![]() Quest For Fire was a 1911 novel before being loosely adapted for cinema in 1980 Die With Your Boots On references the prophecies of Nostradamus and Sun And Steel alludes to The Book Of Five Rings, a seventeenth century martial arts treatise by samurai warrior Miyamoto Musashi. Hard to imagine what Alfred, Lord Tennyson would make of Maiden, but the Victorian poet laureate’s 1854 Crimean War poem The Charge Of The Light Brigade inspired the immersive lyrics of The Trooper - arguably the band’s signature song, the apotheosis of the galloping bass and twin-axe attack that Maiden made industry standards.īruce’s dynamic evergreen Revelations quotes a 1906 GK Chesterton hymn while incorporating motifs from occultist philosopher Aleister Crowley, while Flight Of Icarus sees the singer giving a teenage rebellion twist to the Greek myth of the doomed aviator. Novelists Alistair Maclean and Frank Herbert were acknowledged “for the inspiration of their works”, even though the aptly named Herbert refused the band permission to name the album’s epic closer after his sci-fi saga Dune, sneering in a snooty statement “Mr Herbert does not like rock bands, especially heavy metal bands, and especially heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden.”Ĭonsequently, Bruce would introduce the song onstage with an equally terse statement: “Mr Herbert, as it turns out, is a bit of a cunt actually”. No more London backstreet studios for these boys Piece Of Mind marked the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with Nassau’s Compass Point Studios (they returned to do Powerslave, Somewhere In Time and The Final Frontier), and a personal attachment that eventually saw Steve and his family move to the island.īehind the mixing desk once more was veteran knob-twiddler Martin Birch, whose smooth, muscular precision engineering gifted the strongest Maiden line-up their strongest production yet, a big-league sound tooled for US radio, but loud and forceful enough to connect with the earthdogs, hell rats and rivetheads on a gut level.įrom the strafing WWII bravado of Where Eagles Dare - a high-impact showcase for Nicko’s rhythmic capabilities - to the dusky mystique of To Tame A Land (regarded by Steve at the time as the best song he’d ever written), all of the new songs took lyrical cues from Steve and Bruce’s straining bookshelves. ![]() If the photo from the shoot wasn't evidence enough that these East End urchins were now living the high life, band and crew soon left Jersey for the tropical paradise of Nassau in the Bahamas.
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