The Crooked Wanderer

Sanctuary

Purgatory

Aces High

Holy Smoke (you are here)

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

Bring Your Daughter … To The Slaughter (The Iron Maiden Singles Series)

On May 18, 2023May 25, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series29 Comments

This week we move on to the ’90’s era of Iron Maiden. It is their least-heralded decade but there’s some stuff worth going over here. We are onto the band’s eight album No Prayer For The Dying. The album itself does divide opinion but its not widely hailed as one of their classics, the stripped down approach after two synth epics left an odd impression on many listeners.

We are also, once again, out of order in this singles series. Well, I am, no one else really is. Today’s single is actually the second from the album and next week’s will be the first. This honestly works out fairly well since there’s a lot to talk about on today’s single and next week’s will be super quick, so I can include the line-up change and additional lore here.

There is a new member of Iron Maiden on this album – replacing Adrian Smith is Janick Gers. Janick had played with Ian Gillian as well as in a project with Paul Di’Anno and Clive Burr, among other acts. He would hook up with Bruce Dickinson for Bruce’s first solo album Tattooed Millionaire, which, well, it has bearing on the lead track today so I’ll save that. After Smith departed Maiden, Gers was in and he remains a part of the group today, staying on even after Smith returned in 1999.

Today’s single was available in several versions and had two different covers – the one I have pictured is the “main” copy and another one featuring Eddie in Grim Reaper garb is an “alternate” cover. There are 7-inch, 12-inch, cassette and CD versions, and several of each. Mine is a 12-inch vinyl and offers a second B-side, so that’s what we’ll stick with today.

The cover art is kind of crazy and very busy, featuring Eddie holding a woman, presumably someone’s daughter being brought to the slaughter, and a whole lot of stuff in the background. Derek Riggs was still the artist for these, but his time is coming close to an end as Maiden’s illustrator, and subsequent single covers will highlight that.

Bring Your Daughter … To The Slaughter

The lead track here is the second single from No Prayer…, the first single will show up next week because time is just a human invention and not real anyway. This song has a lot to discuss in its origins, its real and perceived quality, and in its commercial reception.

The song also did not actually have its origins in Maiden itself – it was the brainchild of Bruce Dickinson, who wrote and recorded the track and put it on offer for the soundtrack to A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. I personally don’t remember the movie much and even though I was a huge Maiden fan around this time I didn’t pay it much mind. Dickinson chose not to include it on his debut solo album Tattooed Millionaire, though re-issued copies feature it as a bonus track.

Well, Steve Harris heard and liked the song so he brought in Bruce’s guitarist Janick and the track. Maiden improved upon the original song by a fair bit and wound up releasing it as a single. It featured a video with performances spliced in with footage from an old movie called The City Of The Dead. The movie footage shows a lovely young woman being kidnapped for part in some evil ritual, which I guess is in keeping with the song.

And for the song? It’s a pretty good one. It is no frills and basic, which was something of a comedown for us Maiden fans after the several years prior. But this track is decently enjoyable, I won’t shit on it just to be elitist or anything. This album isn’t my favorite but I also don’t mind putting it on, many of the songs are goofy but enjoyable. This one certainly fits that concept.

One other note of trivia about this song, and it’s a big one – Bring Your Daughter … To The Slaughter is the first, and to date only, Iron Maiden song to top the UK Singles Chart. I don’t really know how or why it happened, especially with a lack of support from entities like the BBC who did not care for the song’s theme, but Iron Maiden scored a number one hit with one of the least heralded songs of their catalog. The singles market is funny and is usually not where heavy metal dwells, so for this of all songs to top the charts is pretty funny. And hey, good for them, it’s still an accomplishment worth having.

I’m A Mover

Both B-sides today are covers, the first one is an early, somewhat decent hit for the band Free. This would be a few years before Free’s massive smash All Right Now.

Maiden perform a very serviceable version of the song. It does get the feel of the track right, though done a tad harder as would be expected for Maiden. It might miss some of the finer points of Paul Rodgers and the blues-based rock of Free but this is a pretty good job done and it’s a very interesting cover song among the several Maiden have done over the years.

Communication Breakdown

The 12-inch bonus B-side is obviously a cover of the early Led Zeppelin standard from that band’s first album. While Maiden did a fair job on the Free song, this one doesn’t really get on track. It’s played decently enough but it does sound like a bar cover band doing Zep. Bruce is a great singer but one thing he is not is Robert Plant, and the absolute insanity of Plant’s original is lost here. I’d say this isn’t “bad” but honestly it might be, it just doesn’t hold a candle to the original.

That does it for today’s single. Next week will go quick and easy and then it’ll be on through my last remaining handful as I cross through a few eras of the band.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Sanctuary

Purgatory

Aces High

Bring Your Daughter … To The Slaughter (you are here)

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

Infinite Dreams – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On May 11, 2023May 25, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series25 Comments

Today’s single is a pretty straightforward one, it’s all live and all songs are available on the larger album so there’s nothing really exotic here. The song is Infinite Dreams from the Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son album, and the live album in question was Maiden England. That was originally released as a video, so this is actually a single to a long-form video. But the full album has been released on its own so it’s available in a variety of formats.

The cover art is another Derek Riggs piece and is essentially the same cover as the Maiden England live release – Eddie on a motorcycle with a Union Jack in hand. The cover was changed for the 2013 re-release of Maiden England but this original art is pretty cool.

This was released in several formats – 12-inch and 7-inch records, CD and cassette. There are a few shaped picture discs and things like that. Mine is the typical 12-inch record and thus we get the third song. Just a note that after this, the singles started getting released with a billion versions and I won’t be out to keep track of all the differences, but for today it’s still straightforward.

Infinite Dreams

The single’s main subject is a track from the Seventh Son… album. It is one of the album’s more memorable cuts and features a few musical movements from the band, a step into a prog-lite direction they would explore again in the 2000’s.

The song works incredibly well with its quiet moments and builds into more epic passages. Bruce showcases the full force of his vocal range through the song and everyone in the band gets a chance to flex their chops. It’s a very compelling arrangement and a showcase that the band had arrived at a new point of creativity in their landmark seven album run.

The song is the album’s second and has some bearing on the sort-of concept album going on – the main character has very strange dreams and visions and winds up stuck in those, with dreams so crazy and life-like that he doesn’t know if he’ll ever wake up again. Though the band did not fully flesh out the story beats, last week’s single The Clairvoyant gives a fairly grim answer as to the ultimate fate of the dreamer and his visions.

The live rendition here is wonderfully executed. The Maiden England live album runs smoothly as a whole, if not maybe just a hair off of its predecessor, the mighty Live After Death. But the cuts here are a huge part of Maiden lore being the end of their golden 80’s era and it’s a worthwhile experience overall.

Killers

The first B-side is the familiar title track from the second album. We’ve had this song a few times from both singers so I won’t go over in depth, but as is expected this version is well done. The song wouldn’t get a ton of stage time after this tour so it’s still nice to have another live representation from the earlier years.

Still Life

The other B-side is a very interesting track to have, even if it’s not “special” since it’s also on the full live album. Still Life hails from Piece Of Mind and wasn’t a song that got a whole hell of a lot of stage time. It’s one of its album’s more interesting cuts and it’s splendidly presented here. It’s a very nice cut to have as the song didn’t quite get the attention it might have deserved.

That wraps up this single and also marks the end of a run for one member. After this album guitarist Adrian Smith would depart the group, unhappy with the band’s intended musical direction after he contributed a lot to these “synth era” albums. Smith would make a few cameo live appearances through the 1990’s but would otherwise be gone until 1999, which is a story for that point in this singles series.

Losing Adrian was a huge blow, and the 1990’s were not Maiden’s greatest decade in their history. He had a good bit to do with the group’s success to this point and was integral to the past few albums these singles came from. But nothing lasts forever, and Adrian had to step away and do his own thing for awhile. He’d get some company on that front a few years down the line, as most are aware.

Next week it’s into the ’90’s and No Prayer For The Dying. The singles start getting different with a wide array of versions and also I’m missing a fair chunk of this time period. But there’s still plenty to go over so we’ll get into that next week.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Sanctuary

Purgatory

Aces High

Infinite Dreams (you are here)

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

The Clairvoyant – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On May 4, 2023May 25, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series23 Comments

The Iron Maiden Singles Series is now on to Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, the band’s seventh album. As noted previously and also via the list below, I don’t have the first two singles from this album so they aren’t part of the series at present. Today I’ll get into the third one, which actually represents live material and is a bit of a gem in that the songs aren’t from a full-length live record of any sort.

The cover art today is pretty trippy – it’s Eddie’s head in some kind of occult/crazy configuration. Out in left field for sure but you gotta do something off the wall once in awhile, and it does fit the song’s theme. Don’t drop acid and look at this (I wouldn’t know, just seems like good advice)

There are several versions of the single available – the usual 12-inch and 7-inch versions, as well as some picture discs, clear vinyl and even a shaped picture disc. The singles from this album were also issued on CD, which as far as I know are the first CD singles for Maiden. My single is a typical black vinyl 12-inch version, though it is housed in a very nice gatefold sleeve as opposed to the thin paper stuff many of the singles came in. And, in a change of pace, there actually is a pretty big difference between the 12-inch and 7-inch singles as it relates to the lead track. That’ll be covered in a minute.

All of the live performances on the record came from the Monsters Of Rock festival in Donington on August 20, 1988. That was the day after I turned 11 for anyone wondering. These are the only songs I know of from the performance that were released in an official capacity. I’d guess this has bootleg versions but I honestly have never looked for them.

As usual with these, this first video has the two sides from the 7-inch single. We’ll get to the difference between versions right in the first track, though the fact that the lead single doesn’t sound very live should tip most people off.

The Clairvoyant

The feature song today is one of the pivotal moments from the sort-of story being told on the Seventh Son… album. The title character has gained the gift of clairvoyance but becomes troubled by it, and also very ironically cannot foresee his own death. The music is pretty spectacular on this song, as it is throughout the album. Very nice, almost prog-lite guitar work on here and the chorus is very nicely done even with being a mouthful of words.

Steve Harris has said that the song was inspired by the death of British psychic Doris Stokes. This person seems to have been a giant fraud and died just when the band was cooking up new song ideas, and Steve came up with the central premise of a clairvoyant being blind to their own death.

Now, here’s the kicker as far as different versions of this single go – on most 7-inch pressings of the single, The Clairvoyant is the studio track. On the 12-inch versions and a very few 7-inches, the live cut from Monsters Of Rock is present. To add to the confusion, the band shot a video featuring live shots from Donington but the song is the studio track with bits of live crowd noise rather badly cut in. So to have this single with the more desirable live cut on side A, a prospective collector should seek out a 12-inch record.

The Prisoner

The first B-side is a cut from The Number Of The Beast and is a more low-key favorite of quite a few fans, myself included. The song was inspired by the late ’60’s British sci-fi drama of the same name, and the show was also the inspiration for Powerslave’s Back In The Village.

This one flies a bit under the radar on the hierarchy of Maiden songs but in my view it is an excellent song. This live performance is well captured and presented without any issues. The Prisoner would get more time on the Maiden England tour, which was presented as a live album.

And it’s worth noting that all versions of the single have the same live cut of The Prisoner – unlike The Clairvoyant, there are not different presentations.

Heaven Can Wait

The 12-inch “bonus” B-side is a nice cut from the Somewhere In Time album. It is also live from Donington and also the same across all versions it appears on. It too is well done and nicely presented, no crappy live audio or anything. It’s nice to have live versions from this album because any official presentations are few and far between. I assume that will change once the next tour and inevitable live album from it is presented.

That wraps up today’s pretty interesting single. On deck is another live cut, this time from the Maiden England tour and album. And also next week we’ll have something we haven’t had in quite some time – a departing band member. Until then.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Sanctuary

Purgatory

Aces High

The Clairvoyant (you are here)

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

Wasted Years – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On April 27, 2023May 25, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series23 Comments

Today it’s time for one of Iron Maiden’s most known songs, and also the most talked about B-side from their long career. And also perhaps one of the least talked about B-sides from their long career.

The cover art here is different in that it doesn’t feature Eddie front and center and that was by design. The single was going to release before the album and management didn’t want the full Somewhere In Time Eddie reveal before then, so Derek Riggs did up a time machine console thing with Eddie being the one piloting the machine. Just a glimpse of Eddie’s reflection is available. The cover art doesn’t stand as iconic compared to many of the other singles but it was done for an understandable reason and is still a nicely presented concept.

The version thing is the same here as with others – several 12- and 7-inch releases and a few on cassette. I have the 12-inch so we get the bonus B-side.

Wasted Years

The single is again one of Maiden’s most recognized songs. It was composed by Adrian Smith and it features a very distinctive riff that is instantly recognizable anywhere. The lyrics explore the concept of being away from home out on the grind of tour, something Smith was feeling big time after the huge World Slavery tour Maiden were on prior to this album.

The song’s chorus implores the listener to stop searching for things outside of their scope and appreciate the moments they’re in. It’s a simple message but one that resonates pretty hard and this bit of simple wisdom from Maiden remains one of their top songs to this day.

Reach Out

The first B-side is the most talked-about “bonus track” in Iron Maiden history. It is the subject of a lot of discussion on forum posts and is often hailed as the group’s best B-side. There’s a lot to get into here, though I covered some of the general history last week on the Stranger In A Strange Land release.

Reach Out is a song written by Adrian’s friend Dave Colwell. Colwell had played in Samson just prior and would later go on to be a part of Bad Company, Humble Pie and many others. Reach Out was a song Colwell had in the can and he brought it to the Entire Population Of Hackney jam/show that Adrain, Nicko and others put on during Maiden’s downtime in 1985. Steve Harris suggesting using songs from that show to use as B-sides and that’s exactly what happened. Maiden did a studio rendition for the single, though they kept Adrian at lead vocals. Bruce does provide background singing here, and of course is instantly recognizable.

Reach Out is an obvious departure from Iron Maiden material and is more of a ’80’s radio rock/AOR track. It is a pretty good song and Maiden do an admirable job performing it. It does excite a lot more of the fanbase than it does me personally, though I have nothing against the track. I do think their most interesting non-album track lies a bit further down the road, but we’ll get to that in due time as it’s one of the singles on this list. But no matter what I think, Reach Out is a massive part of Iron Maiden lore and is a stone cold lock for many as the best non-album track they’ve done.

Sheriff Of Huddersfield

The 12-inch “bonus” B-side is, to be brief, a total shitshow. It is a joke track recorded loosely along to the song Life In The City from Adrian Smith’s prior band Urchin. The song is poking fun at the band’s longtime manager Ron Smallwood, who had recently moved to Los Angeles and was complaining about the move. The song has at Smallwood and his cushy kingdom in the Hollywood Hills. Smallwood himself was not aware of the song until just before the single was slated for release.

I won’t act like this is my favorite Maiden B-side, but then again a band who releases tons of material ought to be able to have a joke here and there. This wouldn’t be the last time Maiden used a B-side to poke fun of Smallwood either.

That does it for this one and the Somewhere In Time singles. Up next is Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son and also the portion of the list where my collection is incomplete. I do have the third single released from that album but not the first two. Those will hopefully make their way to me someday but for now I’ll just roll through the series with what I have.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Sanctuary

Purgatory

Aces High

Wasted Years (you are here)

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

Stranger In A Strange Land – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On April 20, 2023May 25, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series23 Comments

Moving along with the Iron Maiden singles, we are now to the band’s 6^th studio album Somewhere In Time. This beings the two-album “synth” arc that saw the band expand their sound a bit and, while opinions vary of course, this period is well acclaimed.

It’s also worth noting that my decision to use my Discogs stuff as my reference for this list is biting me in the ass right now – today’s single is out of order and was the second released from Somewhere In Time. No real big deal to me, but this series has been attracting quite a bit of attention and I wanted make sure it was stated that I’m aware of the order not being proper.

Today’s single features the lead track as well as two pretty unique and worthwhile cover songs. And the covers have pretty deep ties to Maiden lore and trivia so there’s a fair bit to go over. And we have again very nice and unique cover art. Here Eddie is decked out like an Old West cowboy, though also sporting the futuristic bells and whistles fitting of the album’s cyber sci-fi theme. Eddie’s pose was based on Clint Eastwood’s famous “Man With No Name” character from the old Western movies. The cover’s background setting gives a bit of the Star Wars cantina vibe to everything. There are a few cool easter eggs on the playing cards, I’ll let people go over those on their own.

There were quite a few different versions of this single, with several 12-inch and 7-inch releases, as well as a cassette. I have a 12-inch version and thus the extra B-side. And, for the first and only time in this series, I also have a 7-inch version. This was a 2015 reissue the band did of their singles, I saw it at a record store for not much one day and figured what the hell, I’ll snag it up.

As is usual with these, this first video includes the single and the first B-side as it represents the 7-inch version.

Stranger In A Strange Land

The feature track is a mid-tempo song that eases off the acceleration a bit and lets the song operate through its atmosphere. Lyrically it’s about an explorer who was frozen to death exploring harsh cold climates and then found many years later, the song bears no relation to the novel of the same name. Adrian Smith was the songwriter here and he also gets a fair bit of time on an absolutely beautiful solo that is a prime example of how a solo can be complimentary to the music without needing to be guitar wankery to be good.

This is one of my absolute favorite Iron Maiden songs, probably second or third if/when I get to the business of actually ranking them. I love everything about it and anytime I’m debating on what Maiden album to play, the chance to hear this song again often influences me to go with Somewhere In Time. It’s one I’d give a kidney to hear live, so hopefully it’s in the set for the next tour which focuses in part on this album and the band make a run through the US with it.

That Girl

The first B-side is a cover from a band with deep connections to Iron Maiden. The band in question is FM, in this case the British band and not the Canadian one. The story leading to this cover version is not a short one but it has bearing on both B-sides so on we go.

FM originally formed in the early ’80’s and secured a record deal based on the strength of a demo, which included That Girl. In 1985, Iron Maiden were taking time off after a grueling world tour and Nicko McBrain got bored. He called up Adrian Smith and the two hatched a plan to get together with some friends and play a few secret gigs. The first and more famous of these gigs was under the title The Entire Population of Hackney. Appearing with the Maiden duo was Andy Barnett, formerly a bandmate of Smith’s in Urchin, as well as Dave Colwell and Martin Connoly. Each brought songs from various points in their careers to play at this gig, which included this FM song as both Barnett and Colwell had some early involvement with the group. (Barnett would later join FM)

So after the secret gig, Maiden decided to work up a full band version as a B-side. It’s a very well done song and fits the vibe of the full album pretty well, something both of these B-sides do fantastically. It’s also interesting because the cover is based on FM’s original demo recording. FM had reworked the song a bit before releasing their debut album and went more melodic AOR rock with it, very fitting for the time.

It’s also interesting because Maiden’s cover was released barely a few months after the original was out. FM’s debut album Indiscreet came out a week before Somewhere In Time and this single was released just two months later. So this was two versions of a song out at essentially the same time.

Juanita

This song was also done at the secret gig outlined above. Even more interesting than the last one is that the original of this was never actually released. The song was originally composed by a group called Marshall Fury, of which Martin Connoly had been a member. The band never released the song and info on the group is scarce – in fact, looking them up on Wikipedia redirects to this very single.

There’s no original to compare here, but Juanita is a pretty well done track for a Maiden B-side. It’s a straightforward rocker and the band handles it very well.

That (finally) does it for this single. If you thought there was a lot here, wait until next week. Another song from the secret gig will be there and it’s probably the most-discussed Maiden B-side in existence. And someday I’ll get into the bootleg of The Entire Population of Hackney, but the bootlegs are a ways off so don’t hold your breath waiting for that one.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Sanctuary

Purgatory

Aces High

Stranger In A Strange Land (you are here)

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

Running Free (live) – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On April 13, 2023May 25, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series22 Comments

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

Sanctuary

Purgatory

Aces High

Stranger In A Strange Land

Running Free (live) (you are here)

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

Run To The Hills (live) – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On April 6, 2023May 25, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series26 Comments

Today it’s time to move into the singles from Iron Maiden’s first official live album, the heralded Live After Death. This live set is a massively celebrated treasure of the catalog and there were two singles offered up.

Live After Death has a bit of a confusing make-up – most of the songs were recorded over four nights in Long Beach, California in March of 1985. A handful of others were recorded in October 1984 in London. It’s these London shows that provide the B-sides for the single and the only relevant part for the singles series – actually tracking how Live After Death has been released in its many versions is a pain in the ass to be reserved for another time.

The cover art is another Derek Riggs piece, though this one is a bit confusing. Eddie is playing a huge synthesizer/organ on top of some mountains. It doesn’t make sense to the uninformed eye. Riggs was given instructions to combine Run To The Hills and Phantom Of The Opera in his artwork so this cover was the result and makes a great deal more sense with that context behind it. It actually is a pretty interesting piece of the Eddie art lore, even for its initial WTF aura. Still odd, but understandable given the artistic direction.

The single was released in 12-inch and 7-inch vinyl versions as well as cassette. I have and will be discussing the 12-inch record. The following YouTube clip has the first two songs of the single.

Run To The Hills

This cut is directly from Live After Death and is on all versions. It was from the Long Beach concerts, though discerning which specific concert is a research and argument-filled road I’m not going to go down.

The live cuts from these shows see Maiden playing at a high intensity and picking up the pace on pretty well all of the songs. This does make a very stark contrast to some songs, especially Hallowed Be Thy Name. On Run To The Hills there is a noticeable uptick in pace but the song functions very similar to its familiar studio version. It is one of Maiden’s most-known songs and it works very well in the live setting. There isn’t anything terribly different or interesting lore-wise to recount about the song here so let’s move on to the B-sides.

Phantom Of The Opera

The first B-side is one of the London performances and this one is on several versions of the full album. I’m not going to track the specific ones because it’s a lot of if’s, and’s or but’s and it would take up too much space. The relevant part is that this is the B-side on all of the singles.

What we have here is a cut from the debut album, done in the faster-paced live setting of the period and with the huge difference of having Bruce Dickinson on vocals as opposed to Paul Di’Anno. While there was nothing wrong with the original cut at all, there is something special here with Bruce tearing into this one. The song gets a pretty different feel with the faster pace and bits that are done different than the original. And Bruce showcases his range pretty well here, hanging out in the lower end for a lot of the song but truly making his mark on the track. This one is quite a treat.

Losfer Words (Big ‘Orra)

Our 12-inch “bonus” B-side is an instrumental track from the Powerslave album. This performance is also from one of the London shows and is not available on most versions of Live After Death, only on a 2-disc 1995 CD reissue series.

Despite being instrumental, Bruce gets in a few words before the band starts, basically lamenting his lack of presence on the song. Then the band launches in to the tune. It is performed faithfully to the original version though still a touch faster than. There is not a whole lot to say about an instrumental tune but this one is certainly worth checking out, it is a pretty nice jam.

That’s all for today’s single. Next week it’s on to the other one from Live After Death.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Sanctuary

Purgatory

Stranger In A Strange Land

Aces High

Run To The Hills (live) (you are here)

Running Free (live)

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

Aces High – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On March 30, 2023April 10, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series29 Comments

This week it’s another of Iron Maiden’s signature tunes. These are being rattled off one right after the other since, well, it’s when they released all of this stuff. We get two B-sides this time, a cover song and a live track.

As with all Maiden cover art of this era, the cover here is totally on point. It’s very simple – Eddie is a British pilot flying a Spitfire during the Battle of Britain in World War II. Pretty easy premise and wonderfully executed by Derek Riggs.

There are some version differences here, the obvious one being the extra B-side on the 12-inch record versus the 7-inch. As usual I have the 12-inch version, this one from the UK. There were some further differences among cassette singles across territories but those were B-sides available on singles I’ve recently covered so nothing huge to worry about there.

Aces High

The single kicks off with its feature and namesake track, a magnificent song that soars as high as its subject matter. The music is anchored by the twin guitar attack of Dave Murray and Adrian Smith, alongside the rumbling bassline of Steve Harris. Nicko McBrain bashes the skins accordingly, and Bruce Dickinson has another moment to live up to his nickname as the “Human Air Raid Siren,” this time more fitting than ever. The band fires on all cylinders here, but that guitar and bass combination really stands out here.

The song is about the Battle of Britain during World War II. It was when the Royal Air Force and all of the citizens of the UK banded together to fend off the onslaught of the Nazi Luftwaffe over the course of several months in 1940 and 1941. The British spirit held through the relentless campaign and Germany was unable to accomplish its objectives of destroying the RAF or breaking British morale through terror bombing, and the tide of the war would turn to the Allies’ favor. It is obviously a major point of pride in British history.

For Iron Maiden, Aces High is yet another signature track from their golden era. It would be paired with Winston Churchill’s famous speech to Parliament in 1940 both in the music video and in live presentations. The song would be an opener on several tours and is a well-regarded crowd favorite. It would peak at number 20 on the UK singles chart.

King Of Twilight

Here Maiden cover 1970’s German prog-rock act Nektar. This cover is actually a bit of a medley, combining King Of Twilight with Crying In The Dark, both Nektar tracks from 1972. It’s a pretty well-executed cover and toes the line pretty well between honoring the original and “Maidenizing” the songs as well.

I’ll also admit that I haven’t checked out Nektar at all before. There was no Internet access to just look bands up when these covers were around so the originals remained a mystery to me. From what I’m hearing it’s some pretty cool classic prog and I’ll have to check more of them out.

The Number Of The Beast

Our bonus B-side is a live performance from December of 1983 in Dortmund, Germany. There is also video of this clip, this same song was later shown in video form on the 12 Wasted Years video comp.

There is nothing that really “jumps out” about this performance, but it is competently executed and the crowd was really into it. The video does show Dave Murray riding atop Bruce’s shoulders in Ozzy and Randy Rhodes fashion, though of course that doesn’t translate to the audio-only single. It is a nice song to have in official form.

And yes, you’ll likely notice someone wrote their name on the back of the record jacket. This was fairly common practice way back when, to prevent theft. And this is not some random stranger who I never knew, either – Steve Childers was a musician from the area I live in who lived in both Missouri and Florida and played in number of death and black metal bands. Steve had moved back to this area in the mid 2010’s and I got to know him some in that time, he was a fantastic guy.

Sadly, Steve died in a car accident in early 2016. I bought this and some other records from his personal collection after his death to help raise funds for his final expenses and family. While it’d be far better to have Steve still around, it’s nice to have something from his old stash.

That’s all for this week’s single. Next week it’s into the band’s first official live album and the first of two singles from that.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Sanctuary

Purgatory

Aces High (you are here)

Run To The Hills (live)

Running Free (live)

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

2 Minutes To Midnight – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On March 23, 2023May 25, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series28 Comments

Today we enter the Powerslave album cycle and the heights of Iron Maiden’s career. Our single today has one of the signature tunes from that album, as well as a cover with a bit of trivia behind it and also our first bit of nonsense as a B-side.

For the first time in a while we get a bit of content variation across versions – the 7-inch does not have the second B-side Mission From ‘Arry, one must possess the 12-inch record to have that. Thankfully I have said 12-inch version so I’ll get to cover a funny argument secretly recorded by that bastard Bruce Dickinson.

The cover art is another unique depiction of Eddie, this time posing as a military guy/arms dealer as a nuclear bomb goes off around flags of the United Nations. A very on-point theme given the main song’s content and honestly this to me is a bit of an underrated piece of Eddie art. It isn’t as iconic as several of the more noted images of Eddie but this one communicates its message really well. I do happen to have the Eddie action figure of this pose too, only one of two that I own. There may be something a bit more to my love of this cover, which we’ll get to in a minute.

2 Minutes To Midnight

The lead song is a rocker making use of a tried but true riff to set the tone. The song is perhaps a bit more basic that some of the other stuff Maiden had gotten up to around this time, it’s certainly no 13 minute long song about some old poem, that’s for sure. But the simplicity is effective in this case.

Lyrically the song discusses the art of war, or the true nature behind the greed behind needless wars. It’s all about the war machine and the dollars that generates, which is why there’s always a war.

The song’s title also references the Doomsday Clock, a thing started during the early Cold War that scientists use to indicate how close to nuclear holocaust the world is getting. 2 minutes was the closest it had ever been set, which was in 1953. In our modern age of advancement in 2023, we’re now as close as the clock has ever been, 90 seconds from midnight. Go us.

One more thing about the song – this one just happens to be my favorite Iron Maiden song. Yes, out of all of them. This song was around quite a bit when I was growing up – Powerslave hit just as I was really paying attention to music and this was probably the heaviest thing I heard at the time. Iron Maiden were never huge hit makers singles-wise but some songs got airplay on various formats and I recall this one being around a lot. I’m also a sucker for doomsday stuff, which may say something about me more than anything, but no worries.

And while the issue was long decided by the time 2003 rolled around, it didn’t hurt that this song was included on the soundtrack to my favorite video game of all time – Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I heard this as part of the V-Rock station over and over and over again when playing the game as much as I did. I’ve truly beat this one into my brain.

Rainbow’s Gold

Our first B-side is a proper song and a cover of a perhaps not well-known act. Beckett were a 70’s progressive rock outfit from Great Britain. The band recorded one album and folded soon after, though their stuff got around a little bit. One of many Beckett/Iron Maiden trivia points of note – Beckett’s agent was Ron Smallwood, who has been Iron Maiden’s longtime manager.

Maiden does a pretty good job on this song, they take what was a pretty groovy original track and speed it up some. I’d probably say I prefer the original by a hair as it has a bit more dynamic stuff to it than Maiden’s straight-ahead cover version. But this is a worthy cover track in Maiden’s discography.

The Beckett and Iron Maiden tie-ins are numerous – Beckett singer Terry Slesser actually auditioned to replace Paul Di’Anno in Maiden. (Slesser also briefly replaced Brian Johnson in Geordie when Johnson joined AC/DC).

But that is more a footnote, there is one far deeper interaction here between the two bands. In short, Iron Maiden lifted a portion of the lyrics to their classic Hallowed Be Thy Name from Beckett’s song Life’s Shadow. While only a few lines it is pretty clearly the same lyrics. Maiden settled early on with one songwriter from Beckett, who claimed to be the sole songwriter. Decades later another former Beckett member emerged with a lawsuit – this was why Hallowed… was not played on the 2016 tour. Maiden also eventually settled the newer suit.

Mission From ‘Arry

If you thought 2 Minutes To Midnight was the main event of this single, you’d be wrong. We have an actual bout on our hands here. While the fight didn’t get physical, we have a spirited argument between Steve Harris and Nicko McBrain, with Bruce Dickinson also involved.

Here’s what happened – one night during a Nicko drum solo, Steve’s bass rig bit the bullet. Unsure of when he’d be going again, Steve sent a rigger to tell Nicko to extend his drum solo to give the crew time to repair Steve’s setup. The crewman tried getting Nicko’s attention, which distracted him and screwed up the solo. Nicko also failed to understand the message so it was a total failure.

This recording is the backstage argument after the show between Steve and Nicko. Steve was upset with Nicko’s attitude about the whole thing, while Nicko was very upset about being interrupted during his solo. Bruce seems to generally side with Steve. The argument goes on for nearly 7 minutes before Steve figures out that someone was recording, that someone being Bruce, who stumbled into the tape recorder in the room and hit record. The band later thought it was funny and here it is as a B-side.

This is a bit hard to follow if you’re unaccustomed to British accents, which I am not at all. There is a transcript of who is saying what, but without that it can take several listens to figure out who is saying what and what exactly they’re saying. But it is pretty funny stuff, hearing them all have a go at each other over miscommunication. I can see everyone’s side of it – Steve wants to set up a way to communicate to Nicko while playing, Nicko wants everyone to piss off while he’s playing. No real side to take here, everyone has a point.

While later Maiden singles would host a fair bit of nonsense as B-sides, this one is pretty cool and unique. Music acts go out of their way to present the best side of themselves to the public so it’s cool to hear people having at one another.

That does it for this week’s single, quite a whopper all told. Next week it’s time to fly.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Sanctuary

Purgatory

Stranger In A Strange Land

2 Minutes To Midnight (you are here)

Aces High

Run To The Hills (live)

Running Free (live)