SPEED

NWoBHM • United Kingdom
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Speed was a NWoBHM band from London in England, formed in 1977.

The band was notable in that Bruce Dickinson (later Samson then Iron Maiden) was the vocalist.
Thanks to Certif1ed for the addition and Bosh66 for the updates

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SPEED Man In The Street album cover 2.17 | 2 ratings
Man In The Street
NWoBHM 1980

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SPEED Man In The Street

Demo · 1980 · NWoBHM
Cover art Buy this album from MMA partners
Time Signature
Man on the street...

Genre: hard rock

Speed was the name of Bruce Dickinson's college band, and, by their contemporary standards, they did live up to their name - at least in the case of the two tracks on this demo - as their played sped up hard rocking music.

"Man on the Street" is an almost punky fast rocker which contain a couple of interesting moments, the most salient one probably being Dickinson's air raid siren scream just before the noisy organ and guitar solos. I also like the chorus-line which is quite catchy and sing-along-friendly (it also contains some Dickinson vocal acrobatics). Other than that, the song is, while energetic, quite bland and unoriginal.

"Down the Road" is slightly sped-up (literaly, the tempo gets faster, probably because of a non-tight drummer) but still generic boogie-rocker. Dickinson sounds a bit like a second-rate Gillan-clone, but does break from this a couple of time into a couple of typical Dickinson-screams. The guitar solo is a fast and chaotic blues-based one, offering more kitsch value than actual musical quality.

This release will doubtlessly be of interest to Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson fans, and if you are a collector of rare 1970s rock releases, you might be interested in this release, too.

SPEED Man In The Street

Demo · 1980 · NWoBHM
Cover art Buy this album from MMA partners
Certif1ed
The Air-Raid siren has landed!

Legend has it that Bruce Dickinson actually forgot that he had made this recording - and on hearing it, it's not too hard to understand why.

Of course, it's Bruce's vocals that gain this single any kind of NWoBHM credibility - these are completely unmistakable, with all his awesome trademark stylisations sounding somewhat superimposed;

Man In The Street is a slightly embarrassing chugger, in a kind of late 1960s Garage psych style, with the keys, rhythm and bass in loose synch, with no interesting harmony ideas at all, and a fuzzed-out lead sharing the instrumental solo with the keys.

The flip-side fares no better, being based largely on Skynyrd's epic, Free Bird, with virtually no hiding that fact - even the solo has extremely similar chops.

What's to say in its favour?

It's not a bad demo, really - a couple of average sounding songs, performed averagely, with average lyrics sung by an extraordinary vocalist.

But I wouldn't fork out a coupla hundred quid for a copy - especially when you can hear the songs right here - enjoy!.

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