Murders in the Rue Morgue

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How good is Murders in the Rue Morgue on a scale of 1-10?

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"Murders in the Rue Morgue" opens with a haunting intro that leads straight into a frantic verse about a shocking murder in the middle of Paris. While Steve through all the lyrics together, Paul actually carries the whole thing off quite well (though not so much in the chorus). Overall, it's one of the best of the Di'Anno era songs. 8
 
Great haunting intro starts this song. The verses are awesome, chorus is very good and the song has a nice melodic riffs. Powerful drumming from Clive. Fast tempo song. The only missing thing is a solo/s. 8/10
 
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Perhaps the earliest example of the classic Steve Harris word salad lyric, but this song rocks hard. Clive Burr’s drumming is fantastic, the guitar playing is really tight, and Steve plays some great fills. The instrumental section has some wonderful harmonies. The intro is also fantastic. Bass harmonics! I think this song starts to expose Di’Anno’s weaknesses a bit, based on this performance I have a hard time imagining him handling something like Hallowed Be Thy Name. But what he lacks in technique he makes up with in a performance filled with conviction. 9
 
7
Obviously a good song. Looking retrospectively its slow intro is very refreshing; no singing, short and to the point. The song continues the brutal energy of Wrathchild, however without musically reaching its heights. The fact that there's (essentially) no solo is another plus for me. Early Maiden seemed to be very mature and flexible regarding solos, resulting a high ratio of songs without them.
But no matter the music qualities of the song, what really gets me here are the lyrics:

First, the author. This is based on a story written by one of the world's favorite writers, Edgar Allan Poe. It's said to be one of the first pieces of detective literature.

RueMorgueManuscript.jpg

As far as Maiden is concerned, this is their second plain reference on a piece of literature; establishing a beloved tradition throughout their discography. And it's even better than that: Instead of faithfully following the tale's narrative, Harris cleverly alters it* and we follow a person who is on the run falsely suspected of crimes he didn't commit.

The storytelling within the song is fascinating as the guy cannot speak French to explain his innocence and we left wondering how he even arrived there then. Eloy's Love Over Six Centuries comes to mind; time travel and all, until the final 2 verses will give us a hint that the guy must be a schizophrenic: I know that it's on my mind That my doctor said I've done it before.

Murders in the Rue Morgue's lyrical innovations make it a great song, ranked somewhere between 52 -68 in Maiden's catalogue, probably ~65.

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* Bruce in Flight of Icarus is the prime example of a clever alteration of a known story but Harris did that a full 2 years prior.
 
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Even being in a masterpiece album this song just stands above the rest, this is easily one of the greatest Iron Maiden songs.
Clive Burr shines here, Paul Di’anno owns this songs and make every Bruce attempt to sing this one look really bad, killers is full of 10’s but this one is above the rest.

10/10
 
Raw and ripping with a classic Maiden intro, “Murders” is one of those moments where Steve stuffed the shit out of the song and somehow pulled it off. It’s fun, it rocks, and Paul is on-point throughout. Not “Phantom of the Opera” level but clearly one of the best Di’Anno Maiden songs. 8/10
 
Early Maiden had the tendency to write a lot of happy sounding material, regardless of the subject matter. Nowadays some of those songs can even sound a bit goofy. MITRM has a fantastic intro. The first minute of the song is a straight 10/10 for me. Unfortunately this is where the actual song starts and everything falls apart. It's not necessarily bad, but doesn't fit at all with my tastes, so I simply can't get myself to appreciate the rest of the song. It's a 4 and even that only because of the fantastic intro.
 
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