Like most who have responded to this post, I've been listening to early Iron Maiden pretty much non-stop for the past 24 hours - even fell asleep last night to about the seventh song on NoTB, "Gangland" I think. I've also watched quite a bit of the early performances available on YouTube from the
Maiden Japan days through the
Beast Over Hammersmith stuff in 1982 and as I do it really hits me what a true energy and uniqueness Clive brought to those early records and live performances.
It's not an exaggeration to say the metal world owes him a debt as not only a drummer bringing more to the table than just setting the beat, but if you compair him to other drummers in metal bands at the time he was really different. Add to that how hard he hit the drums and he was both powerful and original.
Maiden really is my first love of metal - they are the group that really started me down this path. As a musical child of the 70's and 80's (graduating from High School in 85) it was Maiden that took me from the music my older brother got me into - Rush, Genesis, Yes, Deep Purple, ... et al, and into heavier music. I remember fondly the everlasting battle between me and my best friend over who was more metal - Maiden or Priest? I was firmly from the Maiden camp (don't get me wrong - I loved Priest as well), my best friend, who I shit you not, dressed basically like K.K. Downing several days a week each week in high School, studded wristbands and black spandex and leather and aviator sun glasses (he was also a phenomenal guitarist who had a black Gibson Flying V I drooled over as a 15 year old just learning guitar) was firmly in the Priest camp. Despite our overall opinions on the subject and our special disagreements as to who had the better guitarists, we both firmly agreed that the rhythm section in Maiden ruled all (even if he preferred Priest over Maiden). These are the things I think of when remembering Clive - you will be missed greatly and remembered fondly.
Thanks for the memories and Up the Irons!
Great performance of Killers from 1981:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDBbaLK4uho&[/ame]
