Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind CD
Label: Capitol Records; Year: 1989; Format: CD
Well, time flies and it’s time to add more context to the new website. I am still kind of figuring out how these entries work, as they are different from the blogspot entries, but the more I do, the more I’ll get the hang of navigating around a squarespace based website I suppose. Iron Maiden’s fourth studio album, released in 1983, can probably be regarded as the one that had brought them the much desired breakthrough into the US market. Even though the band loved their home country of England over everything else, they were well aware that in order to make it in the music business sooner and rather than later they would have to make it big in America. This was also the first album recorded with the classic line-up of Bruce Dickinson on vocals, Nicko McBrain (replacing departed Clive Burr) on drums, Adrian Smith and Dave Murray on guitar and of course band leader Steve Harris on bass guitar. The album was recorded just short of a year after the first Bruce Dickinson let album “Number of the Beast” and the band seemed to be on a lasting high, which resulted in probably many people’s view as one of the best Maiden albums.
“Iron Maiden wrote most of the songs for Piece of Mind at Hotel le Chalet in New Jersey during the hotel’s off-season, and even rehearsed in the restaurant. Then in February, 1983 the band traveled to the Bahamas to record at Nassau’s Compass Point Studios with Martin Birch, who they had worked with since 1981’s Killers.
When they returned from the Bahamas sunburnt from too much beach time, Iron Maiden mixed the album at Electric Lady Studio in New York. That so much of the album was created in the United States is significant.”
With the mid-paced and highly melodic “Flight of Icarus” Iron Maiden not just broke U.S radio but in the UK the album entered at No. 3 in the charts. According to Dickinson Steve Harris never liked the song all that much but Dickinson had the feeling that in order to break into the U.S. market it had to be that type of a song. “Die with your boots on”, the song after “Flight..” on the other hand is my favorite track on the album, and is an upbeat New Wave Of British Heavy Metal smasher in my opinion.
Other songs off of this album, such as “The Trooper” or “Where Eagles Dare” have become not just live staples but classics in their own way where they shall always be regarded as some of the best material the band has ever recorded.
“While Harris, as usual, was the main contributor to the album, Dickinson wrote “Revelations” and he and Smith penned “Flight of Icarus.” Most of the songs on Piece of Mind are based around serious themes and the music, though triumphant, is largely fist-to-the-floor metal. Still, the band couldn’t resist having a bit of fun by mocking those who had already accused Iron Maiden of being Satanists after Number of the Beast came out. Between the songs “The Trooper” and “Still Life,” Iron Maiden included a brief section of backwards masking. In his best impression of British actor John Bird imitating African dictator Idi Amin, McBrain says, “What ho said the t’ing with the three ‘bonce,’ do not meddle with things you don’t understand.”
As mentioned with my previous entry I am more than happy finding little lost gems like this album for cheap on CD and three bucks was all I needed to spend on this beauty. I recently re-discovered my love for old Metal, and Iron Maiden were a band I adored between the years of 1981 to 1984, or thereabouts. This album really rules and if you plan on dying with your boots on then crank this one up loud.
