Samson had formed in 1977 under the guise of guitarist Paul Samson alongside his good friend Chris Aylmer who played bass guitar. Initially their drummer had been one Clive Burr, who eventually went on to become the drummer on the first three albums for Iron Maiden. While his stint was short with Samson, his departure left the band auditioning 60 applicants for the role, before finally deciding to hire Barry Purkis for the job. Purkis was better known as Thunderstick, and had just come from an up-and-coming band by the name of... Iron Maiden. Though the band had had short lived flirtations with a second guitarist and stand-alone lead singer, it was this trio who recorded the band’s debut album “Survivors”, with Samson himself providing the vocals on the album.
With that album completed, Samson and Purkis met a young aspiring lead vocalist named Bruce Dickinson, who while still undertaking his final university exams, joined Samson onstage one night to perform one of their songs, "Rock Me Baby", and he was immediately offered the gig as the band’s lead singer. In order to learn the songs for the band’s next tour, Dickinson met the band at Greenwich's Wood Wharf studios to learn the “Survivors” album. Although the tracks did not suit his vocal style, the band found themselves piecing together new songs with Bruce that DID suit his vocal capabilities, and in the process soon composed the majority of what would become their sophomore album during their earliest rehearsal sessions, with some of these tracks being immediately incorporated into their live set.
It was during these early rehearsals that the nickname "Bruce Bruce" came about, derived from Monty Python's "Bruces sketch", one that has very Australian connotations. It didn’t take long for the name to become tiresome for Dickinson as the band's management continually wrote dud cheques, made payable to "Bruce Bruce", as a joke. Bruce later commented that he did not like it the name or being credited as such on the follow up album, but considered it "a sort of stage name" and accepted it as such. Though the majority of the album had been written very early on, the band didn’t go into the studio to record the follow up to “Survivors” until April of 1980, with the resulting album “Head On” being released in July of 1980, at a time when the NWoBHM movement was at its peak, and waiting for its sword bearers to come forth and take on the world.
“Head On”, for the most part, has a differing way stylistically throughout. There is an upbeat vice through the early tracks, but then a mix of changing options as we work our way through the opus. The opening track “Hard Times” is a good starter, though as is to become as typical response as we work our way through this album, Bruce’s vocals don’t sound like he is being fair dinkum until we get close to the end, when he really tried to put a bit of attitude into them. Quite likely, he is still discovering what he can do with that amazing voice of his at this stage of its development. There is a bit of Deep Purple in the structure of this song, both musically through Paul Samson’s guitar but also Dickinson’s vocals in places where they give off an Ian Gillan vibe. “Take it Like a Man” follows, and some serious reservations crop up along the way now that do need some discussion. I mean, seriously, the lyrics here are a bit how’s your father, aren’t they? “Touch of the lash, you got a discipline rash, Six of the best, bust my leather strap, I'm the master and you're the slave, Bend over son, you're gonna be saved”. Musically it is terrific, great pace, good guitar riff and solo from Paul, the rhythm chugs along and the vocals are great. Following this comes “Vice Versa”, a complete change of tempo from the opening tracks. The lyrics again are anything but insightful, but the opening and closing interludes are moody and dreamy. The middle of the track sounds terrific, and Bruce sounds great because he has that attitude in his voice. But the lyrics are just cringeworthy. “She could roll you over, And make you blind, She could say things to astound, The dirtiest mind, She looked so healthy, And she looked so clean, But when she got to bite you, Was she mean”. Read more of the same for “Manwatcher”. It sounds great, I love the riff, I love the bridge, I love Bruce’s vocals and the melody of the chorus in particular. But my goodness the lyrics. Is it any wonder Bruce has never felt the urge to relive some of these songs live? Could he have actively been a part of creating them? The band has some great sounding songs here but lyrically it is difficult to sing along to.
“Too Close to Rock” gives us a slight rest from the overly childish lyrics with... something less childish. Pulling back to a hard hitting tempo, this osng allows Bruce to sing without fear of gagging on the lyrical content. And then comes “Thunderburst”. If you are listening along and find it vaguely familiar, well done! You’ve picked up on an interesting bit of history. Iron Maiden’s “The Ides of March” and Samson’s “Thunderburst” are indeed essentially the same instrumental track, and the reason lies in a shared past. Back in 1977, Thunderstick briefly played with Iron Maiden as had been mentioned earlier. During that time, he and Steve Harris ‘allegedly’ co-wrote the instrumental that would later become “The Ides of March.” When Thunderstick left and joined Samson, he brought the piece with him, and it was reworked and released as “Thunderburst” on this album in 1980—a full year before Maiden’s “Killers” came out. Here on this album the whole band is credited as being composers on the song, including Steve Harris. But when Iron Maiden released “The Ides of March” on “Killers”, Harris was the sole credited composer on the track. To be fair, not the only time Harry has done this over time.
“Hammerhead” brings a bit of mythology to the table, with the title of the track referencing the fabled hammer Mjolnir that belonged to Thor of Asgard. Once again the band offers everything you could wish for of an album from this time. Great vocals from Bruce, the rumbling bassline prominent in the mix along with the rolling drumbeat throughout and Paul’s great riff and solo. “Hunted” prefaces a mid-tempo carousel before the fabled Dickinson scream comes into play during “Take Me to Your Leader”, the fastest paced song on the album, taking in cosmic and sci fi themes as it juts along through the prominent bass lines of Aylmer and double time drumming from Thunderstick. The album then comes to its conclusion with “Walking Out on You”, a song which is full of interesting time changes and the interchanging of the guitars and vocals, all pulled together by the drums again driving the song when required. It finishes off an album that has its high points and its flaws, but more than anything it retains the listeners interest throughout the journey.
I knew little and had heard nothing of Samson up until the release of the compilation album titled “New Wave of British Heavy Metal: '79 Revisited”, which was released in 1990. The album, put together by Geoff Barton and Lars Ulrich, looked to highlight bands of the NWOBHM era that had been a part of the scene as it existed in those days, and of bands who were influential to others as a result. On this album was a song from Samson, which happened to be “Vice Versa”, with the recognisable vocals of Bruce Dickinson at the forefront. This album encouraged me to chase down a number of the bands who were represented here, and Samson was one of them. Eventually.
None of my friend group had any Samson albums, so eventually I went out to find them myself, but it wasn’t until the early 2000’s that I did so, trawling the internet through a variety of methods to track down songs and albums that I was interested in listening to and discovering. And this was the first album I was able to find, and it also became the first of Samson’s albums that I bought on CD as a result. And it is easily likeable. As has been well versed during this episode, the music sounds great, the vocals sound fantastic, the structures and composing of the songs is terrific. But it falls down slightly in the content of the lyrics, mostly on the first side of the album. Perhaps they thought it was clever, perhaps it was just the way of the age, to sing about such subjects in such a way. And without trying to make a huge deal out of it, given that bands such as Accept and Kiss have done the same thing on a regular basis, it is the smallest tint on some great material.
Here is the crux of it all. Having had my CD out again this week, I have listened to this album two ways. One, just as I would normally, listening to songs that sound great and that I enjoy. Two, with a critical ear in order to give a more measured opinion of the album for this podcast. And the only real fault I have with this album, given its age, given when it was written and recorded, given the quality of albums that were released around this time, is some of the lyrics. So really, not much to be argued, is there?
Samson should probably have been a far bigger band than they ended up being. A lot of that was to do with management over the years between this album being released and the end of the touring cycle for their next album. It ended up costing them their greatest asset, who then moved on to become the driving force of one of Samson’s contemporaries. But you all know that story, and no doubt we’ll get to that down the track as well.
