The Crooked Wanderer

Sanctuary

Purgatory

The Number Of The Beast (you are here)

Bring Your Daughter … To the Slaughter

Virus

Rainmaker

Run To The Hills – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On February 23, 2023July 23, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series37 Comments

Today we hit a milestone mark in the Maiden singles series – we are now to the third album The Number Of The Beast and therefore Bruce Dickinson has joined the band as the replacement to Paul Di’Anno. This marks the start of the “golden era” for Maiden and the bulk of their epic releases fall in this time frame.

Run To The Hills features another stunning Derek Riggs cover piece depicting Eddie and The Beast in a fight. The cover was the same across different versions of the single, in fact this single has no differences among versions – everything is just different pressings for various countries. Art and content are the same through all. Mine is a 12-inch paper sleeve version. Also we’re on a run through several singles that are simply A-side and one B-side, it’ll be a little while before something with multiple B-sides pops up again.

Run To The Hills

On the feature side is one of Iron Maiden’s most iconic songs. Run To The Hills is a very popular tune, having been a part of many setlists over the years. I’d wager it’s one of their top 5, if not top 3, most well-known songs.

The song is about the plight of the Native Americans at the hands of the invading European-American forces. Such a song could come off as boneheaded or worse, but Maiden handled the subject matter with suitable degrees of both seriousness and accuracy. The first verse’s lyrics are from the perspective of a Cree native who is lamenting the invasion and slaughter, while the second verse is told from an American cavalryman’s perspective. Note that this verse shift happens before the chorus is delivered. The final verse pulls back into a distant perspective and harshly recounts the brutal nature of the actions against the Cree.

While the subject matter is grave, the song’s iconic chorus is simple and, at least musically, uplifting. For many the cry of “run to the hills, run for your lives” would be one of the first things heard from the lips of the new singer Bruce Dickinson. Iron Maiden was re-armed with a potent young singer, and here was the first taste of what would become heavy metal history. The “Human Air Raid Siren” was just getting started.

Again, this is one of Maiden’s most-played songs live and most recognizable on the airwaves. Some feel maybe it’s been played a bit too much but I personally don’t get enough of hearing it.

Total Eclipse

The B-side is an interesting case, as it was a song intended for the album but cut in favor of Gangland. The band have long expressed regret over the decision. Reissues of The Number Of The Beast have included this song, and last year’s vinyl only reissue actually did replace Gangland with Total Eclipse. While I’m personally fine with the other reissues that have all the songs, I can understand last year’s decision as they had to keep the album to one record to accommodate a (very awesome) double-LP live album press as well.

I’d say I agree that Total Eclipse is a better song than Gangland, but of course that makes this single that much better. The song is a doomsday track, one of many that Maiden would crank out over the decades. It has the sound and feel of the first few albums, but of course with Bruce wailing away on it. I’d say it’s one of the better original non-album cuts the band did.

That does it for this week’s single. Next week it’s on the iconic title track from the iconic album, and another point where we’ll say farewell to a member of the band. And there a few things sifting through the mail system on their way to me to expand the list a bit further, including at least one representation of the Blaze era.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Sanctuary

Purgatory

Run To The Hills (you are here)

Bring Your Daughter … To the Slaughter

Virus

Rainmaker

Twilight Zone and Wrathchild – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On February 16, 2023July 23, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series35 Comments

It’s back into the Iron Maiden singles and today it’s time to bid farewell to the Paul Di’Anno era. We’ll do so in style, as we have what constitutes a “double A-side” single, including one of the most iconic songs from the early years.

As with a lot of Iron Maiden artwork, the cover is a great piece that also generated some controversy. A woman is holding the death tarot card while a ghostly visage of Eddie stands behind her. Some dull-witted people took it to mean that Eddie was stalking the woman and about to commit violence against her, while in fact Eddie in this art is dead and is in the room with his still-living lover. The picture on the side is signed to Charlotte from Eddie, so the attack angle was (probably) unwarranted.

There is another possible bit of trivia here, though it might be coincidence – the woman’s name is Charlotte, the famous subject of the song Charlotte The Harlot from the debut album. Charlotte would appear in a handful of other Maiden songs, with her saga apparently ending in a future entry of this singles series. Twilight Zone the song is not part of the Charlotte saga so I don’t know if this woman on the cover is the infamous Charlotte of the other songs, but maybe she is.

There are several pressings for this single in multiple formats but in the end the content is the same, same cover and same songs. Mine is a German pressing, probably easy to spot with the text in German on the back cover. And, in typical Maiden fashion, here is the official YouTube offering with both sides of the single in one convenient video.

Twilight Zone

The first A-side is a short but sweet tune that appeared on Killers … well, sort of. The US and Canada got Twilight Zone and Japan got it as a bonus track (they always do get bonus tracks), but the UK did not get this song on the album, so the single became another collectible.

The song packs a nice punch, it has a groovy riff and pounds along in typical early Maiden fashion, with Paul Di’Anno showcasing his vocal talents in a song that is lyrically wordy for being so short. The subject matter is in line with the cover art, as the narrator is dead and longing for his still-living lover.

And for one other little bit of trivia – Twilight Zone is Iron Maiden’s shortest song with lyrics. It beats out Invaders and Burning Ambition by a few seconds. I found this out in a YouTube comment so my source is totally unofficial, but it sounds right.

Wrathchild

The “other” A-side was an album track for all territories and is most likely the best-known song from the Killers album. This is Maiden firing on all cylinders and pounding through a tale of vengeance – a child was abandoned by his father, the child then grows up and seeks to find and end his deadbeat dad.

Wrathchild has been a staple of Maiden live sets. According to Setlist.fm the song is their 8^th most played live. Even when factoring in a margin of error, I’m sure that’s an accurate figure.

The odd story of Wratchild being considered an A-side is really just a business decision. Steve Harris relayed that the band could not afford to cut a video for Twilight Zone and they already had live footage for Wrathchild filmed, so they deemed Wrathchild a “single” so that they could offer it up with video if needed.

The single did pretty decent as far as singles go, hitting number 31 in both the UK and US, as well as 27 on the French charts. The band were spreading their wings and getting to be a known quantity.

And, as stated in the start, this is the point in the series where we bid Paul Di’Anno farewell. His tenure in Iron Maiden was brief but includes two well-regarded albums. Di’Anno would go on to front a variety of projects over the years before health concerns limited his activities, though he is having another go at a small tour schedule this year. I’ve always enjoyed his Maiden run and the pretty unique sound he had coupled with the band’s then-strange blend of metal and punk.

That does mean we’re getting to the next era of the band and the glory years of Iron Maiden. But hey, that’s for next week.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Sanctuary

Purgatory

Twilight Zone/Wrathchild (you are here)

Virus

Rainmaker

Purgatory – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On February 9, 2023July 23, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series35 Comments

It’s back to the Iron Maiden singles. Today we get another 7-inch record serving up a single from the Killers album. Just one more single after this and then we’re off into the epic Iron Maiden era we all know and love. But the Paul Di’Anno tenure has some great music in it and today’s A-side is proof positive of that.

This single has very few versions compared to many other Maiden releases. Discogs only lists 4 separate original versions, all the same single just released in different territories. The other 2 versions are from a 2014 reissue of many of the singles. This isn’t one with a hundred different versions to mess with, as was the case with Maiden Japan last week. I have the UK release.

One bit of cover art trivia, which I covered last week in the Maiden cover art rankings – Derek Riggs originally did a spectacular piece of art for this single cover. Camp Maiden said “hold on, we’ll use that for something more special later on” and it was in fact the art for The Number Of The Beast. We can see Eddie and The Beast on this cover as well, though in far less elaborate form than on the future album cover.

Just two songs to get into today, and only one of them has anything to talk about, so let’s have at it. Both sides of the single are featured in the YouTube video below.

Purgatory

The single’s subject material is a punishing track that stands among the best Iron Maiden did in their early career. The rolling guitars and the thumping rhythm section accompany Di’Anno’s vocal delivery for a highlight song. Purgatory is a quintessential Iron Maiden track, no matter what era.

Genghis Khan

The B-side offers up one of the two instrumentals on Killers. It’s a pretty cool song that also sounds like what you’d think of when you say Iron Maiden. They do kind of pummel through this one for the most part, with a more melodic section about 2 minutes in.

Well, that about wraps up the single for today. Not much to talk about when you get two album tracks, which helps explain why the single itself just missed cracking the Top 50 in the UK – fans already had these songs on Killers the album. Next week I’ll tackle the final piece of the Paul Di’Anno years with an interesting “double A-side” kind of single.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Sanctuary

Purgatory (you are here)

Virus

Rainmaker

The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 2023 Nominees

On February 8, 2023February 7, 2023 By bigbadburchIn News11 Comments

The nominations for the 2023 class of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame were announced last week. As always, the nominee list sparks a lot of outrage and argument. People love to get hot and argue over who should or shouldn’t be considered for induction, and this generates a lot of talk.

And that’s really the point – the more times the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame gets mentioned, especially on the Internet, the more they win. It’s been a series of heated arguments for many years now – the Rock Hall powers that be only select inductees based on marketability, they let in too many non-rock acts, such-and-such legendary artist should have been inducted ages ago, etc. It’s all over the place, both when the nominations are announced and the inductees are revealed a few months later.

I personally have wished to avoid talking much about the Rock Hall. I used to blog about it decades ago but it got old arguing over the same old things. It’s easy content, but it’s also just a hamster running a wheel. It never goes anywhere.

I’m not really talking about this today because I want to rehash a bunch of old arguments. I know the Rock Hall functions as a cash siphon, that much is evident in a number of high-dollar “lures” paid to the Hall to get them to set up shop in Cleveland and for hosting ceremonies, etc. I also know the Hall inducts non-rock artists and honestly I don’t care if they do. That ship sailed a long time ago and I’m not going to waste time worrying about rap and country acts being brought in today. It’s a pointless battle.

If it’s not already obvious why I’m writing about the Rock Hall in wake of the nominee announcement, l’ll go ahead and make that clear now. There are 14 nominees for the 2023 Class, the list of which can be found here if you’re interested. While there are a handful of stories among the nominees, my interest revolves around exactly one.

That’s right, Iron Maiden are again up for Rock Hall consideration. They were nominated but not selected a few years ago. Things on the surface look brighter in the wake of the Judas Priest induction last year. The (nearly useless) fan vote sees Maiden presently in 6^th place in voting, just a spot out of the top 5 cutoff. (The fan vote does not guarantee induction, it’s just some BS they put together to make people feel like they have a say in the matter).

While I don’t consider the Rock Hall a huge part of my music life, or a part at all, I’m not going to just sit idly when my favorite band is up for consideration. I did finally give up on the Hall after the ignorant sagas of bands like Kiss, Rush, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper and others who took far too long to be inducted, as well as some deserving acts that still aren’t in (Steppenwolf, hello?). But the new interest in and drama of the British metal bands has me casting an eye back in the Rock Hall’s direction.

The Hall seems to have softened on their “no heavy metal” stance. Judas Priest was inducted last year when an old award was repurposed as the Musical Excellence award to bring in acts who maybe fall under the “mass appeal” radar, as Priest fell short in the fan voting. I’m sort of expecting Iron Maiden to get in under that same banner this year if they aren’t selected for outright induction.

There is an additional wrinkle to Iron Maiden being selected – the Rock Hall powers that be are very shy of controversy and also can tend to be vengeful against those musicians who speak out against it. Well, bear witness to this 2018 quote from Bruce Dickinson, as found on a NME article –

“I actually think the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is an utter and complete load of bollocks, to be honest with you. It’s run by a bunch of sanctimonious bloody Americans who wouldn’t know rock and roll if it hit them in the face.”

I’m gonna guess that the Rock Hall elite didn’t take kindly to this, or the other times Dickinson has railed against the institution. Now, this is mitigated by the fact that a Maiden induction would be drama free, the only question being if the living former members up for induction (Paul Di’Anno and Dennis Stratton) would join Maiden for the live performance. Whether they did or not would not lead to any drama, the likes of which poisoned the inductions of Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses and others. That might work in Maiden’s favor.

Some have wondered if Iron Maiden would even show up for a Rock Hall induction. Bruce’s comments don’t lead anyone to think so, but at the end of the day Maiden are savvy marketers and the Rock Hall is a marketing opportunity, if only a fleeting one. My guess is that the band would attend the ceremony, then Bruce could give his full thoughts to the press later if he wished.

So the big question remains – will Iron Maiden get into the Rock Hall this time around? We’ll find out sometime after April so we’ve got a minute. I think it’s more likely than not that they do, but I could also see them missing again. If anything, I feel like they’ll get put in with the same Musical Excellence thing Judas Priest got last year.

And yeah, I really hope Iron Maiden gets in the Rock Hall. Because once they’re in, I honestly never have to give a damn about that place ever again.

Ranking The Iron Maiden Album Covers – Part Two

On February 3, 2023February 3, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Album Art8 Comments

It’s back to the Iron Maiden album rankings and time to cap off the top 8. If you missed the first part of my ranking you can find that here.

8 – Brave New World

This was the other one that caused me a lot of deliberation and was pitted against No Prayer For The Dying. In the end I gave BNW the nod. While NPFTD has a more classic Eddie and this is more abstract, this is still a very nice piece of art. Cityscape and landscape stuff is art I like a lot so that is probably why this got pushed up the list. I also like storms, ports and Eddie so this one really has it all. It’s only missing beer.

Brave New World was an Album of the Week pick last year.

7 – Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

No, I didn’t rank this here because of the number coincidence, this is really where I rank this cover. It’s a very striking image of a disembodied Eddie holding his own heart while hanging out over a frozen body of water. I have no clue what greater meaning this art possesses, if any, but it’s a pretty cool if not whacked out album cover. And just to prove I’m not ranking these based on my musical preferences, this is my favorite Maiden album.

6 – Killers

The second album is still “simple” in a way but features a more clever, purpose-filled and clearly malevolent Eddie holding an implement he most likely used on an unsuspecting victim. Maybe it was Margaret Thatcher. This is a very well done version of Eddie and is leagues above the debut album’s cover art.

Killers has been a past Album of the Week feature.

5 – Piece Of Mind

The classic fourth album features a very striking image of Eddie in a straightjacket, locked up and looking like he wants to take a piece out of someone’s mind. Poor Eddie has been lobotomized, I wonder how he’ll go on without his gray matter. This image was one of several from the classic run of albums that got millions of crazy kids into the band.

4 – A Matter Of Life And Death

It’s the highest-ranking reunion-era album cover and it’s WAY up there on my list. I absolutely love this album art with the band of brothers, skeleton edition heading into war. Eddie is not the highlight of the art and that did rankle some fans but I just totally love the art and didn’t place any importance on Eddie being more in the background. I have this back patch on my jean jacket and I’ll be gutted on the day the patch and/or jacket bites the dust.

A Matter Of Life And Death has been an Album of the Week.

3 – The Number Of The Beast

A magnificent cover featuring Eddie and every metalhead’s favorite pal, the Devil. Here Eddie is the one playing puppet master with the Beast. This duel between Eddie and the Beast plays out in many other art pieces and videos through Maiden’s history.

The really funny part about this cover was that Derek Riggs originally did it as the art for the single release of Purgatory. The band and management wisely held off on the art, correctly judging that it was too good for a single. And also this came out during the rise of the Satanic Panic in the US and the band caught a bunch of flak for it. LOL.

Coincidentally, Purgatory is next week’s pick as I run through my collection of Iron Maiden singles.

2 – Powerslave

Of all the covers and versions of Eddie, few hold a candle to this iconic art of Pharaoh Eddie as an ancient Egyptian monument. While the specifics of Eddie’s reign are lost to history, we have this spectacular image to educate us. It’s no wonder that Iron Maiden was a driving force behind 80’s kids at least pretending to care about history.

Powerslave has been an Album of the Week.

1 – Somewhere In Time

The top spot on my list goes to the 1986 album with the rad sci-fi cover. Eddie is a cyberpunk here in world definitely inspired by Blade Runner. Both the front and back cover art are chock full of easter eggs and references, head to the wiki page to collect them all.

This was the art I saw that got me into Iron Maiden, I knew I had to have this album when I saw the cover. And that’s the same tale with many fans of the group, no matter which specific album cover they first saw. These are some of the most striking and fascinating album covers in music history, and a big part of being an Iron Maiden fan.

Maiden Japan – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On February 2, 2023July 23, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series34 Comments

On through the Iron Maiden singles I go, and this time with a bit of a note. I am fairly certain I’m out of order right now – Maiden Japan was Paul Di’Anno’s last recorded work with Maiden and there are still two singles from Killers to go after this.

How did I screw up so awfully bad? I ran with the order the singles came up on my list in Discogs. This release had different release dates across various countries, therefore it shows as simply 1981 on my list, and gets sorted before things with specific release dates attached to them. It’s not a major issue to me so I just roll with it, there’s no way I’m putting in the work needed to change the order on a list that is in several of my posts now. It fouls up the narrative just a little bit but I think it’ll be ok.

Today we have an EP as opposed to a single. This comprises five live tracks, all recorded at a show at Kosei Nenkin Hall in Nagoyo, Japan in May 1981. The cover is a fairly famous piece of Maiden history, with Eddie wielding a katana. It’s one of the more well-known non-album Eddie arts and likely had some influence on decking Eddie out as a full samurai on 2021’s Senjutsu cover.

There is an alternate cover to this EP, though it’ll set a person back if they were looking for it. The original idea for the cover showed Eddie holding Paul Di’Anno’s decapitated head. This was before Di’Anno was out of the band and the cover was changed because band and management were frustrated with Di’Anno. This alternate cover got a South American press several years later and yeah, it ain’t cheap.

The EP’s name also clearly plays on the title of Deep Purple’s much-heralded live album Made In Japan. The “Maiden (insert place here)” would become a common tagline for Iron Maiden through the years, it was a pretty obvious thing to do.

There are too many different versions of this release to really count. I have a US pressing, which is kind of a treat as the US did not get a lot of the Maiden non-album stuff direct to market. There are official versions that differ between four and five tracks, and there are some unofficial versions that apparently have this concert in full. I have not personally run across one but they are out there.

As mentioned already, this is the last officially recorded work with Paul Di’Anno. He would be out of the band before 1981 came to a close. We all probably know who and what came next, but I’ll save that for when the time comes.

The Killers album cycle also introduces a new guitarist – Adrian Smith was hired to replace Dennis Stratton. The guitar duo of Smith and Dave Murray would become one of heavy metal’s most iconic tandems and here we are at the start of it.

I won’t go through each song as I normally do since this is a live EP as opposed to a single with B-sides. Here is the tracklist:

Running Free

Remember Tomorrow

Wrathchild

Killers

Innocent Exile

The recording is a tad rough but overall works well, both with the “rough and tumble” early era of Maiden and in context of live recording standards for emerging bands in 1981. I would say it works well as a live document of the time and isn’t just some slapdash thing with no care put into it.

The song selection here is a strength. Running Free and Wrathchild have long been live staples, while Killers has also seen some time on stage. Remember Tomorrow and Innocent Exile are absolute rarities though and honestly their inclusion alone makes this a worthy pick-up. Rarity isn’t the only issue though, and these versions of the more familiar songs are quite worthy as well.

Maiden Japan has held a special place among the band’s collectors. It is an out of the way item but also not terribly hard to find. It is one of a very few official offerings of Paul Di’Anno singing with the band in concert – other than single B-sides and a few limited releases, there just isn’t much official live material out there. It’s off to bootleg land for the collectors who want more, including the rest of this show.

I’m back tomorrow with part two of the Iron Maiden album cover rankings, and then Sunday with something that won’t have to do with Iron Maiden for once. Also – no pic of the actual record this time – I had a light go out in my room where my records are and getting good light on a record itself is a pain. I’m sure the covers will suffice.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Sanctuary

Maiden Japan (you are here)

Purgatory

Virus

Rain maker

Ranking The Iron Maiden Album Covers – Part One

On February 1, 2023February 3, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Album Art8 Comments

I’m doing another two-parter post and also writing a bunch about Iron Maiden yet again. But this is a pretty mandatory ranking to do, along with the actual album ranking that I haven’t got to yet. (sometime this spring, most likely)

It’s a simple thing starting today – I’m going to rank the album covers. Maiden have (almost) always had iconic cover art and I figured I’d throw my hat in the ranking ring on that. I’ll do the first part today, then tomorrow I will keep my normal schedule and press on with the singles series. On Friday I’ll offer up the final portion of this ranking. I don’t know about breaking a multi-part post up like this but I think it’ll be fine.

There are 17 Iron Maiden studio albums. I’ll handle the first 9 on my list today and the final 8 on Friday, the latter portion of the list will have more to talk about. I am only including the full-length studio albums – no live stuff, no EP’s or singles, no other “not album” stuff. Some of that has pretty awesome artwork, much of it I’ll cover over the run of my ongoing singles series. At some future point in time I’ll get to the live albums.

I probably shouldn’t have to say this but I will anyway – this is only about the album art, not the quality of the album itself. If I’ve talked about the album before I’ll provide a link to anyone curious what I think about the actual music, but the tunes have zero bearing on my thoughts regarding the artwork.

The list format works best when working from bottom to top, worst to best, least to first. And with that, I probably don’t even need to tell you how my Maiden album art ranking kicks off.

17 – Dance Of Death

Ugh. What a crime of a cover. So bad the artist didn’t want credit for it. I’ve complained about this cover in a “bad cover art” post I did a long time ago and also when I covered this record in my Album of the Week series recently. I won’t go over it again – just behold this hideous abomination. I mean, it bears repeating – the artist didn’t want credit for working on an Iron Maiden album cover. That tells you how hosed this is.

16 – Book Of Souls

A very nice album that I like quite a bit, but they totally punted on any kind of art here. I wonder if criticism over past covers made them take a more minimalist approach here. They did all sorts of other art with Eddie as a Mayan kind of thing, I don’t know why they didn’t lean into that and make it a more rounded out cover. Too colorful, maybe? I think this art isn’t bad but it’s almost nothing and doesn’t communicate a damn thing about the album.

15 – The X Factor

Here we have claymation Eddie being “executed” or shoved together like a toddler playing with Play-doh or something. I give them props for trying something different but it still kind of comes up short. I will say that the bleak cover does fit the mood of the album pretty well, that they do get points on.

14 – Virtual XI

So the idea here was to combine an upcoming video game featuring Eddie with the 1998 World Cup. The lesson here is not to mix two disparate ideas unless you are really damn good. This cover isn’t horrible but it makes zero sense. I’ve read how this came about but I still don’t understand why.

13 – The Final Frontier

There is a lot going on with this cover. That I’ll give points for, there is stuff there and it’s not totally obscure like with Virtual XI. Some alien kind of thing is killing Eddie, I guess, that seems to be the premise. Or Eddie is the alien thing killing an Eddie-like being in a spacesuit, I don’t know. (I think it’s actually that one) The cover artist didn’t want to do Eddie, but the band insisted that Eddie be on the cover since he’s on, like, every single one in some form. The art is fine but the attempt to stray from the band’s iconic cover character is a bit stupid.

12 – Iron Maiden

I might be courting a bit of stiff resistance here but this is where I rank the debut album’s cover. It has its place in history, both as the wide-market debut of Eddie and as artist Derek Riggs’ first album contribution to the art. Riggs would draw several memorable Maiden covers over the years, and it should tell you something if I’m just now getting to one he did.

I do think the art is a total piece of history and is good. But let’s admit it – Eddie looks kinda out of it here. He had more precision to his other looks, and that includes some single art that Riggs did before the debut album came out. Dude looks a bit stone here and it would take a bit more art to flesh out Eddie’s persona. Good stuff but still down a few rungs from the others.

11 – Senjutsu

Massive points here for samurai Eddie, something that’s been dreamed of since the Maiden Japan EP many moons ago. (also coming up on this very site tomorrow) The art of Eddie is great and nicely detailed. The cover overall has more going on than Book Of Souls but still feels a bit lacking. I can accept this one much more since Eddie looks pretty damn good on it and it checks off a wantlist item in a nice way.

I covered the music of Senjutsu very early on in the “history” of my blog.

10 – Fear Of The Dark

A very nicely done cover that reshapes Eddie as a nasty creature out stalking in the trees. This was the first cover Derek Riggs did not do for the band. The change is apparent but it suits the album title and also the title track very well and this was a nice way to let someone else have a go at handling Eddie.

9 – No Prayer For The Dying

This was the closet call of the bunch for me, choosing between this and what became my number 8 pick. This was the final cover art Derek Riggs would do on Maiden studio albums, though he continued some other art work with the band in years since.

There are two versions of this cover – the original with Eddie holding a presumed graverobber in the likeness of band manager Ron Smallwood, and a remastered cover with Eddie not holding anyone and simply busting out of the grave. I’ve posted the remaster above and will post the original below for reference. I do tend to prefer the remastered art with just Eddie.

This is a very nice album cover, it’s one I like a lot and I’d say, in general, the art gets more love than the album. It does mark the end of an iconic run of Riggs covers and is a special part of history.

That does it for part one. Tomorrow I’ll return to the Maiden singles series with Maiden Japan and then on Friday I’ll wrap this up with the top 8.

Part Two is now up for your viewing pleasure, head here to see the rest.

Women In Uniform – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On January 26, 2023July 23, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series36 Comments

On through the singles series we go, today we essentially re-visit the very first one. While Live Plus One was a Japan-only release, this one was released in a wide variety of formats and to many different countries.

Already with the cover art we have some differences in versions. Posted above is the typical cover for most of the versions. It features British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in an army uniform with a gun, ready to ambush Eddie as he strolls along with a few lovely ladies. Maggie’s revenge is for Eddie killing her on the cover the of the Sanctuary single.

Now you can see that I have a different version of the release and a fairly generic cover that’s just the debut album cover with some hype text. I don’t know if they did this in case they needed a censored version of the cover, but it seems the Thatcher original got to market in good shape.

Women In Uniform

On now to the songs, and the feature track this time is a cover. The original was a very recent tune from 1978, the original artist were Skyhooks, an Australian glam rock act. Skyhooks had achieved some level of success in their home country but didn’t break through internationally. Women In Uniform as a Skyhooks single charted at number 8 in Australia and hit a modest 73 on the UK charts.

Iron Maiden were persuaded to record the song by their management team and record label. The recording process did not go the way Iron Maiden wanted, with information provided in Mick Wall’s 2004 edition of his biography of Iron Maiden, Run To The Hills: The Authorised Biography Of Iron Maiden.

Steve Harris and his outfit were keen on recording a heavy version of the song. The record label hired producer Tony Platt, who had worked as an engineer when Mutt Lange produced his run of AC/DC albums. Platt was under instructions to get a hit out of the Maiden recording sessions, and tinkered with the mix behind Harris’ back. When Harris found out, he canned Platt and did the final mix himself.

Harris was always dissatisfied with how Women In Uniform came out and this led to a deep distrust of outside interference in his music after that. It wouldn’t matter much, as Iron Maiden’s remarkable run with Martin Birch as producer was just on the horizon. But the incident might have contributed greatly to a “control freak” approach from Harris, which has been a topic of much discussion in Maiden circles in years since.

Women In Uniform was a decent single for Iron Maiden, heading to 35 on the UK charts. The band also filmed a music video for the song, the band’s first. This was also a bit before MTV was a thing so it was something of a novel concept for an up and coming act to film a video. This was the only time Maiden released a cover as a single – while that statement isn’t technically true, the other instance is a very limited promo item and also I don’t own that one so as it stands, this one is all we need to worry about.

The single is noteworthy as the final work of guitarist Dennis Stratton in Iron Maiden. Stratton left the band soon after, citing musical differences, but truly due to conflicts with Steve Harris and manager Ron Smallwood. Stratton reportedly was complicit in helping Tony Platt attempt to re-engineer this song as a radio hit, so this might actually be his reason for exiting. He would be replaced by some guy named Adrian…

There is another issue surrounding the song, and that is how it is viewed in a modern context. In short, it isn’t viewed highly. It is considered crude and objectifying to women, and has been dismissed by a fair number of people. Sure, it’s a bit raunchy, but there’s far worse out there. I honestly don’t see the huge problem with it – the lyrics are pretty dumb on the surface and this isn’t a song that should be taken seriously. I don’t think the song is that bad and I feel like it’s a bit of posturing over what are some juvenile at worst lyrics. I don’t have a problem with people wanting their music to be more conscientious, but I think this song is barely a blip on the radar and isn’t worth the hassle.

The rest of this 12-inch single has two live cuts that are also found on the Live Plus One release – Phantom Of The Opera and Drifter. I’ve already been over them (link is below on the list if you missed it) so I’ll just leave things at that.

Three more cuts from Paul Di’Anno’s tenure in Maiden await. Also the list continues growing, at least for as long as I keep finding decently priced stuff. That time might soon be at an end.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Sanctuary

Women In Uniform (you are here)

Purgatory

Virus

Rainmaker