And we’re in to the second of the singles from Live After Death, Iron Maiden’s first live album. This one offers the rare chance for brevity – the cover is a live shot as opposed to an Eddie illustration. The songs are mostly self-explanatory – the A-side is off of the full album and the B-sides are not. Mostly.

I have a 12-inch version of the single, which includes a second B-side. 7-inch records have just one, physics and all that. As usual, the video below has the A-side and the first B-side, this is because Maiden put the 7-inch versions of the singles up on their YouTube during a reissue series last decade.

Running Free

Up first is one of the iconic songs from the band’s debut. Here we get Bruce Dickinson handling the song’s vocals. Far from the first time he sang this tune, but the first time it was offered up on a live album.

Running Free was done in an extended jam format at the Long Beach Arena in 1985, where Bruce and the crowd do a great call and response part for a few minutes. It’s a very cool rendition that everyone should check out – on the full-length release of Live After Death, because this is a single and it’s an edited song with the crowd part chopped out.

I do get the reasoning – this was released as a single and they weren’t doing 8-minute long live jams on the radio in the ’80’s. BUT, it sucks not to have the full song on this 12-inch record. The brief version is fine to listen to but is obviously not the full experience.

A note on the B-sides before I get into them – while not available on Live After Death, there is a 1995 Iron Maiden reissue series from Castle Records with bonus discs that do have the B-sides with the album, though on a second CD. To my knowledge this is the only way to get these songs “packaged” with the live album in any official capacity. And the Castle Records discs aren’t the easiest things to come by these days so it’s not a huge deal anyway.

Sanctuary

Our first B-side is a track from the Long Beach shows. Sanctuary is from the first album, though only in certain countries and was its own single as well. It’s well done here with Bruce in full air raid siren mode and the band keeping pace with the rest of their set, a bit frantic and faster than the albums. That style fits this tune fine. I will admit I do prefer Paul Di’Anno’s vocals on this particular track, there’s something about his snarl that fits the song a bit more than Bruce’s operatic approach. This version is totally fine though, no complaints here.

Murders In The Rue Morgue

This is the “bonus” B-side for the 12-inch record and is a super cool treat as it’s my favorite track from the Killers album. As with the other songs, this one is cranked up a bit but it’s executed very well. Not a whole lot else to say other than I consider this a special treat and very worthy listening.

That’s all for this week. Next time we’re into the band’s synth era and we are just two weeks away from what’s considered the most interesting and lore-ridden B-side in Maiden history.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Live! + One

Running Free

Sanctuary

Women In Uniform

Maiden Japan

Purgatory

Twilight Zone/Wrathchild

Run To The Hills

The Number Of The Beast

Flight Of Icarus

The Trooper

2 Minutes To Midnight

Aces High

Run To The Hills (live)

Running Free (live) (you are here)

Stranger In A Strange Land

Wasted Years

The Clairvoyant

Infinite Dreams

Bring Your Daughter … To The Slaughter

Holy Smoke

Be Quick Or Be Dead

From Here To Eternity

Virus

Out Of The Silent Planet

Rainmaker

Different World

The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg

Empire Of The Clouds