Published on Sep 28, 2004
What do you get for the Iron Maiden fanatic who has everything?
I mean, really — the band’s albums have been repackaged numerous
times over the last few years (including packaging them in their
mascot Eddie’s head), so buying for the diehard Maiden fan has to
be bloody difficult.
Which leads us to Eddie’s Archive — a six-CD set broken up into
three “albums,” plus a shotglass, scroll charting the band’s
progress (designed by Pete Frame) and a ring holding the scroll
together, all in a metal “casket.” For $100, Eddie should also come
out of the box and wax my car, but I digress.
The question is whether this set will satisfy the drooling Iron
Maiden fan. For that answer, we have to look at each two-disc set
as its own release:
BBC ARCHIVES The first two-disc set compiles four gigs
recorded and broadcast on the BBC from 1979 to 1988, and is an
interesting picture of how the band grew in both popularity and
style.
The first four selections — studio sessions from 1979 — seem
to capture the band (with Paul Di’Anno as lead singer) at their
most vulnerable, making these the most interesting of the
selections. Still without a full-length disc on the market, Iron
Maiden tear through a four-song set which accurately captures the
energy of the band while showing off songs which still needed a
coat of paint or two to make them classics. (Especially noted is
the lack of a specific guitar lick around the two-thirds mark on
“Running Free.”) For me, this is a real treasure unearthed, as it
shows what the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal sounded like in the
raw.
A six-song set from their 1980 performance at the Reading
Festival is also of interest, even if the playing is a little
uneven (especially on “Prowler”) as the band almost gets wrapped up
in the energy of the moment. You can’t really blame them, though —
this is what bands were working hard to aim for, and they were able
to achieve that goal very quickly. I admit I’ve never been a big
fan of “Remember Tomorrow,” so I’m not terribly impressed with
hearing this one live, but the bulk of this set shines.
A second appearance at Reading — this one from 1982, when Bruce
Dickinson was fronting the group — dares to suggest that Iron
Maiden was at the edge of reaching superstardom, so it is
interesting to hear how the band was dealing with it — and,
courtesy of rumors of Satanism running amok in America, how they
dealt with the downside. Again, the band sounds like they’re
getting caught up in the moment, especially Dickinson, but overall
it’s a well-played set.
The eight selections from the band’s 1988 Castle Donnington
appearance, though, is weakened by a reliance on material from
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (granted, they were touring in
support of that album). If you thought the studio versions of songs
like “Infinite Dreams” and “Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son” couldn’t
get more sterile, think again. Fortunately, the band saves face
with killer versions of classics like “The Trooper,” “Wrathchild”
and “Hallowed Be Thy Name.”
BBC Sessions isn’t designed to take the place of an official
live album like Live After Death, but is a very enjoyable set
illustrating a band’s ups and downs in their career.
BEAST OVER HAMMERSMITH There is a guilty pleasure in this
particular set from Iron Maiden’s headlinging gig at the
Hammersmith Odeon in 1982. When will you hear Dickinson perform a
set mostly comprised of songs from the era before he joined the
band?
Sure, there is a great selection of tracks from their
then-unreleased disc
The Number Of The Beast, but Dickinson is forced to rely on
Maiden’s then-brief history for this set, and he handles it well.
These old ears did detect Dickinson having a little bit of
difficulty staying in tune on the opener “Murders In The Rue
Morgue,” but he quickly settled into his role as lead throat and
put on one helluva show.
What strikes the listener about this set is that this particular
concert is fun to listen to, and it almost makes you wish you had
been there in the front row to enjoy it in person. Indeed, one has
to wonder why it took the band 20 years to release this to the
public.
BEST OF THE B-SIDES It’s ironic that the one thing that
Maiden fans have been clamoring for all these years turns out to be
the weakest link in the chain. Granted, there are some great
performances on this set, but seeing that many of these songs were
second-thoughts recorded for singles, it’s hard to take it too
seriously.
Certain tracks are bound to be favorites, depending on when you
got into Iron Maiden, of course. I still like “Reach Out,” a track
sung by Adrian Smith, from the
Somewhere In Time-era Maiden, and their cover of Jethro
Tull’s “Cross-Eyed Mary” never fails to make me smile. Each
listener will probably have their own benchmark era of the disc; to
each, their own.
And some of the performances on this one are worth some praise.
Paul Di’Anno does a great job on the live version of “Drifter,” and
it is interesting to hear Bruce Dickinson take over as lead throat
on “Remember Tomorrow,” “Prowler ’88” and “Charlotte The Harlot
’88.”
But many of these tracks are simply throwaways, and should have
been left in the realm of vinyl for diehards to search out in
morbid curiosity. “Black Bart Blues” — originally the B-side for
“Can I Play With Madness” — is an absolute waste of time,
especially with Nicko McBrain farting around in the studio.
Likewise, there’s a reason not every track makes it onto an album,
a lesson the band should have learned with “Justice Of The Peace”
from
The X Factor-era Iron Maiden. Incidentally, the few
contributions that Blaze Bayley makes on this set turn out to be
respectable; the band’s covers of “My Generation” and “Doctor,
Doctor” are enjoyable, as are the two live versions of tracks
Bayley sings on.
Best Of The B-Sides is a definite set for diehard
collectors. Otherwise, it’s two hours I’d like to have back.
OVERALL So is
Eddie’s Archive a worthwhile addition to your collection? If
the price were lower (and the B-side collection were dropped), it
would be a no-brainer. As it stands, this is one that belongs in
your collection if you’re the ultimate Iron Maiden completist.
Let’s hope the powers that be eventually see the wisdom in
releasing these three volumes individually.