Monday, March 12, 2007

Iron Maiden Countdown - 4 days to go

Ok, my time is running out and surely I cannot cover one song from every Iron Maiden album from now on. So moving onto 3 albums a day. Lets see how it goes.

What other album to start off other than "The Number Of the Beast". Bruce "Air-Raid-Siren" Dickinson's first album with Maiden. They were, for the very first time linked to stories of Devil-worship after this album. The title song is beautiful and starts off with a haunting set of lines from the Bible :

Woe to you, oh Earth and Sea,
for the Devil sends the beast with wrath,
because he knows the time is short...
Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast
for it is a human number, its number is Six hundred and sixty six.

This song always brought about nightmares when I listened it to the first few times in school. I remember even my cousin asking why I listened to "Devil-music"!!. Haha, even a close friend of mine suggested that Maiden needn't have been so overt about the devil part of it. But if you closely follow the lyrics, you will see for yourself what Maiden try to say. The song ends with these gripping lines...

I'm coming back I will return
And I'll possess your body and I'll make you burn
I have the fire I have the force
I have the power to make my evil take it's course

For the complete lyrics, go here.

Next album, "Piece Of Mind". An outstanding song on this album is "The Trooper". This song has an amazing rhythm to it and is quite a fast one. You can pretty much imagine the war by listening to the song. I wouldn't know too much about the history on this one, but its a song I wish Maiden play on the 17th!.

For the complete lyrics, go here.

And we move on to another of my favourite Maiden albums - Powerslave. The album cover is really cool. An Egyptian theme and Eddie shown as one of them Egyptian kings. Damn, this album has some really cool songs. My closest favourites are "Rime Of the Ancient Mariner" and "Aces High". Aargh, I love the whole album.

The "Rime Of the Ancient Mariner" is a really haunting song. Based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, its also Maiden's longest song. Its best to just listen to the song on a good set of headphones and just go into it. Let your imagination run riot, listen to the lyrics and imagine you in the mariner's shoes. I suggest that you check out this link for the complete explanation - here. And for the complete lyrics - here.

Aces High speaks for itself. If you really cannot imagine the strength of this song, you really have not read any of the old WWII comics that was my staple diet when I was a kid. Just observe these lines..

Move in to fire at the mainstream of bombers
Let off a sharp burst and then turn away
Roll over, spin round and come in behind them
Move to their blindsides and firing again

Bandits at 8 o'clock move in behind us
Ten ME-109's out of the sun
Ascending and turning out spitfires to face them
Heading straight for them I press my guns.

Rolling, turning, diving
Rolling, turning, diving, goin' again
Run, live to fly, fly to live, do or die
Run, live to fly, fly to live, Aces high.

My good deed for the day is done. You can read more on this amazing site that has everything Iron Maiden - here.

2 comments:

  1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6397373.stm

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmm.....is that connected to the Number Of the Beast??

    ReplyDelete

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