Maiden! Maiden!

LOS ANGELES - Heavy metal rock band Iron Maiden has put its mark in cement — along with the bony hand of its album cover skeleton mascot, "Eddie."

Band members added their handprints — with a fake skeleton hand to stand in for Eddie's — to the Hollywood Rockwalk on Friday. The sidewalk gallery is outside the Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard.

I've seen Iron Maiden live must be at least 10 times. I dig everything about them.

When I was around 15, my bedroom basically had Iron Maiden wall paper, I had so many posters. My buddy Perry worked at a place that could laminate them and I guess there were about 30 that he did for me. I wish I knew what happened to them. I'm sure my mother thought I was worshiping Satan or something.

One of the really cool things about Iron Maiden, is that they seem to genuinly love what they're doing. Sure, they've had their Spinal Tap momements, but how cool is it to make a bazzilion dollars just playing music for 30 years?

The Number of the Beast was a hugely influencial album back in the 80's. It proved you didn't need radio play to become a massive commercial success. It also had the side benefit of driving the religious freaks crazy. I loved it. I think they were also one of the first hard rock bands to use 2 lead guitarists. Other bands had a rhythem player and lead player. Maiden has two distinctive and talented players. Well, they actually have 3 now, but that's a different story...

Ya.. I played The Trooper over and over in my bedroom at top volume. I could even do the solos.. The song is about the Crimean War.. but war's are wars, and not a whole lot changes over time.

One of the things I've really appreciated about Iron Maiden are the lyrics. They have to be, without a doubt, the most well read metal heads on the planet. Not terrifly surprising considering they are British - and we all know the Brits are awesome people..

If there's one thing that I'll probably end up regretting is that I never really threw myself into the rock world. I would like to have known what it would be like to play in front of 100,000 rabid fans who worship your every move.

Then again, over the last couple of years I've run into a few guys who had mild sucess back in the day, and they are still stuck there.

So, without further ado, the live version of The Trooper. Oh heck, since the song goes on to the start of Revelations, we'll do that one too. Listen to the end of Revelations, Bruce does a slightly off key vocal thing, but you can hear some guy in the audience yell "MOTHER FUCKER!". It's great.


You’ll take my life but I’ll take yours too
You’ll fire you musket but I’ll run you through
So when your waiting for the next attack
You’d better stand there’s no turning back

The bugle sounds as the charge begins
But on this battlefield no one wins
The smell of arcrid smoke and horses breath
As you plunge into a certain death

The horse he sweats with fear we break to run
The mighty roar of the russian guns
And as we race towards the human wall
The screams of pain as my comrades fall

We hurdle bodies that lay on the ground
And the russians fire another round
We get so near yet so far away
We won’t live to fight another day

We get so close near enough to fight
When a russian gets me in his sights
He pulls the trigger and I feel the blow
A burst of rounds take my horse below

And as I lay there gazing at the sky
My body’s numb and my throat is dry
And as I lay forgotten and alone
Without a tear I draw my parting groan