Iron Frakking Maiden

I still love this band. After all these years. While they had a part in reinventing the wheel 41 years ago they haven't done much different over the years. They have a formula which is basically give Steve all the ideas and he turns them into a Maiden tune.

I can't argue with much of their output over four decades. The '90's weren't that great but some killer tunes did arise during that period. Even the notoriously unliked Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son I find stellar. Infinite Dreams was a go to karaoke song for me before I lost my voice. Loved that scream in the middle of the solo section. I once scared the hell out of a couple of chicks with that one with a wireless mic, they had no idea I was "on stage".

Ah, good memories. And such a reliable and consistently good band. Good being relative here obviously. If you are into rap then this ain't your thing.

Maybe it's the lyrical side of them that reaches me so much. All the literary references, the history lessons...I'd put Empire Of The Clouds as one real dead one. Rime Of The Ancient Mariner actually made me really dig a poem I hated in school. Man, I was so wrong on that one.

I'm not going to link a song. Why bother? I like the band you guys have a go at it. I'm particularly interested in those who don't post the hits. Give me them deep tracks, baby!

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Iron maiden's still up there in my list of top bands, not just metal bands. I spent a huge amount of time learning to play maiden songs. They helped me level up my guitar skills greatly. I know I learned at least Hallowed be thy name, 22 acacia avenue, iron maiden, the trooper, aces high, Rhime of the ancient mariner. I'd play over and over along with their live DVDs and tabs I scoured off.the internet. I'd always try and learn both parts so I could play either, I had a Buddy i'd jam with who was also into metal, so we'd do maiden songs and stuff together.

And seeing as you asked, some of my favourites, sticking to mostly non-hits






because Orson Scott card's seventh son trilogy was awesome and still one of the most unique settings and lore i've read in a fantasy series.


Because...Dune


newer but still awesom






Ok I should stop now.

Iron Maiden - live in Cape Town, 2016.

Yip, I was there.

a reply to: halfoldman

See your Cape Town and raising you a Hammersmith Odeon. Saw 'em with Di'Anno on the Killers tour as well but can't find anything on YouTube.



Think this might have been the tour where Trust were supporting. The rest is history...

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

When they was great.

Phantom of the Opera.

a reply to: gortex

Remember the first time I heard that, with the ever so slightly out of phase guitars coming out of one speaker each.

Happy days.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

This one's only 40 years old.

Paul and Clive are there, and of course : Eddie.

Aces High (live in India):

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Haven't listened to these guys in quite some time. Had fun playing the vids in here.

I must say though that Queen and Iron Maiden really brought rock to Asia and the global south.

If it wasn't for dodgy regimes they would have taken it anywhere.

OK, there were previous attempts.

Deep Purple tried playing Indonesia in the 1970's, for example.
They ended up playing on orange crates, with state intervention, and a roadie died under mysterious circumstances.
After that rock bands kept their tours to Europe and North America.

Bruce and Freddie defied that however.

But Iron Maiden 1988-90 was also visual.

When I was a dude of 10 I saw the posters on the older brother's wall, and I thought - cool.

And you could buy them at any mall.

Anyway, Iron Maiden were very demonized in the "Satanic-panic" of the time, so I destroyed all my posters, or rather they were dropped off in a bin-bag at a preacher's house, with a letter that said (which I never actually wrote): "I've given my heart to the Lord, will you please burn this?"

Now this was a Dutch Reformed preacher straight out of some theology faculty.
He'd never seen anything like it.
All my stuff from the bag was put on an exhibition in the church foyer, to warn the youth about "Satanism".

The thrill of an Iron Maiden poster back then ...
Do I really like sleeping under this?
No, but my parents hate it and it makes me look tough.

a reply to: gortex

Phantom is one of my all time faves, the drums are so wild, so many things a going on. Playing that song is a real test, It ain't easy, especially trying to play it with a Nicko vibe against the original drum track by Clive. Nicko is all over the place in this one.

a reply to: halfoldman

Ah, Book Of Souls, eh? Lovely album with some right on tracks. Great show, but that's the norm for these guys. They never don't bring it.

a reply to: Night Star

Try this one. For me, it's as good a song as IM has ever done.



a reply to: halfoldman

Not only back then but what they do with the Airliner tours is amazing. Going to places like Costa Rica - "The ass of the world", as one fan said in the Flight 666 doc. They looked at the illegal downloading through torrents, figured out where they would likely get a great audience and voila, they are going to the asses of the world and giving them two hours of pure blissful joy in a really frakked up world. Plus loads of killer footage for us fans to enjoy.

Man, South America has some really great metal crowds.

a reply to: EndtheMadnessNow

Sweet! Rainbow's Gold haven't heard in ages and That Girl is a nice one. IIRC that's an Adrian tune, right?

a reply to: halfoldman

The labeling of IM as Satanic was so stupid. Rime Of The Ancient Mariner ends with these lyrics..."That we must love, all things that God made", right in the years when the Satanic hype was at it's highest and that was years before they did For The Greater Good Of God.

You wanna say Deicide are Satanists, go ahead. Lay off the Irons, dammit. So funny that it was only Dee Snider, Frank Zappa and John bleeding Denver who showed up to tell the government they were full of it with the PMRC crap back then. Of course, it failed and they got their damned stickers. Frankly, those stickers actually make me want to buy an album, not deter me so I guess those frakkers failed in that respect.

When this civilization dies and gets dug up thousands of years from now they will find all kinds of Eddie's, all over the world and will probably deduce that this was a major religion. Religion, sure, I'd go with that, but not like those future archaeologists will think. Biggest band in the whole bloody world, I'd say, and I'd be right. Who else owns their own jet and has their singer fly them around the world?

Oh, my introduction to the band. A little funny. I was at King's Island, Cincinnati in summer '82, right before I wen't into high school. Saw all these weird shirts with this creepy looking dude on them. knew it was a rock band but Iron Maiden? What does that even mean? And what's with the creepy looking dude?

Got back home to Vegas and saw Run To The Hills video on EmptyV and well, the rest is history. Saw the Powerslave show(they didn't do Piece Of Mind here), my first IM show and there really was no going back.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

i was lucky to see them in 1986.
great show! i still have the ticket stub somewhere.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Yeah, and even on the posters that showed the devil, Eddie was actually using him as a puppet, or in one poster I had, Eddie had actually decapitated the devil.

Our mascot had actually just kicked the devil's butt.
But of course all the satanic-panic preachers could see was the devil.

In a way it wasn't much different to supporting your local football team.

The flags and shirts and badges and the posters almost preceded the music for me.
(And hip-hop music would eventually take quite a page from that marketing too, as a template).

When I finally first bought my first Iron Maiden record, it was Somewhere In Time.
And boy, the music did not disappoint.

Iron Maiden - Heaven Can Wait.



For more on the Somewhere In Time album and the artwork on the cover by Derek Riggs, see:
en.wikipedia.org...(Iron_Maiden_album)

a reply to: halfoldman

Dude, good link. I've spent a few hours analyzing that cover for it's detail and missed a lot of what was on there. Needed some education as it's quite a lot to take in. One of those joys of being old, I grew up with 12 inch records and the artwork that entailed.

If you had gotten hip to IM earlier you would probably go with Beast or Powerslave as a fave. From the old stuff I'd go with either of those but I cannot argue against AMOLAD, Book Of Souls....they are just as good in their old age as they were BITD. The epics on BOS are awesome. The Red And The Black, hmmm, tasty.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Remember Tomorrow.......

www.youtube.com...