22. Quotations (Iron Maiden)
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This article is from the Iron Maiden FAQ, by Vartan Narinian vsn@pobox.com and Steve Payne Sirpapa@aol.com with numerous contributions by others.
22. Quotations (Iron Maiden)
* The quotation at the beginning of the song "The Number Of The Beast" is
from Revelations (ch. xiii v.18): "Woe to you, oh Earth and Sea, for the
Devil sends the beast with wrath, beacause he knows the time is short...Let
him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast for it is a human
number, its number is Six hundred and sixty six." The person speaking this
intro is NOT Vincent Price...it's actually a spaker found by an ad agent
friend of Rod Smallwood's). [Actually, the proper quote from the Book of
Revelations is "... its number is six hundred and three score six."]
* "The Prisoner" was a song inspired by the sixties acid-tab TV series of the
same name and open with a phrase from the series. The phrase "I'm not a
number, I'm a free man!" sums up the spirit of the central rebel character
portrayed by the series writer, maverick Danger Man Patrick McGoohan.
British heavy DJ Tommy Vance had the tapes so Steve Harris could find the
quote he wanted; all that remained was to get permission to lift it from
the man himself. Rod Smallwood was quite nervous in doing it, but called
up McGoohan and told the actor the details. "What was the band's name
again?" he asked. "IRON MAIDEN", replied a terrified Rod. "A rock band
you say?" McGoohan mused and then snapped the command "DO IT!"
The full dialog at the beginning of "The Prisoner" is as follows:
"We want information...information...information..."
"Who are you?"
"The new number two."
"Who is number one?"
"You are number six."
"I am not a number!...I am a free man!"
"<laughter>"
* The quote on the back of the Piece Of Mind LP sleeve: again from Revela-
tions (ch. xxi, v.1): "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,
and there shall be no more death. Neither sorrow nor crying. Neither
shall there be any more Brain." (where 'pain' was replaced by 'Brain',
obviously). This refers to Eddie's brain being removed in Piece Of Mind.
* The first and last verses of the song Revelations are taken from an old
English hymnal by G. K. Chesterton.
* At the end of Still Life, if you crank up the volume right after the last
note you can hear someone (Nicko I think) say "that was fuckin' great!"
But it's almost silent...you gotta listen hard.
* During the bridge of "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner", the following is
actually a quotation from the original poem of the same name, by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge: "Day after day, day after day, we stuck nor breath nor
motion, As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean; Water, water
everywhere and all the boards did shrink, Water, water everywhere nor any
drop to drink." -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798 - 1834).
* During the middle slow part of "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner", the following
is also a quotation from the poem of the same name, by Samuel Taylor
Coleridge: "One after one by the star dogged moon, too quick for groan or
sigh; each turned his face with a ghastly pang, and cursed me with his eye;
four times fifty living men, (and I heard nor sigh nor groan), with a heavy
thump, a lifeless lump, they dropped down one by one." -- Samuel Taylor
Coleridge (1798 - 1834).
* On the LIVE AFTER DEATH cover: "That is not dead/which can eternal lie/
yet with strange aeons/even death may die." This is from H. P. Lovecraft's
"Nameless City." The proper quote is "AND with strange aeons" instead of
"yet." In the story, this is written in the Necronomicon by Abdul Alhazred.
The complete works of H. P. Lovecraft consist of only three volumes and I
think it's worth buying and reading them.
* At the beginning of the LIVE AFTER DEATH album and video, right before the
beginning of the song "Aces High", there is a Winston Churchill speech,
from back at the beginning of World War II (the exact date is June 4th, 1940.)
I think it's the speech he gave as the official "Declaration Of War" speech.
It goes like this: "We Shall go on till the end. We shall fight in France,
We shall fight in the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence
and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the
cause may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing
grounds, we shall fight on the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in
the hills. We shall never surrender!"
* From the sleeve of the "Stranger In A Strange Land" single: "The android
with no name walked into the crowded spaceport bar, eight foot tall, with
death in his cold android eyes, he strode across the room. Small green
aliens scuttled out of his path, fearsome martian warriors would not meet
his gaze and the air froze when he croaked in his dark gravelly voice, "A
pint of bitter please, mate".
* At the beginning of the song "Alexander The Great": "My son...ask for
thyself another Kingdom, for that which I leave is too small for thee."
by King Philip of Macedonia - 339 B.C. (Alexander the Great's father,
obviously). King Philip had a wild horse that none of his men could break
(i.e. stay on!) Then Alexander who waas around 13 then, jumped on the horse
and broke it. The king laughed and said "My kingdom's not gonna be big
enough for you!" Twisting the English around a little you get a more
sophisticated version which is what appears on the album.
* "Hello, let me to introduce myself, my name's Rodney, I'm immensely strong...
The reason I never took up martial arts is because I'm immensely fearsome.
And I'd probably kill everybody that I came into contact with. I was
phenomenally strong....fly with eagle my lad, fly with the eagle, 'cos it's
what makes the world rotate. And everybody knows that the center of the
universe is Huddersfield, that's why I don't live there anymore... I live in
Los Angeles - it's great... I think. I don't know why you make such a fuss
about it... I'm not in it for the money! I like it here, the sun shines all
night..." "Also I used to be able to lift 95 navvies on a shivel...you're not
bloody listening to me are you?" - courtesy of Rodney Smallwood, Bloody
Yorkshireman
* On A REAL DEAD ONE, the first track, "The Number Of The Beast" has
something weird going on before the song starts. During the Revelations
quote, at approximately 0:10, 0:18, 0:20 and 0:25, if you turn up the
volume a good bit, you can hear some sort of gibberish in the background,
After it says "For it is a human number", Bruce says "What is it please?".
Anybody know anything else about this?!
* On A REAL LIVE ONE, Bruce Dickinson takes out about a minute of time
speaking French to the audience, right before going into the song "Wasting
Love." Below is a pretty accurate transcription of what he says in French,
and its equivalent English translation, more or less... :)
Original version (in French)
----------------------------
Eh bonsoir, bienvenue
C'est la premiere fois que je parle le francais pour une annee et demie,
tres dangereux.
Nous avons un nouveau album, oui c'est ca, Fear Of The Dark, oui.
Cette chanson, c'est un peu different pour nous de faire ce type de
chanson, mais pour nous c'est important, parce qu'il est un chanson qui est
pour le coeur.
L'amour ce n'est pas seulement un homme fuck(*) un ami, ce n'est pas.
L'amour c'est, c'est plus en bas, dans la tete, dans le coeur, dans toute
la forme.
In English
----------
Eh Goodnight, welcome
It's the first time I've been speaking French for one year and an half,
very dangerous.
We have a new album, yes that's correct, Fear Of The Dark, yes.
This song, it's somehow different for us to write this type of song, but
for us it's important because this is a song which is for the heart.
Love, this is not only a man fuck a friend, no this is not
Love is, it's more deep, in the mind, in the heart, in the whole of the
being (is that correct?)
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