The 7th day, the 7th album, “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”. The only thing I regret is that it would have been perfect if it was tomorrow which is the 7th. I Should have looked at that!
So, remember how “Somewhere in Time” was the first album with guitar synthesizers as well as having no songs written by Bruce Dickinson? Well, shit just got crazy! Not only does “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son” mark the return of Dickinson scribbling down some songs, it has… KEYBOARDS!! This first time addition isn’t bad though, so there is that.
Seventh Son was a “concept album” that came to Steve Harris after he read the Orson Scott Card story “Seventh Son”. He didn’t have any material at the time but in his excitement rang up Bruce Dickinson. Now, Bruce was feeling a little down in the dumps after the band gave him the no go on the songs he had written for the previous album “Guitar Synthesizers in Time”. This is exactly how the phone conversation went (in my head):
(ring)
Bruce: ‘ello, Bruce Dickinson speaking, you’re go for talk time.
Steve: Yo, daddy ‘o, it’s Steve “the Hair Bear” Harris. I just read this killer Orson Scott Card called story “Seventh Son”. It’s about a dude that is all powerful and stuff and has powers and stuff. Recon you want to do a concept album using this theme?
Bruce: You bloody well bet I do!
Steve: Brilliant! Umm.. do you have any songs written that fit this theme?
Bruce:…….
Steve: Bruce?
Bruce: …… Are you having a laugh, Hair Bear?
Steve: Wha… no! (laughter in the background) Not at all, look, Dicks, we all feel really bad because we know you feel like we don’t respect you. We were just taking a piss.
Bruce: Well, I have these song I wrote about a year ago but, my band DIDN’T WANT THEM!!
Steve: Aww, Bruce, don’t be like that.
Bruce: I suppose I could right some new rock and roll music for you anus kissers. I’ll get right on it.
Steve: HAHAHA, Guys, he totally fell for it!!
I have this horrible feeling I’m going to pay for that someday. All joking aside, I for one am glad Dickinson was back to writing! This is one of my favorite albums. While this is a concept album, it does kinda drift away from the theme here and there. I guess for some reason this album didn’t do well in the states. I don’t get it. I blame Mitt Romney.
The art work for this record features, um, Eddie as a floating torso with most of his skull cap busted a way and yellow goop and flames in his head. Oh and he’s holding a placenta with a baby in it or something with the umbilical cord tied off to his rib cage. The gate fold also includes different past Eddies as ice sculptures.
Remember when I was talking about the whole “bat shit crazy” cover on Somewhere in Time? Yeah, nevermind.
Track Listing:
1. “Moonchild”
2. “Infinite Dreams”
3. “Can I Play with Madness”
4. “The Evil That Men Do”
5. “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”
6. “The Prophecy”
7. “The Clairvoyant”
8. “Only the Good Die Young”
Your Eddie for today is the beginning of one I’ll work on over the next couple days, Comics need drawing!:
treebeerdstuff 