Released: 1990
Tracks: Son of a Gun; Tattooed Millionaire; Born in ’58; Hell On Wheels; Gypsy Road; Dive! Dive! Dive!; All the Young Dudes; Lickin’ the Gun; Zulu Lulu; No Lies
Best track: Gypsy Road; most others on the first half are excellent too
Tracks to skip: Lickin’ the Gun, Zulu Lulu
When Bruce Dickinson decided to take a break from Iron Maiden in 1990 and record a solo album, we had no idea what he would do. I got this on the day it was released and I wasn’t disappointed. It sounds very different from Iron Maiden (esp. the last Maiden album before this, Seventh Son), but it’s still a good thing. I guess the only thing that makes it similar to Maiden is Bruce’s vocals. The music is a lot simpler and lighter than Maiden. But enough of comparing this to Maiden, we have to look at this album on it’s own merit.
It’s a good album, mostly solid throughout. A few duds (mentioned above), but mostly it’s consistent. This album is still the one with Janick Gers’ best guitar playing. He joined Maiden after this was recorded and while he’s gotten better with each Maiden album, his playing is still sloppy and undisciplined in Maiden. On Tattooed Millionaire Janick’s playing is very tasteful. He sounds good on this. The rest of the band (Andy Carr on bass and Fabio Del Rio on drums) are solid and don’t get in the way of the songs or Bruce’s vocals.
All the songs were written by Bruce and Janick, the exception being a cover of Bowie’s All the Young Dudes. He does a pretty good job with it and Janick has a nice solo in it. It’s nice to have an album of all Bruce’s lyrics, since prior to this he only got maybe 3 songs on each Maiden album. Some lyrics are pretty bad (Zulu Lulu), but some really present a side of Bruce that we never saw before this (Born in ’58 for example). The music on here is a lot more ‘pop’ than anything Maiden ever did, but it doesn’t make it any less good. The chorus of the title track is one of the catchiest things Bruce has ever done.
This album is nowhere near as good as his later efforts (Accident of Birth & Chemical Wedding), those are excellent and better than a lot of Maiden’s stuff. This is a good, solid album and real good for a first attempt. Check it out.
Rating: 86
*******
In 2005 all of Bruce’s albums were remastered and reissued with a bonus disc of all B-sides associated with the particular album. For Tattooed Millionaire all of the B-sides are there, in addition to Bruce’s original version of Bring Your Daughter…To the Slaughter (originally on Nightmare on Elm St 5, and then later on his Best Of album). This version is not available in the United States, but only as a UK import. The reason for this is that Sony/Legacy reissued the album for the US in 2003 with a few bonus tracks, but not all of them (like on the 2005 UK reissue), and as to not compete with the Sony/Legacy version, the ‘good’ one is only available as an import. Well, you know what to do if you’re so inclined.
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