Paul DiAnno's Lament....

Since my last post was kind of depressing, I figured I'd stay in that vein and talk about that poor bastard Paul DiAnno.

Who's Paul DiAnno you ask? Well, you should probably know, but if you don't, he was the first singer of Iron Maiden. Well.... actually that's not entirely true. He was the first Iron Maiden singer to be immortalized on vinyl. Iron Maiden had a few singers before our boy Paul, but they've been forgotten by history! (or at least by me)

So yeah, DiAnno made it onto a ton of Maiden singles, including their first release, "the SoundHouse Tapes". If you have a copy of this you're lucky. I apparently am unlucky, as I do not own the SoundHouse tapes. Are you listening Santa? I've been really good this year, you fat S.O.B!

Anyway, PD was a pretty decent singer, but he just didn't really fit in with the rest of the band. For one, he had short hair and back then, that just didn't fly with most metalheads. I know, I know, you're saying "RecordLad, you ignorant bastard, what about Rob Halford?" Well, I guess he was the exception to the rule.

So anyway, I'm getting off topic here, the point is, PD could really wail, and the two Maiden albums he appeared on could only be described as EPIC.

So what happened? I've heard tons of stories, he was unreliable, a drunken buffoon, etc. etc. etc. but the main reason seems to be that they thought they had gone as far as they could with poor old Paul DiAnno.

It really does seem like they made the right choice though, as the band is still doing incredibly well with Paul's successor, Bruce Dickinson. But there's the rub. Mostly when you get kicked out of a band, it's by your idiot friends in high school who all end up working at the Dairy Queen anyway. Or you get kicked out of your stupid airband cause they only want four guys in the band so they can do all Poison songs. (That's right you assholes, I still haven't forgotten about that!)

But getting kicked out of Iron Maiden in 1981 would be just about the worst thing that could ever happen to you. Right after you got the boot, they would release classic album after classic album and pretty much dominate the rest of the decade. You would have to go to mars to avoid seeing kids with Iron Maiden t-shirts.

And then just when you thought they were done, since Bruce left the group and the new singer Blaze Bayley is even worse than you were, that F*CK@$$ comes back and they're back doing just as well as they ever were!! AAGGHHH!!!!!

Even just typing that was awful, can you imagine living it? Paul DiAnno, you need a hug.