In Bruce’s case, he had already been writing for a second solo album to follow his first, “Tattooed Millionaire” which had been released back in 1990. That album had been written and recorded on a rushed schedule, and had met with a mixed response. In beginning to compose material for a second album, Bruce had come to terms with his feelings that he needed to go out on his own and become the master of his own destiny. The material written for the “Tattooed Millionaire” album was nothing like an Iron Maiden album, and was the first sign that perhaps Bruce, much like Adrian Smith had done at that same time, decided he wanted to move in a different direction from what his band was doing. The question as to exactly how divergent Bruce’s solo career was going to move compared to his former band was something well discussed in those months after his final departure. The somewhat severe path that Adrian had taken, along with the change up that Bruce’s first solo album had offered, gave fans food for thought in this regard.
Bruce had begun those initial writing sessions while still in Iron Maiden alongside producer Keith Olsen, whose credits stretched throughout the hard rock and soft rock bands across a decade or more. While expanding on these at Olsen’s LA studio, Bruce heard another band recording, and was so impressed he actually took the band to Rod Smallwood (who was still acting as Bruce’s manager), who signed them up. Eventually Bruce decided to scrap the project with Keith Olsen, and instead found a collaborating partner by the name of Roy Z, a partnership that was to end up being the most productive of Bruce’s solo career. Roy had his own band called the Tribe of Gypsies – the same band Bruce had heard in those same studios – who became the recording and touring band for Bruce as well. From these fortuitous circumstances, Bruce had started down the path that would eventually lead him back to the top of metal music... though it was to be a circling and more winding path than Bruce perhaps initially imagined.
The opening of the album at least gave fans the chance to sigh with relief, in that the opening track was not in the style of Bruce’s first solo outing. Instead, “Cyclops” mixes that metal sound that was popular at this time with Bruce’s iconic vocal lines. It was more or less what one would have hoped for, a sound that was definitely not Iron Maiden, but still retained Bruce’s outstanding vocals. Roy Z announces himself as well with a great sounding solo lick through the middle of the song, and while it may go on a bit long, the album’s opening track promises much. “Hell No” follows on, on a similar path though with a less intense tempo and vocal stream. It’s another solid song, one that is fine to listen to without creating a massive impression. “Gods of War” is a warblefest, with lots of ‘wooooOOOHoooh” from Bruce and a much busier sound from the band. Once again Roy impresses with his guitar solo, but that tends to be the highlight of the song. This is followed by “1000 Points of LIght”, a stop start affair at best. What is obvious from the album to this point is that everything is in the slower mid tempo range, channelling the mood of the music of the time, searching for the slower, grungier, alternative sound that was being pushed in the mid-1990's as the direction that heavy metal was going, with some Latin influences that Roy and the Gypsies brought with them.
“Laughing in the Hiding Bush” again has the same tempo shift – duh-duh duh duh duh – that these middle tracks are basing themselves on, mixing the harder parts of the track along with the pieces that ease back a little. I like this song, and the way it is constructed, but I also feel it is endemic of the album itself, that the flow is halting throughout, energetic and then placid, stop and start. Bruce has stated in interviews since that he wishes that he had made this the title of the album. That sounds a bit mainstream of him, and not at all the rebellious nature that he obviously carried at that time.
“Change of Heart”. OK Bruce. NOW we have a problem. Now, some of you may have listened to my episode on Iron Maiden’s “Fear of the Dark”. And if you have, then you would know of my grave disappointment with the travesty of abhorrence that is the song “Wasting Love” that appears on that album. OK. Notch that up a bit for “Change of Heart”. Bruce and the lads here offer us an acoustically driven ballad that, maybe, some of the fans out there enjoy. I do not. Yes, I get that Bruce is trying new things here on this album, because now he is not restrained by the edict of his previous overlord. But is this really the kind of stuff Bruce was interested in producing? When I first heard this track, it was what gave me the idea of ripping out the cassette and throwing it into the back of the dark recesses of a drawer, never to be found again. The fact that this song was originally composed by Roy for his previous band Driver with bandmate Rob Rock, and that Bruce basically wrote new lyrics for it, does not make me feel any better about it. And I don’t think I have felt any different about it since. Yes, nicely composed song, beautifully played and sung. But still awful.
“Shoot All the Clowns” mixes snatches of the kind of vocal that we would like from Bruce, but then has the lower range smoothed out vocal line of the chorus, while the music has that funk sound to it, especially with Roy’s guitar in the middle of the track, before he breaks into a much more satisfying solo section. This is followed by “Fire” which is another track that has never gelled well with me. I just don’t like the way the song is sung, and I don’t like the way the music is constructed or played. On the other hand, “Sacred Cowboys” is one of the better tracks on the album. It immediately lifts the tempo and the energy, Bruce sounds like he is engaged again, and his vocal melody through the chorus makes it sound like the real Bruce once again.
Then there is the song that Bruce could never have done with Maiden, the song that you get the feeling that he left that band so that he could explore without limitations. I mean, that is what he has done with the entire album up to this point, because none of this would have worked in a Maiden environment. He has explored different directions that he could never have done within the restraints of that previous band. Now, in my opinion, some have worked, and others have not. But “Tears of the Dragon” is different. It is the blindingly obvious superior song on the album, the one that rises above all else and announces itself to you when you listen to the album. Everything about it is so much better than every other track here. Roy’s solo break in the middle. The little Latin piece that links the solo back into Bruce’s vocal. The click between the drums and bass. The energy, the passion, the drive. And of course, Bruce’s vocal, where he finally finds within himself the true power and majesty of his voice, perhaps for the first time since “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”. This song is so far above everything else Bruce and his band does here, that it makes you wonder whether it was written in different sessions. Do you want a whole album of songs like this? No. But the passion and energy that is prevalent on this track, I believe, would have made the album better if it was distributed to all of the album in the same way.
So here we are, back in 1994, the year of no money and living in a strange new city, and as a result, it’s another album that I didn’t discover until about 12 months after it was released. And that has a few reasons behind it. Firstly, the money aspect. Secondly, the dispersion of my familial friend group with whom I had shared all of my musical discovery through my high school years, which meant that none of us were able to discover or share our music loves as easily. Thirdly, there was a bit of ambivalence on my part in regards to Bruce as his solo career at this time. By now, the mystique of “Fear of the Dark” had worn off, and I was hearing the holes in that album that a blinding love for the band Iron Maiden had perhaps shadowed for some time. And the same could be said for Bruce’s first solo release, because the blinkers were finally off on that album as well. All of this, along with other issues that were prevalent at the time, meant that this album more or less never registered with me.
Flash forward 12 months. My life feels as though it is collapsing around me as I while away my time behind the counter at the Shell Select service station in Ryde, in the west of Sydney. One of my regulars has heard the music I play when I am on my own during evening shifts, and he would often acknowledge with a nod an album I was listening to. One afternoon, he comes in, and without any preamble simply states “have you heard Bruce Dickinson’s last solo album?”. I professed that not only had I not heard it, that I didn’t know he had one out! “Oh, it’s BRILLIANT! You’ve GOT to hear it!” I assured him that I would check it out as soon as possible, and we parted ways. For the next month, every time he came in, the same conversation took place. Eventually one day, he walked in, and handed me a cassette. “There. Now. No more excuses!”
So I listened to it, without any forethought or bias, given that, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t expecting anything outstanding given that there had been zero press about it in Australia. And over the first few listens I discovered that... I hated it. I just didn’t like it. This wasn’t the Maiden-like music that I wanted to hear! It was completely different, on another plane than I would ever have expected. And if my erstwhile regular had come in to work in those next few days, that's exactly what I would have said to him. I felt like throwing it in the drawer and forgetting about it, but knowing that he would be back, I kept going. And in doing so, I did warm to it eventually. I accepted that it was different because it HAD to be different, or else why would Bruce have moved on? And by the time the inevitable conversation occurred, I was in a much better place with this album, and was able to convey that to him.
30 years on, and the world is a far more different and enjoyable place than the dark days of 1994 and 1995. “Balls to Picasso” has been frequenting my CD player for the past couple of weeks, and I discover, again, that my feelings of this album haven’t changed that much. There are some quite reasonable songs on this album, and one spectacular one. The era that the album was released, along with the desire for a change in direction from the protagonist, does date it in that way. I continue to desire an album where the songs are faster, and get out of second gear, but that certainly isn’t the case here. As an album, it is shadowed by the releases that followed it. In recent times, one of my favourite podcasts, Uncle Steve’s Iron Maiden Zone, had an episode in which they compared “Tattooed Millionaire” and “Balls to Picasso”, an interesting discussion and one which raised many great points on both sides. In the long run, while both albums were a necessary step to get to where we are today – Bruce back with Maiden, and yet still releasing amazing solo albums – neither would be considered as an all time classic.
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