Okay, despite a day that took 90 minutes longer to be over, and despite the fact that it is still really fucking cold outside, and despite the fact that several key retarded people where I work continue to aggravate me, raise my blood pressure, and make my job extremely infuriatingly, frustratingly difficult for me… I will now kick off the “Song of the Day” feature/corner/thing/dealy with this melodious outing: “Strange World” from Iron Maiden’s 1980 debut, also called “Iron Maiden”.
Fuck, that’s all one sentence. Isn’t language neat? I mean I think the lads in Iron Maiden thought so, because they have a song called “Iron Maiden” on an album called “Iron Maiden”… and they’re called Iron Maiden! When that song comes up on my iPod, it says “Iron Maiden Iron Maiden Iron Maiden”. It’s almost like the iPod is cheering them on! Zoy!
Anyway, back to coherence… I fucking love this song. It’s the most mellow song on the album, and it suits Paul Di’Anno’s voice perfectly, and vice versa. I’m going to say right now that I prefer Paul Di’Anno’s voice to Bruce Dickinson’s. call me a heretic or a poser Maiden fan, but Dickinson’s voice can get a little “corny” sounding to me, powerful as it is.
SCREAM FOR ME INTERNET!!!
I’m not totally sure what this song is about…. I get to the part about the “ship of white” and immediately I start fantasizing about some airship with a crew of fembots…. and I can’t pay attention to what the dude is singing any more. Oh well.
The singing is what makes this song so special though. It’s a shame Di’Anno had a bit of a drinking problem that got him kicked out of Maiden. I actually don’t think they would have had super-stardom without Dickinson though.
Excuse me for going off into so many fucking tangents. Did I mention I had a very hard day at work? There are two types of retarded people in this world. The first type of retarded is the type of retarded that takes special schooling, etc. The second type of retarded is the type of retarded when they accidentally burn your fucking house down. I call it “Burn Your Fucking House Down Retarded”, or BYFHDR.
I work with a few BYFHDR people.
Okay, the mix on this works VERY well for the song. I know Steve Harris doesn’t like the way this album was mixed, and I can see what he means on some tracks, but this one is a winner. Of course, as with most of the older tunes I listen to, I have cheated. Cheated my way right out of that particular problem anyway.
I use a program called “Cool Edit” (now Adobe Audition… fuck Adobe btw) to make music sound better to me. So I can listen to this song without the tape hiss and with a bit of an expanded dynamic range too.
That being said, this song casts a spell. Not literally, but what I’m trying to say is that the sound of the instruments playing together as they play and sounding the way they do, and the drums, and the vocals… they all work together like so many other songs never get around to doing.
Wow, this initial “Song of the Day” sucked. My words, not the song. The song is good. I’ve managed to let a cup of delicious tea go cold while I’ve typed this, and if anyone is reading you’re no doubt wondering if you’ll ever get those 3 minutes of your life back.
So take another 3 minutes to listen to the song!