When the Wild Wind Blows

How good is When the Wild Wind Blows on a scale of 1-10?

  • Total voters
    13
The Man Who Would Be King

LooseCannon said:
Nah, I think it was a plan…I think they intended to end themselves. They moved the stuff out by way of habit…maybe they intended others to find it?
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I really don't think so. They didn't just move things out of the way....they actually made a shelter. You don't bother making a shelter of you INTEND to take the poison right as it happens.

I really think they panicked when the earthquake happened, and in that panicky fear, they took the poison.
LooseCannon said:
Then why did they have the poison to begin with?
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I think they had the poison just in case the radiation sickness was too much to bear...not unlike when people have cancer and the pain is so bad that they wish for death.
 
The Man Who Would Be King

I'm not sure if they exactly "panicked." The lyric says "The tins of poison laying near by their clothes." This leads me to believe that when the earthquake started, they took off their clothes, took the poison, and embraced each other as they died. I think it was premeditated.
 
The Man Who Would Be King

Sir_Arthur_Conan_Death said:
I'm not sure if they exactly "panicked." The lyric says "The tins of poison laying near by their clothes." This leads me to believe that when the earthquake started, they took off their clothes, took the poison, and embraced each other as they died. I think it was premeditated.
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I'm sorry, but that just doesn't make sense. They create a shelter....they do all the preparations...they gather supplies to last them some time....none of these things are anything they would do if they were planning on killing themselves when the trouble came.

Also remember...Steve is well-known for adjusting lyrics to fit the meter of the song. saying the "tins of poison laying near their clothes" probably fit the meter of the song better than something like "tins of poison laying near their bodies". Besides....it would make sense that they had some clothes nearby to change into from day to day.
 
The Man Who Would Be King

That is extremely possible, but I disagree. I truly believe "clothes" is a very important word in the final stanza. They found them with their arms wrapped around each other and the poison was by their clothes. I don't think Steve would have just used the word clothes to keep with the meter (and the rhyme) if the clothes in question were just others to change into. It's too insignificant. I think he made a point to mention the clothes because they had taken them off, shedding the remnants of a world they were leaving behind. It makes perfect sense to me.

As for building the shelter and all of that business, I think it is possible they had nagging doubts while making it. Could they ever survive? Would they survive only to suffer radiation sickness? Going out on their own terms seemed to be the best option.

That's just me talking, though.
 
The Man Who Would Be King

So, I just watched the movie, and my takeaway was that it was about naive people who trust everything the government says 100%, and they believe the government has their best interests at heart and truly care ab out individual people and will do all they can to help, right down to the point of denying their symptoms. And for their blind faith, they are rewarded with death.

I then re-listened to the song, which is my favorite on the album, and it is almost completely different from the movie. I know Steve said he hadn't watched the movie since the 80s, but for that reason, I sorta wish the title of the song was more different from the title of the movie than it is, or that he had re-watched the movie and based the song more directly on that. I don't know, it's a minor thing - like I said, I love the song, and it's chilling and emotional.
 
The Man Who Would Be King

adolson said:
So, I just watched the movie, and my takeaway was that it was about naive people who trust everything the government says 100%, and they believe the government has their best interests at heart and truly care ab out individual people and will do all they can to help, right down to the point of denying their symptoms. And for their blind faith, they are rewarded with death.

I then re-listened to the song, which is my favorite on the album, and it is almost completely different from the movie. I know Steve said he hadn't watched the movie since the 80s, but for that reason, I sorta wish the title of the song was more different from the title of the movie than it is, or that he had re-watched the movie and based the song more directly on that. I don't know, it's a minor thing - like I said, I love the song, and it's chilling and emotional.
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Steve said he didn't want to watch it again. I forget why, something about only seeing it once, but he purposely wrote the song differently from the movie. That's why it's called "When the Wild Wind Blows"
 
The Man Who Would Be King

I'm fairly sure this is my favourite song from the album. I just wish Harris had written one or two more on his own, because I think this song represented the best mix of the old and new Maiden sound. I have only listened to the album once so far, but this is the standout track for me.

Rivet_Head, that particular passage choked me up too. I'm not sure if it is the lyrics themselves, or the way it is phrased that makes it so powerful. It's probably both.
 
The Man Who Would Be King

May not have the strongest riffs or vocals on the record, but taken as a whole this is a very strong track, and it fits perfectly on the end of this record.  I get chills every time it finishes spinning with the wind blowing.
 
The Man Who Would Be King

Jesus Christ, I just listened to the song while reading the lyrics... The ending gave me the chills, they took the poison, thinking it's the nuclear fallout, while it was just an earthquake. Very sad stuff. :(

Btw, I recall Steve pointing out that he had last seen the movie in the '80s and that he specifically wanted to write the lyrics and rely on the mood of the movie from memory. That's probably why the song isn't accurate with the movie itself.
 
The Man Who Would Be King

I enjoy this song, and also feel like it is way shorter than 11 minutes, but this isn't even in my top 20 maiden songs I don't think.  Shocked by the immense love for this. And I love long songs as much as anyone. 

My favorite parts of this song are:

1. Bruce's restraint
2. The sadness and surprise ending
3. The solo somewhere in the middle... Better go listen again for specificity's sake...

Better than rime?  Come on now...
 
The Man Who Would Be King

LooseCannon said:
I've already explained why Bruce has a different voice on this album; it wasn't written for him. Steve said he's had this idea for years and years and never found the tape until sometime after AMOLAD was recorded. Well, if he had it lying around for 7-8 years, it wouldn't have been written for Bruce.

Part of me wants to know how Blaze would sound on this track; part of me thinks Bruce is incredible that he delivers such a passionate, beautiful performance with something that is different to what Maiden has asked him to sing in the past. For the deeper Blaze songs he's always adopted a gravely voice (SoTC, MotE, LotF), and he's bullied through with his usual siren on The Clansman. We won't mention Futureal here.

If you have asked yourself "what would have the Blaze albums sounded like with Bruce Dickinson", I present to you a partial answer, with the disclaimer that Bruce's vocals in the 1990s, especially the early 1990s, were totally different than anything he has used since returning to the band.
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Good take on it. I just finished listening to the song myself - for the first time. This is how a singer with a Bruce kind of voice should sing stuff like The X Factor. Actually, this song wouldn't have felt out of place on that album.

Especially because of the psychological perspective it has. Already after hearing (and reading) the first few stanzas I thought this might be about someone who were either paranoid or maybe brainwashed into thinking the world would end soon. The ending was thus not that surprising (they killed themselves)  but I like how it is told.
 
The Man Who Would Be King

Best closer since Alexander the Great, and a truly amazing song.  I'm extremely impressed with the new album, and they've finally stopped having repetetive choruses.  Awesome.  :rocker:
 
The Man Who Would Be King

I am going to run the other way on this one.

I thought it was a throw-away track suffering from a serious case of "I've heard this Jethro Tull inspired melody 4,000 times before ".  The lyrics are really good, and the twist at the end is a nice lyrical surprise by Maiden standards...I need to give it more chances to see if I can "get" it but it's not happening right now. 

Though I said the same thing about all of BNW and it's now one of my favorites.
 
The Man Who Would Be King

It's really interesting to me that Bruce kept his vocals low all song, except for the energy burst on the second verse where it picks up.  But that's mostly volume increase.  Pretty cool to hear him keep the range low throughout.

Very much an X-Factor-esque tune.
 
The Man Who Would Be King

I don't think it's X Factoresque. It sounds far more like Virtual XI to me.
 
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