Only the Good Die Young I love how it bursts through with the gallop and guitar harmony. It's a cool combination between the spacious guitars and Steve/Nicko going at full force. Everything is happening so fast here, no real time to rest. Good change for the first guitar solo (Adrian) where he plays some notes that are definitely "outside" of a normal scale. Then we get...wait, is that a bass solo? It's 10 seconds long and there's not much else going on, so I'm gonna say that's gd bass solo! Gotta love how Steve sticks it in this this obscure track (never played live), it's only 10 seconds long and you can barely hear it enough to think "he's taking a solo!". After Steve's 10 second ride we're back to the intro harmony/gallop and another verse/chorus. Bruce is just the man. I love how brings alive these lyrics. It's definitely the "theater of the mind" that he likes to talk about. After the last chorus we get another change for Dave's quick solo and the ending explosion. Great way to end the album. But wait...the outro comes and we get a perfect lyrical change and we go out as we came in. Wonderful! @MusicMatt is right that it doesn't get talked about very much. It should, because it's a great song. In and out really fast, but we get some fantastic soloing from the 3(!!) of them and Bruce closes his performance on this album in a perfect way.
Only The Good Die Young Love it, would've been a great hit single (if they'd released a 5th track from it a la Thriller, or if they'd released this instead of Madness.) Its another gem, keyboards great, Harry bass solo too. Superb. I asked a question earlier about Moonchild, sorry if it was answered, i may have missed it, the same applies to Only The Good Die Young. Moonchild (Smith/Dickinson) Only The Good Die Young (Harris/Dickinson) I assume the intro/outro to both songs is written by Bruce alone. Do we know if he had writing input to both Moonchild and Only The Good Die Young or are the credits just because the intro/outro arent split from the main songs their linked to? Id suggest they'd have been better being split, making a nice intro outro. Who knows. The album is classic as it is, i love it. Just not sure if the last track is a Harris composition alone or Moonchild by Adrian. These things do sometimes bother me Seventh Son of a Seventh Son My favourite Maiden album, no question, in my all-time top 10 albums. In listening to it again i've grown fonder of the title track and any enthusiasm for Madness is slipping away fast, it often gets skipped. Which makes me think what other songs were potential cuts for this album that might have fitted better? Their best sounding album. Love the production.
Cheers for that, perhaps a 2 or 3 minutes max would work very well. 14 minutes might be pushing it. Very good though.
7th Son thoughts and 80's rankings I adore this album and if not for Madness, it would be Maiden's best. I can't get down with that song and as with Quest for Fire, it stains an otherwise fantastic album. Even with Madness on the album, it's still Maiden's second-best IMO. I love the concept and it really shows how engaged Bruce was in this album. Everyone plays beautifully and they were all clearly up to the challenge of making a high quality concept album. All songs are great, except for CIPWM which is bad. Rankings, so far: 1. Somewhere in Time 2. Seventh Son 3. Powerslave 4. Number of the Beast 5. Piece of Mind 6. Killers 7. S/T (I hate saying that these first two are the lowest, because they're both fantastic albums, but the band just got better and better)
Normally these credits go music/lyrics/additional help (if there's a 3rd name). However, for this album Bruce was heavily involved and it was mapped out by Bruce and Steve. For the songs themselves musically, Moonchild sounds like Adrian and Only the Good sounds like Steve. I'm willing to bet that Bruce did write the intro/outro tags. He plays guitar and writes on one, so it would make sense to me this was his doing. Both sets of lyrics sound more like Bruce, especially the vocal melody, but I suppose Steve could've helped a bit with the words on Only the Good.
This has been a good exercise. I appreciate this album in a new way and it's worthy of the extended attention. It's a very melodic collection of songs and probably the most cohesive album they've ever done (and I am just realizing that now). I really enjoy A Matter of Life and Death and some of it because it's also cohesive set of songs...but the SSoaSS tracks are more consistent and stronger. I am pretty sure we align our love for this band at our own personal point of entry and for me that's Piece of Mind. I really love the bite/tone of the guitars on that one. Nicko's drums too. I digress. The songs and the playing on SSoaSS is bada$$! Moonchild - 4/5 Infinite Dreams - 5/5 Can I Play With Madness - 2/5 The Evil That Men Do - 5/5 Seventh Son of a Seventh Son - 5/5 The Prophecy - 5/5 The Clairvoyant - 5/5 Only the Good Die Young - 5/5 Classic era Maiden rankings for me: 1. Piece of Mind 2. Powerslave 3. Somewhere in Time 4. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son 5. Killers 6. Number of the Beast (rate it this low because I'm just tired of HbtN , RttH, NotB & CotD) 7. Iron Maiden All these records are 5/5 for me. Name a band in the 80's that had such a highly consistent output? Wait, don't answer that, let's just appreciate all that they did in those years. Onward!
Only the Good Die Young: Yet another classic gallop. Some cool guitar going on in the right channel during the verses. Another great chorus. “So until the next time, have a good sin”. Pretty funny line in a very serious album. Steve’s bass really shines on this track. I like the closing outro tying it back to the beginning of "Moonchild". It really adds cohesion to the album. I also like the small laugh Bruce does on the outro that isn't present on the intro. Overall, another fantastic song to close my favorite Iron Maiden album.
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son: (Overall) Moonchild: 5/5 Infinite Dream: 5/5 Can I Play With Madness: 3.5/5 The Evil That Men Do: 5/5 Seventh Son of a Seventh Son: 5/5 The Prophecy: 4.5/5 The Clairvoyant: 5/5 Only the Good Die Young: 4.5/5 5/5 for the album. This album really sounds like a band that found the perfect subject matter to build upon and inspire them. Each member feels fully engaged. This is the crowning achievement of one of the greatest bands ever. I have nearly 5 thousand albums in my collection. I rank 35 of them as 5 stars. (So I don't hand out 5's lightly) Seventh Son is essential listening for me. I'm as fond of it now as I was nearly 30 years ago when it came out. Clearly one of my favorite albums of all-time. Rankings of the Iron Maiden albums we've gone through so far: 1) Seventh Son of a Seventh Son 2) Powerslave 3) Number of the Beast 4) Somewhere in Time 5) Piece of Mind (Really close call for 4th place) 6) Iron Maiden 7) Killers Unlike many here, I'm going to have some upcoming albums mixed into my top 7, but they won't come for a long while yet.
Seventh Son song ratings: Moonchild - 5/5 Infinite Dreams - 5/5 Can I Play With Madness - 3/5 The Evil That Men Do - 5/5 Seventh Son of a Seventh Son - 4/5 The Prophecy - 5/5 The Clairvoyant - 5/5 Only the Good Die Young - 5/5 Album rating - 5/5 The 1980's: 1. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son 2. Number of the Beast 3. Powerslave 4. Iron Maiden 5. Piece of Mind 6. Killers 7. Somewhere in Time Feels weird having the debut as low as number 4, places 2-4 were very hard to decide on. Even 6 as I am very fond of Killers. 7th place not so hard.
THE CLAIRVOYANT Love the intro to this song because it's so...Maiden-y. Good catch that the opening bass sounds like something that could've been on Killers. It sounds a bit like "Innocent Exile," I think. (Is that the one that opens with bass? There's like 3 or 4 songs on "Killers" that I'm always like "How does that one go?") I like the main melody ("I feel re-born aga-ain...") Don't know what else to say. Not one of my two or three favorites on the album, but still a worthy addition.
How hard, for me to rank the classic era. Somewhere In Time Seventh Son Powerslave Killers Number of the Beast Piece of Mind Iron Maiden With the understanding that the s/t debut is still better than the best albums of some of my other favorite bands!
Excellent, can't wait! I also have at least one, maybe 2 of the later albums that could make the top 7.
Spoiler alert: I would put Brave New World somewhere in the middle of the seven we've done so far. And if it had better production, it might even be as high as #3. That's the only other one outside of the "classic" era I own at the moment. About 2 weeks ago I was at a used CD store and I was going to get No Prayer and/or Fear of the Dark if they had either of those used, but they didn't.
My ranking for the 1980s: 1. Powerslave 2. Killers 3. Piece of Mind 4. Somewhere in Time 5. Iron Maiden 6. Number of the Beast 7. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son Seventh Son has always been a slog for me to get through. You'd think it would be right up my alley with its more progressive affectations but despite some sublime leads, I really find it somewhat of a bore.
I've spoken with a lot of people recently who really love BNW. I bought it on the day it came out and for me it's got some greatness, but also some rough patches. The albums later in the decade are ones that really move me.
Man this is hard! If I were to rank the classic period..... Piece of Mind Powerslave (1 and 2 are almost interchangeable) Seventh Son of a Seventh Son Somewhere in Time Number of the Beast
I like elements from the first two... those two are almost interchangeable for 6 and 7, please remember that I didn't discover Maiden until Piece of Mind. It wasn't until years later I went back and actually listened to Killers
Technology is taking a left turn on me! I have tried three (3) times tonight to correct/edit my post but it keeps messing everything up! Up the Irons!
Clairvoyant - Easily one of the coolest bass intro riffs Harris has ever written. The lyrics this song seem to tell me this may have been one of the first, if not the first that was written for this album, and could easily have been what sparked the entire Seventh Son concept stories. The lyrics are basically a summary of the entire album. And one of the best lines "Just by looking through your eyes he could see the future penetrating right in through your mind. See the truth and see your lies but for all his power couldn't foresee his own demise." Genius Only The Good Die Young - obviously this song title always makes me think of Billy Joel, yet this track is the farthest thing from a Billy Joel composition. For me this is the weakest track on the album, but that does not mean it's bad. It just seems like they needed to wrap up the story, and for the purpose it does it's job.
I'm really hoping people don't check outta here now that we're coming to the 90's albums and beyond as there are many great songs and albums and moments to go. I love a lot that's ahead just as much as what came before. I encourage everybody to listen to the songs that will be posted to see if perhaps your views on them improve or even if the opposite reaction happens. I'll get off my soapbox now.
