Bruce is the past & present lead singer of Iron Maiden. (Yeah, like I needed to tell you that...) His solo career started while still in Maiden, with the song "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter" (from the A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child soundtrack, and later re-recorded with the rest of Maiden); he's also done cover tunes for Nativity in Black: A Tribute to Black Sabbath and ECW: Extreme Music, as well as lending his vocals to Dream Theater's super-rare studio recording of "Perfect Strangers", and Ayreon's "Out of the Black Hole". His last 2 albums (with Adrian Smith) are among the best work he's ever done, and one could argue that the recent Iron Maiden reunion is really the other four guys joining the Bruce Dickinson Band. :)

"Tattooed Millionaire"

1. "Son of a Gun" (5:53)
2. "Tattooed Millionaire" (4:27)
3. "Born in '58" (3:39)
4. "Hell on Wheels" (3:39)
5. "Gypsy Road" (4:00)
6. "Dive! Dive! Dive!" (4:40)
7. "All the Young Dudes" (3:48)
8. "Lickin' the Gun" (3:16)
9. "Zulu Lulu" (3:27)
10. "No Lies" (6:17)

Bruce's first solo album, released in the period between Maiden's Seventh Son and No Prayer albums. I must admit I'm not too fond of this one. The title track is a pleasant bit of radio-friendly pop metal, and a few other tracks are okay, but then you also have to suffer through the crappy songs "Lickin' the Gun", "Gypsy Road", and an abominable cover version of Mott the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes". Janick Gers plays guitar & co-wrote most of the songs, so maybe that explains why it's so crappy? In any case, Bruce dragged Janick with him back to Iron Maiden after this one.

"Balls to Picasso"

1. "Cyclops" (7:56)
2. "Hell No" (5:11)
3. "Gods of War" (5:01)
4. "1000 Points of Light" (4:24)
5. "Laughing in the Hiding Bush" (4:20)
6. "Change of Heart" (4:59)
7. "Shoot All the Clowns" (4:23)
8. "Fire" (4:27)
9. "Sacred Cowboys" (3:51)
10. "Tears of the Dragon" (6:20)

Bruce's first album after ditching Maiden, and a MAJOR improvement. The songs are much darker & more raw than his pop-metal debut, and most importantly, Janick's not around to slop things up! Key tracks are "Cyclops", "Hell No", and the lovely ballad "Change of Heart".

"Alive in Studio A" (live; 2CD)

Picked up this 2-disc set because I was interested in hearing what Bruce's newest stuff with Adrian Smith sounded like. It wasn't until I got home that I realized it only covers his first 2 solo albums. Oh well, it's a nice set anyway.

"Skunkworks"

1. "Space Race" (3:47)
2. "Back from the Edge" (4:16)
3. "Inertia" (3:03)
4. "Faith" (3:36)
5. "Solar Confinement" (3:19)
6. "Dreamstate" (3:49)
7. "I Will Not Accept the Truth" (3:44)
8. "Inside the Machine" (3:27)
9. "Headswitch" (2:14)
10. "Meltdown" (4:34)
11. "Octavia" (3:15)
12. "Innerspace" (3:32)
13. "Strange Death in Paradise" (5:00)

Never been impressed with Bruce's early solo material, and after listening to this one in-store, I decided to put it back...but the hooks stuck in my head (especially the magnificent "Back from the Edge") and finally, I made a special trip back to the store to buy it! Quite a masterpiece...truly, Iron Maiden should just hand their name over to Bruce and be done with it.

"Skunkworks Live" (CDR; 5/31/96, Pamplona, Spain)

1. "Space Race" (3:35)
2. "Back from the Edge" (4:21)
3. "Tattooed Millionaire" (3:42)
4. "Inertia" (3:52)
5. "Faith" (3:21)
6. "Meltdown" (5:30)
7. "I Will Not Accept the Truth" (4:42)
8. "Laughing in the Hiding Bush" (4:06)
9. "Tears of the Dragon" (8:17)
10. "God's Not Coming Back" (2:19)
11. "Dreamstate" (6:02)
12. "The Prisoner" (6:47)

Good show, though I'm a little disappointed with the quality -- sounds very muddied and compressed, like it was ripped from mp3s (I'm not 100% positive about that, though) and rife with dropouts and other artifacts. On the bright side, it does feature many songs from the Skunkworks era (which never got played again on later tours), along with the rare B-side track "God's Not Coming Back", and the Iron Maiden song "The Prisoner".

"Accident of Birth"

1. "Freak" (4:16)
2. "Toltec 7 Arrival"--instrumental (0:37)
3. "Starchildren" (4:17)
4. "Taking the Queen" (4:49)
5. "Darkside of Aquarius" (6:42)
6. "Road to Hell" (3:57)
7. "Man of Sorrows" (5:20)
8. "Accident of Birth" (4:23)
9. "The Magician" (3:54)
10. "Welcome to the Pit" (4:43)
11. "The Ghost of Cain" (4:13)
12. "Omega" (6:24)
13. "Arc of Space" (4:18)

Adrian Smith joins Bruce for this one (I guess Adrian's A.S.A.P. project didn't pan out?) and as a result, this is the most Maiden-ish of Bruce's solo work. Even better than Skunkworks! If Iron Maiden was still putting out music this great, there would be NO NEED for a reunion...

"Accident in Brazil '97" (CDR; 11/15/97, Sao Paolo, Brazil)

1. "Accident of Birth" (5:16)
2. "Toltec 7 Arrival/Starchildren" (4:32)
3. "2 Minutes to Midnight" (7:31)
4. "Darkside of Aquarius" (7:47)
5. "The Magician" (4:41)
6. "Road to Hell" (4:40)
7. "Tattooed Millionaire" (4:42)
8. "Tears of the Dragon" (7:28)
9. "Powerslave" (7:21)
10. "Taking the Queen" (4:58)
11. "Flight of Icarus" (4:29)
12. "Laughing in the Hiding Bush" (4:33)
13. "Run to the Hills" (5:26)

Soundboard recording from the Accident of Birth tour. Decent quality, except for the guitars which are practically inaudible! It sounds like Adrian's playing a lute, or mandolin, or something. Anyhow, if you want hella tracks from the AoB album, here ya go. Interesting how the Iron Maiden songs are the same ones used on the Chemical Wedding tour...

"The Chemical Wedding"

1. "King in Crimson" (4:43)
2. "Chemical Wedding" (4:06)
3. "The Tower" (4:45)
4. "Killing Floor" (4:29)
5. "Book of Thel" (8:13)
6. "Gates of Urizen" (4:25)
7. "Jerusalem" (6:42)
8. "Trumpets of Jericho" (5:59)
9. "Machine Men" (5:41)
10. "The Alchemist" (8:27)

A couple people have rated this album as the best metal CD of the 1990's; well, I dunno about that, but it's pretty damn good! Thick, crunchy guitars...catchy bridges & choruses...very unique sound, unlike anything Bruce has done with or without Maiden (unless you count "The Tower", which totally rips off the bass line from "Wrathchild".) It's not a concept album per se, but all songs are based on the poetry of William Blake -- most interesting is the hymn "Jerusalem", the exact same song done by Emerson, Lake & Palmer! (So does that count as an ELP cover?) "The Alchemist" actually ends at 6:00, followed by two minutes of silence, followed by a brief spoken-word bit about wearing vegetables on your feet, or something like that....now...what I really want to know is, will the reformed Maiden ever play any of these songs in concert? Would be very interesting if they did!

"Scream for Me Brazil" (live album)

1. "Trumpets of Jericho" (6:25)
2. "King in Crimson" (4:56)
3. "Chemical Wedding" (4:33)
4. "Gates of Urizen" (4:21)
5. "Killing Floor" (4:12)
6. "Book of Thel" (8:26)
7. "Tears of the Dragon" (8:07)
8. "Laughing in the Hiding Bush" (4:01)
9. "Accident of Birth" (4:19)
10. "The Tower" (7:42)
11. "Dark Side of Aquarius" (7:32)
12. "The Road to Hell" (4:58)

A nice big heap o' loud, chunky live tunes, recorded in...hmm, I forget where exactly. :) A little heavy on the Chemical Wedding songs, but what ya gonna do...and why no Maiden songs???

"The King in Crimson Comes" (2CDR; 11/25/98, Elysee-Montmartre, Paris)

This one's essentially a compilation of two live shows -- the first one comes from the Chemical Wedding tour, with the exact same track listing as Scream for Me Brazil (albeit with much lower quality), plus some Iron Maiden tunes thrown in (aha! at last!) Much of the second disc comes from an "Unplugged"-style show in Germany, where Bruce lazes through a whole bunch of B-sides and cover tunes. My favorite is the traditional English folk song "Fog on the Tyne", where Bruce says, "This is a very rude song, in fact if they released it today, they'd put stickers all over it!"

"The Best of Bruce Dickinson" (limited edition 2CD version)

Some time ago I read that Bruce was planning to re-release all his solo CDs with bonus tracks from b-sides and whatnot, but apparently that never happened...so here's the next best thing, a greatest hits collection with a limited edition bonus disc of rare or previously unreleased material. I guess it would be too much to ask for ALL of Bruce's rare stuff on the second disc (which would fill about 2 or 3 cds alone!), so on the bright side there's quite a few tracks that I never found on mp3 or even knew existed. Rarest of all would be "Dracula", from Bruce's first ever recording session, back in 1976 or so. "Wicker Man" is NOT the Iron Maiden song of the same name, in fact in "Voice of Crube" (which is simply Bruce explaining where all these tracks came from) Bruce says he was rather peeved that Maiden chose that title!

There's also two brand-new songs on the "hits" disc one -- "Broken" is fantastic, solidly in the Chemical Wedding style, whereas "Silver Wings" is a bit generic and boring.

"The Rest of Bruce Dickinson" (CDR; mp3 source)

1. "Bohemian Rhapsody"--with Montserrat Caballe (5:47)
2. "Winds of Change" (3:23)
3. "Cadillac Gas Mask" (4:07)
4. "Tibet" (3:00)
5. "Spirit of Joy" (3:13)
6. "No Way Out...to be continued" (7:30)
7. "The Breeding House" (5:19)
8. "The Post-Alternative Seattle Fallout" (5:00)
9. "Over and Out" (4:18)
10. "R101" (2:05)
11. "Americans Are Behind" (2:51)
12. "Rescue Day" (4:08)
13. "God's Not Coming Back" (2:16)
14. "Armchair Hero" (2:42)
15. "Confeos" (5:07)
16. "Beehive Boogie"--Nicko McBrain, instrumental (2:58)
17. "Smoke on the Water" (3:58)
18. "Firechild" (6:06)
19. "Elvis Has Left the Building" (3:16)
20. "Delilah"--live (2:22)

This was a project several years in the making, spanning the full lifespans of Napster AND Audiogalaxy -- unfortunately, Bruce b-sides were exceedingly rare on both services. Originally it was planned as a 2-CD set, but the release of The Best of Bruce Dickinson and its bonus disc of goodies kinda threw a monkey wrench into the works...finally, I just said HELL WITH IT and burned a single CD of what I'd been able to find so far. ("Return of the King" got cut since it's already been "released" on Digital Puppy #4 :) -- in addition, there were two Alice Cooper songs and a few live tunes that I never found good mp3s of.)

The only comment I'll make right now is about that song "Americans Are Behind" -- now now, Bruce, didn't one of our countries get their ass kicked good by a bunch of musket-wielding peasants back in 1776 or so? And didn't said peasants bail out the other country when they were about to be assimilated into a giant borg-like sauerkraut nation? Show some respect...

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