Iron Maiden lyrics tournament final: Empire of the Clouds rises above all

Pick the song with the best lyrics from each pair

  • Total voters
    17
  • Poll closed .
Fair enough, Knick.

One two comments didn't sound that serious to me, or at least, they sound so disqualifying. Pretty hard judgement. For me, it lands hard at least. I'm trying to imagine how you listen to Maiden and there must be quite some dissatisfaction.
 
Unfortunately, I can't like it all. I love Maiden, but I definitely don't love all of their songs or choices. It's easier for me to overlook some bad lyrics or average music when listening to a song as a whole, but the weaknesses (and the strengths) are really glaring when you strip everything else away and shine a light on them.
 
It literally bugs me more than anything, except for maybe Steve's penchant for writing things like "Are you really just who you just really think you really just are?"
 
Holy Smoke - The whole televangelist thing was really played out by this point and they didn't really add more to that topic.

From Here To Eternity - Lame AC/DC inspired lyrics.

Lord of the Flies - I will give it this much: It is a better adaptation of a book than TTAL is. Still not their best lyric. A lot of the lines just don't sit well with me. Like this one:

I like all the mixed emotion and anger
It brings out the animal the power you can feel
And feeling so high on this much adrenalin
Excited but scary to believe what we've become

Jumbled is a good word for it.

Angel and the Gambler - Very sloppy lyrics with lots of poorly written lines. Reads like a first draft. Reads like a first draft. Reads like a first draft.

Charlotte the Harlot - More pedestrian early Maiden lyrics.

MrKnickerbocker said:
Weekend Warrior - A song about fake soccer hooligans is just about the lamest thing I can think of, and this manages to make that concept even lamer by sounding like an old man yelling at the youngins. Also, a quick way to make your lyrics weak - add words like "maybe" and "sometimes" into your main statement.
Click to expand...

Don't Look To - Same problems as Angel. Both of these lyrics seem very rushed.

The Man Who Would Be King - Good idea, failed in execution. Again, you get a lot of Steve's awkwardly written lines. These two stanzas have always stuck out like sore thumbs for me:
He tries to make his peace
With God.
All is forgivable but it's left
A little late.
Trying something that he's not.
Is it possible to change such a lot?

In reflecting on decisions
That were made.
On the judgments that will
Haunt him 'til his grave.
No one has the right to
Take another life
But in his mind he had no choice.
So be it.
 
Mosh said:
The Man Who Would Be King - Good idea, failed in execution. Again, you get a lot of Steve's awkwardly written lines. These two stanzas have always stuck out like sore thumbs for me:
He tries to make his peace
With God.
All is forgivable but it's left
A little late.
Trying something that he's not.
Is it possible to change such a lot?
Click to expand...
No. No. No. You're doing it wrong. The words follow each other without breaks. Go here.

It's:

He tries to make his peace with God;
All is forgivable, but he's left a little late.
Trying something that he's not,
Is it possible to change such a lot?

....

In reflecting on decisions that were made.
On the judgments that will haunt him 'til his grave.
No one has the right to take another life
But in his mind he had no choice. So be it.

I agree with the last three words, but the rest fits neatly.
 
Just copied from the first link I found. Doesn't change my opinion on the lyrics.
 
I actually was going to vote for TMWWBK, but I also found the same sense of clarity as Foro. I still don't love the lyrics, but they're not as bad as anything else I voted for.
 
I find Man of Sorrows among Steve's deepest and best lyrics.

In Christian iconography the Man of Sorrows is the aspect of Christ suffering to free us from our sins:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_of_Sorrows

Steve deftly parallels this with a terminally ill patient forced to continue living to assuage the guilt and grief of society. He forces us to actually look at what the patient is going through and delivers a sensitive plea for mercy killing.

Free the anguished from their pain
Free the captives from their chains
Cast aside the doubt that
Nothing good can come their way again

His meter is excellent, his images excellent, his topic important and his message deep.
And it is a perfect fit with Dave's sad and beautiful music.

Steve made reference to losing someone important to him during the BOS recording.
I think this one comes from the heart.
 
Last edited:
Older guy, made mistakes borne from ambition, trying to atone late in life.
Who is The Man Who Would be King?
 
Word choice, word flow, the TMWWBK just doesn't read smoothly to me. Like many of Steve's lyrics, it reads like a first draft. It has poetic moments, but falls flat in a lot of parts too. I'd love to see Steve and Bruce collaborate on a lyric.

All that being said, I really like the main idea of TMWWBK. The idea is there, it's the execution that's questionable at times.
 
Holy Smoke
FHTE
Angel
Charlotte
Purgatory
Sun and Steel
Deja Vu
BYDTTS
Weekend Warrior
2 AM
DLTTEOAS
Age of Innocence
Lord of Light

A couple points here. This is a lyrics survivor, and at the time of me writing this Deja Vu has only two votes... WHY!?!! I love Deja Vu, but those lyrics are just awful. "Ever had a conversation, that you realize you've had before? Isn't it strange?" Those are just terrible and this song should be one of the first ones out.

I think These Colours Don't Run is a strong candidate to win the game. It wins so many points in just being emotional.

I think The Man Who Would Be King is another song that really delivers lyrically. Like TCDR, it is very emotional.

Out of the Silent Planet is very good and I'm not really sure why people are voting for it.

"The killing fields, the grinding wheels crushed by equilibrium
Separate lives no more disguise, no more second chances
Haggard wisdom spitting out the bitter taste of hate
I accuse you before you know the crime it's all too late"

Perfect!!!

MrKnickerbocker said:
Weekend Warrior - A song about fake soccer hooligans is just about the lamest thing I can think of, and this manages to make that concept even lamer by sounding like an old man yelling at the youngins.
Click to expand...
This is the most accurate thing I have ever read.
 
Mosh said:
Holy Smoke - The whole televangelist thing was really played out by this point and they didn't really add more to that topic.
Click to expand...
I remember there was a long discussion about this some years ago. I still have trouble with believing that Bruce "suddenly" came up with this idea:

"Hey...! Remember that annoying televangelist from years back?" "Yeaahh, I am still so triggered about it. This topic finally deserves a song."

Sorry, but that doesn't make sense. This is not the historical/war kind of topic, but has more to do with (impact on) society. I don't think Maiden ever used topics that did not play a role anymore when they delved into that territory. Why would Bruce not be intrigued by something he experienced around that time?

Around that time it still must have happened, even it was in some sort of minor form. And who are we to say that something is not worth writing about?

Right now, the topic is more actual than ever. Perhaps not literally or that blatantly in the form of televangelists but all kinds of conservatism is very dominant, using media as their biggest tool, resulting in more and more dangerous effects. E.g. I'm thinking of conservative politicians and the NRA in the USA, using each other and media to their own benefit, spreading their lies with dollar signs in their eyes. And in Turkey and other Islamic countries, I betcha there are (also) still televangelists.
Collin said:
I love Deja Vu, but those lyrics are just awful. "Ever had a conversation, that you realize you've had before? Isn't it strange?" Those are just terrible and this song should be one of the first ones out.
Click to expand...
What is so terrible about these lines? By asking these questions there's an interesting interaction, but more important, we feel that the author is wondering about a subject. This form emphasizes awe about the phenomenon that is called deja-vu. This form is unusual, but not terrible.
 
Last edited:
Forostar said:
Right now, the topic is more actual than ever. Perhaps not literally or that blatantly in the form of televangelists but all kinds of conservatism is very dominant, using media as their biggest tool, resulting in more and more dangerous effects. E.g. I'm thinking of conservative politicians and the NRA in the USA, using each other and media to their own benefit, spreading their lies with dollar signs in their eyes. And in Turkey and other Islamic countries, I betcha there are (also) still televangelists.

What is so terrible about these lines? By asking these questions there's an interesting interaction, but more important, we feel that the author is wondering about a subject. This form emphasizes awe about the phenomenon that is called deja-vu. This form is unusual, but not terrible.
Click to expand...
It also goes the same way for both parties, not just the conservatives.. But this is not the politics thread so I'll just leave it at that..

It's almost like they were just quoting the definition of Deja Vu and other things that are similar. There's nothing deep about it! Also there's a repeating chorus. That's a negative. The music IMO, may not have been filler, but the lyrics definitely were. I'm guessing Dave had a good piece of music and Steve just placed half-assed lyrics over the song. However it worked and is still an awesome song, but since this is a lyrics survivor, a song with lyrics that were probably written in 20 minutes does not belong here.
 
Holy Smoke I don't care how topical or non-topical these lyrics are. I just don't think they're very well-written and a poor attempt at satire, and the topic is one I just can't get worked up about. If somebody believes they go to heaven by sending a sleazy guy on TV their money, that's really their problem. I am very personally also not fond of topical references, because they are outdated very soon. Anyone remember who Jimmy Reptile is? I know I had to look it up. And the "satellite circus"... nobody says that anymore. How are the televangelists friend of the president? Which president? What country are you even talking about? I'm sure all this made sense in 1990, but we lost the context. I know it's easy to look it up, but it's like a joke: If you have to explain it, chances are it's not very good. The vocal melodies are also not very good on Bruce. If you listen to the last verse, by the time he sings "one hundred years in jail" it sounds like he's completely out of breath. Okay, it's not about the performance here, but I can't help hear him suffering through the song, and since that's the way the lyrics are written, it falls back on them too.

Speed of Light This sounds just like a bunch of random space and science fiction clichés jumbled together. While it does fit the way the song is written, it just speaks about the shallowness of the whole thing to me. There's nothing original in it, it's just an attempt to emulate the Deep Purple sound - and the words reflect that the song is more about a certain musical vision than at creating something enduring. I'm not sure what kind of story the lyrics are supposed to tell, and if the space/scifi elements are meant to be a metaphor for something else. Maybe they are, but I can't really find anything relatable in it.

Deja-Vu So somebody took the Britannica for Children encyclopaedia, looked up Deja-Vu and made Bruce sing the article. I really don't know what the point of the lyrics are: They just tell us what a deja-vu is, and don't connect on an emotional level. It would have been a much better idea to dive into the "surreal" moment in time and perhaps describe the feelings of a person experiencing a deja-vu... from their own perspective. Arguably, that's what the chorus does, but if it all boils down to saying "feel like I've been here before", then maybe it's not a very rewarding topic to write a song about. This becomes a problem when the song itself does not provide as much musical depth as some others on the album, and would have gained very much from more poetic lyrics. This really drags the song as a whole down. It's very different from Alexander in that respect: While I think the lyrics of the latter are bad, the song itself is so good that the lyrics don't do any harm to it. Here, they need to complement each other much more, but they don't.

Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger Meh. This is really a rehash of the lyrical theme from Killers, except that it's now in second person and talking to the victim. This in itself wouldn't be so bad, if it weren't for the fact that it is just a very blunt description of paranoia. It works with the drive of the song, so I would be almost inclined not to vote for it, but a few things unfortunately drag it down. One being that the verses describe a dramatic change that isn't reflected in the songwriting. They are fast, but have the same speed at the time the protagonist walks down the alley to when he starts to run. This is a dramatic development! Change the pace! It cheapens the menacing content of the lyrics, and they don't really fit the song in many ways. It's especially problematic for me because the song has absolutely no problem changing its pace elsewhere. But not where it would emphasise the tension? The build-up from verse section to solos is extremely dramatic and fits the story really well. But do we get the story told here? No, we just get "don't look to, don't look to, don't look to" ad nauseam. It's a really sorely missed opportunity, and it cheapens the verses to the effect that it feels like they were only put in because, you know, a song needs verses. Maybe I could have a more positive opinion on this if the dramatic build-up didn't contain any vocals at all. In that case, the verses could play the role of an introduction, telling you what the story is about but leaving the music to tell you. But even then, I still think they are not that well written, and I'm not a terribly big fan of second-person narratives. It would work as your brain telling you these things if there was more manipulative subtlety in the lyrics, but here it's just very blunt and feels phoned in.

Age of Innocence "And all the politicians and their hollow promises..." Ugh. If Steve was going for telling us a story about a guy who sits in the pub and starts rambling after his third ale, he achieved it. Problem is, he wasn't going for that. He is the guy rambling here. Okay, I get it - he's angry. This is no longer the country he grew up in, blablabla. If you really want to write a song about it, fine. But can you do a bit better than just glue polemic phrases together? Now, I am aware that I might be prejudiced because the lyrical content is too reactionary for me, so I won't even hold the content against the lyrics themselves. I know life in England is fucked up. But the lyrics fail much more on other levels. First of all, the shift from polemic rambling to poetic reflections in the pre-chorus is so abrupt that it's bewildering. There is no transition here that contains any structural logic. It's like a drunkard who angrily rants the one moment and then breaks down and cries the next. Yes, that is how human emotions often work, but again, this isn't what Steve trying to show us from the outside - he is the drunkard in this case. I can't admire this. What's worse is that the music underneath - underneath! - the lyrics is much more flowing and elegiac, and just calls for more poetic lyrics. It becomes such a problem because the words and Bruce dominate the song so much that they stand in the way of admiring the music. And if they do that, the lyrics had better contain some sort of artistic value. Here, they don't. And that ruins the entire song.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
Purgatory - because...WTF is this about? In a dream, he's never seen these places before, but he's lived these fantasies many times before...? So he splits his brain and melts through the floor. Ok, so we're going abstract here, this is gonna be an abstract song. But then the viewpoint character starts questioning himself: "Over clouds my mind will fly, forever now I can't think why" - of course you can't, this is an abstract song. "My body tries to leave my soul, or is it me, I just don't know" - is what you? What don't you know? Your body and your soul are both you. Then in the pre-chorus we realize, oh this is a song about a ghost, maybe? Sure. But then we have an incredibly simplistic repetitive chorus begging to be taken away - to heaven or hell, presumably. Steve has said that they changed lyrics to this song and it was previously called "Floating." It sounds to me like the verses were kept intact and a new chorus was written but the two parts dot no jive to me at all.
Click to expand...

I would see your point if the song didn't have a title, or had been called Floating. But it's about Purgatory. The lyrics try to evoke an image of what kind of thing that is - a state of uncertainty. I think this is really well reflected in the lyrics. The narrator doesn't know what's happening, and whether he is alive or dead. Although I admit that I'm a bit stumped on "my body tries to leave my soul", because I'm used to it being the other way around.

MrKnickerbocker said:
Sun and Steel - the chorus is so stupid, mostly because of the "Life is like a wheel" line, which really has nothing to do with the rest of the song.
Click to expand...

Miyamoto Musashi, the topic of the song, was a deeply religious Buddhist, and the wheel of dharma is one of the symbols of Buddhism. It symbolises the way of the world and the ability to see truth beyond illusion, which is very much what Musashi said is a key skill for a successful warrior.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top