Seventh Son of a Seventh Son Storyline

[Collin]

I didn't really know where to post this. But I saw this on the Iron Maiden Commentary about the story line to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.
Here's the link: http://www.ironmaidencommentary.com/?url=album07_ssoass/commentary07_ssoass&lang=eng&link=albums
Moonchild - The Devil addresses the parent's of the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, mostly the mother and warns them that ''all resistance is futile.''
Infinite Dreams - The seventh sons father, himself a Seventh Son has visions he does not understand that tortures him.
Can I play with Madness? - The seventh son's father looks for an explanation of his visions and consults and prophet, he doesn't like what he's told.
Evil that Men Do - The Seventh son of a Seventh Son is conceived. The father possibly dies.
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son - The birth of the child with supernatural powers; good and evil both try to take him over
The Prophecy -The young man has harnessed his powers to discover that disaster looms; naturally, no one listens to him and the village is destroyed.
The Clairvoyant - The Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is now a seer who has control of his powers, although they quickly submerge him and are probably the cause of his death.
Only the Good Die Young - Bitter reflection of the events; was it all worth it? Back to square one.
Dang copy and paste didn't work on that site so I had to type it all out.

So while this above could be a great representation of the story depicted. But wasn't the SSoaSS born earlier on during Moonchild? I guess I'm really confused what the actual story is behind the album.

 

[Brigantium]

Bruce described it at one point as 'half a concept album', suggesting there wasn't a complete plot, more a loose theme.

I haven't read the book that formed the inspiration, so I don't know if that offers any clarity, but I am left with the impression there isn't a detailed and fully thought-out storyline. The character's demise, in particular, remains a bit vague and hurried to me. Ideally, I'd like to have seen another song - either as a build up to The Clairvoyant or an explanation after it - that gives the plot a climax fitting of the battle between powerful forces supposedly rolling the dice behind the scenes. The album seems to move on to the concluding Only The Good Die Young a little quickly.

Of course, it's always possible the tracks were intended to be in a different order, but Moonchild is the ideal opener musically so ended up being placed first.

 

[The Flash]

It's interesting, Bruce said the concept started with the fifth track but you can shape the other songs into a fitting scenario. Then again, with a little more effort you could probably do it to any other album.

 

[Deleted member 7164]

^ agreed.

Protagonist accepts devil's offer for time travel in exchange for his soul. He is transported into the future, where he feels nostalgic about his past life, but assures himself that the best part is happening right now. Suddenly the bright future becomes a nightmare as cities falls into despair, disorder and chaos. Our protagonist almost dies, but his will to live on was too strong. He runs away, keeps running and never looks back. Many years pass, and he finds himself in a polar region, stranded with nothing but ice around him. He goes into hypothermia, experiencing mental problems and temporal disorder.

So the moral of the story is - don't make pacts with The Devil, 'cause you're gonna get fucked.

To recapitulate the concept, Maiden presents a concrete, non abstract example of Alexander The Great. He traded his soul for the greatest empire in the World, only to die from a crappy flu, without ever truly enjoying life like Emperor of the greatest Empire should. To make the matters worse, Satan himself made sure that greatest song sang in Alexander's name would contain only the worst lyricism ever.

 

[Perun]

For what it's worth, Steve said in a 1988 interview for German Rock Hard magazine that all songs are about the seventh son of a seventh son. In particular, he said:

(...) The story is about the birth of a seventh son of a seventh son, as the title says. Because of this, he has a special status, develops superhuman powers, and he has much happening to him in his life, because his fellow men are obviously suspicious about him. He can also not control his abilities, and so many things occur that we put into a big story. In 'Can I Play With Madness' for example, he has considerable self-doubts, and 'Prophecy' is a song about a prophecy considering a disaster that is supposed to come on his village. They don't believe him, and when it happens one day, they want to lynch him. Those are only two examples. I think that we have written an interesting story that is worth reading through. We haven't intended an explicit interpretation of the lyrics, there is a lot of free space for the listener's imagination.

Translation by yours truly.