Last Thursday, September 21 finally saw a long-awaited reveal, as Iron Maiden directly released information about Bruce Dickinson’s seventh solo album. It is titled The Mandrake Project and is slated for an “early 2024” release. More specific information will be forthcoming, of course.
In addition to the album, Bruce has also announced a small run of solo shows in Mexico and Brazil in late April and early May of next year, giving us a guess that the album will release sometime before that small tour.
This is Bruce’s first solo record in a long time – have to go back to 2005’s Tyranny Of Souls for the last one. It’s also only his second one since returning to Iron Maiden in 1999, clearly his main gig and host of other jobs like flying, beer selling and sword fighting keeps him busy.
Not much music has been made available yet, there is a small snippet of instruments in a video on Iron Maiden’s social media pages but that’s all for now. I’d expect a full song to be previewed soon, maybe when the release date is revealed.
There also isn’t a whole lot to say about the upcoming album yet, other than Bruce is again working with his longtime collaborator Roy Z. That’s good news to anyone attuned to Bruce’s solo outings, as Roy Z helped craft some amazing albums with Bruce.
We can also speculate that one song we already know will appear on the album. Bruce has been working on a concept album for years, dating back to when Iron Maiden recorded The Book Of Souls album that released in 2015. That opening track, If Eternity Should Fail, was originally written by Bruce and intended for this new solo record when Steve Harris heard it and asked for it to be on the Maiden record instead. In fact, the somewhat incoherent babbling about “Necropolis” and all that at the end of the song is a tie-in to the story for this Bruce solo album. While nothing official has been said yet, I’d place bets that If Eternity Should Fail winds up on here too, though I’m sure it would be a redone version of it.
There’s not much else to do right now but sit and wait, this will be a highly anticipated release for me. Well, I guess there is one more thing we can do and that’s gawk at that somewhat awkward promo photo, with Bruce totally photoshopped over a mystical alien door of some kind. I’m assuming and hoping that’s just a promo photo and not the true album cover, a bit of chatter in spots on social media seem to support that theory. People have had a field day with this shot, some even remarking that it’s as bad as the infamous cover to Dance Of Death. I think this is a goofy photo but it’s not anywhere near the level of bad that Dance Of Death has for a cover.
Now with that out of the way, I truly can sit and wait for more news and some previews of this new Bruce album. It’s been a long time and I’m looking forward to another entry in his outstanding solo catalog.
The Iron Maiden live album series kicks off with the first official full-length live release and it is a doozy. Live After Death was recorded during the band’s World Slavery tour in 1984 and 1985 and has gone on to be a hallmark of Maiden’s catalog as well as live albums in general.
The band line-up was the classic Iron Maiden configuration – Bruce Dickinson at vocals, Dave Murray and Adrian Smith on guitars, Steve Harris on bass and Nicko McBrain behind the drums. The band plowed through 187 concerts in 331 days, a total marathon that would later lead to exhaustion and tensions, with a break that would inform the band’s following “synth” phase. The stage set and production were replete with Powerslave-themed pieces and of course the band’s revered mascot Eddie.
The bulk of the album comes from four performances at the Long Beach Arena in California from March 13th through the 17th. The final five tracks are from earlier shows at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, England from October 8th through the 12th.
Figuring out what song came from what show is an arduous task. It’s back to the primary source for Iron Maiden information – the tome Run To The Hills – The Authorized Biography by Mick Wall. In order to tell this story quickly, Steve Harris states that audio was recorded on two nights and video was also recorded on two nights, but apparently not the same two nights. Bruce references Sunday and the fourth performance during Running Free, the only clue present on the album. Video cues offer different suggestions but again, video was reportedly done on other nights so it isn’t a good source to identify the audio. It’s a little bit of a mystery with some other sources indicating that more than one night’s worth of audio is on the Long Beach portion of the album, but it’s too much detective work for me.
Also from Mick Wall’s biography, Steve Harris emphatically states that the band did not make any corrections or overdubs on the live recordings. Producer Martin Birch mixed the album while Maiden were still on tour and the band would get a few tracks at a time to approve. While overdubs are a very common part of live albums, things had been taken a bit far at times. Judas Priest’s Unleashed In The East found Rob Halford re-doing all of his vocals in studio due to source tape issues, and there was a fair bit of buzz about that and other live albums that weren’t quite “live.” Maiden were bold in their stance that this be a truly live album – produced for the best possible content, certainly, but not corrected after the fact.
Before getting into the album itself, it’s mandatory to discuss the cover art, done as usual by Derek Riggs. This is a classic piece of Iron Maiden art, with Eddie bursting out of his own grave, and even getting the full name “Edward T. Head.” There is plenty more to check out on the back, as the piece wraps around with plenty of tombstones inscribed with various easter egg phrases. It is yet another iconic entry into the Eddie art gallery and one of the more popular Maiden posters around.
Live After Death was officially released on October 14, 1985. While most versions include all 18 tracks, it is worth noting that some older CD editions cut off the London portion of the set to save space. Most any modern-era CD reissue presents the concert in full. To my knowledge, any official vinyl and cassette releases present all tracks in full. The track list is as follows –
Churchill’s Speech (intro)
Aces High
2 Minutes To Midnight
The Trooper
Revelations
Flight Of Icarus
Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
Powerslave
The Number Of The Beast
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Iron Maiden
Run To The Hills
Running Free
Wrathchild
22 Acacia Avenue
Children Of The Damned
Die With Your Boots On
Phantom Of The Opera
After all the build up and speculation about exactly what performances these songs came from, let’s actually get into the songs. The song selection is absolutely stellar here. Maiden had the advantage of being only five albums into their career at this point so it was far easier to present a “please everyone” setlist than it is now with them being seventeen albums deep. All of the essential cuts are here from this point in the band’s history, and there some excellent secondary songs presented as well. Stuff like Die With Your Boots On and Children Of The Damned are real treats, as they only get aired out sporadically.
The performances on this album are fantastic, the band is playing with great energy. In what has become Maiden tradition, the songs are amped up a bit and they go by at a faster pace than their studio versions. Take the band’s epic Rime Of The Ancient Mariner – on Powerslave it is a 13:45 track, while here it clocks in at 13:03. The band are truly plowing through the songs here, which has been a criticism for some fans but a selling point for others.
It is in this frantic pace that the band’s magnum opus truly shines – Hallowed Be Thy Name is a spectacular cut from this live album and it has a whole new energy not present on the original studio version. It stands to reason that what is widely considered Maiden’s best song would shine here, but it truly opens up and becomes an even greater entity on this record.
There are some unique moments to be found beyond the songs themselves. Opening the set is the famous speech Winston Churchill gave to English Parliament in 1940 as World War II was in full swing. This has become “married” essentially to Aces High, itself about the Battle of Britain. And for stage banter, look no further than Running Free. Instead of getting the song overwith in a few minutes as it typically runs, there are about five extra minutes added on. This is a long section where Bruce plays with the audience to see who can scream the loudest and he has quite a bit of fun with it. At the end of other songs Bruce famously implores the crowd to “Scream for me, Long Beach!” This is now a common part of Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson lore.
Live After Death did very well on release. It charted at number 2 in the UK, number 19 in the US and appeared on charts in 11 other countries. It has been certified platinum in the US and double platinum in Canada, as well as gold in the UK and in 4 other countries.
And beyond the welcome sales numbers, Live After Death is a true hallmark in both Iron Maiden’s lexicon and in live music in general. This was praised by critics and is hailed by fans as one of the band’s best works. A few other live records coming up also vie for the title of “Best Iron Maiden live album,” but the general consensus holds this one up as the winner.
That just about does it for the first entry in the live album series. A few more months of sorting through Maiden’s quite extensive live catalog lay ahead, then at the end we’ll all see if I think this one is the best or if I have a rogue pick. Until then, scream for me, Internet!
Iron Maiden gets to bookend the week this go around. On Friday the live album series launches. For today it’s the studio album they released after their first live record and the band’s two-album dive into the world of synth.
Iron Maiden – Somewhere In Time
Released September 29, 1986 via EMI Records
My Favorite Tracks – Stranger In A Strange Land, Wasted Years, Alexander The Great
Maiden had just wrapped up the Powerslave tour cycle and were absolutely wiped out, so they took a break while Steve Harris tinkered with new equipment, including guitar synthesizers. These synths would be present on all but one song for this next record.
Songwriting came down to Harris and Adrian Smith, with only Dave Murray getting an additional credit. Bruce Dickinson was especially absent for writing purposes – he was said to have been the most burned out of all band members after the mammoth tour. Bruce showed up with a handful of acoustic tracks, which the rest of the band were not at all into. It would all work out as Bruce would really get in on the action the next go round.
Any discussion of Somewhere In Time has to involve the striking cover art. A cyberpunk Eddie graces the front and the background was absolutely loaded with references to everything from the band’s own Charlotte The Harlot to Doctor Who, Blade Runner and many other things. Derek Riggs spent 3 months doing the cover and found the process exhausting, though the result was worth it. Also of note – this was my top cover back when I ranked all of the Maiden album covers. And the album itself came in at number 3 in my Maiden album rankings.
This one is pretty simple to get into – 8 songs that run 51:18. Nothing to worry about in terms of alternate versions here, there is only one reissue series with bonus tracks and those aren’t easy to come by, so 99% of the time people will run into the exact same album.
Caught Somewhere In Time
It becomes clear very early on into this album that the addition of synth was not going to be a massive shift in Iron Maiden’s musical presentation. This song sounds like a Maiden song – galloping bass, guitars going all over the place, Bruce singing out of his mind and body and Nicko McBrain holding a clinic on the drums.
This one is about time travel of some sort, and apparently time travel involves a lot of guitars because Adrian Smith and Dave Murray shred out on an extended solo section. The duo’s work had always been rock solid to this point, but it is taken up another notch here. Spellbinding stuff.
Wasted Years
One of the album’s singles and the only song not to use synth. Wasted Years offers a pretty simple message of living for the moment and not getting caught up in wasting time worrying about what’s already come and gone. The intro riff here is pretty signature stuff, as is the iconic chorus. This would become another of Maiden’s most recognizable songs and is a frequent guest on setlists.
Sea Of Madness
This one slams in pretty hard, though still has the bright and melodic touch that the band would employ throughout this album. It’s a nice contrast of almost thrash-like guitar and drum work against the soaring chorus Bruce provides. This song could literally be about madness or possibly “sea of madness” as a metaphor for civilization, no real telling.
Heaven Can Wait
More fast-paced frenzy here as Bruce fires off verse lyrics in a machine-gun fashion. The plot of the song is about someone who has died but winds up back in mortality after not getting access to any sort of afterlife. This is one of a few songs Maiden have played live a fair bit in the years since this album’s release.
The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner
This one features a bit of sad and sweet guitar work, which compliments the subject matter well. The song is directly based off a 1960’s story of the same name, about a British kid caught in a life of poverty who starts running as a way to escape his crappy life. The song doesn’t touch on a lot of the background in the story and instead focuses more on the running itself. The galloping rhythm does lay a nice soundtrack for the act of long distance running, not that I personally know what the hell that is.
Stranger In A Strange Land
The album’s second single appears with a more mid-paced approach. This song is not about the book it shares a name with – rather it is about being an Arctic explorer and the obvious trials of that occupation, including finding a frozen corpse. This was based on a real story relayed to Adrian Smith from an actual Arctic explorer.
This song works very well with its twist of pace and the synth sitting in the background through the chorus. I know I’ve mentioned it before and likely will again, this is my second favorite song Maiden have done. Excellent stuff.
Deja Vu
This has a beautiful and mournful intro before jumping into the typical Maiden gallop. This was the one song written by Dave Murray, with additional help provided by Steve Harris. This song slices through the idea of deja vu, it’s pretty self-explanatory lyrics-wise. This is a nice one to bob along to, or headbang to, or whatever.
Alexander The Great
The final song is a Maiden epic again culling from history, this time the unbelievable conquests of Alexander The Great. The Cliffnotes version is that Alex took over a great deal of the known world at the time, then he died one day. The song’s lyrics truly are a pocket guide to Alexander’s life, as the verses do simply recount his life and deeds.
This was another triumphant Maiden epic and one that occupied an odd spot for a long time – the band found the song too challenging to play live, so they never did. That finally ended this year as Maiden has played this as part of their Future Past tour.
Somewhere In Time was a success for Iron Maiden. The album charted at number 12 in the US, 3 in the UK and had good spots in many other countries, including a number 1 spot in Finland. The album has been certified platinum in the US and Canada, and gold in 4 other nations.
Maiden would tour the album on the “Somewhere On Tour” trek, playing 151 shows in roughly 8 months’ time through 1986 and ’87. This is where the story of Somewhere In Time gets a bit cloudy and lost, as the band quicly re-entered the studio to do the next album. Songs from this record were not played live much at all beyond the tour, with only Wasted Years and Heaven Can Wait getting extensive time after ’87. The album would get a new focus in 2023, as songs from here were paired with stuff from Senjustsu to form the Future Past tour. It was nice that Maiden finally shined a new light on this album live after all these years.
In the end, Somewhere In Time was a success both commercially and critically for Iron Maiden. There were no issues with synth being around, it wasn’t like Maiden went A Flock Of Seagulls with everything. It was just a tool that the band used to great effect. And the whole album is a great collection of songs – bright and melodic, yet still anchored with the things that make Iron Maiden stand out from the metal crowd. It was my first Maiden album and it’s no wonder they went on to become my favorite band.
It is getting on time to launch the Iron Maiden live album series. I will kick it off on September 21st, or maybe the 22nd, I haven’t quite decided yet. I’m putting it off just a hair so that it’ll wrap up right before the holiday season toward the end of the year.
This series will be rundowns of the 13 official live albums. I’ve already covered most of the live EP stuff in my singles series, and bootlegs will be a separate thing I do a ways down the road. I’m not going to discuss the video stuff that’s been released, those have other content with them and I’ll give them their own series someday. This will only cover the audio albums, some of which don’t have accompanying video releases.
I have decided to go in order of album release rather than the year of the tour. It’s far easier to keep track of that way, though it does present a few odd issues with the Maiden England album. I chose to stick with the list I have and slot that one in on its 2013 release date even though both the video and CD had far earlier releases. I’ll go over that more on the actual post.
I’ve had almost all of these in my collection for a while, I’m only missing one. But I also haven’t listened to many of them in a long time so it was fun to go back through these. While a few don’t have sterling reputations I honestly wasn’t put off by listening to any of these. Though the Maiden live album machine didn’t truly get going until the reunion era when we almost have one from each album, it is nice to go over the stuff from different points in the band’s career. It does almost exclusively feature Bruce Dickinson on vocals, there is one album that has a bit of Paul Di’Anno stuff but that’s it for the other singers. Blaze Bayley never got an official live album and I would suspect there probably won’t be one, though I’d personally like to have one.
Next week I’ll have another post about Maiden live albums, that one will be a “wish list” of gigs I’d like to see released as well as a discussion about the Maiden live album process, which does generally get in the way of having a lot more live material. Then after I wrap this series up I’ll do a ranking that should wrap up the year.
My plan after that is to do a song ranking. That’s going to be a pain and I haven’t really got much into it yet so I don’t know exactly when it will kick off but it should get going sometime in early 2024. Other Maiden series will follow that, there is more than enough to talk about with this band who is only outpaced in marketing by the almighty Kiss.
That’s about enough to set the table for this series. Next week is the wishlist, then the proper series kicks off a week later. Until then, and during then and after then, up the irons.
The Iron Maiden Live Album Series
Live After Death
A Real Live One
A Real Dead One
Live At Donnington
Rock In Rio
BBC Archives
Beast Over Hammersmith
Death On The Road
Flight 666
En Vivo!
Maiden England ’88
The Book Of Souls – Live Chapter
Nights Of The Dead – Legacy Of The Beast Live In Mexico City
It’s finally time – today I present my ranking of the Iron Maiden albums. This is one I sort of fussed over for a bit. I was disrupted in my original plan to do it when I started the blog because of the arrival of Senjutsu. Now that it’s had nearly two years to work itself into the system, I can get this out since it looks like it’ll probably be a bit before a new one. We’re also at the point where we can wonder how many “new ones” we’ll get, but I’d say at least one more is a safe bet.
This ranking comprises the 17 full-length studio albums. I’m not bothering with ranking EP’s and singles, that’s too much of a headache. I’ll provide some links at the bottom to my singles series and also my album cover ranking.
This will be a bit of a beefy boy, no way around that since there are 17 albums. I’m just gonna keep everything on one post for this one so it’s all in one place and easier to reference in the future. I’ll also include links where I’ve discussed an album prior, several of these have been Album of the Week before. That’s about all for the lead-up, so off to the ranking.
#17 – Virtual XI (1998)
The bottom of the barrel here is the band’s second album with singer Blaze Bayley. Never a heralded era of the band, this album exemplifies what’s wrong with that time period, and it’s not Blaze. The songs here are just kind of ghastly. Futureal is pretty good and The Clansman is a triumph. Beyond that, these songs don’t resonate. The Angel And The Gambler is a turd that should have been flushed rather than released, and many other songs on here feel like sort of jokey things or just scraps that were aired out. This album just doesn’t have much going for it.
#16 – No Prayer For The Dying (1990)
Up next is the first of the rather unhallowed ’90’s era. Adrian Smith had left and the band worked in a basic rock style rather than the epic stuff they had ended the ’80’s with. The songs here are fairly consistent in quality. It’s just one those albums with a very low ceiling, nothing happens on here that’s really great. It is cheesy and goofy, which isn’t a problem on its own but that’s all there is here. I don’t even mind playing this album, I can enjoy hearing it but I can also recognize that it doesn’t go much of anywhere.
#15 – The X Factor (1995)
It’s quickly into the first Blaze album. This one holds far more consistent than the second one, and has a fair few good songs with stuff like Sign Of The Cross and Lord Of The Flies. It doesn’t really fall off in quality, the other songs on here are pretty solid. It also doesn’t achieve a great deal and the darker atmosphere and “grunge-like” touches don’t much enhance the Maiden experience, but there is an album worth listening to here.
#14 – Fear Of The Dark (1992)
Probably not a huge shock that all of the ’90’s albums fill out the bottom. This one, the final album with Bruce for several years, does offer a some more variety. A few of these songs are great – the title track has been a Maiden institution since release, Judas Be My Guide is a fantastic gem of a song, and Afraid To Shoot Strangers is really good. All of the album’s singles were pretty quality efforts too.
The only problem here is with the whole rest of the album, which is a lot. It’s a mixed bag of meh song like Fear Is The Key and truly awful stuff like Weekend Warrior and The Apparition. Some editing would have done wonders for this one and it’d rank a hell of a lot higher, its top end of quality is sterling.
#13 – Killers (1981)
The second opus with singer Paul Di’Anno checks in here. This album is a bit of a grab bag, with some crushing metal songs, a couple of instrumentals, an odd stylistic departure and also some other stuff. It does have quality tracks on it but it’s also kind of a comedown off the debut’s crazy energy. Overall it works and is worth a listen but it does kind of pale in comparison to others.
And here is where the most recent album lands. When this came out I was very hyped for it, gotta have something to be excited about and a new album from my favorite band should do it. I played the album a lot on release and I found plenty on there to like – the lead single Writing On The Wall is great, as is the title track. The finale Hell On Earth is in conversation for the best reunion-era song they’ve done. What led to this being dragged down some is, well, most of the rest of it. There are songs on here that are fine but they also don’t quite achieve what Maiden has done, especially elsewhere through the reunion albums. I like hearing them but they’re also not doing a whole lot, and that’s kind of a problem with an album as long as this is.
Senjutsu was previously an Album of the Week feature on release, and one I should revisit someday. That first post is a giant mess.
#11 – The Final Frontier (2010)
This was the band’s fourth reunion album, and the point where we could say the reunion had become its own era – hell, it’s now the band’s longest with a constant line-up. This one kind of flew under the radar at the time. It isn’t an immediate album but there’s some stuff to check out on here. The two epic songs Where The Wild Wind Blows and The Talisman are spectacular, and the ballad Coming Home hits a lot harder than it would have seemed at first. The album is filled out with songs of pretty good quality, nothing here really grates on me. It’s kind of a quiet moment in the band’s catalog but it does pack a punch.
#10 – Iron Maiden (1980)
The band’s debut offered up a platter of metal the likes of which was unheard of at the time. This one has a number of bangers on it, like Prowler, Running Free and the title track. Nothing here is bad, I enjoy it all. Several of these songs see play to this day, it was a remarkable debut record.
The second reunion album offers up a variety of stuff. Most of it is pleasant yet mid-tier fare, while some songs like the title track and Paschendale are amazing. Face In The Sand is also great and is my pick for Maiden’s most underrated song. The cover art is absolutely horrible but the songs help make up for it.
Maiden had a 5-year album gap here and the long wait fueled hype over this one. I was all over the hype train when the album was announced and 8 years later I’m still on that train. The title track on this one is amazing, as is the opener If Eternity Should Fail. The Red And The Black is another epic nearly equaling the size of Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, and then this album’s finale Empire Of The Clouds blows past that by 5 minutes. I’ve always liked this one a lot and nothing has diminished for me as time has passed.
#7 – Brave New World (2000)
This was the “reunion” album and it was pure joy to hear Dickinson and Smith back with Maiden. The 1990’s were tough for Maiden and metal in general, but here was the sign that metal was back. This was a nice blend of the classic Iron Maiden sound and a look to the future. Blood Brothers is a magnificent anthem, The Wicker Man a great lead single and stuff like the title track and Ghost Of The Navigator are epic journeys no one had been on since the ’80’s. This was the kick in the ass that everyone needed at the start of the new millennium.
For those who might think your eyes are deceiving you, rest assured they are not. This is the slot for the band’s third album and the debut of Bruce Dickinson. This one does come fairly loaded – Hallowed Be Thy Name is perhaps the band’s best song ever, and cuts like the title track and Run To The Hills are stone cold classics. The Prisoner is another maybe underrated gem, and 22 Acacia Avenue and Children Of The Damned are both nice songs. But Gangland really weights this one down, as does the opener Invaders. A 2022 vinyl reissue of this one put B-side Total Eclipse on the album instead of Gangland, and honestly that version might gain a spot in my rankings, but overall I’m going with the OG stuff. It’s a case of splitting hairs at this point to decide what goes where and just a few bumps in the road give this classic album a bit of a knock in the rankings.
#5 – Piece Of Mind (1983)
And now to the following album, with its crazy cover and fistful of worthy songs. The Trooper is pretty well Maiden’s signature song at this point. Where Eagles Dare, Flight Of Icarus and Revelations are all badass tunes, and Still Life is a nice cut from the second side. The remaining three aren’t great songs but are varying degrees of nice to listen to. This was Maiden truly rounding into form and is a classic album.
#4 – A Matter Of Life And Death (2006)
This 2006 set was grim, grave and absolutely epic. This album heads into war, death and other topics of grand importance. It’s probably wrong to say “Maiden went prog” but fair that there was some prog influence here and there, this is still an Iron Maiden record and not really the first time the band showcased their prog leanings. There are several prime songs here like These Colours Don’t Run, The Longest Day and The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg. And there are three totally badass epic tracks, with Brighter Than A Thousand Suns and The Legacy being completely awesome, and For The Greater Good Of God being on another level than that even. This album was a masterpiece and just mind-blowing stuff from a band about 30 years old at that point.
This album marked the first of Maiden’s two-record “synth” arc. It’s eight songs that work together fantastically and not a dud among the bunch, the synth elements only enhanced the presentation rather than seeing Maiden fall into the “slap some 80’s shit on here” trap. The cover art is totally mind-blowing, with a billion things to be found for the discerning eye. This was also the first Maiden album I ever heard so that’s going to hold a special place, obviously. I have no way of knowing this, but it’s possible that I’ve heard this one more than any other Maiden record, somehow it always winds up on mine or my friends’ stereos.
#2 – Powerslave (1984)
This is the album that turned Iron Maiden into a metal institution. The two singles, Aces High and 2 Minutes To Midnight, are among the best songs Maiden have done, and the album concludes with two monstrous epics – the title track and Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, a 13 minute long plunge that is one of the band’s most celebrated offerings. Between all that is some swordfighting and a return to the realm of The Prisoner. This album is prime Iron Maiden and the reason a great many legions came to follow the band.
Topping the list is this epic sort-of concept album that capped off the synth era. There is a theme revolving around mystical things, the title concept of a person born with extraordinary powers, seeing the future and all of that. Everything is encased in a prog-like shell and provides some of the band’s most ambitious and realized music. It is a bit dense and ponderous but still pretty accessible, songs like Moonchild and The Evil That Men Do fit in quite nicely next to other Maiden songs. And the title track is more low-key one of Maiden’s best epics. This album was a whole world for my then 10-year old self to get lost in and that I certainly did, some may say I never came back from it.
That wraps up this pretty epic undertaking, but one I needed to get done. Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments below. Here are a few links to other Maiden things I’ve done, plus a placeholder for the upcoming live album series.
Iron Maiden have been known for quite a few epic songs and some grand storytelling. Plenty of songs go heavy in theme, the group have covered topics like wars, threat of nuclear destruction, historical literature, the death of beloved entertainers, and many other things. In one case Maiden did make two songs about roughly the same thing – both The Prisoner and Back In The Village are about the 1960’s TV show The Prisoner. And two other songs link to each other at least spiritually – those being The Clansman and Death Of The Celts.
But the only true saga Iron Maiden have ever engaged isn’t about historical events or grand calamities – no, it’s about a prostitute.
Charlotte The Harlot would make her first appearance in 1980 on the debut record and then she would show up three more times over the years. Calling her saga a “story” is a pretty generous application of the word story, but there’s enough here to look over the course of the second most-known Iron Maiden character.
There isn’t a ton of background info on today’s topic. I browsed through Mick Wall’s book Run To The Hills – An Authroised Biography the other day to get some good source material and all I got was a five word quote from Dave Murray and a bit of background on one other song. The folks in Maiden have not saw fit to elaborate on Charlotte’s story, Steve Harris has declined to elaborate on the matter more than once.
There is an interview somewhere out there from Paul Di’Anno that does discuss the actual woman Charlotte is based off of, but tracking the actual interview is tough. I’ll just mention that he said the woman was really more of an “easy gal” rather than a working woman and that she didn’t actually live on Acacia Avenue.
But this tale doesn’t really need much sourcing or background info – it’s four songs about a hooker, how complicated can it be?
Charlotte The Harlot
The first song in the saga introduces the character Charlotte. The song is from 1980’s self-titled debut record. The song is a bit primitive but still has what would become typical Iron Maiden beats. It isn’t the most celebrated track from the debut but it does get its fair share of discussion.
Dave Murray was the sole composer of this one. He mentioned that Charlotte was “based on a true story” but apparently did not get any further into it. The song sees Charlotte leave her man and become a lady of the night, selling herself for men’s pleasure. Charlotte is the target of the song narrator’s ire, we would suppose that the “protagonist” is the man who Charlotte dumped to go sleep with anyone who had the right change.
There’s no telling what happened here – did someone get hung up on the gal who inspired Charlotte, or did Dave just decide to craft a song about her? I’m not sure and we may never truly know, but this was only the beginning of Charlotte’s story.
22 Acacia Avenue
The next song in Charlotte’s story comes from The Number Of The Beast. This would be significant as Maiden changed singers, with Bruce Dickinson now in the fold. Also along after the debut was guitarist Adrian Smith, who was the main songwriter here. Steve Harris is also credited, though Adrian brought some of this with him from his old band Urchin.
In this song Charlotte’s whoring ways are apparently catching up with her with stuff like diseases and abusive men. The song’s narrator basically takes Charlotte out of the life to get her “cleaned up” or whatever. No telling if the gent from this song is the same one from the first one and I’d gather the band didn’t think that far ahead.
Acacia Avenue is itself pretty interesting. Google returns some vague results about what it means. In some cases it does seem to refer to whorehouses, so that may be why the band chose it. There is another apparent meaning that more simply refers to British suburbs, I suppose in a way it was saying Parklife over a decade before Blur did. But I can’t really trace the authenticity of that claim and it’s not prevalent in search so I don’t know much about it. Either way it wasn’t meant to refer to a real place so it’s not radically important.
Hooks In You
It would be several years for the next installment of the Charlotte saga. This song comes from 1990’s No Prayer For The Dying. This album saw Maiden take a more stripped-down approach after a bit of a foray into more synth-driven epics. The album wasn’t terribly well-received but does have its fans. I personally don’t mind listening to it but I don’t have a ton of nice things to say about it either. It’s also worth mentioning that this song is often cited as the worst one on the album.
There is only one indirect reference to Charlotte in this song, but the reference does certainly establish who we’re talking about. The song’s first line “I got the keys to view at number 22” references Charlotte’s address, I guess she hadn’t moved in several years. She’s about to pretty soon.
The song goes into some goofy stuff about S&M and whatever kinky things a person could think of, at least in 1990. It doesn’t really “add” to Charlotte’s story, it’s just checking in with her and her freakiness. At the song’s end the man is apparently sick of Charlotte and has plans to “set her in concrete.”
This one was co-written by Bruce and Adrian, this was Adrian’s only contribution to this album as he left the band awhile before the record was out. Bruce said he was inspired to write the song based on some stuff he saw in a home he was looking to buy and it wound up becoming a part of the Charlotte story.
So, if we are to take this very loose story at its literal presentation, Charlotte either is dead or was going to be killed. What possibly could happen next?
From Here To Eternity
The final entry in Charlotte’s story comes from 1992’s Fear Of The Dark. This was the one and only time a Charlotte track was released as a single. This final song was composed by Steve Harris.
Here we get Charlotte’s mortal end, as she rides off on a motorcycle with The Beast, aka Satan, aka The Devil. Charlotte had already kind of seen and done it all in terms of mortal men, so her only remaining thrill would be the Devil himself. Apparently they got on really well together and are still riding to this day.
That really is about all there is to this tale of Charlotte. From humble beginnings as a prostitute to the infernal consort of His Unholiness, she lived quite the life. While nothing says Iron Maiden couldn’t add to the Charlotte saga, it would be reasonable to assume that Charlotte’s story is closed. Maiden could have written long sagas about any range of topics but hey, hookers are ok.
There is a lot of rumor and speculation about Charlotte’s story and the band’s motivations for writing about her. I chose not to cover some speculative things because I don’t like posting odd claims without sources, but if anyone wants to go ham in the comments about anything you know or think about the seedy truth behind the Charlotte songs, feel free.
Just yesterday I put the finishing touches on the Iron Maiden singles series. It was a long one but it was fun to actually visit through each single and check out the songs, the B-sides and of course the covers. Maiden have a whole lot of singles and running through what I have was a task but certainly a worthwhile one.
The singles series will return again, once I fill in the gaps in my collection. That will be a ways off, at least late 2024 for sure, if not later. There are a few that are not easy to get, but a fair bit of what I still need is generally obtainable. I’m not going to rush the process and also re-doing a series list will be a whole lot of tedious fun, so it will be some time before I get back into that. I want to do my best to make the next update the last one so I don’t have to tinker with it all again, but we’ll see what I can or can’t get my hands on.
Up next on my list of Maiden stuff are the live albums. There are, at present, 13 official live albums. I will only be handling the officially released stuff in this next series, I’ll save bootlegs for another time. I want to get this one over with since it’ll be a year or so before the next triple-LP live set that’s inevitably coming after the Future Past tour. Though updating a live album series is not near the chore that the singles list will be.
My run through the live albums will only include the audio releases. Many of these have video releases as well, save for the last few, but the video content is something I’ll save for another series. There are a lot of documentaries and extra footage things on the videos, and there are other video releases not tied to album recordings so I’ll do that as a separate thing and that’s also a ways off.
I will also be handling the live albums in the order they were released, not the order the shows were originally played. There are some older live albums that were released several years on, though this really only applies to a couple. Just easier to do it this way. And, unlike the singles series, these will actually be in the proper release order since it’s kind of hard to screw up.
I intend to kick off the live album series in September, that’ll give me time to set up most everything. That leaves a bit of a gap for awhile, which I’ll fill with a few things. Up first will be a bit of a look at Iron Maiden’s four-song saga about Charlotte the Harlot. And I’ll also do what I intended to do when I was first setting up this site, which is offer up an actual Maiden studio album ranking. I was going to post that awhile back but I decided to wait to help fill space between the singles and live records.
An actual run through each studio album is a ways off, though it will happen someday. In fact, a new series where I go through and actually score songs and albums is coming soon, though it won’t involve Iron Maiden. Their studio records have and will continue to pop up as Albums of the Week, which is a separate thing from this new scoring deal.
I do also intend to actually go through and rank every Maiden song, something I talked about before. It’s a hell of a lot of tedious work and hard yet usually pointless decision making, but that series might be the one that pops up after the live album run is complete, maybe sometime early next year. That’s not something I’m going to do with any other band but I figured I’d take the plunge for Maiden.
I think that covers about everything – the singles series is laid down for now, the live album run is coming soon, and a review series for a different band is also just about out of the gate. There is plenty of other Maiden content I can milk, er, run but I’ll get to that as time rolls on. For more general updates about things upcoming, hang on for a few weeks until early August when I commemorate two years of running the site, there I’ll get into some other stuff. For now, everything else runs as usual and some other one-off content will show up to help occupy the void left by the end of the singles series.
It’s time now to wrap up the Iron Maiden singles series. The final entry, and to date the last single to have a physical release, is Empire Of The Clouds from 2015’s The Book Of Souls. This was the album’s second single and it was released as part of Record Store Day in 2016.
There is only one version of this release, a 12-inch picture disc vinyl. There are a few CD promos out there but the mainline release was on this vinyl. It does feature some very nice cover art courtesy of Hervé Monjeaud. The art features the ever-present Eddie safely guiding an airship on fire to a comfortable landing spot. That or he’s knocking it out of the sky, who knows. I know last week I said that The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg was the undisputed winner in reunion era Maiden singles art, but obviously I’d forgotten about this one. This is really great and might be even better than the Breeg art.
The “thing” about Empire Of The Clouds is its length. At 18:01, it is Iron Maiden’s longest song by a mile, outpacing Rime Of The Ancient Mariner by nearly 5 minutes. And The Book Of Souls had another track that came within 12 seconds of Rime – The Red And The Black. It’s clear that in their later career, Iron Maiden have abandoned any concern about song length. The song length thing generates plenty of arguments but there’s little room for that today since there’s so much to talk about here.
Empire Of The Clouds was composed by singer Bruce Dickinson. He played the piano parts that run through the entire piece, then he and producer Kevin Shirley brought the band in and directed them on where and how to play their stuff. After this the piece was filled out with orchestra arrangements by Jeff Bova, a multi-instrumental session musician who has worked on a ton of stuff.
The song recounts a specific event, that being the disaster of the British R101 airship. The ship sailed on its maiden voyage and crashed in France in 1930, killing 48 of the 54 passengers and was a particularly infamous airship disaster. It ended Great Britain’s airship program and has a ton of history written about it.
The song begins with a piano intro and then spends the first several minutes in verses setting up the flight of the airship. After about seven minutes the song shifts focus and we get a bunch of guitars. That goes for another five minutes or so, then a new set of verses set to more intense music kick in and the demise of the R101 unfolds lyrically and musically.
This is an epic tale and song, and Bruce made sure the song had enough going on to not be 18 minutes of the same thing over and over again. I would say I’m hard pressed to think of an 18 minute long song that just does the same thing over and over again, but it’s not all that hard to come up with one….
Empire Of The Clouds got a mixed response from Maiden fans, though many more people embraced it that might have been guessed. The people down on it are generally the ones who find fault with song length anyway so it doesn’t really matter what this song specifically had going on. But it’s also not hard to find people who consider this one of their favorite Maiden songs.
I myself fall somewhere well in the middle of the argument – I have no issue with them doing a long song, do whatever you want, it’s your band. I do enjoy this track but it is one that requires me to focus to really listen to it. I can play The Book Of Souls and if I’m just hanging out listening to it, my attention might wander while this song is going, whereas there are other long songs I enjoy that hold my attention just fine. But when I do bring myself to pay attention I do think this is a wonderfully done song. I don’t think it’s long just for the sake of it, it’s clear that this was put together with thought and that the song wound up at its 18 minutes out of purpose.
This song has captured attention and generated opinion of all variety. It’s ridiculous on one hand but it also works. Whatever the case, Iron Maiden did something out of their norm here and wound up with a curiosity that did its job and grabbed attention. And hey, whatever you might think of this song, at least it’s not a 13 minute long dirge fest about the Loch Ness monster.
Maiden Voyage
The “B-side” isn’t a song, rather it’s a long interview piece with Bruce and Nicko McBrain discussing the background and recording of the song. It’s a very insightful talk, especially to hear how Bruce’s other career in aviation fuels his songwriting. It is long and perhaps not something a lot of people would find that interesting, but it’s a good supplement to the single and probably a far better choice than putting some random songs on that don’t fit the scale of the lead track at all.
And with this I mark the conclusion of the Iron Maiden singles series. I’ll have a bit of a postmortem on this tomorrow and some more about a potential resurrection of the series after I fill in my collection, as well as a look at the upcoming Maiden live album rundown I’ll begin soon. Thanks for tagging along on this journey through the Maiden singles, it was fun.
We are almost done with the single series, but there are two doozies lined up to close things out. Next week’s is … well, next week is next week. Today we have a special song that got a bit of an Internet mystery marketing campaign behind it before its 2006 release.
This single, like most “modern era” ones, was available in a few different versions. This is an oddity in record collecting as far as I’m concerned because I have a 10-inch vinyl. The song itself was too long for 7-inch so instead of throwing in on a 12-inch, they put out this oddity of vinyl physics. While 10-inch vinyl is cool from the standpoint of having something different, it’s also a horrible pain in the ass for storage. I have like, three 10-inch records in my collection and they’re just in with their bigger brothers, at risk of damage but I’m not setting aside a new area for three stupid records. But outside of the storage issues, it’s kind of a cool format since it’s not a common thing.
The cover art was done by Melvyn Grant, one of Eddie’s more prominent artists over the years. The cover features Eddie taking a pickaxe to the grave of one Benjamin Breeg, who we’ll get to in just a second. There are shades of Live After Death here, the art isn’t the same but it certainly evokes that memorable cover.
And honestly, this is the best Eddie art in the reunion era. Maybe I’m forgetting something, and this doesn’t include the really great t-shirt designs, but cover wise this is pretty much it. It’s reminiscent of the classic era stuff but still is distinct from the Derek Riggs line with the whole grave thing.
This single came with a very curious line of hype, though the hype was cryptic. A website sprung up for a Benjamin Breeg in 2006, with posts from a cousin of this Breeg fellow. The cousin was out of find more information about his mysterious relative. It became clear early on that the site was a marketing tool for the single when the cousin’s second post mentioned that the band were releasing a song about Benjamin, but the cryptic updates would continue.
Benjamin Breeg was born on September 3, 1939 – this was the date that Allied nations declared war on Germany in the kick-off to World War II. Breeg was orphaned some years later and developed a series of horrible nightmares that would plague him for the rest of his life. He painted the stuff he saw in his nightmares and later he wrote books about paranormal activity. He disappeared in 1978 with no leads as to what happened.
Breeg’s cousin makes a series of posts updating on the quest to find Benjamin’s fate. A person contacts the cousin and arranges a meet-up on August 14, 2006, coincidentally the same date as the single’s release. No further updates were posted and the site was eventually shut down, though the Web Archive does have a version still viewable.
In the second to last post, the cousin relays finally being able to see one of Benjamin’s paintings. I’ll just link to the site here if you want to look at the painting, but for those looking to save time, of course the painting features Eddie.
Nothing was ever revealed further about Benjamin Breeg and the connection to Eddie. It leaves several questions – was Eddie simply a figment of Breeg’s nightmares and then came to life when Breeg disappeared, around the same time Eddie was originally conceived? Was Eddie actually Breeg in an undead form? Did the cousin meet Eddie and also get dispatched? Or did the cousin actually meet Benjamin himself, rumored by some to still be alive? We’ll never know, though the first line of questioning seems the most logical in terms of impact to Eddie’s unknown origin story. Maybe one day the band will commission someone to tell the full tale of Edward the Head, which now must include Benjamin Breeg in some form.
This was a clever way to generate buzz around the band and their new album. The single was received warmly as was the entire album, still often rated as the best or one of the best from the reunion years in consensus opinion. While it was a bit disappointing there was no real “closure” to the Breeg saga, the whole thing was a very cool deal to experience when it was running in ’06.
All that was fun but there’s an actual song to talk about.
The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
The song opens up with a nice intro that definitely gives off some vibes from old Maiden days, especially the “synth era” of the band. The vocals kick in with a quiet piece before the song builds into the pretty loud main riff that will back the balance of the track.
This one, like many from AMOLAD, was very well done. The music hits hard and has the “epic Maiden song” feel and Bruce is on point with the singing, as always. Lyrically the song is pretty vague. Divorced from the website story about Breeg, there really isn’t anything to go on to glean the meaning of this one. Someone needs saved and the world kind of sucks, that’s about it. With the background of Breeg the song’s words get a bit more clear but it’s still not an open book.
The single did reasonably well on European charts, landing a few number one spots and placing on several others. Maiden’s glory days were behind them by this point but the reunion era was bearing real fruit and at this time proving itself to be more than a flash in the pan.
Also – I have a t-shirt of this song with the cover on the front the “here lies a man about whom little is known” grave inscription on the back. Sadly the shirt now has an armpit hole in it, which just means I’ll have a hole in the pit when I still wear it.
The B-sides
No need to get too detailed here – both B-sides are “live in studio” sessions from BBC Radio One. It’s the same session that the B-sides from the Different World single are from, and one of them, The Trooper, is the exact same song. Here we also get Run To The Hills. These Radio One B-sides are available across all AMOLAD single configurations so they’re easy to get. Very worthwhile stuff.
That’s about all for the saga of Benjamin Breeg and Eddie. I don’t have any of the singles from The Final Frontier, they are not the easiest to come across. So that means next week is the finale of the Iron Maiden singles series. But don’t fret, we’re going out on an absolute whopper.
The Iron Maiden singles series is now truly headed to the home stretch. Today marks one of two from the epic album A Matter Of Life And Death. I have both from this release, stands to reason as the album is one of my favorites.
I am also, once again and thankfully for the last time this series, out of order. Today’s single was the second from the album. It doesn’t make a huge difference, though next week’s does have quite a pre-release story behind it.
But for today I’ll tackle the second single since that’s how Discogs presented the list to me. This one has a handful of versions and honestly each on has different stuff on it. I have the US CD and it has 2 of the band’s best tracks recorded for a BBC Radio One session.
Since it’s Iron Maiden I’ll talk about the cover – it’s a shot of Eddie holding the Earth. It’s fine, by all means, but it’s pretty nondescript for Iron Maiden art. The still was pulled from the computer animated music video for the song we’ll get into in a minute.
Different World
The feature song was the opening track from the AMOLAD album. It is a fairly bare-bones track that hangs a bit lower in the register as a whole, a bit of contrast to the higher tones Maiden had been messing with in the early reunion years.
There was intent on the lower register thing, especially from Bruce Dickinson – the song is, in part a tribute to Thin Lizzy and Bruce did his singing a few steps off from his usual air raid siren stuff as homage to Phil Lynott.
I’ll admit this song doesn’t do too awful much for me. It’s ok but certainly not their best. If this were on a different album I might think a bit more of it, but being on AMOLAD this song kind of pales compared to the near buffet of masterpieces the rest of the album has. I’m even a bit shocked that they released this one as a single, when heavyweight songs like The Longest Day or For The Greater Good Of God were lurking as potential singles. The latter one might be long for a single, but Maiden do whatever they want anyway so I don’t see the problem.
There are two music videos for the song. The main one is a computer animated thing that shows Bruce stealing a vial of something, then he gets chased around by some machines for awhile. Eventually Eddie comes along and holds the world in his hands. The video looks fairly dated today and maybe it even was back then but it’s fairly impressive to put that kind of animation together for a music video on a song that wasn’t going to be a mega-hit. The second music video is simply a clip of the band playing the song in studio, bits of that video are seen in the animated one.
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Both B-sides come from a live in studio performance at the BBC Radio One in September 2005. First up is Iron Maiden’s magnum opus, the song hailed by many as their greatest work. This rendition sounds really good, everything sounds studio clear but it’s also obvious the band are playing it live. This version doesn’t go quite as fast as some live cuts of the song do, this one was kept at a more even pace. I’ve always enjoyed the “balls out” live versions but this one is a really good cut.
This is the same deal as Hallowed Be Thy Name and from the same session. This also sounds good and does retain a bit more of a live feel, it still sounds clear but is rough in the parts that The Trooper is on stage. If you’re unsure about this version of The Trooper you have a week to think about it, as the very same song is a B-side to the other single.
That does it for this single, not a triumph of a lead single but some pretty nice B-sides. Next week there will be quite a story behind what was the lead single from AMOLAD. And yes, this series is nearing its bedtime.
The Crooked Wanderer 