Let's Stay Relevant
Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 12:01AM
Vince's thesis is this: a band can stay relevant by consistently releasing new music and playing it live. That is, not pandering to fans only screaming for the hits and not falling prey to laziness of the same set night after night. Down with lowest common denominator metal!
So many of us complain about seeing the same set over and over. Think about Poison. We all love them here - they created some of the best party songs of the genre - but the set is tired. You go to a Poison show, you're going for the atmosphere and not the music. You already know what you're going to hear...and probably in what order, too! What if the guys in Poison - and I mean all four of them - set out to write a really strong album of all new material...and then made the commitment to at least play half those new songs live? Would you be interested?
Artists have the right to change up their shows any way they want for their own benefit. I know musicians that are sick to death of their so-called "hits" but fear riots if a popular song is dropped. Fans might be riled at first. Or they might appreciate a band attempting to stay relevant well into a long career.
I think it's time we have a frank discussion about bands and relevancy around here and Vince's article is a great jumping-off point. How do we get kids interested in bands like Motley Crue and Def Leppard? I firmly believe if Iron Maiden can make strong, new records and sell-out arenas, others can follow. But, work is hard and going through the motions is easy. It doesn't take much thought to repackage and repurpose a greatest hits album nor does it take much effort to dust off the same old set list. I'm in total agreeance that Iron Maiden works for their position as kings of metal. Let's all learn from them.
Reader Comments (30)
Bruce recently said that he knows they will lose money on every album they release from now on in. They do it for themselves, because they can afford it. Poison does the same, but they do one song from the last album and otherwise keep the same setlist. Lets not forget though, Maiden is like Metallica, old Metallica, that is. They have fans of their albums, not their singles. Will anyone complain if Metallica does 'Creeping Death' one night and 'For whom the bell tolls' the next ? No, because neither was a single, and while I hope they play both, I know their setlist is a crap shoot of their best songs, not chosen based on prior chart positions. Who else is sick of 'you got another thing comin' for the Priest set closer ? But they will always do it, b/c it's their biggest 'hit'.
I don't care if you don't like their music, but you're an idiot if you deny that they must be doing something right. Trust me, they have a heck of a lot more to offer than bands like Poison, evidenced by the fact that they've sold more records and played to a whole lot more fans, and can still draw those fans at venues around the world. Now let me qualify that remark slightly - those aren't necessarily good metrics for judging talent, but I make those points to demonstrate that Iron Maiden has some of the world's most loyal fans, and you typically can't establish that kind of longevity and strong fan base without a good product.
I certainly don't understand all of the hostility towards Steve Harris and the rest of the band. All they're doing is keeping the spirit of metal alive and well in an era dominated by completely worthless corporate owned radio and equally worthless record labels that won't support any band that doesn't sell 5 million records every time out. I support metal, not just Maiden, and we as a metal loving community should direct that negativity towards the crap out there like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.
I'll also compliment Metalboy for making an effort to find and support new bands that play real rocknroll, and thank God for the internet that makes that process a whole lot easier. I hope we're getting closer to the day when any band can successfully market their music directly to the listener, and the ass clown record companies go out of business.
One more thing - I also happen to be a big U2 fan. They've got immense talent and integrity, and continue to create a good product for their fans. They are arguably the biggest band on the planet. You should at least respect what they've accomplished in their careers because they represent what a true artist should be about, and I've got to give it up to Bono for using his money and his fame to facilitate some positive change in the world.
Huh-uh-lo-oh?! Where's your sense of humor? Obviously out to lunch at I Hop with Harris' and Ulrich's, while I'm dining at Club 21 with the cheerleaders from the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video, if they don't look too shot. Hmmm, let's see, Nevermind came out in '91... Okay, we might be alright, if they didn't party out too much at the never ending wrap party Grohl's been at since Cobain checked out. Garcon, I'll have another Rock'n'Roll Molitov Cocktail. Shaken AND Stirred. Yes, make it the way Axl likes it.
Enjoy your Shirley Temples, boyz...
Let us continue on our Maiden voyage, shall we...
Look, it really is a matter of opinion. I just could never get into these guys except for "Run To The Hills" and "Two Minutes To Midnight", as I said before.
That said, there is, apparently, a flip side, where Glam Metal and a perfect example of it, The Bulletboys, are not appreciated.
Being that this is a site dedicated to the necessity to Bring Back Glam!, it's baffling to me why the h*ll you Metal Cretins insist on camping out here, defending the totally UNGLAM mediocre guitar noodlings of Unironic Maiden.
Yeah, I think Harris is B.S. and that his songs are really merely disingenious delivery systems for said uninspired guitar pseudo pyrotechnix.
I really think you guys outta pack up and head over to Blabbermouth with all your blind praise of what amounts to Rush with the volume turned up a little louder and a b*llsier singer. And remember, I think Dickinson's "Tattooed Millionaire" is one of The Greatest 100 Glam Metal Albums Of All Time. It's no coincidence LCD Harris had not a thing to do with it.
Now, all of that "nonsense" (according to Mike, who musta got lost on his way over to Metalsucks or something), out of the way, I went and looked through my Playlists to see if I could find Power Metal or whatever the hell it is that I like that I think is superior to Iron Maiden and why.
But I didn't undertake this task last night and tonight until I went over my Iron Maiden stuff and even bought some more on iTunes as research material to rediscover for myself why I love Judas Priest but despise Iron Cretin, besides the fact that Judas Priest explored a far wider Metal palette than Harris and his bandslaves.
Maiden's a one trick pony at best and as I said before, not in a good way like AC/DC or even The Ramones, both bands, just way more groundbreaking and modern.
Maiden is Hawkwind without Lemmy and the Guitars turned up louder. You nailed it, whoever you are, as I'm too lazy to go back up through the galleys here to find out, they have gotten more and more prog as time has gone on, and that's because these aren't really songs their playing. Just loose 70's Progrock with some bizarro Harris ramblings slapped on 'em.
Believe me, their all about the money, son.
Yep, I'll actually stand by the musical adventurousness of flash-in-the-pan Bulletboys before I'll go down the boring path of Maiden.
One song, "Smooth Up In Ya" is better than anything Maiden ever did. Look, you're all impressed with endless solos that don't go anywhere and drummers like Peart who overplay it endlessly.
Did you ever stop to think for a minute that maybe clowns like the Bulletboys couldn't jam like fools until their blisters exploded, too?
But these guys made a choice. Rather than fret over their frets like the dueling duo of Unironic Cretin, they made a single 4:25 piece of history with "Smooth Up In Ya" that is purely more innovative and catchy than the all too overly familiar territory Maiden and their NWOBHM ilk has been mining since 1975.
You guys are too hung up on the geetar pyrotechnix that you can't even see the machine heads through the necks to realize there's more to Rock'n'Roll than a lifeless unmemorable guitar lead.
There is something to be said for brevity (though it's taking me a long time to get there as usual) but you guys ain't gonna buy it from me when it comes to Glam Metal vs. Neanderthal Metal, no matter what and I'm not gonna buy the transverse from you, either.
Still, I don't think you guys would be on here unless you listened to Ratt and other crap like that like I do and here's what I got in the Power Metal department that I'm so generously allowing Maiden to be a part of...
1) Saxon! Catchy as hell, way more than Maiden, though I gotta say these guys were the basis for Spinal Tap, as Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest will attest when they joined Saxon on the road to get material for their movie. And the guy with the rug can hold his own with either of your Maiden boyz, though I gotta admit Graham Oliver was mailing it in as I witnessed one too many times live, yet it still didn't seem to matter.
2) Priest! Turbolover, mutha f*ckah's! Even their cheesiest blows Maiden away. Hey, by the way, whichever clown up top said never call music "Cheesy" is out of their minds. Virtually all of this stuff, including Maiden, is "Cheese", I assure you. The only difference is, Maiden = Limburger and Metallica = Toe Cheese.
3) Pretty Maids. They're all right. Well, the first album, at any rate, until they became the poor man's Maiden.
4) Pantera. But the old school stuff that borders on Glam... "All Over Tonight" blows anything Maiden ever did. Even at this earlier stage you can hear Dimebags vast superiority over those two Maiden clowns, who I'm too lazy to check out who they are again, just not wanting to face the fact that I'm still wasting my Digi's on this ever increasingly boring topic. I'd much rather discuss what brand of Purple Metal Flake nail polish Kristy Krash Majors wears.
5) Accept! My faves of the lot. H*ll, they're so dang catchy you can't figure out where to classify 'em. And old Wolf runs circles around those anonytons of Maiden, but how could he help it, he's a classically trained Julliard graduate. H*ll, he's blowing away those cretins when he's going half speed.
Honorable Mentions (I've got all this crap on my Master Metal Mix along with "2 Minutes" and "Stone Cold Crazy" covered by Metallica): Tygers Of Pan Tang, Shok Paris, Lizzy Borden (they might as well be Glam), Metal Church, Toxik (man, check out those album covers), Megadeth (so much better than either Maiden or Metallica, for real!), Helloween (now there's one that kept it from being boring), Motorhead (Hell, yeah!, this is some bada*s sh*t!), Dream Theater (not my cup but hey, you gotta hand it to 'em), Savatage (they make nice Christmas albums, too!), Dio, Queensryche, etc. etc... In other words, please, oh, please, anyone but that Eddie back-up band!
Down With Irons! Keep drinkin' that Molten Metal Kool-Aid, kiddies!, whatever Metal seems to be your Poison, hahaha!!!
p.s. I just went on ironmaidencommentary.com where I could find bands that sound like Maiden to pretend I had 'em on my iTunes for this meandering rant and they had a banner ad for Neiman Marcus on there.
Hey, if this is any indication of things to come, don't come cryin' to me after you didn't go to the Polls on Tuesday in November and then turn on the TV the next day to see John Boner as the head of your new Police State. I knew it was all over when I saw the Hall & Oates post on here tonight and then praised 'em. Cheney must have put a chip in the back of everyone's head somewhere along the line to lead us to this point.
Why would anyone in their right mind vote against their own best interest? Why did people think they had to cancel their Florida vacation because the oil spill, when it never hit Florida? Better check the glove compartments for Iron Maiden tapes.
Down The Irons!
Up The Scorpions!
p.s.s.t. Christian! I'm glad we met at M3, albeit, briefly. Next time, let's hang more. And sorry, Bro... I'm with ya on your beloved Angels, just not your beloved Maiden. Hey, I've been finding a lot of cool Australian Glam Metal. Ever hear Zambelis? Killer!
Maiden has always been prog sounding mostly unless you get to somewhere in time their "turbo" if you will. The title track and wasted years actually have some substance to them even if the former is unsurprisingly lengthy. The niche here is that the synths add substance to the songs that is missing on half if not more of their material. This leads me tot he conclusion of this album being (god forbid) they're "most metal" album. Number of the beast it is not but I think its better than anything after seventh son and thats a lot of crap.
Uhh,,, something catchy to say here.... Oh yeah.. ONLY THE SHADOW KNOWSSSS!!!!! i love that!!
It could very well happen. Just don't come cryin' to me on the Isle of Capri when it goes down. In the meantime, I'll do my best to fight even for you, yeah, you, as you are the citizens we are looking out for.
Do you know what the Carlysle Group is? I suggest you read about it as I do not want to elaborate for fear of Fletch trackin' me and also inadvertantly shutting this site down after what Cheney's done to our basic right of free speech.
The people you are an unwitting slave to stole all the money (twice! Once with the bill for Iraq and then billed again for Halliburton and Bechtel to do the actual work, though it was the Armed Forces doing most of it) well before Obama got in, fool.
Now, back on R'n'R...
As I said back on an update on Al's Queensryche Acoustic post...
Here's how I see Maiden...
Better than Twisted Sister (though I personally LIKE TS better, if you can understand how that works) but not even in the same ball park as Priest...
OTSK!!! Hey, boy, now we're talkin'. I am downloading "Somewhere In Time" right now and will check out "Wasted Years". I actually had all their stuff but started ditching it when I began running out of room on my computer.
Now I've got a new Super Badboy computer and can load up on everything again. I really am a Metallist and have plenty of crap on my iTunes that is supposedly significant in the Metal Pantheon, though, to be quite honest, does not do a thing for me. Remember, Pretty Boy Floyd, "Leather Boys With Electric Toyz" is my favorite album, and Accept, "Metal Heart" my second fave.
As far as vinyl, I actually have Number Of The Beast really because my boyz were wanting me to sing some of that crap. I also have a very cool Brit Import Comp of NWOBHM from like '80 or something with Saxon, "Princess Of The Night", Iron Maiden, "Run To The Hills", Samson, Raven, Tygers of Pan Tang and some other sh*t on it.
Y'know, leave it to just about the only scholar on this site to figure out what my real problem with Maiden is...(Ho, man, they're really going to come out of the woodwork on this one).
Well, he's just about the only scholar on here, I'm going to guess, unless people start wanting to post their resumes, besides the genius behind the iron curtain (no, not Maiden, fools) who's runnin' the show here, and who, probably against her better judgement, still hasn't blocked me from commenting.
Shadow, you've hit the nail on the head...
My problem isn't so much with Maiden...
It's Prog Rock.
I just don't regard Prog Rock as true Rock'n'Roll... y'know what I mean, as in traceable to Elvis and Chuck Berry kinda Rock'n'Roll... The stuff the Beatles and the Stones came out of... And then Metalled up by Zep and Sabbath, thou a little less so on the latter... And Purple... And then got Glammed up by Bowie and Bolan and Mott and the Dolls and then Rocked up by Aerosmith and old Nugent and Van Halen, etc., etc., and then Punked up by the Pistols, 999, and the Damned, not so much the Clash... then Leppardized and Crued and Double Gunned and Poisoned and Ratted Up and just where I thought there was a fork in the road with Pink Floyd (though I actually liked them) and Genesis and though quite a bit better because they still rocked, Jethro Tull and all that stuff -- that's where Iron Maiden and Rush and all that other distended crap came from... it's down the path with Hawkwind (thank yer lucky Metal starz, Lemmy saw Elvis and went the other way) and Hillage and all that other trype.
So, let's thank Shadow for figuring out what I was really trying to say and can now articulate so much better rather than just go on and on, though that's going to happen anyway, as I've explained to Al before, part of the whole trip here is that I just type really, really fast.
And Fletch is actually right, come to think of it, I do actually ask for donations. I am always asking people for stuff I should listen to, and in this case, Shadow has actually come through and with something no one here would ever expect... a Maiden record I will probably be able to listen to and if it's that good, I'll even get the Jap import like I did with Dickinson's "Tattooed Millionaire", an absolute masterpiece.
I'll keep you posted.
p.s. And, Rich, you get the assist and I appreciate it, Bro. You flagged the whole Prog issue when you defended it, for better or worse, over on a previous Queensryche thingy she did just several days ago but we are still keeping alive with the meanie Fletch.
p.s.s.t. Hey, look, Rich, really, watch something else besides the World Domination Channel once in awhile. Though Obama has not lived up to my expectations, he's still our President. No matter how much of a jokester I thought Bush was, I never let the hatred and vitriol in me even broach the levels we are seeing toward Obama. Trust me, this country has rebuilt the world ten times over. We can afford to borrow a little more, print a little more to get our country going again.
Don't you see Corporate America is holding onto all of the profits and trying to choke out what is at least a teenie-weenie bit better than where we were the last 10 years which has been born out by what Obama was left with.
I assure you, had they not put that stimulus through when they did, our country would look a helluva lot bleaker than it is now, if that's possible.
Don't believe the hype. Do you really think the Repugnicant's would have let Wall Street fail or GM, for that matter. It's ludicrous. They are just posturing to gain favor with the corporations and The Base, and you know what that's really made up of, whether you like it or not.
Look, Obama screwed up, no doubt. He shoulda done this Infrastructure thing first and the Health Care thing second, but you'll see, they will prevail and they will help you and protect you, well, at least a little better than what is really threatening the fabric of this country well beyond where it 's headed now.
I just wish Obama would be a little less indignant and a little more Noble, like how Morgan Freeman portrayed Mandela, though in reality, and I have this on good authority, Mandela was actually a bit of a monster, too.
But, it's still not too late, and they will pull out of the tailspin they are in just in time and keep control, which is actually in your better interest, believe me.
If not, you'll be out of a job in a matter of months, trust me.
Who's gonna save you???
Romney? Palin? Gingrich? Huckabee? Bachman? You know who the REAL psychos are, my friend. If they get in, you'll be asked to report for a chip insertion in the space of 5 years, I assure you, but your heroes will be long gone.
So UNROCK!
Don't worry, we'll save you from yourself...
Rock On!
And for the record, I'm opposed to anyone drinking the Koolaid (we need a better metaphor, since I'm actually a fan of Koolaid), including those that were herded to the polls in November of 2008 to vote in an election that they knew very, very little about beyond the fact that Obama's black and he said he would unite us and fix everything so that I won't have to make my house payments anymore - whoohoo!!
I'm for firing everyone on Capitol Hill and starting over. If I picked 535 names at random out of the phone book, I don't think they could screw things up any worse than the clowns in our current Congress. Jefferson had it right with the notion that a large and powerful federal government would be terrible for this country, and judging from what Obama's done so far, I think it's fairly clear that he's part of the "federal government will save us because it knows better than the common citizenry" crowd. Our government should create opportunity, not guarantee outcomes like Obama would like it to do.
With regard to the economy, don't you think there's a limit to how much debt we can assume without it having any negative long-term consequences? The proverbial credit card is beyond maxed out. I think it's clear that unlimited spending may not be the best mechanism for recovering from a recession. Growing the government as a means of providing jobs is a bad idea. Growing the private sector to provide jobs is a good idea, and Obama is clearly not a big advocate for the "evil and untrustworthy" private sector. The irony is, if you want something akin to "evil and untrustworthy" just look to our current leadership in Washington.
Speaking of which, how about Nancy Pelosi - you can't possibly want to defend her and her minions. I doubt there's ever been a bigger idiot that was 2nd in line for the presidency. Politicians like her are why we need to clean out Washington and start over. These bureaucrats don't ever let common sense get in the way of governing, do they? Anyhow, I could go on and on but I need to go watch Bill O'Reilly - you love O'Reilly don't you Metalboy? Rock on!!
Metalboy be warned, Somewhere in time is synths a plenty but hte second half of the record can get stingy at some points especially in "long distance runner" and "Alexander the great"
Really who would name a song that? the former anyway.
I'm ok with Prog rock if its done right. I like the whole Rock and Roll symphony bit sometimes, not all the time though.
Really I'm a scholar?? I heard that right?? Wowl, I feel Smurt!!
Just kidding Smart HAHA!!!