HEAVY HISTORY
The second single from IRON MAIDEN’s Piece Of Mind – called “The Trooper” – was released 42 years ago today (June 20th, 1983). The B-Side was the great cover of JETHRO TULL’s “Cross-Eyed Mary”.
Bruce Dickinson told me about the moderate radio hit when Music Directors in the United States heard the cover.
“Right! And the crazy thing about that is that a lot of the time people think that we sit down and we plan things out, and sometimes we do, but sometimes we don’t. That was one of the ones where, because me and Steve are both Tull fans, and he said, ‘Why don’t we do Cross-Eyed Mary?’ And I went, ‘Yeah, alright, why not?’ I didn’t think anymore about it, and we didn’t rehearse it or do anything until they went into the studio, and they did the backing track. I went in, and I went, ‘Oh, wow. Yeah.’ Ian Anderson’s voice is kind of a low baritone, and I’m like a high tenor. So I can’t get down to a low baritone without it sounding a bit weak. But if I want to sing it as a high tenor, I’ve got to sing it a whole octave above where it was, you know? I was just like, ‘Let’s find a dominatrix that had a vice attached to both of my testicles’ and away I went! I read an interview recently because I did some work with Ian. It was brilliant, I did two songs with him in a cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral it’s on YouTube, you know just fan footage and such, and some of it’s beautiful. I did ‘Revelations’ and ‘Jerusalem’. He was interviewed about it and he said, ‘Yeah, I was aware they were big fans of Tull, but I was puzzled when I heard that cover of ‘Cross-Eyed Mary’ because it sounds like the singer was in pain.’ And I was!”
TALENT WE LOST
TALENT WE LOST
R.I.P. – Bernadette Jean Kelly Johnson (GIRLSCHOOL): June 20th, 1958 – July 15th, 2007 (aged 49 years)
HEAVY BIRTHDAYS
Happy 71st Birthday Michael Anthony Sobolewski (CHICKENFOOT, VAN HALEN) – June 20th, 1954
HEAVY RELEASES
Happy 47th
FOREIGNER’s Double Vision – June 20th, 1978
Happy 40th
SCORPIONS’ World Wide Live – June 20th, 1985
Happy 37th
SAXON’s Destiny – June 20th, 1988
DEEP PURPLE’s Nobody’s Perfect – June 20th, 1988
Happy 37th
KING DIAMOND’s third studio album, Them, was released 37 years ago today (June 20th, 1988 through Roadrunner Records in Europe). North America would follow on September 13th, 1988 through Roadracer Records. It is the first album to feature guitarist Pete Blakk and bassist Hal Patino.
Happy 36th
FAITH NO MORE’s The Real Thing – June 20th, 1989
EXCEL’s The Joke’s On You – June 20th, 1989
MR. BIG’s Mr. Big – June 20th, 1989
Happy 30th
BLACK SABBATH’s Forbidden – June 20th, 1995
Happy 25th
KING DIAMOND’s House Of God – June 20th, 2000
AYREON’s Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer
Happy 17th
SCAR SYMMETRY’s Holographic Universe – June 20th, 2008
Happy 19th
UNDEROATH’s Define The Great Line – June 20, 2006
Happy 14th
THE DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT’s Deconstruction/Ghost – June 20th, 2011
FULLFORCE’s One – June 20th, 2011
Happy 11th
TANKARD’s R.I.B. – June 20th, 2014
CANNABIS CORPSE’s From Wisdom to Baked – June 20th, 2014
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June 20th, 2025 MICHAEL ANTHONY, FOREIGNER, SCORPIONS, SAXON, FAITH NO MORE, BLACK SABBATH appeared first on BraveWords - Where Music Lives.Continue reading...
