[lit-ideas] OFF topic -- Iron maiden
- From: Paul Stone <pas@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 10:48:56 -0500
AA: Is Iron Maiden that good? I'll see if the library has it.
That depends what you consider 'good'. I don't know if I can appreciate
your definition of 'good' since you didn't like "Bridges of Madison County"
Here's a brief history of the band:
They started off as an very-hard rock band: Adrian Smith, Steve Harris
(pronounced 'arris, but known as Arry), Dave Murray, Clive Burr and Paul
Di'Anno.
Arry did most of the lyric writing and until their third album which saw
the arrival of a new lead singer, Bruce Dickinson, were mostly just another
hard rock band. They had a few catchy numbers -- "Running Free" from their
first album is still a staple at most IM concerts even today -- but it was
in 1982 with their release of "Number of the Beast" that they caught the
world by storm. When they "opened" for Judas Priest that year, they blew
their elder statesmen off the stage. With a well over 10 foot mascot Eddie
who strutted the stage during part of the show, they became known for their
dark image and driving, metal edge. They were inventing a new style
altogether.
They took the 'late 70s leather hard-rocker mode, and with Dickinson's
air-raid siren voice, they reached new heights of popularity with songs
like "the Prisoner", "22 Acacia Avenue" "Run to the Hills" and the title
track "number of the beast". Teenaged boys' mothers shrieked in horror when
looking at the monster on the front of the album with a big red "The number
of the beast" (remember, these were the Reagan years) plastered in dripping
blood across the cover.
The next year, they returned with an even bigger album "Piece of Mind",
with again a cover that featured a huge yellow brain-like padded room with
eddie (their eternal mascot) in chains standing on/it it. With a new
Drummer (Clive Burr left because, as we wouuld find out later, he was
diagnosed with MS) Nicko McBrain, they were revitalized and amped it up
even more with faster songs like "The Trooper" and "Where Eagles Dare"
while still retaining the historical/artistic/mythical perspective and
sensibilities of Dickinson with a very popular "Flight of Icarus".
In 1984, with the subsequent release of their album "Powerslave", they
moved in history to an egyptian themed cover with a pyramid and
sphinxes. They had two bona fide hits with "aces high" (about dogfights in
ww2) and "2 minutes to midnight" which was a completely misconstrued (by
parents) social consciousness metal ballad which caught the PMRC's ire with
the refrain:
2 minutes to midnight,
The hands that treaten doom.
2 minutes to midnight,
To kill the unborn in the womb.
which of course got the right-to-lifers knickers in a right twist. Of
course, to the kids who were 17 at the time (like me) this was a spit in
the face to the establishment and the cold warriors. We had mullets and we
were strutting against them dammit.
They neatly forgot about the verse that followed the [taken by itself] out
of context refrain
The body bags and little rags of children torn in two
And the jellied brains of those who remain to put the finger right on you
As the madmen play on words and make us all dance to their song
To the tune of starving millions to make a better kind of gun.
This was so clearly a reaction to the state of the world. But they focussed
and got HUGE press because they were 'advocating tearing children in two".
WHATEVER!!!
So after a hugely successful tour and a monumental following. Things
changed. For some reason, the style went south. They had basically played
out their welcome in North America. After two more mildly selling albums
1986 "Somewhere in Time" and 1988's "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" - with
associated low-selling tours, they went back to England and continued to
make 3 or 4 more albums over the next 12 years and returned to the concert
scene in 2002 with a very successful live dvd called "Rock in Rio" where
they played to what looked like hundreds of thousands of very enthusiastic
fans.
In the years between 1982 and 1988, I saw IM about 10 times in various
venues, large and small. I still listen to their middle 5 albums with lots
of enthusiasm and every guy my age who was a teen in 1982 remembers their
huge impact on the 'music' scene.
Their lyrics are poignant, their musicianship is superb and the songs are
memorable. The combined guitar solos of Smith/Murray are unique to their
sound. McBrain is famous for having one of the most incredible right-foots
in drumming, Steve Harris, with his melodic, furious bass parts, is
consistently cited as being that mark by which a lot of rock bassists
measure themselves against and Bruce Dickinson can scream in key with anyone.
Do yourself a favour and check it out.
Paul (not paid by Iron maiden) Stone
##########
Paul Stone
pas@xxxxxxxx
Kingsville, ON, Canada
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