So the man himself published a book about his life. Yes, in his list of professions (singer, airline pilot, radio show host, DJ, historian, television presenter, fencer, writer and songwriter), he has found a little spare time to write an autobiography.
Now, is it worth your 20 Dollars?
Short Answer.
Of course it is!! We are talking about Bruce Dickinson, the man with the 4 octave vocal tone range, one of the big voices of Classic Heavy Metal, and such a charismatic frontman.
Slap your money on the counter of your nearest bookstore or get it on-line with a few clicks. Come on! stop reading this, get out and buy it.
Wait no! read on please :)
Long Answer
To be honest, I'm not exactly the most neutral, unbiased person to write a review about Maiden's frontman. I’ll buy about anything with his name on. I'm a pretty big Maiden nerd.
Just a quick introduction on myself, I’m in my late thirties, and unlike many naturally born metal-heads, I was introduced to Iron Maiden when I was about 25 years old. Yes, I liked a few songs, but I wasn't really into this music at the time.
It wasn't until some co-workers at work, some really die-hard Maiden fans, kept on putting Maiden songs in the business trips we made when I got really struck by Eddies fever.
After getting my hands on complete discography of Iron Maiden, I just let it play over and over again. (repeat and random mode on). Since then I went to 3 Maiden concerts. I wish that number was a little bigger, but that's what we have here in the south of Spain, lots of sunshine, but few big concerts.
My work more or less forces me to dress like a 'normal' person (for whatever that means), but every once in a while, on some casual Friday I put on a Maiden shirt to the office.
By the way, I designed some Maiden shirts myself (check them out here ), so I could wear more Maiden shirts at the office. They don't come with a colourful, full chest-sized Eddies, but are a bit subtler. Except for the one with Dickinson in Spandex on the front and run to the hills in times new roman 150, leave that one for Fridays
Anyways, back to the subject.
The Man
How on earth does this man find the time to write an over 400 page counting autobiography? It took me already an hour to write this blogpost and I just finished introducing myself. You have to hand it to him, he has a résumé that scares of even the most multi-talented persons out there.
Here's a sum-up:
- TV Presenter ("Flying Heavy Metal" on the Discovery Channel among others)
- Radio host ("Bruce Dickinson's Friday Rock Show", on the BBC)
- Fencer on a semi-professional level.
- Founder of Dualist Fencing equipment. (Wasn't that a Powerslave song?)
- Beer maker (Created "The Trooper “a 4.8% bottled ale, and 3 other beers)
- Songwriter
- Writer
- Keynote Speaker
- Commercial Pilot
- Marketing Director at Astraeus (now-defunct UK charter airline.)
- Co-founder of Cardiff Aviation (an aircraft maintenance company).
- etc.
And what was that other thing..
Ah yes! Being the frontman of Iron Maiden for over 3 decades (with some interruptions, yes).
In case you're unaware of them, Iron Maiden is considered to be one of the pioneers of the New wave of British Heavy Metal (Man I really do not know why I hate that term), with over 15 studio albums and over a 100 million copies sold.
The Book.
This being only my second blog post, and first book review ever, it took quite an effort to write this. How am I going to review a book without giving away any spoilers?, but give enough information for people considering buying this book.
Other than people may think, this isn´t the first book Bruce wrote. It´s the third. He wrote a novel named The Adventures of Lord Iffy Boatrace”, during an Iron Maiden tour in the late eighties and even a sequel to to that book named The Missionary Position.
Regarding the writing style, I have to say the book reads very easily. It took me 2 sleepless nights to get through It’s very loosely written and has the typical touch of Bruce Dickinson.
He has a way of getting things trough. In an article with the Rolling Stone, he replied to a question about a statement he once made like this:
"So is it arrogant? Uh, yeah. You're the lead singer of Iron Maiden, and you're going to be arrogant every now and again, because it kind of goes with the territory, yeah. Mick Jagger, is he arrogant? Yeah, probably – it's Mick Jagger, for fuck's sake. Do I make a distinction between me walking down the street and me onstage with Iron Maiden? Yeah”",
Phrases like this can be found throughout the book.
As a downside I would mention that he doesn´t go too much into his personal life, just some slight touches. Regarding this he commented:
“I think if you throw marriages and things like that in, you automatically have to throw in divorces and all the rest of it. It's part of your life, but not part of your life that's any relevance to other people. I think you open a big can of worms there, which I don't see as any point in doing. The point of the book is to tell some great stories.”
And he´s right, his personal life is his own, but if you buy an autobiography about a public personality, you kind of expect some insights in their personal lives right?
Some referrals or explanations that could help to understand some of his mayor life changing decisions he made throughout his life. Personally I think this would make the book somewhat more personal and complete.
As you may well know, he suffered from a tongue cancer last year. This is well discussed in the book, having a complete (I think it’s even the largest) chapter dedicated to his fight against the in the book.
So should you buy this book?
Well if you are an Iron Maiden, or Bruce Dickinson fan, I guess you should.
If you are like me and have seen about any Maiden or Dickson clip on YouTube, you're probably are not going to find any mayor reveals or earth-shaking new facts.
The book does however give some nice little insights and is an overall nice read. My final conclusion is therefor, taking into account that you found this article and reached the end of it so you are probably a fan in some way, you should get it.
I’ll probably give it a 550 out of 666 stars rating :)
PD.
Shameless self-promoting ahead:
Check out my Instagram account, I post (metal/rock) based content there on a daily basis, I also have plans to make some more Maiden related t-shirts in the near future. I have some more metal related articles in the pipeline as well. So if you liked this blogpost, please share it and be sure to check back every once in a while, or leave your email in the subscription box on the frontpage.
Nicely done. Got to see him sing on his solo album tour many years ago. Awesome voice.
Thank you!, Yes a nice voice indeed
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Cool
check my blog for Rock & Metal
Thanks!, Ill check out your blog too!
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