1292. Bruce Dickinson / Tattooed Millionaire. 1990. 3.5/5

All bands have a peak, a time when they could not be possibly any higher in their career than they are at a certain point. It is not something that they necessarily know at that time, but that after the event they can look back and pinpoint just when it is, and hopefully smile and say ‘yeah, that was something wasn’t it?’. For Iron Maiden, that peak was the conclusion of 1988, following the tour to support the album “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”. The band had produced seven incredible albums, had solidified their line up over the last four of those albums, and those albums had charted all over the world. In terms of success, Iron Maiden was scaling Everest. Looking back from this point on the timeline, perhaps they had reached the peak of Everest. The band had chosen to take a year off after their demanding schedule over recent years, and several events began to pass that would change the shape of the band over the next few years. Perhaps this was already underway anyway.
In early 1989, Bruce Dickinson was asked if he would like to contribute a track for the movie “A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child”, the next instalment of the Freddie Krueger horror legacy. For this, Dickinson was provided a budget, a studio, and a producer in the experienced and well renowned Chris Tsangarides. Bruce took up the opportunity and roped in an old friend in guitarist Jannick Gers to come in with him, and between them they came up with the song “Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter”, which they duly recorded with the help of bass guitarist Andy Carr and drummer Fabio del Rio. So impressed with the results of the song, Zomba Music asked Dickinson if he was interested in recording a solo album. Fellow bandmate Adrian Smith had done the same thing the previous year with his Adrian Smith and Project, an album called “Silver and Gold”. Here was an opportunity for Bruce to fully put himself onto an album for the first time. He hadn’t done so in Samson, and in Iron Maiden he would always be restricted to a degree with what he wanted to do by the numbers of the band and of course the band leader himself. Here, he would be the band leader, and could express himself in any way he saw fit. The result was Bruce accepting the offer, and by keeping the same band and the same album producer, they spent a two week period in the studio creating what was to become the album “Tattooed Millionaire”, one that history tells us was the precursor to what was to unfold over the next two years and into the following decade.

One decision that was made did come from Bruce’s main band, one that showed that the influence of Steve Harris extended beyond that band’s reach. Steve had been so impressed with Bruce’s song “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter” that he decided that he wanted to put it on Iron Maiden’s next album. That meant suppressing the version that had been released on the movie soundtrack, but it also meant that Bruce was unable to use it on his own solo album. Now, whether he would have ended up doing that or not is still something that has been left unresolved over the years, but if it had been added it may have made this album even more important than it became regarding shaping the future.
The album opens with the track that is going to set the style of the album, and “Son of a Gun” does that with a cool set of opening lyrics, with Bruce’s vocal set “Holy was the preacher, Riding on his rig of steel in the rising sun, This was no grim reaper but a man with a smile who took a pride in a job well done
Oh, in a bloodred sunrise, He's preaching conversion, as you lay down and die”. Sitting back in a slower than expected tempo, it does give Bruce the opportunity to utilise all of his vocal range and style, and also Jannick to almost croon along on lead guitar throughout as well. It actually works surprisingly well as the opening track to the album. The title track “Tattooed Millionaire” gives Bruce the opportunity to give a spray to as many people and subjects as he feels like doing. The harmony vocals through the bridge and chorus work really well, especially given that they are not overused in his other more famous band. Mixed with the harsher vocals through the verses, the song itself blends nicely into the subject matter of the lyrics, and the bass and drums act as the base of the song underneath throughout. Bruce is able to touch on subject matter that wouldn't fit in Iron Maiden at that time, though it is amusing that that was to change very soon. It’s another excellent entry to the start of the album.
“Born in ‘58” is a nicely performed almost-autobiographical song, focusing on growing up with his grandparents, and the way people were in those days and how the events of the time affected their lives and his upbringings. Once again, it isn’t a fast song but is tinged with a well performed melody, and it is the reflective thought brought about by Bruce’s words and singing that gives the song its emotional base. The other big player in this song is that by this point of the album it is noticeable with surety that this album is as far away from an Iron Maiden album as you could imagine. Unless you have heard Adrian Smith’s album that and been released the previous year. “Hell on Wheels” sticks to the slower mid-tempo, with Bruce incorporating a harsher vocal in a chanting style for most of the track, until we reach the chorus where his harmony dual vocals return to remind us of his primary vocal asset. Jannick gives us a nice guitar solo through the middle of the song that lifts it above the average as a result. “Gypsy Road” might stick to the same tempo as those songs before it, but it falls back to a ballad state, another reflective tome about leaving the high life and leading the simpler life that the gypsies were want to do. It may well have been something that was on Bruce’s mind when composing the song, that perhaps he wanted a simpler life than life always on the road. These three songs back to back provide a real point of difference in Bruce’s style, where even his vocals stylings are marked with change.
“Dive! Dive! Dive!” has lyrics that play up the urban myth about the characters names in the British comic “Captain Pugwash” and descends into a bucketful of double entendres that proliferate the song. At the time this was written it had been suggested not only some sections of the public but also the media that the characters in the cartoon had double meanings, but this was eventually retracted publicly when the author John Ryan took those media barons to court. Instead, this song stands as a monument to what was heard snickered behind hands in schoolyards around the country. Whether that is a good thing or not is open to public opinion. The song itself is more upbeat that most of the offerings before this and stands out as a result. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Bruce wrote a song of this nature, given the subject matter of the novel he was about to publish called “The Adventures of Lord Iffy Boatrace”. This is followed by “All the Young Dudes” a cover of the Mott the Hoople song which is given loving treatment here. Indeed, for me at least, I think it is the best version of this song.
The final three songs of the album, I feel, have a hard time living up to the rest of the album. “Lickin’ the Gun” is an energetic anti-authority song with Bruce spitting out his diatribe faster than you can sing along, although most of it isn’t singing but more standing on his soapbox and unloading on the protagonists of the song. “Zulu Lulu” lyrically at least is Bruce’s Kiss song, giving away more than he should but never the whole story in the same position. And the closing song “No Lies”, while preaching more of the evils of the world, just becomes far too repetitive musically and lyrically to fully enjoy. And with that, in the final analysis, is what you are left with here by the end of the album. It covers the gamut when it comes to musical style and also lyrical tales. There is something for almost everyone, but perhaps not enough of it to offset the pieces that you may well not adhere to.

I don’t think there is much doubt that when I bought this album on its release, I was expecting something truly amazing. I didn’t expect Iron Maiden, but I expected something that would showcase Bruce’s amazing vocals, the range and the drawn out melodies, and music that would also enhance all of those qualities. I guess I was expecting exactly what I got from the “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter” single from the A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 soundtrack. THAT’S what I was expecting – nay, demanding! An album of that kind of attitude and excitement and joy. And as we all know, that kind of expectation can cruel an album before you even hear it. And for me at that time, when I bought it and first played it... it didn’t! In fact, I was taken with this album immediately. Sure, it could hardly have been much more different from what I was hoping for, but at that time it still intrigued me. The mood swings of the album I thought at the time were enjoyable, the songs n the opening half of th album were all great. I swung with the punches when it came to the second half of the album, really not even noticing any change in quality or style, just play the album through, and then go back and start it all again. This continued to be a regular event for about 3 months, right up until a plethora of amazing albums were released in the second half of 1990. And right up until that time, I enjoyed this album without any qualms. It was Bruce doing a solo project to showcase some of his love of other styles of hard rock music with a friend. It was enjoyable. And of course, it was a one-off thing, so there was no need to thinkabout it leading to anything else. Well, once again, shows what you know Bill!
I wouldn’t say that my opinion of the album changed over the proceeding years, but it explained a lot about the seeding of Bruce’s eventual split with Iron maiden and the fostering of a solo career. Everything that appears on this album could not have been done in the environment of Iron Maiden, and the fact that it had been reasonably well received even though it is not a heavy metal album must have said to Bruce that it was perhaps a better outlet for him where he could make all of the decisions without have to go through a consensus of opinion. Or the opinion of one other. The direction of Bruce’s two solo album’s following that split - “Balls to Picasso” and “Skunkworks” - brought home to me the differences and adaptations that Bruce had within his volume of work, and funnelled back to this album, and why it was an important thing that he did at that time. Because he would have known going into this solo album that he would have a large majority of Iron Maiden fans who would buy it no matter what, and that a reasonable percentage of those fans who did would be unhappy with the results.
I have spent the last week listening to this album again, and it has been some time since I last gave it a listen. Unlike many others, I have no negative thoughts or connotations about “Tattooed Millionaire”. I accepted its change of style and direction when I first heard it, and I am in no different position today. I rarely analyse an album so closely as to ascertain why I love or hate or am ambivalent about a riff, a rhythm section, a track or an album. That is as true as it can possibly be when it comes to “Tattooed Millionaire”. I still like “Son of a Gun”, the way it opens the album. I really enjoy he title track and “Born in ‘58” and “Hell on Wheels”. I love the version of “All the Young Dudes”, it is given a loving performance, and the closer “No Lies”. All of this I still sing along to and enjoy. Yes, a big part of that is nostalgia, because I played this a lot when I first got it, in the absence of a new Iron Maiden album, and it does remind me of that time. And the other songs here? Well, they are tolerable. They are a part of the album, and thus when I listen, I listen to it all. They aren’t bad but they have dated.
This album marked not only a skew in Bruce Dickinson’s career path, but also that of Iron Maiden. The change of musicians and how that affected both Maiden and Bruce himself, the change of music direction created by the times and the change in personnel. All of that can be traced to Adrian’s “Silver and Gold” album and Bruce’s “Tattooed Millionaire” album. Not everything that came from the next decade was good, but as a forerunner to the recombining of all concerned in order to push Maiden into the next century, it was all a very necessary element. “Tattooed Millionaire” may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I will always think of it as an enjoyable album.