Pekka
Review originally posted 1507 days ago as part of the novella that is my Eddie's Archive review.
Best of the B'Sides shows the other side(s) of Maiden, as the title suggests. This album contains not only the best of their single b-sides, but most of them, and they can be divided into four categories: original non-album material, original live material, cover songs paying tribute to their influences, and the merry silliness. The band is made of a bunch of funny blokes, but as it may be wise, they don't let that fact shine through too much on their actual albums. Some unfortunate omissions are the Thin Lizzy cover Massacre, original piece I Live My Way from the X Factor sessions and the infamous Message from 'Arry, a secretly recorded confrontation between Nicko and Steve after a roadie was sent to tell something to Nicko in the middle of his drum solo, which he messed up because of the distraction. But the stuff that is included ranges from interesting to funny to quite brilliant.
This compilation fittingly starts off with the first song ever completely written by Steve Harris, aptly titled Burning Ambition, and the three song Di'Anno portion also contains a fine live rendition of Drifter and much more interestingly a re-recording of Invasion, originally found on the Soundhouse Tapes. The Bruce era contains a lot of cover tunes and a couple of originals, both new and re-recorded. Some of the highlights of this section are the Jethro Tull cover Cross-Eyed Mary, the Nektar cover King of Twilight, Reach Out (written by Dave Colwell for the project band called Entire Population of Hackney containing a couple of Maiden members) which is brilliantly sung by Adrian Smith with Bruce providing soaring backing vocals, the original piss-take tribute to their manager Rod Smallwood called Sheriff of Huddersfield and the budgie cover I Can't See My Feelings. Two early days tracks, Prowler and Charlotte the Harlot are reworked in 1988, but these versions offer nothing much, except Bruce's voice which lacks the madman charisma needed for Prowler, and a bigger sound.
Some of the most interesting tracks come from the Blaze era. Yesterday I complained in my review of the X Factor that the album could do with a couple of faster tracks, and here they are. Justice of the Peace and Judgement Day come from the same sessions, but the band decided to give the album a darker edge by leaving these up-tempo pieces out. After some thought I've come to the conclusion that it was a wise decision, as the tracks aren't quite up to the standards of the eventual album. The familiar pre-show tape track Doctor Doctor by UFO is great to hear in Maiden form too, and the compilation ends with a couple of good live tracks first from the tours with Blaze and then from the Ed Hunter reunion tour.