Great Metal Albums of 1983: Iron Maiden- Piece of Mind
One problem with me back in 1983 was procrastination. When I would hear about how good a particular band was or even heard a couple of songs I really liked from said band, I still wouldn’t rush out and buy their album. I put it down to me being too tight with my money back then. In the case of Iron Maiden, I heard a lot of good songs from them in the early years and even saw their kick ass live show in January 1985, which is highlighted in “Rock And Roll Children,” but the first Maiden album I actually bought was “Live After Death.” It was then that I started to delve into their backlog of studio albums and discovered what would be my all time favourite Iron Maiden studio album, “Piece of Mind.”
If I’m completely honest, I think what I liked most about “Piece of Mind” was that fact that it has many of the songs that I loved from “Live After Death” on it. What’s an added bonus is that the studio versions of those songs don’t sound too different from the live ones. Although when I hear “Revelations,” even after all these years, I still half expect Bruce Dickinson to shout “Scream for me Longbeach!” in the middle of the song. Still, you can’t go wrong with such great tracks as the one mentioned as well as two others near the top of my favourite Iron Maiden song list, “The Trooper” and “The Flight of Icarus.” The weird thing about those two songs is that “The Flight of Icarus” sounds shorter in length that what it actually is and “The Trooper” sounds longer. But hey, who cares about things like that? They’re both great songs, one written about a famous Greek fable while the other is about a tragic blunder in British military history, the charge of the light brigade. Both done very well set to music.
“Die With Your Boots On” is another cross over from the live album and I really like that one as well but those don’t lessen the effect the other tracks has on the album. “Where Eagles Dare” is a fantastic opener and “To Tame a Land” is a cool closer. The other three tracks on the album also contribute to “Piece of Mind’s” greatness although I never really get to hear what is said in “Nicko” which is a backwards message at the beginning of “Still Life.” It was included as a dig at the religious nuts who claimed Iron Maiden were Satanic on account of the “The Number of the Beast Album.” On the subject of Nicko, this was the first album to feature drummer Nicko McBrain, who replaced Clive Burr. What I never knew was that Nicko used to play with guitar great, Pat Travers. Man, you learn something new every day.
Track Listing:
- Where Eagles Dare
- Revelations
- The Flight of Icarus
- Die With You Boots On
- The Trooper
- Still Life
- Quest for Fire
- Sun and Steel
- To Tame a Land
Bruce Dickinson- vocals
Steve Harris- bass
Adrian Smith- guitar
Dave Murray- guitar
Nicko McBrain- drums
History has tried to state that the new wave of British heavy metal, (NWOBH) was fading by 1983. I guess that Iron Maiden forgot to pick up the memo because they put out a stellar album in that year. One can’t fault “Piece of Mind” at all as it cemented their place as heavy metal legends.
Next post: Def Leppard- Pyromania
To buy Rock and Roll Children, go to http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/RockAndRollChildren.html
Also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Froogle and on sale at Foyles Book Shop in London
This entry was posted on October 3, 2016 at 10:43 am and is filed under 1980s, Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal and the 1980s, Music, Rock, Uncategorized with tags British, Classic Rock, hard rock, Heavy Metal, Heavy Rock, Iron Maiden, Live After Death, New Wave of British Heavy Metal, NWOBHM, Pat Travers, Piece of Mind, Rock And Roll Children, The 1980s, The Number of the Beast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
10 Responses to “Great Metal Albums of 1983: Iron Maiden- Piece of Mind”
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October 3, 2016 at 11:03 pm
Nice one. I think Nicko’s drumming really kicked the whole machine up a notch.
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October 4, 2016 at 8:03 pm
I think you might be right with Nicko here.
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October 3, 2016 at 11:09 pm
Scream for me Long Beach!!
Funny…when I first got into Maiden, the only two I had on vinyl were this one, and Live After Death! The live versions from that album are brilliant. If you’re gonna die…if you’re gonna die…
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October 4, 2016 at 8:05 pm
Die with your boots on! Great song, I have always thought that Maiden’s songwriting skills have been grossly underrated. Although I had been out of the marines more than two years, I was still buying more cassettes than vinyl and I got Live After Death on cassette. Still, there are some great photos on the inside of the cassette cover.
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October 4, 2016 at 8:57 pm
Indeed there are! But the cassette was shorter. It didn’t include the long extended crowd section in Running Free. Still, better than the original CD version which was missing ALL of side 4!
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October 4, 2016 at 9:27 pm
I know have Live After Death on CD and so I get to hear the fuller version of Running Free. Never heard this album on vinyl.
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October 4, 2016 at 9:30 pm
It’s a beautiful vinyl. Gatefold, hundreds of photos…just awesome!
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October 5, 2016 at 9:38 am
Wow, I do regret not getting it on vinyl. 😦
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October 4, 2016 at 6:16 pm
Great write-up. I hadn’t heard this particular album until Mr 1537 there hooked me up. Now one of my favourite Maiden albums (nowt to do with it being my only slice of Maiden on vinyl). I don’t think there’s a misstep on this… it’s pretty marvellous.
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October 4, 2016 at 8:06 pm
Marvelous indeed! Agreed, no missteps here.
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