structure of the title track "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son", and by the fact that it is a concept album.[3] Background, writing and conceptEdit The idea to base the album around the folklore concept of the seventh son of a seventh soncame to bassist Steve Harris after he read Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son.[4] Harris states, "It was our seventh studio album and I didn't have a title for it or any ideas at all. Then I read the story of the seventh son, this mystical figure that was supposed to have all these paranormal gifts, like second sight and what have you, and it was more, at first, that it was just a good title for the seventh album, you know? But then I rang Bruce [Dickinson, vocalist] and started talking about it and the idea just grew."[5] After his songwriting contributions were rejected from the band's previous album, 1986's Somewhere in Time, Dickinson felt that his role within the band had diminished, as he "just became the singer,"[6] but felt renewed enthusiasm when Harris explained the concept to him; "I thought, 'What a great idea! Brilliant!' And of course I was really chuffed, too, because he'd actually rung me to talk about it and ask me if I had any songs that might fit that sort of theme. I was like, 'Well, no, but give me a minute and I'll see what I can do.'"[7]Speaking about the record in later years, however, Dickinson remarked that "we almost did [something great]", explaining that, "it was only half a concept album. There was no attempt to see it all the way through, like we really should have done. Seventh Son... has no story. It's about good and evil, heaven and hell, but isn't every Iron Maiden record?"[6] In addition to Dickinson's return to writing, the album was also notable for its number of co-written pieces, in contrast to its predecessor, with five of the eight tracks being collaborative efforts. According to Harris, this was probably because they "spent more time checking up on each other to see what everybody else was up to, just to make sure the story fitted properly and went somewhere."[8] To make sure each song fit with the record's concept, the band drew up a basic outline for the story, which Harris states "didn't make the actual writing any easier ... I probably took longer over the writing I've done on this album than any I've done before. But the stuff we all started coming up with, once we'd agreed that we were definitely going for a fully fledged 'concept' album, really startled me. It was so much better than anything we'd done in ages..."[8] Stylistically, Seventh Son of a Seventh Sondeveloped the sounds first heard on Somewhere in Time, although, on this occasion, the synth effects were created by keyboards rather than bass or guitar synthesisers. According to Dickinson, the band decided not to hire a keyboard player, with the parts being "mainly one-finger stuff from Adrian [Smith, guitarist], Steve, the engineer or whoever had a finger free at the time."[9] Harris was fond of the development, in spite of the fact that the record did not sell as well as its predecessor in the United States;[10] "I thought it was the best album we did since Piece of Mind. I loved it because it was more progressive—I thought the keyboards really fitted in brilliantly—'cause that's the influences I grew up with, and I was so pissed off with the Americans, because they didn't really seem to accept it. Everyone said afterwards that it was a European-sounding album. I'm not so sure about that. What's a European-sounding album? To me, it's just a Maiden-sounding album."[5] Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and its supporting tour marked the last appearance of Adrian Smith until he returned to the band in 1999. The guitarist left during the pre-production stages of the band's following album, 1990's No Prayer for the Dying, as he was unhappy with the more "street-level" direction the group were taking, professing that he "thought we were heading in the right direction with the last two albums" and that he "thought we needed to keep going forward, and it just didn't feel like that to me."[11] PromotionEdit To promote the album, the band hosted an evening of television, radio and press interviews at Castle Schnellenberg in Attendorn, Germany prior to the record's release,[19] before holding a small number of "secret" club shows, under the name "Charlotte and the Harlots", at Empire, Cologne and L'Amour, New York.[20] In May, the group set out on a supporting tour which saw them perform to more than two million people worldwide over seven months.[19] In August, the band headlined the Monsters of Rock festival at Donington Park for the first time before a crowd of 107,000, the largest in Donington's history,[21] and recorded a concert video, entitled Maiden England at the NEC, Birmingham in November.[22] To recreate the album's keyboards onstage, the group recruited Michael Kenney, Steve Harris' bass technician, to play the keys throughout the tour, during which he would perform the song "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" on a forklift truck under the alias of "The Count" (for which he would wear a black cape and mask).[14][23][24] Cover artworkEdit According to Rod Smallwood, the band's manager, the brief given to Derek Riggs (the group's then regular artist) was, unlike with previous albums, to create "simply something surreal and bloody weird".[25] Riggs confirms that "they said they wanted one of my surreal things. 'It's about prophecy and seeing into the future, and we want one of your surreal things.' That was the brief ... I had a limited time to do the picture, and I thought it was pretty weird their concept, so I just went with that."[25] According to Dickinson, his revitalised enthusiasm, brought about by Harris's idea to make a concept album, carried forward into the cover artwork, saying that "I was probably responsible in a large part for the cover, with Derek."[26] Dickinson states that the idea to set the painting in a polar landscape may have originated from when he showed Riggs a Gustave Doré piece, depicting traitors frozen in a lake of ice in the ninth circle of Dante'sInferno.[27] In contradiction of this, Riggs states that the setting was because he "might have just seen a documentary about the North Pole or something ... I wanted something that was a departure from all the cityscapes and things. It was about prophecy and seeing the future, and so I just wanted something distant. And then they said, on the back, 'Could you stick all the other Eddies in the ice?' So I did."[26] Speaking about the depiction of the band's mascot, Eddie, Riggs states that "I thought, you know, I don't feel like painting all of Eddie, so I'll get rid of him. I'll chop him off, and make it look kind of non-pleasant."[26] In addition to the lobotomy and cyborg enhancements, left over from the Piece of Mind and Somewhere in Timealbum covers respectively, this incarnation also comes with an in utero baby in his left hand and an apple, inspired by the Garden of Eden and featuring a red and green yin and yang.[26] On top of this, Eddie's head is on fire, which Riggs states is "a symbol for inspiration", an idea which he "stole" from Arthur Brown.[26] ReceptionEdit Critical response The album has received consistent critical praise since its release, with AllMusic rating it 4.5 out of 5, saying that the addition of keyboards "restores the crunch that was sometimes lacking in the shinier production of the previous album" and that it "ranks among their best work."[3] Sputnikmusic scored the album 4 out of 5, and, while they state that "the band has better releases, such as Powerslave and Somewhere in Time", they argue that it is "lyrically... one of Maiden's finest efforts."[17] In 2005, the album was ranked No. 305 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.[31] Although Geoff Barton states that contemporary reviews contained "a definite reaction against Maiden emphasising their prog-rock pretensions", and that "one critic... slammed Maiden for Seventh Son... and accused them of having regressed into Genesis-style prog rockers from the 70s",[9] Kerrang! were extremely positive upon the album's release, awarding full marks and stating that "[with Seventh Son of a Seventh Son] Iron Maiden have given rock music back its direction and its pride" and that the record "will eventually be hailed alongside such past milestones as Tommy, Tubular Bellsand [The] Dark Side of the Moon."[28] Commercial performanceEdit The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart (their first since The Number of the Beast) as well as No. 12 in the US, while the singles "Can I Play with Madness", "The Evil That Men Do", "The Clairvoyant (live)" and "Infinite Dreams (live)" reached No. 3, No. 5, No. 6 and No. 6 positions respectively in the UK Singles Chart. Smith highlights "Can I Play with Madness" as "our first proper hit single."[14] Track listingEdit Side one No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "Moonchild" Adrian Smith, Bruce Dickinson 5:38 2. "Infinite Dreams" Steve Harris 6:08 3. "Can I Play with Madness" Smith, Dickinson, Harris 3:30 4. "The Evil That Men Do" Smith, Dickinson, Harris 4:33 Side two No. Title Writer(s) Length 5. "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" Harris 9:52 6. "The Prophecy" Dave Murray, Harris 5:04 7. "The Clairvoyant" Harris 4:26 8. "Only the Good Die Young" Harris, Dickinson 4:40 Total length: 43:51 1995 Reissue Bonus CD No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "Black Bart Blues" Harris, Dickinson 6:41 2. "Massacre" (Thin Lizzy cover) Phil Lynott, Scott Gorham, Brian Downey 2:53 3. "Prowler '88" Harris 4:07 4. "Charlotte the Harlot 88" Murray 4:11 5. "Infinite Dreams" (live) Harris 6:03 6. "The Clairvoyant" (live) Harris 4:27 7. "The Prisoner" (live) Smith, Harris 6:09 8. "Killers" (live) Harris, Paul Di'Anno 5:03 9. "Still Life" (live) Murray, Harris 4:38 PersonnelEdit Production and performance credits are adapted from the album liner notes.[2][32] Iron Maiden Bruce Dickinson – lead vocals Dave Murray – guitar Adrian Smith – guitar, synthesiser Steve Harris – bass guitar, string synthesiser Nicko McBrain – drums, percussion Production Martin Birch – producer, engineer, mixing, tape operator Stephane Wissner – engineer, assistant engineer Bernd Maier – engineer, assistant engineer George Marino – mastering engineer Derek Riggs – sleeve illustrations Ross Halfin – photography Rod Smallwood – management, sleeve concept Andy Taylor – management Hugh Gilmour – reissue design (1998 edition) Moonchild: We open the record with Moonchild, written by Bruce and Adrian and inspired by Crowley's Liber Samekh ritual. The song begins with Bruce singing softly over a strummed acoustic, and it does a decent job setting a tone, before the synth strings come in at :25, and it really builds the tension and excitement, it's almost like entering an arena to face your opponent, and it's AWESOME! Bruce coming in at 1:26, growling the lyrics, while the band gallops relentlessly underneath, Adrian doing some excellent leads as well, and his solo at 3:38 is simply tops, great Melody and phrasing, and even when Dave starts ripping at 4:07, Adrian more than holds his weight still, and wins this round by a hair. This is an excellent opener, amazing vocals by Bruce, excellent playing, does a great job at getting you amped up for what's to come.
Moonchild Seventh Son of a Seventh Son has become my favorite album from Maiden. I think the addition of the keyboards was a stroke of genius as evident in the beginning of Moonchild. Even hearing them do it live on the Somewhere Back in Time tour with Adrian playing the figure on guitar and not fully on keyboards, it felt off. Not sure why they didn't have Michael Kenney just do them live,oh well. Bruce seems to have a bit of rasp in his voice here. I wonder if that will lead to anything down the road... I love that stomping effect that Nicko's doing with the bass drum in the last few seconds. Good song overall but my least favorite off the album. 3.5/5
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (Album): The death star is fully operational. Maiden is using all the tools at their disposal. Iron Maiden learned from the experimental “Somewhere and Time” and pushed the limits even further, while still incorporating what made them previously great. I can clearly remember being awestruck the first time I heard this album in 1988. I really wish they could have maintained this peak for another album or two but it wasn’t to be. Moonchild: Love the acoustic intro and outro which adds cohesion to the album. The keyboards begin and you know you are in for something different. Than the thundering bass followed by an aggressive verse and you relax and know everything is going to be OK. The chorus is soaring and epic. There is a ton of production detail you can pick up with a good headphone system in the bridge section. Lyrics are top notch, not only on this song but the whole album. The banshee scream and laugh at the end is a thing of beauty. Classic Maiden opener.
Reach Out (Dave Colwell) Great melody -I enjoy the guitar playing, singing, and drums. Nice guitar solo, too. I like this - don't care if it "isn't Maiden" or "is commercial" (Using Dave Foley air quotes). I didn't know until today that Bruce Bruce is on backing vox, but if course it makes sense now that I know it. Usually makes me sing along, in fact. I enjoy lots of Maiden B-Sides, and this would be one of my favorites (Cross Eyed Mary is probably my #1 favorite.) 8.0 out of 10.
Moonchild / Seventh Son of a Seventh Son: Wonderful album, wonderful song. That guitar bit from 3:53 to 4:08, stunning. Love that little hook. Question - both this and the final track are co-writes with Bruce, I assume Bruce wrote the intro/outro to the album, not sure why they didn't split them and make it a 10 track album, pretty sure publishing wise that might've served him better. But anyway, did Bruce co-write Moonchild or did he just write the into and Adrian write the latter? I'll ask the same question at end of the album but lets not get too far ahead. I love this album, my alltime fave by Maiden and dare I say it, might just squeeze itself into the lower reaches of the top 10 of my alltime favourite albums. I was 16 when I came out, had friends at school who went to see them this year at Donington, I also started playing guitar at this time so hopelessly trying to learn the riffs. This album stays with me. Was huge in the UK, 3 top 10 hit singles (4 if you include the later live version of Infinite Dreams,) the band at their peak. Great stuff. Moonchild is a gem, would be nice to them to start the next tour of with this song, would set the pace for the show ahead rather nicely.
Few words about the album "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son": This is one of their best albums, that's totally my opinion but also this album has so much memories attached and always when I listen to this, it just takes me back in time to those precious moments that I cherish. The album proved to be the case where they just developed a bit further the concepts, the soundscapes and the ideas from the past albums, for example the synthesizers were now taken full advantage after Somewhere In Time experiments. So if we're thinking of continuation and feelings present on the albums, due to the cool use of keyboards Seventh Son sounds really fresh and it's got that unique, special sound. If SIT had that ethereal atmosphere, this one also his it's own charm. Also worth noting that 4 songs were released as hit-singles, which is half of the album tracks. I think that the whole concept-story running through album is always cool if done with great care and in this particular case it's just absolutely fabulous, as it's true concept album with the storyline dealing with the birth of a prophesied prophet, the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, who has the power to see the future. And also, it's worth noting that now Bruce Dickinson was more of a master-mind behind this album, since he had been a bit absent on SIT, due to the problems and disagreements of musical direction (as we talked that his acoustic song were not approved by others, Harris also noted that the song actually weren't also good enough). So anyways, now that Bruce had come up so much with the material on the album, it really shows as his name is credited on 4 songs, so it's surely step up from the previous album for him. Only 1 little lesser song on the album, it's the one you probably know..if you don't know, then you can predict it to be on the b-side of the album. "Moonchild", very cool acoustic intro for the album and I also like the way that they end the album with similar acoustic outro. Really strong opener for the album (in fact it's among their best) and synths work here precisely. There's some cleverness in the whole threatening feeling present when the song starts acoustically but then bang after that drumroll Bruce welcomes the listener and we get hooked within the sinister and powerful atmosphere of the song. Another stellar song from the team Dickinson-Smith and it's surely among their finest. I really like the powerful lyrics combined with the powerful feeling that the song delivers for me. The whole song is interesting and consistently tense which keeps you excited through the whole ride. This is in a way, just yet again perfect opener song for the album, I really like the whole thing, good solos from both but especially Adrian's solo is great, Bruces voice has that really powerful and convincing drama involved, but the raspy thing is about to show on the album that got more present on the next album. Cool keyboards in the song, it was surely different and strange when I heard this song live in 2008 (with Somewhere Back In Time Tour), similar to what @MusicMatt described here and they could have had Michael Kenney play the keys. Oh well, whatever, it worked live as the whole show was so outstanding anyways. I think that they still should use this song in live-setting and possibly open the show with this song (eventhough they already did that for 2012-2014's Maiden England World Tour) as it just works so greatly which was evident when I saw that show. Anyways, this is great opener for this great album. 5/5
Moonchild Majestic opening track. The sort we have come to expect from Maiden. I'll summaries the album later, but straight away you notice a change in sound. Production is more lush, bigger...perhaps more stadium. Bruce's vocals are more upfront. A great opening track. 5/5
I love everything about Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, except Moonchild, which I cannot stand. I have tried many, many times to like it, but I just find it boring. One of Maiden's worst songs, IMO.
SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON I remember when this came out in early 88. I was 16 and starting to listen to a lot of old stuff like Deep Purple, but the release of a new Maiden album was still sort of an "event." I'd seen the video for "Can I Play With Madness" on MTV's Headbangers ball and thought it was just OK, sort of like a poor man's "Wasted Years." Soon afterwards a friend called and said he got the new tape. "How is it?" I asked. "It's a lot like their last album, with synths, but if you liked Somewhere In Time, you'll probably like Seventh Son. There's just one thing that worries me, though." "What's that?" "I think the band are turning into a bunch of preps!" In our world, that was an insult. He thought this because on the foldout to the cassette, some of the band members were wearing what looked like (gasp!) sweaters and "regular clothes" rather than studs and leather or other "rocker" things. When I got the album shortly afterwards, I was let down. Well, I loved the cover and it's still one of my favorite Maiden covers along with Somewhere In Time, Live After Death, and Killers. The actual music, however, while it rocked in places, also seemed kind of boring at times. And concept albums were not exactly an "in" thing in the late 80s. (Historical revisionism states that Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime--another concept album--was a huge hit that year, but I seem to remember that album being a very slow burner on the charts and on MTV. Sort of like how Guns N Roses didn't get really popular until "Sweet Child O Mine" was released as a single about 9 months after Appetite was released. Queensryche didn't get really big in my neighborhood until Empire). And in my circle of friends, '88/'89 was when the "traditional" Maiden/Priest/Dio style of metal went out in favor of either glam (Poison, etc.) or thrash (Metallica, etc.). When I got heavily back into Maiden around 2008 (when the Early Years DVD came out), I started buying the albums on CD for the first time, and was amazed by Seventh Son's production, songwriting, performances, and overall vibe. For a while it was literally my favorite album by anyone. Now, I still think it's excellent but tends to get played less than some of the others from the 80-88 era. MOONCHILD Awesome beginning. I think the acoustic chords are just E minor, D, A minor, and G back to E minor. Once the electric guitars kick in, I love how Nicko builds up the tension on the drums, and when the main part of the song kicks in, they're like an unstoppable locomotive. It was quite powerful when they played it live in 2012 as well. The lyrics do a good job of summing up most of the themes that will be expanded upon over the course of the album. "Hear the Mandrake Scream!" is a cool nod to Deep Purple's "Mandrake Root." This is one of their best songs ever.
