Love at First Listen - Ryan Adams Covers Iron Maiden
It's ok. Just shake it off if you got mild whiplash from this article's title. Sometimes the most unlikely music pairings, results in a spectacular cover of a song. Which is exactly what happens when alt-country singer Ryan Adams decomposes Iron Maiden's "Wasted Years" down to its most basic elemental level.
Penned by Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith in 1986, "Wasted Years" is by far one of my favorite songs in Iron Maiden's canon. As such, attempting a cover of it will, in my humble opinion, either be heard as an act of superb artistic chutzpah, or hubris. In the case of Ryan Adams taking on the song with nothing more than his acoustic guitar in the BBC2 studios, it is most definitely an example of the former.
What Adams has done here is channel the stadium-sized intensity of a song about a road-weary rock star longing for home into a truly touching and heartfelt performance that gives the meaning of the song an even greater significance through its simplicity. For the uninitiated, here is the original.
While this song was meant to be just a performance for BBC2 listeners, the ubiquitous nature of the Internet has let it be heard worldwide and, at least in my case, may have won over new listeners to his original material. Mr. Adams, please consider making an official release of this song for your fans, new and old. Perhaps as a charity single even. The number of listens, or rather views on YouTube certainly make it a viable idea.
And just for fun... if you are unfamiliar with the "Wasted Years" single artwork, scroll back up and click on it, and see if you can spot Doctor Who's TARDIS, which Maiden's mascot Eddie is chasing through the time stream. For another Time Lord easter egg, look for the Doctor's police public call box on the cover of Somewhere in Time, the Maiden album this song features on.
Comments
Post a Comment