Iron Maiden: The Paul Di'Anno Years

I did a series of posts years back on Iron Maiden, but they were intended to be a warm-up to a planned Thirty Days of Maiden, which never actually materialized. Part of the reason it never did is because while the idea was to spend a calendar day apiece on thirty Maiden songs, I happen to have more than thirty favorites. No matter how I sliced and diced it I could not find a thirty-song set that felt comfortably definitive for even such a subjective task as “my favorite Maiden songs.” Clearly an exhaustive album-by-album approach was needed to get to the bottom of things. 

That was 2014. It took me six years to finally follow through on the below, and I needed to enlist the aid of my buddy and fellow Maiden-enthusiast Marshall Mason to get the job done properly. Marshall! Welcome to the blog and thanks for doing this with me. Tell the good folks at home how you got into Maiden and why you’re here.  

Marshall: I got into Maiden around 1988. I raided my brother's cassette collection. I didn't like heavy metal. I thought it was satanic and too heavy. But I really loved the song “Eye of the Tiger” (to this day, I say that song was quintessential metal!), and I was curious and open minded. I went through Ozzy, Anthrax, and Metallica and was not too impressed until I happened upon Powerslave. "Aces High" hooked me in right away, and by the time that break in "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" came, I was definitely a fan, and by extension, also a fan of heavy metal, because if I could find one album, surely I could find others. To this day, Powerslave is my favorite metal album and favorite Maiden album. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was the current album at the time, and it was around then that I saw videos for “Can I Play With Madness” and “Run to the Hills” on Headbanger's Ball, a show I gravitated to specifically because of Maiden.

Bryan: I really wish they’d re-run Headbanger’s Ball. Or put out some mega-stream/collection of it all. 

Marshall: I've been developing a Headbanger's Ball playlist of songs I've owned and am purchasing, and I'm really happy with it. It feels like tuning into the show, without interruptions or commercials.

Bryan: Those playlists are absolute dynamite. I remember how rare it was to see Maiden on MTV. That changed with Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, when at least “The Evil that Men Do” and “The Clairyvoyant” were in heavy rotation. 

I too got into metal on account of my older brother, who was into all New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands, as well as Dio and Accept and pretty much all early-to-mid-80s metal. “Eye of the Tiger” was a bit of a gateway drug, totally. One minute I was singing nothing but Men At Work; the next it was Judas Priest and Sin After Sin. 

My parents like a lot of parents of that era were worried I was absorbing bad mojo from heavy metal, but I think they saw my brother was doing okay, so I had that on my side. I can’t recall a time when I didn’t know Maiden, really – they kind of just appear during my memories of being eight or nine. Maiden’s new album around this time in my life was Piece of Mind (which I had on cassette so my memory of it comes with that escalating-tone boop-de-boop-boop-BEEP that started some tapes back then.) My brother and I would draw all the album covers and singles in our room in Sprendlingen. When Powerslave came out, forget it, we were both over the moon – so much to draw/ copy on that album cover! We’d aged out of drawing in our room together by the time Somewhere in Time came out, but that cover design covered most of my textbook-covers in junior high.  

I wish I still had those sketchbooks. 

Marshall: You were a few years ahead of me. I always felt like I got in right at the tail end, and missed out on the heyday, which was disappointing. I think this is why I'm having such a midlife crisis now and going back and listening and discovering all the stuff that came before my time. I've sort of owed this to myself for a long time. Now I've got time to kill and I have nothing else I'm really interested in anymore. When COVID ends, I think I might even start going to concerts, which I rarely did before, for financial reasons.

Bryan: I gave up going to shows sometime around 2005, but I’d planned to see Kraftwerk this past summer in Chicago. I hadn’t bought any tickets, but I kept circling the idea. Alas the COVID made the decision for me. I’m sure that when people start going to shows again, it’ll be the sweeping shots of hundred thousand people crowds upping the irons in South America that ease more than a few people back into it.  

Let’s get things going with the Di’Anno years. For those unfamiliar, Paul Di’Anno was the first lead singer for Maiden, singing on their first two studio efforts. Starting with:

(1980)

Side One

Prowler

Marshall: 3/5  Always a crowd pleaser, this song is custom made for live shows.

Bryan: 4/5  Absolutely. I had access to my older brother’s albums, but the “Sanctuary” single, which also had this song on it, was one of the first I personally purchased. I remember the whole thing: getting my allowance money, getting dropped off at the Neu Isenburg Mall where he bought Number of the Beast on vinyl, and I got this one. We were always pooling our Maiden; he was very loyal to Bruce and so he never bothered getting the first two on vinyl. (Another reason it took me a few years to really get into the first two albums.) 

Anyway, I apparently bought the Dutch vinyl single, as my version has "Sanctuary" and "Prowler" on it, and I listened to that thing a hundred times. I always think of both these songs in an eight year old ownership way, as “my” songs, the ones I had outside my brother's albums.

"Sanctuary" cover. (In the words of Bobby Darin, could it be our boy's done something rash?)

Sanctuary

Bryan: 4/5  I guess I kind of covered my answer above, too. Like "Prowler" it had that whole from-the-POV-of-a-killer/deviant quality that was so edgy at the time. 

Marshall:  3/5  Another crowd pleaser. The solos on this are great. This song is so good live. They usually stop in the middle and introduce the band. Then they jump back into the song. Such a cool move, live.

Bryan:  I wish more bands did that sort of thing. I like when songs become part of their act like that, like “Running Free” is the get-the-crowd-singing song, etc. 

Remember Tomorrow

Bryan: 4/5  The fast break and then back to the other section is so quintessentially Maiden. This one foreshadows the Dickinson years. I go through the same mental process whenever I hear this one: I’m just getting a little bored with the first part when the fast part kicks in and saves it for me. 

Marshall: 3/5  Cool song. 

Running Free

Bryan: 5/5   Perfect. Every goooooooooool montage should be to this.

Marshall:  2/5   It's a fun song, but the lyrics seem uninspired, and the vocal harmonies are not very good.

Bryan:  I’m scandalized! I think the vocal harmonies are good enough for this sort of song. You know all this, I know, but for the benefit of those who don’t, the soccer fandom of the individual members of Maiden is an ongoing thing with the band. Steve Harris played for West Ham’s youth squad and was even offered a spot on Leyton Orient (if memory serves from that Mick Wall book.) There’s a Brazilian side that uses Eddie for its mascot; thousands of people in the stands unfurl a huge Eddie banner. I forget the name of them; you can see them on the Rock in Rio DVD special features, though. Anyway! This is one of my favorites.

Phantom of the Opera

Marshall: 4/5  My favorite Maiden song from this era. I love the guitar riff during the verse. I love how the vocal melody and guitar melody line up for part of the verse. I love the guitar solo. My favorite part is the breaks. The break in the middle, with the bass going first and then the guitars lining up behind that, pure genius! Dickinson does this much better live than Di'anno on this record. It really is perfect for him, having the operatic voice and all.

Bryan:  3.5/ 5  You know, that’s always been my problem with this studio version. I heard Bruce sing it first. I do like it for what it is – that’s basically my take on any Di’anno song (except “Running Free” and “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” which even though Bruce sings both well, I prefer Di’anno’s takes.) You’re totally right, though, this is vintage Maiden song construction.

Marshall: Interesting! I heard Bruce sing this first too, but for me that was a plus! I fell in love with this on the Live After Death album, so now when I hear the original, I have a greater appreciation for how good of a song it is, even if I still prefer Bruce's version. Maybe if I'd heard the original first, I wouldn't have formed such good feelings about this song in the first place.

Side Two:

Transylvania

Bryan: 4.25/5   Cinema of the mind Maiden

Marshall:  3/5  Headbanger’s delight.

Bryan:  Whenever I hear “The Shortest Straw” by Metallica – and this happened fairly recently so I was reminded of it – I picture a sort of Wayne’s World scene of my friend and I riding around in a car as teenagers, headbanging. But the only time anything like that actually happened was to this song, and it was much later, like 2002. And I was by myself.  

Strange World

Marshall:  4/5  This is a beautiful song. This is what an Iron Maiden "ballad" sounds like it. We don't get very many of these! I remember in high school when a kid played this and said it was early Maiden. I didn't believe him because it sounded so different from "Can I Play With Madness" and "Run to the Hills". I bought this album years later and discovered he was right!

Bryan: 3.5/5  I always remember it as just Side B’s “Remember Tomorrow,” just missing the fast break section, but that’s selling it short, it’s a great track. As you say some rare Maiden balladry.

Charlotte the Harlot

Marshall: 1/5   Meh. Gets a little better later when the guitar solo comes in after the mellow part in the middle.

Bryan: 3/5  This is one I never really took to. It’s grown on me a bit over the years. It’s weird because I’ve been saying some variation of this (“it’s okay”) since literally 1984, but part of my brain still expects hey, a few more listens, it might click. My older brother and all his friends were always convinced this one was one of their big league songs, which is probably why. 

Iron Maiden

Bryan: 5/5  A theme song! Perfect.

Marshall: 3/5   That riff in INSANE. The break in the middle, leading back to the riff is my favorite part.

Bryan: Tony Iommi always gets the credit for being metal’s riff master god and he certainly wrote some great ones. Nothing against him. But Maiden has just as many , if not more, and some of their riffs are so inventive in addition to being catchy that I think they deserve the appellation. 

Marshall: But wait there’s more. “Burning Ambition”. This is a B side. The intro riff on this is really brilliant. One of their better songs from this era. They should have used this instead of "Charlotte the Harlot".

Bryan: Oh man, I have not heard this in so long. Great riff indeed. As mentioned, I had the “Prowler” EP, and my brother's friend had the “Running Free" (and “Women in Uniform” but we didn’t count that at the time since it was just a cover) one. 

These days, I like that track fine, as well as the band that performed it originally, the Sky Hooks. I always think of them this time every year on account of “Horror Movie” being in perennial Halloween-mix rotation.

Final Thoughts:

Marshall: Total 30. (Avg. 3)  The production quality of this album is scarcely made up for in the quality of the songs and instrumentation. The singing is bland at best. But I often go back to this album because holy cow, some of the playing and songwriting on this album are incredible. But I have to be in the mood for something very raw sounding.

Bryan:  Total 36.25 (Avg. 4.03)  That about sums it up. I like the rawness (and the thrash-ness of the next one) as outliers in the Maiden experience. There’s a prototype-feeling, an alternate-universe feeling. They announced themselves fairly accurately, just needed the right band members to join and flesh it all out. It’s interesting to consider this in the context of what Samson (Bruce's band) or Urchin (Adrian’s) were doing at the time. 

Next:

(1981)

Bryan: That cover! Brutal. Among the most iconic images of my heavy metal youth. Let's dive in.

Side One:

The Ides of March

Marshall: 3/5  This is clearly intended as an album intro, and it works marvelously for it. When this song ends, I'm just dying for that bass line for "Wrathchild"!

Bryan: 3.5/5  Absolutely. It’s tough to score an intro/table-setter like this. It gives Judas Priest's "Electric Eye" a run for its money and segues so perfectly into:

Wrathchild

Marshall: 4/5  One of the best songs from this album.

Bryan: 4.75/ 5   Agreed. Almost as perfect a single for me as “Running Free” is as far as expressing a certain vector of Maiden excitement, 

Murders in the Rue Morgue

Marshall:  3/5  I enjoy this song a lot, but sometimes it feels unnecessarily rushed.

Bryan:  4.5/5  True. I really do love it, though. I’ve revised my score for this a few times but each time I put it lower than 4.5 I end up bumping it back up. This is another score I’ll chalk up to my brother and his friends assigning the song a certain level of importance in the early to mid 80s. 

Another Life

Bryan: 3.5/5  This one, like the album itself, has only grown on me in the years since I first borrowed my brother's vinyl. It's just a "Prowler" rewrite, though, seems more like entry-level Maiden.

Marshall:  3/5  I love the guitar riff in the intro, and love how they go back to it toward the end.

"Twilight Zone" single.

Genghis Khan

Marshall: 3/5  This song is great, it really works on this album, but boy does it feel rambunctious.

Bryan: 4/5  Essentially thrash in the middle. Very epic end to side one. Well, if the next one didn’t exist. 

Innocent Exile

Bryan: 2.25/5  I would’ve lopped this off. 

Marshall:  2/5  Not a bad song, but it doesn’t really rev my engine, aside from that bad ass intro bass line.

Side Two:

Killers

Bryan:  4.25/5  The breaks in the middle don't quite work for me, but the rest of the song is great.

Marshall:  4/5  I love this song! The intro is bad ass, it gives that lurking feeling that the song is about. Not a huge fan of Di'anno, but his singing on this is absolutely perfect. He almost sounds like a stalker! I heard Dickinson try this one live, and it's pretty weak.

Bryan: Definitely one of his signature tunes. I’ve never taken a deep dive on post-Maiden Di’Anno but the list of bands he formed and the lengths sometimes gone to remind anyone of the Maiden connection is impressive. 

Paul in later years.

Prodigal Son

Bryan: 2/5 Never cared for this one. 

Marshall:  3/5  This song feels really good until it suddenly stops for a weird riff that feels out of place.

Purgatory

Marshall:  3/5  A little rambunctious at times, but that chorus in the middle and the guitar riff during it, MAKE this song. "Pleeeease, take me away, so far away…"

Bryan:  3.75/5  Absolutely. This thrashier side of Maiden is fun. I’m glad it’s limited, but it sounds great here.

Twilight Zone

Bryan:  3.75/5  Not much to say about this one. It’s fine.  

Marshall: 3/5   Fun and upbeat song. The chorus is pretty catchy.

Drifter

Bryan:  3.25/5  I like this chorus, as well. That makes three catchy choruses in a row. Although it doesn’t feel like quite the bang that we should get at the end of a Maiden record. Not bad, though.

Marshall: 3/5  Cool song.

Final thoughts:

Bryan: Total  39.5 (Avg. 3.59)  This one is always better than I remembered, but it’s never the first one I ever reach for. (That cover, though!) Welcome to the party, producer Martin Birch. 

Marshall: Total 35. (Avg. 3.18) A huge step up on production quality from the first record. I feel like this was a proof of what they set out to do on the first album, that this is something that is here to stay, and will develop from here. That development is exactly what they deliver on the next album. So in a sense, Killers is a transitional album to the real Iron Maiden that we all know now.

~

That wraps up the Di’Anno era.  Ousted from the band for performance issues, he still has his champions, like this guy. He made an indelible contribution to the history of heavy metal by fronting the band for any period of time, in my opinion, and there are certainly worse things to have on your resume than Iron Maiden and Killers. 

The band needed a frontman, however, who’d not only show up more consistently but accommodate their growing popularity and vision. They needed someone like Bruce Dickinson, in other words. Coming next! 

Iron Maiden: The Essential Albums

Iron Maiden has amassed an impressive discography in their nearly 30 years together. If you're a Maiden fan, you've got to have all of it, naturally, but where do you start if you're new to the band or just casually curious? 

Answer:

THE DOG STAR OMNIBUS GUIDE TO ESSENTIAL IRON MAIDEN

You are welcome, Planet Earth. Up the irons.

Before we begin, an honorable mention to one of the most iconic album covers of all time:

1981

Brutal. Brutally awesome.

Killers is a good album, to be sure, and "Wrathchild" is an absolute classic. If Maiden was any normal band, this would probably be my favorite of their songs. Can you believe it's my 32nd favorite? That makes it just ineligible for my forthcoming 31 Days of Maiden. I absolutely expected it to be among my top tracks. Yet after painstakingly making my way through their catalog and filling in all my spreadsheet cells and running the numbers, I have 31 songs ahead of it in my personal countdown.

I know! I'm as surprised as you are. 

Anyway, good album, maybe even great, but not as essential as everything covered below. (If we were judging solely by covers, Killers deserves a Special Jury Prize for Audacity, at the very least.)

LIVE

5. Flight 666 - There will be a standalone blog for this one, so just a name-check for now, but the concert that comes with the documentary (from the "Somewhere Back in Time" tour) is a fantastic retrospective of classic Maiden.  The band bristles at defining this tour/ concert as a "retrospective," or a traveling antiques show, but a chance for newer fans (of which there are legion) to experience the classic songs in concert. Fair enough.

You can probably do just as well, though with:

4.

2005

"Scream for me, Dortmund... scream for me, Dortmund!!"

Iron Maiden's tours and live albums follow a bit of a pattern. There are the "retro" tours, like Flight 666, and then there are the new-album tours. This is a new-album tour, specifically the tour they did in support of Dance of Death.

Are you surprised I didn't pick Rock in Rio, the new-album tour for Brave New World, which I think is a superior LP to Dance of Death? I know! Me, too! I solved this problem for myself by getting Death on the Road on CD and Rock in Rio on DVD.

Do I recommend this method for you? You're old enough now where you can make your own decisions.

Anyway, Dance of Death, as we shall see, is a Maiden offering I esteem quite highly, so hearing the live versions amidst the assortment of classics is quite fun.

3.

2002

This is a great glimpse into the end of the Di'anno years (Friday Rock Show Session, November 1979 / Reading Festival August 1980) the beginning of the Dickinson one (Reading Festival November 1982) and the classic line-up at the height of their 80s glory (Monsters of Rock, Donington, 1988.) The performances and song selections are both top notch.

Although they hated punk, there is an undeniable punk-edge to late-70s Maiden. I think it was just in the London air at the time. Di'Anno's voice was well-suited for this, even if I grew up preferring Bruce's version. (The lyrics are "Oh well! Wherever, wherever you are," but I've been singing it as "Oh well! WHAT-EVER! Wherever you yadda yadda" for years, and I don't intend to stop.)

2.

1985

I was trying to figure out if this was the first live album I ever owned, but that distinction may go to Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East. I can't recall for sure. At one point, though, when I only had something like ten cassettes and as many albums, total, Live After Death was the coolest thing I owned. Hell, it still might be.

Back cover (and I'm happy to see this included in this Top 10 gatefold sleeves list; Maiden doesn't always get its due for such things.)

Inner gatefold

The World Slavery Tour was the biggest in the band's history to that point (187 gigs over 331 days.) It was the first time they played the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil (to 300,000 people) and the first time any metal act toured behind the iron curtain (in Poland, Hungary, and the former Yugoslavia.) When it ended in mid-summer, the band took the rest of the year off to recover. As a result of their collective mental and physical exhaustion, all subsequent outings incorporated strategic blocks of days off and downtime. (Leading to all those amusing "day off" special features on the DVDs.)

1.

1982

Released as part of the Eddie's Archives box set, I'm not sure if this technically counts towards their "official" live releases, but for my money, this is the most interesting of them. It's a blistering set (recorded in 1982 at London's famed Hammersmith Odeon) that captures the band at a real crossroads between their first era and everything to come. Di'Anno had just left the band, and this was Bruce's trial by fire as Maiden vocalist. There's a different energy to his performance as a result; he's not quite sure how hard to hit, so he's hitting harder than he needs to. Which would be a bit much if he did it all the time, but it's nice to have here.

The real difference, though, is Clive Burr on drums. Nicko is the better of the two Maiden drummers, but Clive's style as evidenced here (and on the BBC Archives recordings) was perhaps more straight-forwardly aggressive. He gives an altogether different punch to the rhythm section. Some drummers (Anton Fig) play just behind the beat, some are dead on top of it (John Bonham), and others are a bit wild (Keith Moon.) Using this scale, Nicko is closer to Keith Moon, and Clive is closer to John Bonham. Every drummer I've named is great, so don't take this as a knock on anyone.

Bruce puts his own spin on the Di'Anno era songs (especially "Another Life") and the band just sounds great.

IN THE STUDIO

10.

1992

Be Quick or Be Dead / From Here to Eternity / Afraid to Shoot Strangers / Fear Is the Key / Childhood's End / Wasting Love / The Fugitive / Chains of Misery / The Apparition / Judas Be My Guide / Weekend Warrior / Fear of the Dark

I did not get this one when it came out. I was big into hippie and neo-hippie stuff at the time. But when I got back into Maiden after catching them live in 2000 and re-visiting metal in general after a decade spent away from it, I grew to appreciate it. Particularly the title track and "Afraid to Shoot Strangers."

9.

1995

Sign of the Cross / Lord of the Flies / Man on the Edge / Fortunes of War / Look for the Truth / The Aftermath / Judgment of Heaven / Blood on the World's Hands / The Edge of Darkness/ 2 a.m. / The Unbeliever

Bruce left the band after Fear of the Dark and Blaze Bayley * took over on vocals. Much closer to Paul Di'Annos' vocal range than Bruce's, his tenure with the band isn't as well regarded as it should be. At least this album, I should say. It's commonly called their "darkest" album on account of its lyrical outlook, moody song structures, and quieter production, as if the songs are coming from deep in the shadows. Steve wrote most of the tunes, and he was going through his divorce at the time. (It shows.)

* I initially misheard the new vocalist's name as "Blaze Blazeley," a name so 1000% metal I privately refer to him as "Blaze Blazeley" regardless. If I lapse into that and don't catch it to edit, that's why. 

I can definitely sympathize with those who don't think much of it, as on the surface it sounds almost as if Maiden is unsure of itself. A far cry from "Where Eagles Dare," one might say. Regardless, some of Maiden's best songs are to be found here, and I think on account of that vulnerability. If I expanded my top 31 to, say, top 50, I'd have to include half the album's tracks, particularly "Look for the Truth," "The Unbeliever," and "Sign of the Cross."

Not to mention "Man on the Edge," which is, to my knowledge, the only song ever written about the movie Falling Down. It's a fun little tune and features the brilliantly awkward line "Once he built missiles, a nation's defense / now he can't even give birthday pres-ents." I love how they cram that rhyme in there! Too funny. The movie is not a personal favorite, but I love the fact that Blaze and Janick were so into it they wrote a song about it. The song has aged much better than the movie itself.

The other Blaze album, 1998's Virtual XI, is probably my least favorite Maiden album, but it features a song called "The Clansman," written by Steve after he apparently saw Braveheart. Blaze sings it pretty well, but Bruce kills it in concert. They performed the song when I saw them in 2000, as well as this album's "Sign of the Cross," leading to some interesting looks when I described the setlist to folks: They played The Clansman and then blew up a cross on stage... wait, no, not like THAT.

8.

1980

Prowler / Sanctuary / Remember Tomorrow / Running Free / Phantom of the Opera / Transylvania / Strange World / Charlotte the Harlot / Iron Maiden

Ahh, the one that started it all. From here on out in our countdown, you won't find many duds. Each track is fairly well-represented in future live or compilation releases and deservedly so. I'll cover my favorites in the forthcoming 31 Days of Maiden, but special mention for "Prowler" and "Sanctuary," which were big favorites of mine, growing up. 

And "Phantom of the Opera" is Maiden-by-numbers, in a good way. The way the riff and rhythm explodes should be on some kind of "Maiden Identifiers" app.

7.

2003

Wildest Dreams / Rainmaker / No More Lies / Montsegur / Dance of Death / Gates of Tomorrow / New Frontier / Paschendale / Face in the Sand / Age of Innocence / Journeyman

I was surprised as hell by this album. I had hopes it would be good, coming off the masterpiece that is 2000's Brave New World. But it turned out to be great. All of their 21st century material has been unreasonably solid, including their latest release, 2012's The Final Frontier, but this one is probably their last studio release to truly challenge their 80s work. (the so-called "classic era.")

Terrible cover, though.

"Wildest Dreams" came close to making my top 31, as did "No More Lies" and "Montsegur." My favorite is probably the title track, though:

They had ascended from He-el-l-l-l-llll...!! I can't get enough of this crap. And then the twin neo-Celtic leads? Please - just leave me here with my Maiden and let me jump up and down; I'll be along soon enough.

I laugh at this about myself - don't think this is said with any bravado. But when confounded by those who are emotionally moved by things like Katy Perry's "Roar," I can only cross-reference to things like this track and shrug. Takes all kinds.

6.

1986

Caught Somewhere in Time / Wasted Years / Sea of Madness / Heaven Can Wait / The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner / Stranger in a Strange Land / Deja-Vu / Alexander the Great

Where to start with this one? How about that cover? Here's the full gatefold.

There's an awful lot of in-jokes and self-referential stuff going on here, as this site exhaustively details. But my favorite bit is this from the news ticker above Dave's head:

Those of you who don't follow English Premier League football, know that this score is the clearest indication that this scene takes place in some fantasy world. Though if by some miracle the Hammers ever trounce the Gunners 7 to 3, my anguish as an Arsenal fan will definitely be lessened by realizing the Somewhere in Time back cover prophecy came true.

What an album. The weakest track here, ironically, is "Alexander the Great," which is still a pretty cool tune, just outclassed by the other tunes. (I'm forever amused by the way the song ends, which is basically like the band runs into the end of the album. "He died in Babylon!" WHAM.) 

"Deja-Vu" doesn't have the best reputation among Maiden fans for some reason, but I love that track. And seeing the band perform "Heaven Can Wait" in concert is always a treat; it may be the best of their "soccer chant" songs, i.e. those tunes in their catalog that include a part for the audience to sing. (Whoah-oh-oh! Whoah-oh-whoah-oh-WHOAH-oh-oh!)

5.

1982

Invaders / Children of the Damned/ The Prisoner / 22 Acacia Avenue / Number of the Beast / Run to the Hills / Gangland / Total Eclipse (not included on original release) / Hallowed Be Thy Name

This could be the best Side Two of any album ever released. ("Beast" through "Hallowed.") Holy moley. Side One is no slouch, either, but not quite as best-songs-ever as Side Two.

(A side note, literally (ahem) - I miss discussing sides of albums; it was such a fun way to organize the material.)

I'm sure I wasn't the only kid who had never heard of The Prisoner until this album came out. And there was practically a 20 year gap between hearing about it and actually seeing it.

But I thank the band for introducing me to something that's been such a renewable source of epic contemplation over the years. And that's one of two songs they wrote about the show.

"22 Acacia Avenue" is a sequel to Iron Maiden's "Charlotte the Harlot." (I don't think there's ever been a third part.)

4.

1988

Moonchild / Infinite Dreams / Can I Play with Madness? / The Evil That Men Do / Seventh Son of a Seventh Son / The Prophecy / The Clairvoyant / Only the Good Die Young

If I ever want to remind myself what the exact thing I wanted to hear was in 1988, I need only put this on and listen to it start to finish. I listened to this so much I think it burned me out on Maiden for a good 12 years, actually. Every song was a favorite at one point, and I fully believed each and every time my mind was finally made up on the matter. I've narrowed it down to three, 28 years later, but "The Evil That Men Do" is strong on the bench:

Personally, I think League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century missed a great opportunity to bring Ed the Head into things via the moonchild business.

3.

2000

The Wicker Man / Ghost of the Navigator / Brave New World / Blood Brothers / The Mercenary / Dream of Mirrors / Fallen Angel / The Nomad / Out of the Silent Planet / Thin Line Between Love and Hate

In 1999, I got a job at a Prints Plus at the Rhode Island Mall. My boss, like me, had grown up a huge Iron Maiden fan, and we got to talking about them one day. Both of us hadn't listened to them in years, but we saw an advertisement for this album at the Tape World a few stores down. On an impulse, I went and bought it. (And paid something like $15 - officially the last time I paid full price for a cassette.) On first listen, we laughed at its Maiden-ness, instantly recognizable to both of us even after having been away for many years. Then we listened to it again. And again. And thus began Maiden, Phase II in my life. 

As with the next two selections, it's difficult to discuss this one without going into specific commentary on specific songs, but since most are included in my list of personal faves and will thus be covered individually in the weeks to come, I'll hold off on that for now.

What an album.

2.

1983

Where Eagles Dare / Revelations / Flight of Icarus / Die With Your Boots On / The Trooper / Still Life / Quest for Fire / Sun and Steel / To Tame a Land

I don't know if I can say anything about these songs that isn't immediately self-evident upon hearing them. And as with Brave New World, most of the tracks here make my top 31, so I'll keep my remarks somewhat sparse. Start to finish awesome, and the post-"Trooper" songs on side two don't get the acclaim they deserve. Lyrically, Piece of Mind runs the gamut from WW2 to Greek mythology to the Crimean War to Dune to Neanderthals to the apocalypse. Musically, ditto. (Whatever that means!)

Fun fact: the backwards-message that begins "Still Life" is Nicko McBrain saying "Don' be meddlin' wit 'tings you no understand" in his best Idi Amin voice. It was done intentionally to mock the then-popular belief that metal bands were inserting Satanic messages onto their albums via backmasking.

As satirized at the time here in Bloom County.

1.

1984

Aces High / 2 Minutes to Midnight / Losfer Words (Big 'Orra) / Flash of the Blade / The Duellists / Back in the Village / Powerslave / Rime of the Ancient Mariner

When it comes to metal, it really doesn't get much - if at all - better than Iron Maiden. Maybe some vintage Metallica (maybe) maybe some Priest, maybe some Saxon. But as far as consistency, slugging power, and on-base-percentage, Maiden just buries everyone. And if Powerslave was the only thing they ever released, that would still be true.

Again, most songs covered individually later, yadda yadda, but "Losfer Words" is one that, like "Wrathchild," I was surprised to discover did not make my countdown, as I've been singing its praises for years:

The last song on side one, "The Duellists," is also very cool. Mick Wall, author of the authorized bio of the band, asks the asinine question, "Do we really need two songs about swordfighting on one album?" Answer: yes. Swordfight-song All The Things!!

But really, my answer is, only if it justifies its inclusion by rocking. And "The Duellists" does that. It's the lesser of the two swordfight songs, to be sure, but who cares?

Not only is this my favorite on account of the songs included but because it is so perfectly Maiden. Probably should be anyone's go-to when asked "So what is Maiden all about, then?" Ditto for Piece of Mind or Brave New World, but if I was absolutely forced to pick only one item from their catalog, I would reluctantly but confidently pick Powerslave.

~

I leave you with this cover of "Aces High" by the world's greatest all-female Maiden tribute band. (One of the only of their videos on YouTube that doesn't just zoom in on Courtney's boobs.)