1980s.FM - Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

#	Track Listing	Length	Played
01	Invaders Iron Maiden	3:24	12
02	Children Of The Damned Iron Maiden	4:35	175
03	The Prisoner Iron Maiden	6:02	12
04	22 Acacia Avenue Iron Maiden	6:36	12
05	The Number Of The Beast Iron Maiden	4:50	327
06	Run To The Hills Iron Maiden	3:53	312
07	Gangland Iron Maiden	3:49	11
08	Hallowed Be Thy Name Iron Maiden	7:11	201

Hint: Hover over buttons and album/artist name next to the cover for more info.

Reviewers Rating

4 reviews done for this album.

Children of the Damned

By:	fatback
Date:	30 Jun 2009

This dark and compelling track is inspired by the 1963 film of the same name, which is about six children with psychic abilities who are forced to battle for their survival against an inferior human race. The sing describes the death of the last of the children. With only one child left, the song follows his last moments as he steps out to face the humans which are intent on destroying him by burning him at the stake.

The story of the film is that of six children who are born at different locations around the world with amazingly high intelligence and special powers. Scientists from the United Nations have the children move to London fro further tests. While the researchers argue about what to do with them, the military already has a plan for them. However, the six children take matters in their own hands.

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Run To The Hills

By:	fatback
Date:	30 Jun 2009

This song is about the European arrival to the "New World," told from the perspective of both the oppressed Cree and the invading Anglo-Saxon soldiers. The first verse ("White man came across the sea, he brought us pain and misery") is from the point of view of the Natives. The second verse ("Chasing the redskins back to their holes, fighting them at their own game") is from the white man's eyes, and the last verse ("Selling them whiskey and taking their gold, enslaving the young and destroying the old") is an impartial third-person narration.

In 2002, this was re-released as a single to help promote a tour the band organized to raise money for former drummer Clive Burr, who suffered from Multiple Sclerosis.

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Hallowed Be Thy Name

By:	fatback
Date:	30 Jun 2009

Hallowed Be Thy Name is obviously a song about imprisionment, and what goes through one's mind during this time. The first two lines, "I'm waiting in my cold cell when the bell begins to chime/Reflecting on my past life and it doesn't have much time" tell you that the man is in prison, and that he does not have much time, meaning he is to be executed. The mentioning of 'Gallows Pole' indicates that the death would be done by hanging, therefore setting the story in older times.

The song also outlines most of the stages that one goes through after knowing he is to die. "Can it be there's been some sort of an error .... Is it really the end not some crazy dream" shows the first stage, denial.. the man is searching for a way out of the situation. "It's not easy to stop from screaming" is the most obvious stage, fear of death. "Tears they flow but why am I crying? After all am I not afraid of dying Don't believe that there never is an end" shows the acceptance stage of death, and it also shows that the man understands that no one can live forever, and this is his end. This song also shows how people can turn to religion when near death, "If there's a God then why has he let me die?" is an almost plea for there to be a God, and for some deity to save the man.

The death man ultimately finds religion, for his soul is sent to heaven, and he sees the truth, the light you might say, "Mark my words believe my soul lives on Don't worry now that I have gone I've gone beyond to see the truth". The final three lines summarize the whole song, if only very vaguely. "When you know that your time is close at hand Maybe then you'll begin to understand Life down there is just a strange illusion" .. this means, when you near death, many things come to your attention, and only then can you truely believe in yourself, and what you were mean to do, and in the afterlife, what was meant to be.

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The Number of the Beast

By:	fatback
Date:	30 Jun 2009

Steve Harris - “Basically this song is about a dream. It’s not about devil worship.”

The song is inspired by both a nightmare bandleader and bassist Steve Harris had after watching the movie Damien: Omen II, and the storyline of the poem Tam o' Shanter. "The Number of The Beast" is one of Iron Maiden's greatest hits, and is almost always performed during concert.

The band had asked the famous horror films actor Vincent Price to read the intro text. However, according to Dickinson, Price refused to do it for anything less than £25,000. They had heard of someone who read ghost stories at the Capitol radio station and got him to do it. The man was a theatre actor named Barry Clayton who had no interest in Maiden, but they asked him to put on a Vincent Price kind of voice.

The track is known for its very long, high-pitched and guttural wail by Bruce Dickinson at the end of the intro. In the documentary on the album of the same name, as part of the Classic Albums series by the BBC, Dickinson said this was due to producer Martin Birch forcing Dickinson to sing the first four lines for several hours, over and over again. The frustration of this culminated in this wail, the pitch of which Dickinson has not managed to re-create live since the early days.

The number 666 retains a peculiar significance in the culture and psychology of Western societies, where some perceive it as “the Devil’s number”, even in contexts usually remote from superstition. The fear of the number 666 is called hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.

The Number is 666 in most manuscripts of the New Testament, and in modern translations and critical editions of the Greek text. However, there is some doubt about the original reading, as modern studies have shown that the earliest known manuscript of the Book of Revelation, Papyrus 115, (from the 3rd century) used 616. One 11th century manuscript also shows 665. This topic is a source of contention for many church groups and theologians. Some scholars contend that the number 666 is a code for the Roman Emperor Nero, others that 616 is a code for the Roman Emperor Caligula.

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