{"id":1051054,"date":"2026-06-26T09:33:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T09:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1051054\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T09:33:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T09:33:25","slug":"the-1984-iron-maiden-song-bruce-dickinson-calls-genius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1051054\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1984 Iron Maiden song Bruce Dickinson calls “genius”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bruce<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n

Fri 26 June 2026 7:17, UK <\/p>\n

As most Iron Maiden<\/a> fans know, Bruce Dickinson did not sing on their first album. Nor did he sing on their third. Indeed, it wasn\u2019t until The Number of the Beast that he let out that infamous \u201cwail\u201d his dissenters likened to an \u201cair-raid siren\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Where Paul Di\u2019Anno sang it straight, Dickinson allowed for some theatre to punctuate the anthems, which only added to the cascading drama. Dickinson briefly left the band during the 1990s, although he would return more committed than ever for Brave New World. The band made the brave decision to incorporate Adrian Smith into the mix, which gave them a three-guitar lineup, compared to the duelling lead guitar focus of past works.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That evolution reflected Iron Maiden\u2019s willingness to expand rather than simply recreate past successes. Instead of treating Dickinson\u2019s return as a nostalgic reunion, the band embraced a richer, more ambitious sound that allowed every member greater freedom within the arrangements.<\/p>\n

During an interview with Eddie Trunk<\/a>, Dickinson said he greatly admires the band\u2019s first two records. Asked to nominate his favourite song to perform live, Dickinson gave a reflective answer: \u201cOne of the songs I really enjoyed doing \u2013 and in fact, because in lockdown, I was just trying to improve my Iron Maiden pinball score, and, of course, we\u2019ve got some really cool tracks on the pinball machine, including \u2018Rime of the Ancient Mariner,\u2019 which we haven\u2019t done for ages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I just love doing that song,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe storytelling element of it is genius, and then the breakdown, the moody bit, then into \u2018the curse it lives on in their eyes\u2019 bit \u2013 oh, it gives me goosebumps just listening to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bruce<\/a>Credit: Dario De Marco<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thinking, \u2018Wow, we\u2019re going to do that again one day, that\u2019s just awesome,’\u201d he surmised. \u201cSo stuff like that. I\u2019d love to do one or two rarities, I\u2019d love to do \u2018The Prisoner\u2019 again, \u2018Stranger in a Strange Land,\u2019 stuff like that. I like things that have a little bit of groove to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickinson\u2019s choices also reveal his appreciation for Maiden\u2019s more adventurous side. Rather than focusing solely on the band\u2019s biggest singles, he gravitated towards sprawling epics and deeper cuts that showcased their storytelling instincts and progressive influences.<\/p>\n

Singers belong on the stage, especially one as animated as Dickinson. Bassist Steve Harris must prefer the studio because it gives him an outlet to put his ideas to tape. As musical director and primary songwriter, Harris has led every configuration of Iron Maiden through their 40-year journey. \u201cYou have a couple of covers in your set here or there, and as soon as you get a new song, you bin the covers,\u201d Harris recalled<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s great, cos we went straight into the studio to record them, and we didn\u2019t have to rehearse them.\u201d <\/p>\n

The only irreplaceable member in Iron Maiden, Harris is so entrenched in the band\u2019s sound, it\u2019s unlikely that any will ever match his record. It doesn\u2019t hurt that his bass licks are soaked in invention, and the plunging, probing bass notes are seeped in melody. <\/p>\n

But Dickinson has brought the band to greater heights, and although Harris is the brains behind Iron Maiden, for many Dickinson is the face of Iron Maiden. He holds himself like a leopard, racing across the frontlines of the stage, his energy and sheer will pulling him along. Only David Lee Roth<\/a> of metal frontmen has delivered a comparable exhibition of performance craft, but Dickinson is more nuanced, delving between the more pompous to the smaller scale tunes in everything he delivers. <\/p>\n

But while he waits to get back on stage, he\u2019s getting ready to release a solo album. <\/a> \u201cWhen I get to the end of the one-man show thing at the end of March, then the idea is I\u2019ve got about three weeks cooling my heels somewhere,\u201d Dickinson reveals. \u201cI\u2019ll lie down in a darkened room for a couple of days and recover from the tour and then put my singing head on and go and have a chat with Roy, because we\u2019ve already got a bunch of material, but we need to organise it a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I\u2019m gonna be going out on tour with Maiden, but we made \u2018Tyranny Of Souls\u2019 that way, \u201d Dickinson elaborated. \u201c\u2018Tyranny Of Souls\u2019 was done not exactly remotely \u2013 well, kind of remotely in that I wasn\u2019t physically present when some of the backing tracks were done but he sent me the backtracks and I listened to them and went, \u2018These are cool.\u2019 And some of them I wrote the words to the backtracks, and the tunes and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even while pursuing solo projects, Dickinson has never seemed far removed from Iron Maiden. Whether discussing forgotten classics like \u2018Rime of the Ancient Mariner\u2019 or looking ahead to new material, his enthusiasm remains undimmed. More than 40 years after joining the band, he still speaks about Maiden with the excitement of someone who can\u2019t wait to get back on stage and tell those stories all over again.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy Fri 26 June 2026 7:17, UK As most Iron Maiden fans know, Bruce…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1051055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3936],"tags":[81823,274592,256710,77,33693,25347,3981,269,16,15],"class_list":["post-1051054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1980s","tag-274592","tag-david-lee-roth","tag-entertainment","tag-heavy-metal","tag-iron-maiden","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116815726683081561","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1051054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1051055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1051054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1051054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1051054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}