Released on Christmas Eve in 1990, in a shrewd move to get a number one thanks to the loyalty of Maiden fans, I doubt if anyone who wasn’t already a fan bought it. Still the only chart topping single I’ve ever bought (though I can’t find the never been played 12 inch single). However, the joy of my favourite band being number one was tempered by the sad truth that I was slowly going off Iron Maiden, the ‘No Prayer for the Dying’ album had been such a let down (Iron Maiden by numbers, none of the melodrama of Seventh Son or freshness of Number of the Beast, jaded metal), and I was tempted away by thrash metal and Poison (it was Teenage Fanclub that got me into indie at age 16)
This year has been the first year in ages that I haven’t listened to much new music, or been interested in it, Electroclash, nu-garage, undie rap, bootlegs, have all just passed me by, I occasionally look up like the dormouse at the tea party, but quickly retreat back into my teapot world. The charts have been great (I do have a radio and TV in my teapot world), I’d say it’s been the best year for pop in a long long time. I have bought a ton of rock, not in an attempt to recapture my youth; I have no hesitation in saying that being a teenager sucked. Rock and particularly Iron Maiden got me through my teenage hell.
I heard Bring Your Daughter for the first time since the early 1990’s recently. I’ll admit that it’s just a collage of Maiden, the running bass, the smooth guitars, the marching pace and the ever valiantly barked vocals — BUT — woefully bereft of the usual Maiden imagery, just a set of vaguely smutty lyrics that wouldn’t have made it on to Bruce Dickinson’s ‘Tattooed Millionaire’ album, it’s just silly. The song one has one redeeming moment: at 3 minutes and 14 seconds, is a ‘na na na’ bridge that builds back into the chorus, and just about saves the song.
I’m glad they had a number one, as they are the best band to come out of Britain in the ’80’s (controversy!!), but why couldn’t it have been ‘The Evil That Men Do’?