Where Eagles Dare I'm not a fan. This seems more like a Nicko audition session than a fully formed song. Don't get me wrong: Nicko comes through with flying colors. The song is just really repetitive, with no real hook to draw me in. I will say this: it's a better opener than Invaders!
Where Eagles Dare: Oh, this is where Maiden really starts with me, as Piece of Mind was their first album I owned. In hindsight, it seems to be a very purposeful introduction of Nicko behind the kit. At the time, I remember listening to this the first few times and realizing that this was some real metal, more relentless than the stuff I was listening to back them (Scorpions, AC/DC, Y&T, Def Leppard, etc. - all bands I still love). Bruce's voice is soaring, the guitars are in your face, and I used to feel exhausted after listening to this song - and realizing that it was only the first song on the album! PoM is my favorite Maiden album. I know it so well I can listen to it at night and get lulled to sleep (I used to stack my LPs on my old stereo as a teenager and each of those 10-12 albums that were in that mix are still ingrained into my mind like old friends), just as easily as I can write web content and user guides while this album plays on my headphones.
PIECE OF MIND This is where Maiden came of age. They got a stable lineup, which lasted through '89-the true "classic years" (nothing against Clive Burr). I have fond memories of this album, although when I look over the track list, I find a lot of stuff I'm not crazy about. Nonetheless, POM contains my very favorite Maiden song ("Revelations") and a few more stone cold classics ("The Trooper," "Flight of Icarus"). So this should be an interesting one to re-visit. Not overly crazy about the cover, but I like it better than NOTB's. However, from 84 to 88, things are about to get beyond awesome in that department. WHERE EAGLES DARE A much better opener than "Invaders." To me, "Where Eagles Dare" is like a more fully actualized version of "Invaders." And it's the drums and vocals that sell it, especially the incredibly complex but catchy drum patterns played to show off the new guy. I believe the reason they hardly ever play this live is because the drums are so difficult and tiring to play? Sort of like Deep Purple's "Burn." Bruce hits notes we haven't heard him before, definitely reaching out of the comfort zone. I don't mind the lyrics/subject matter at all. Maiden is so awesome because they avoid the typical "metal" topics. You know... -girl you're so hot -we're gonna rock due to the power of metal -hail Satan, ruler of the universe Unfortunately, my 1998 remaster always starts skipping on this song, around the time of the 1st guitar solo.
'Where Eagles Dare' I'll admit I've never really warmed to this track. The section that starts at 1:19 seems to go on too long for me and I lose interest - when I saw Maiden play this live in 2005 they actually shortened this bit by chopping a few repeated riffs out so they must think it's a bit long winded themselves! (as far as I know this is only one of two tracks they've ever shortened for live purposes). Anyway it's still a powerful opener and answers any questions there may be about having a new drummer. Bruce is in fine form on this track. 7/10
Revelations: We now continue to Revelation, the first song credited to Dickinson, who received sole credit for this tune. He wrote this about occultist Alistar Crowley, who claimed to be the Antichrist 666, who theorized that by concentrating all energy into the brain, man could influence and change the way things were, that man is supposed to struggle against nature in order to exercise his brain and gain the powers it contains The song is kicked off by the guitars, and they lock into a tightly played and constructed rhythm, with Bruce coming in at :41, and he is giving a great performance, delivering a song inspired by a hymnal written by GK Chesterton that Bruce read in school. It goes into a more mellow section at 1:05, and I really enjoy the harmonized guitars during this section. At 1:34, it rocks out again, and goes into a semi gallop with the twin guitars and is really going at it until 2:10, when it slows down and Steve is doing some really tasty bass playing, almost McCartney esque but with a Steve Harris touch, and Bruce is touching upon Hindu philosophy, where the hanged man is a sign of good luck, as well as alluding to the Serpent's Kiss, which is alluded to many times in Crowley's philosophy. Wow, this may be the most lyrically complex song I've covered so far. Anyway, I love where Bruce goes "GO!" at 4:08, and the band is rocking out again, and Dave takes a solo at 4:22, and it's good, but let's see what Adrian cooks up at 4:43- HOT DAMN! He's killing it, man! Adrian, you magnificent bastard, you win this round. While this song was just okay at first glance, but not a favorite, I have to say that I appreciate this song A LOT more now, this really is a great song.
Ah, finally a song I have no negative comments about! (Aleister Crowley is a personal hero of mine by the way). I've always loved this song from the first time I heard it. (Trivia: Bruce would play guitar on this track live; he wasn't very good, but was functional and did enough). There's just a lot of great melody with this tune. I love how Harris melds with the guitars at the beginning. That's great use of harmony. I love the blistering riffs of this one and Bruce sounds great. Harris's melodic lines during the non distorted portions during the verses is really creative, tasteful bass playing. He sounds really growly here in terms of his tone. Okay, so I do have one bitch: I don't particularly care for Harris's hitting every emphasis note with the drums (like at 0:44) on the call and response thing during the verses. That reeks of being too busy. He could have sat that those out and just let the drums take care of that.
I like this version much better than what we get in Live After Death. Tempo is closer to the album version and the guitars sound less choppy than LAD. Piece of Mind is my favorite Maiden album!
Awesome. Just curious, have we heard your thoughts yet on any song or album? Because I don't recall seeing you around here.
Here's "Revelations" live from Rock In Rio 1985 This is the show and song, where Bruce accidently hits his guitar to his forehead and it bleeds. Here's what Bruce tells in his autobiography about the incident: "By the time we got to "Revelations" I had put on my rather natty electric-blue Ibanez guitar. It matched the rather stylish electric-blue acoustic Ovation that I still have. The anger built as I tried to communicate with the engineer at the side of the stage. Hot and bothered, I wrenched the guitar off, over my head, and split my forehead open on its wooden edge. My head was bleeding profusely as I approached the monitor board. The engineer saw the blood and looked horrified. "****ing fix the sound - don't ****ing stand there like goldfish," I ranted. I expect I looked like a raving lunatic, which at that moment I was. To prove a point, I smashed my guitar across the mixing desk, and it broke it halfway down the neck. "FIX IT!" I screamed. The sound did not improve, so I threw all the wedge monitors off the front of the stage. Crowds love this sort of thing: they think it's show time. Sometimes it may be, but sometimes it's not. The whole spectacle was shown live on TV across millions of Latin American households. I did a bit more singing and then went behind the amps to calm down a bit. A roadie gave me a towel to wipe the blood away from my eyes, and then another member of the crew showed up, very excited. He looked carefully at the wound. "Rod says can you squeeze it and make it bleed some more," he said. "It looks great on the telly." Next day, the picture was front-page news: sweaty, blood-stained me, and 300,000 new Iron Maiden fans. By the way, I got few bootleg-recording and videos of the show, there's the rant that going on during the songs as Bruce nags, rants and curses to the technic during the solo-part of "The Trooper" and there might be some other incidents aswell, can't remember all. His microphone gets unplugged couple times awell. Also the show did not go as planned otherwise, during "Powerslave" the fire comes too late and Bruce had to stamp it out himself. The full show is there on youtube, if anybody wants to check it out.
Revelations - A real favourite of mine. The imagery is superb and the variations in tempo through the track really work. My personal "Best Of The Album" choice.
Where Eagles Dare: With a thunderous opening drum fill, Nicko McBrain asserts his presence as the new man behind the drum stool and helps to kick off a new era for Iron Maiden. The punk-ish element that was evident on the early albums is has disappeared completely as the band's music becomes more complex. Revelations : The tempo on the studio version is perfect. The feel and dynamics suffered when they jacked up the tempo in concert.
Ah, Revelations, one of the best Iron Maiden songs of all time and certainly the best song about a pair of Curtains (Live after Death joke I couldn't resist) In all seriousness, I just love this song and Bruce's first contribution to the band is one of his best. Crammed to the walls with religious and spiritual references, its got lyrics that to me are nearly poetry and Bruce is bang on for his delivery. Smith and Murray are on full attack mode with lighting quick licks and Steve Harris backs them up whilst staying somewhat to the sides but always keeping hid presence known whilst Nico keeps the rythm moving. Altogether, its a cracking song and to me perhaps unjustly is always in the shadow of The Trooper when people this of this album. But to me, its the best on the album and easily a top 5 Maiden Track.
It is a keeper for sure, although it is a bit of a grower, at least for me, and it could be for others
I've never actually owned this album. I'm listening to these songs from my old worn out Agfa LNX 60 cassette. The sound is terrible. I still prefer it to Youtube. There's Spinal Tap on the other side. Anyway, Revelations. It's marvellous. Bruce wrote it? He really shines here both as a singer and a songwriter. Beautiful melody, real singing. The lyrics, yes, poetry's the word. I might say this is my favourite song off the whole Dickinson era.
Revelations It took a long time for me to warm up to this one. This was a track that although I rarely skipped just never did much for me. That was until I saw them perform it live on the Give Me Ed tour in 2003. It was at the 5:49 part (studio) that it suddenly clicked for me. It was always fun watching the LAD video and seeing Bruce playing the guitar. He looked awkward doing so. This song recently made my latest greatest hits comp. What a turn around for me 20 years later.
"Revelations", one of the songs that has been in my alltime favorite list for so long. What a great song from Bruce as his first contribution to the band, I totally dig his sincere singing and the lyrics are very clever and cryptic. I think this shows his sublety and intelligence very well. In fact, I believe this is one of the most complicated songs so far in the Maiden catalogue, it doesn't necessarily open if you just read the lyrics but you have interpret them as little poetry with religious, spiritual and etc stuff . Examplary mission accomplished from Bruce. I like the slow advance and feeling of the song and then on the mark around 4 minutes, Bruce yells and the song begins to live again and we get the groove. During the brilliant instrumental section we get great solos from both Murray and Smith. All in all, this is truly classic Iron Maiden and one of their absolute masterpiece. All the musicianship and Bruce's singing are exactly what the song needs here and there ain't anything to report at all. The lyrics are also one of the best ever and this is much more than the usual heavy metal imagery and words that 99% of the bands use. The whole point of the song is to show the hidden dangers someone faces if he has blind faith in religion. Bruce tries to symbolize the hidden danger behind religion with these images: 1. “the secret of the hangman, the smile on his lips”. the smiling hangman is a tarrot card. it depicts a smiling man, hanged upside down from a tree. In tarrot fortune telling, this card means that a man (symbolizing each person in the song) is manipulated by a woman (symbolizing religion in the song), who wants to harm him and/or take advantage of him and seal his destiny. I asked a girl I know who is deep into that kind of stuff for the meaning of this card in tarrot card telling. 2. “the eyes of the Nile are opening, you’ll see”. Great metaphor for hidden danger. Crocodiles can swim in the water with only their eyes sticking out of it when they are on “hunt mode”. At night, their eyes glow in the dark, and appear like shiny eyes on the surface of the water. The Egyptians reffered to them as “the eyes of the Nile”, which, altough a pretty sight, warn of a great danger hidden under them. 3. the indirect refferance to Succubus is another symbolism of the great dangers of religion. Succubus was medieval folklore ghost, that appeared at night in the dreams of men, having the form of a seductive woman. Men that dreamt of having sex with Succubus died in their sleep. Incubus, the male conterpart ghost, appeared in a woman’s dream and raped her. Succubus was to blame if a man died in his sleep. Incubus was to blame if a woman gave birth to a disformed or handicaped or in any other way strange child. Merlin the wizard for instance was supposed to be the child of a woman and an Incubus.
Revelations. This was a minor shock upon first listen. I recall Harris saying Nicko had a major influence on much of the material on Piece Of Mind from a arrangement point of view. Maiden are called of late...Progressive. The band have often said in recent years, they are in a progressive phase??? Well, to me this was the start of their progressive stage....before they decided to bore everyone to death with continual 10 minute songs...with the same drawn out intro.... Ahem..... I love Revelations. I really wish they could write stuff like this these days. 5/5
My bad. I always thought this song was about some kind of air squadron duel. "Into the night they fall through the sky No one should fly where eagles dare". I falsely assumed that meant the planes were shot down, not that they were paratroopers. I never researched what the song was about until now. Score another point for this thread. I have learned something new.
