'the Clansman'
Communists in The Clansman
Because Maverick asked for it
Disclaimer: The following post is pure and utter BS
Because Maverick is a wanker, I’m going to prove that Iron Maiden had Communist leanings when writing The Clansman. You may think it’s about Scotland’s fight for freedom in early-modern times from England and Edward the Longshanks. You’d be wrong! It’s about Commies! Bloody, dastardly Commies!
Wake alone in the hills
With the wind in your face
This doesn’t refer to the windswept Highlands of Scotland. It’s an obvious reference to the barren empty land of Siberia, to which political dissidents from the Soviet Union were exiled. The poor bugger in this song is forced to live in the Urals (a mountain range).
It feels good to be proud
And be free and a race
That is part of a clan
‘Clan’ here refers to the Collective, or Commune. His ‘race’ is just one member of the Great Party of Workers and Farmers. He’s actually happy to be in the Party, and is likely a friend of Erich Honecker.
And to live on highlands
And the air that you breathe
So pure and so clean
The Soviet Union was one of the worst polluters in the history of mankind. Their propaganda kept telling the poor people, though, that they were breathing clean, crisp air and everything was happy-go-lucky. Especially for those living in the Ukraine and Belarus border region around 1986. Great air there. Yep. Breathe deep boys and girls.
When alone on the hills
With the wind in your hair
With a longing to feel ..
Just to be free
Is it right to believe
In the need to be free
It’s a time when you die
And without asking why
Our hero is now expressing the longing for freedom he feels under the Soviet system. He wants to be ALONE – not in a commune or collective! He wants to feel the freedom of individualism.
Can’t you see what they do
They are grinding us down
They are taking our land
That belongs to the clans
Here we see the hero complaining about the Soviet land redistribution programs. He feels he would be more productive if he were motivated by enlightened self0interest, rather than indoctrinating Party ideology.
Not alone with a dream
Just want to be free
With a need to belong
I am a clansman .....freedom
Our hero is resigning himself to the fact that he’s a Clansman – A Communist. There is not escape, regardless of how much he wants freedom. He will never be alone with his dream, he will always be in the Commune.
It’s a time wrought with fear
It’s a land wrought with change
Ancestors could hear
What is happening now
They would turn in their graves
They would all be ashamed
That the land of the free
Has been written in chains
And I know what I want
This is in reference to East Germany. If the Prussian Junkers of the 18th and 19th centuries could see what Russian domination was doing to their once-mighty and noble lands, they really would have turned in their graves. The land changing, of course, refers to the forced deportation of Germans out of East Prussia after 1945….even cities changed their named (Königsberg became Kaliningrad, etc)
When the timing is right
Then I’ll take what is mine
I am the clansman
He’s only going to take what the Central Committee thinks he should have. Goddamn Commies.
And I swear to defend
And we’ll fight to the end
And I swear that I’ll never
Be taken alive
And I know that we’ll stand
And we’ll fight for our land
This is in reference to the defence of the Soviet Union in World War II. The defence at Stalingrad was characterized by the strategy of “Not one [more] step backward.” Even Stalin began to abandon Commie ideology at this time, appealing instead to Russian nationalism to defend the Motherland.
LooseCannon would recommend “Enemy at the Gates” as a good introductory film, because it has absolutely no historical inaccuracies.
And I swear that my bairns will be born free.
Ignore this.
And I know what I want
When the timing is right
Then I’ll take what I want
I am the clansman .....freedom
And I know what I want when the timing is right
Then I’ll take what is mine I am the clansman
The ‘timing’ refers to the rigidity of the Soviet system. There was no flexibility, and everything had to be done exactly in a certain pre-determined way, often with crappy results.
No, no we can’t let them take anymore
No we can’t let them take anymore
We’ve the land of the free
Freedom
Again, a reference to the defence of Stalingrad by the Commies. (not that the Nazis were any better, of course)
So, there you have it. From now on, I expect you to listen to
The Clansman and
Mother Russia together, in order to have a proper historical commentary on the perils of communism.
Maverick is a wanker,
Duke.
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