'the Thin Line Between Love And Hate'
Whenever I first heard this song, I wasn't disposed towards it either way (I suppose I was in that 'grey place' [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\"
\" border=\"0\" alt=\"tongue.gif\" /]). After listening to it a couple of times right to the end, however, I quickly came to realise what a great song it is. The nice heavy intro has a really brooding feel, and it perfectly leads into the typical rompy Maiden-style verse riff that we are all familiar with. Bruce's vocals shine on this, but not particularly in the verses. That chorus is amazing, and the lyrics are thoughtful and well-written. First solo is wonderfully manic, although I feel that the guitarist (I think it's Dave, I could be wrong) is trying to squeeze too many notes in at once. But from the breakdown onwards, with the soft acoustic section, things just get brilliant. For some reason I always end up listening to this right
before I go to sleep, and it's deliciously relaxing. Final solo/melody, about 30 seconds from the end, is heartwrenchingly melancholic. Musically, this song is a gorgeous piece of progressive songwriting by Maiden, and a perfect way to round off their (in my opinion) best album of the 90's. This song gets 4.5 stars from me, musically (the first solo being the sole sticking point for me)
Now, lyrically, as I said, the song is deep. I've decided to look at the lyrics separately and give my opinion on what I think Steve and Dave are trying to convey here.
Basically, this song is about choice. Freedom of choice is one of the most important gifts given to us by sentience, as we are able to set our moral boundaries and decide for ourselves what is 'wrong and right'. Peer pressure comes into it a great deal, particularly in the first verse:
When a person turns to wrong, is it a want to be, belong?
Part of things at any cost, at what price a life is lost
This is obviously dealing with the idea of crime due to some sense of inferiority in the individual themselves-they aren't doing evil for any reason other than to live up the standards set for them by others-not chosen by themselves (the choice motif returns again)
Now, Steve and Dave don't pretend to know the answe ('
But what makes a man decide, take the wrong or righteous road), but they offer some possibilites.
We all like to put the blame on society these days
But what kind of good or bad a new generation brings
Sometimes take just more than that to survive be good at heart
There is evil in some of us no matter what will never change
This is the Nature v. Nurture argument, highlighted by Onhell earlier. Conditions such as ADHD (Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) are becoming increasingly common among 'problem children', the kind that play truant, take drugs and alcohol at an early age, and listen to Satanic bands like Iron Maiden :: . But is ADHD really a genuine condition in most cases, or is it just the parents trying to convince themselves that there is something medically wrong with their child? Perhaps they are just 'bad at heart', and the blame can be put on no-one, not even the parents (or society). I believe the 'Thin Line' referred to in the song's title and the chorus is a moral boundary, a sort of mental line. Quite often, we can tell when we are doing something wrong, and frequently our ethics will kick into play and we will amend the situation. But sometimes, especially in today's society, the lines get smudged. Consider this: You're driving your car in the centre of town. You stop at traffic lights and an unemployed immigrant begins to wash your car. Do you give ignore him when he asks for money, since you didn't ask for the wash, or do you give him a fiver because he has no choice in what he does? And if you give him the money, will that help him at all?
Another situation where the boundaries were blurred was the Second World War. The Allied countries convinced their troops of the need to defeat Nazism. However, they didn't communicate the idea that the soldiers on the other side were ordinary people too. What do you do in such a situation? The 'good' thing would be not to fire on an enemy that might have a family just like yours, and be little different from you...or is it? Do you make sacrifices for the so-called 'Greater Good'? In this way, what is individually evil may turn out for the best, globally.
Or some such crap :: . Yup, that's me bullshitting my way through the murky swamp of misinterperetation again. Oh yes, the chorus. Well, as many people have said, it appears to be religious, but we have to remember that many of Maiden's compositions talk of the afterlife and judgment by a higher power. Perhaps the narrator, knowing what is good and evil, can stick to the 'love' path, and so will gain immortality after he dies?
Well, that's me done for this dissertation [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\"
\" border=\"0\" alt=\"tongue.gif\" /]. On a final note; to me, the lyrics present the following social commentaries:
1. Good and Evil, although we would like to think differently, are with us from an early age, and can't be removed from a single generation, let alone the entire human race
2. Doing so would be wrong, as it would remove the freedom of choice of the individuals-choice, whether it is a good or bad choice, is important for life.
3. That said, we must be careful in our choices, and try to do what is best. Even when the boundaries are blurred, and 'fair is foul and foul is fair', trusting to yourself and making your
own choices is the best way to go.
4. Which is quite similar to the common sense preached by the Bible (yes, the Bible, Perun/Mav/SMX, not the stuck-up fundamentalists who are abundant nowadays), in that helping others and listening to your conscience (what some might call the Holy Spirit...and others Jimminy Cricket) will garuntee you eternal life.
5. But most importantly, we cannot push our choices and opinions onto others.
'Just a thin line drawn between being a genius or insane or
'One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, to illustrate the point-there are no clear-cut boundaries today, and such prejudices (like all Heavy Metal bands being devil worshippers) are wrong.
In fact, the themes discussed in this song somewhat remind me of the themes in 'Age of Innocence', especially the fact that Bruce is singing in a social commentary, from the point of view of an outsider viewing the world today from a semi-neutral standpoint (I say semi-neutral, for the songwriting will always be biased, but quite often several sides of the argument are shown by Stev and co.), similarly to the way Eddie is shown viewing the world from the outside on the cover of 'Out of the Silent Planet'
P.S. Great-I'm 3/200 of the way there to linking every single Maiden song with every other song... ::
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