Here's Eddie impaling the Earth.
April 16, 2017 5:03 AM   Subscribe

 
'As you can see Eddie is holding a knife over the then British prime minister: Margaret Thatcher.'

Never a big fan of Iron Maiden (though I didn't dislike them) they have gone up in my estimation
posted by Myeral at 5:30 AM on April 16, 2017 [4 favorites]


What exactly is Eddie meant to be? At first I thought he'd be a flayed corpse, reanimated by the eldritch, unholy power of rock and unleashed to wreak mayhem, but some of the covers (like The Trooper) suggest that he's a skeleton, only with the skull textured to look like raw muscle/sinews. Is there an official mythology that defines him? Is he an Orc or similar mythical being, or a plastic anatomy dummy imbued with supernatural powers?
posted by acb at 5:38 AM on April 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


He is meant to be the physical embodiment of "your parents hate this"
posted by Wolfdog at 5:50 AM on April 16, 2017 [77 favorites]


Great collection of Maiden imagery down the years. There's tour posters and single artwork too, for those who haven't clicked. Plenty I knew, some I'd forgotten, others I'd not seen and several I still own the chronically faded tshirts of. Quality FPP 🤘
posted by comealongpole at 6:00 AM on April 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


That was amazing - thanks for sharing.
posted by COD at 6:20 AM on April 16, 2017


What exactly is Eddie meant to be?

He's an Eddie. How could he be anything else? Does he look like a Tom or Lucrezia to you?

Scientifically speaking he is a zombulomummuloid
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:37 AM on April 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


What exactly is Eddie meant to be?

Eddie's just a 'ead.
posted by 445supermag at 7:55 AM on April 16, 2017 [10 favorites]


When I was in the ninth grade there was this guy in my English class who did nothing but draw incredibly intricate Eddies on everything - Pea-Chee folders, spelling tests, the desktop, everything. Instead of writing an essay for the final test he drew a big Eddie eating brains. He was a talented artist. And his name was Eddie. True story.
posted by chavenet at 8:45 AM on April 16, 2017 [10 favorites]


What exactly is Eddie meant to be?
The very first version of Eddie was a mask made by an art student who was friends with Dave "Lights" Beasley, then in charge of lighting, pyrotechnics and other effects for Iron Maiden's live show. According to Beasley, the original mask was a papier-mâchÊ mould of his own face, which was then used in the band's backdrop, consisting of lights and the band's logo. At the end of their live set, during the "Iron Maiden" song, a fish tank pump was used to squirt fake blood out of the mask's mouth, which typically covered their then-drummer Doug Sampson. After this initial incarnation, Beasley constructed a larger mask out of fibreglass, equipped with flashing eyes and the ability to release red smoke from its mouth.

The band's bassist and founding member Steve Harris states that the name "Eddie" comes from the fact that said mask was referred to as "The Head", which sounded like "Ead" in the band members' London accent.
This became Eddie the 'ead.

The Eddie we've all come to know (and love!) originated with a painting that Derek Riggs had made, originally intended to be the cover of a punk record. That is the painting that ended up as the cover of the band's eponymous first album. Band manager, Rod Smallwood, decided that this character would be used for all their subsequent records.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 9:23 AM on April 16, 2017 [9 favorites]


I feel like the artist could have used some more anatomy classes but he was dedicated to his concept.
posted by emjaybee at 9:50 AM on April 16, 2017 [3 favorites]


In my less lucid moments, I've given thought to writing a 'League of Extra-ordinary Gentlemen' style team up of the major Heavy Metal Mascots- Eddie the Head, Vic Rattlebones, Motorhead's Metalhog, etc.... but I've never been able to figure out who they would oppose, or why...

Interesting to know that the cover art for Dance of Death was a rush job that hadn't finished rendering. Easily the worst Iron Maiden art, and one of the all time baddies of heavy metal art in general.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 10:36 AM on April 16, 2017 [4 favorites]


who they would oppose
Posers, obviously
posted by Wolfdog at 10:37 AM on April 16, 2017 [10 favorites]


but I've never been able to figure out who they would oppose, or why

Tipper Gore and the PMRC of course!
posted by TedW at 10:52 AM on April 16, 2017 [6 favorites]


I love Maiden unreservedly. When I was 13 (or whatever) PORING over these record covers I just couldn't conceive that one person could reach these kind of artistic heights. It seemed inhuman. DaVinci had nothing on Riggs. My best bud at the time, Derek (!), and I would redraw these covers, and Eddie, over and over. Derek went on to become a horror comics illustrator, and has made a nice life for himself out of it, and I can tell you for sure that the plurality of credit/fault for that is Derek Riggs' work.

What I wouldn't give to have my Aces High backpatch back today.
posted by dirtdirt at 11:31 AM on April 16, 2017 [15 favorites]


I love Maiden unreservedly.

Me too. They're right up there with Sabbath, Metallica and Priest as the best metal bands ever.
posted by jonmc at 11:34 AM on April 16, 2017 [6 favorites]


My peak heavy metal moment was seeing Maiden at Donnington in '92, and the peak to that was when a giant Eddie head+arms peeked out from behind the stage.
posted by signal at 12:04 PM on April 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


Damn, this is just glorious! Iron Maiden and Eddie embody so much of what I love about metal. The cartoonish funny-scary, ill-thought-out pseudo-political satire designed, yes, obviously, to annoy parents. Delightful! From ancient Egypt through the far grim-dark future there will always be Eddie, menacing a guy in jeans and a tshirt, or maybe Margret Thatcher, or perhaps just splitting open planet Earth to look at its brain. No cohesive story-line, no discernible philosophy. Does he love war? Does he hate it? What's the deal? Apparently he had a girlfriend at some point? Who cares! It's Eddie and he's metal and that's all we need to know!
posted by Cookiebastard at 12:13 PM on April 16, 2017 [10 favorites]


Iron Maiden was the first rock concert I went to. About a year later I discovered punk and that was more of less the end of me. I do remember the cover art being a big draw though, and I was hoping there might be some explanation of the tiny cat with a halo stuck in the corners of some of the paintings in this mega post.

Also last year I was asked to paint the art from Trooper onto a wedding cake. You know, because why not?
posted by palindromeisnotapalindrome at 12:20 PM on April 16, 2017 [5 favorites]


I love Maiden unreservedly.

Sign me up for this club
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:32 PM on April 16, 2017 [7 favorites]


Fantastic. \m/
posted by humboldt32 at 12:39 PM on April 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


This is a perfect intersection of Heavy Metal, the genre, with Heavy Metal, the comic.
posted by Dip Flash at 1:01 PM on April 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


And in several images, actual metal that is heavy.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:07 PM on April 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


Iron Maiden put out a mobile game almost a year ago ( Iron Maiden Legacy ) based on the album art iconography. For a flavor of how they translate into 3D gaming, here's a few assets pulled from their facebook page:
Navigator Eddie from Ghost of the Navigator
Gameplay trailer
Holy Smoke/Pharoah/Visions/Rainmaker/Aces High
bonus
Website intro video

\m/
posted by cfraenkel at 1:07 PM on April 16, 2017 [3 favorites]


I notice that Eddie only got the skull pin in 1983 and kept it until 1990. Discovering Maiden in 1991, that was the standard Eddie look to me. The mid/late 1990s covers are such a bummer, and the computer/internet themes in those albums even moreso. Iron Maiden did not do well with current events; their strength was always turning Steve Harris’s dorky historical interests into songs.
posted by migurski at 1:07 PM on April 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


This is great!

The otherwise wasteful CD longbox that my copy of Powerslave came in allowed me to adorn the inside of my high school locker door with the album cover at no extra cost.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:12 PM on April 16, 2017 [3 favorites]


The excellent documentary Iron Maiden: Flight 666, filmed during its 2008 world tour, provided me with a belatedly illuminating introduction to the band
posted by fairmettle at 1:46 PM on April 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


I love Maiden unreservedly.

Something that endlessly amuses me as an Old is that metal is pretty much the same thing, or occupies the same place, for boys as Stereotypical Singer-Songwriter does for girls. Which is to say, absolutely sincere songs about how nobody understands you and how unique you and the nine million other fans are.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:59 PM on April 16, 2017 [3 favorites]


ROU Xenophobe- kinda, but Metal has the bonus of riffs and shouted hooks to get your adrenaline on. Plus the guitar solos for the more technically minded.

/quick and dirty explanation, do your own homework with an open mind

absolutely sincere songs about how nobody understands you

pretty much all music aimed at young people qualifies as that, the rest is based on taste based on musical content
posted by jonmc at 2:29 PM on April 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


Also, Iron Maiden doesn’t really cover those topics at all. They’re mostly about British literature , history, and fantasy: WW2, Tennyson, Heinlein, Coleridge, the Seventh Son concept album, and “the time that dinosaurs walked the earth”. :\

80s metal and its fixation on war and history is somewhat uniquely extroverted in this way. It seemed like NĂź Metal in the late 90s started punching all the teen-emo buttons.
posted by migurski at 2:39 PM on April 16, 2017 [8 favorites]


When I was in the ninth grade there was this guy in my English class who did nothing but draw incredibly intricate Eddies on everything - Pea-Chee folders, spelling tests, the desktop, everything. Instead of writing an essay for the final test he drew a big Eddie eating brains. He was a talented artist. And his name was Eddie. True story.

This, no doubt, pissed off his teachers. And there's the failure of most public school systems in a nutshell.
posted by davebush at 2:56 PM on April 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


My introduction to Iron Maiden was a high school English class in which our teacher played Rime of the Ancient Mariner. She didn't give a shit about trying to appear cool, either, she just figured it would get a certain kind of brain engaged that might not otherwise.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:10 PM on April 16, 2017 [4 favorites]


I had heard of Iron Maiden, and I once saw the cover of one album. That in no way prepared me for this. It reminds me of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth and "Rat Fink", images of whom still take up a large part of my brain.
posted by acrasis at 3:23 PM on April 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


Also, Iron Maiden doesn’t really cover those topics at all.

It covers them implicitly by being about stuff awkward 14-year-old boys liked, and being about them with total sincerity and not a hint of irony. As an awkward 14 year old boy in 1984, I offer you my personal assurance that Maiden (and Rush) were still about nobody understands me, etc, even if they weren't as overt about them as Dio or Sabbath. That Dune song on Piece of Mind? That was understanding me.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:31 PM on April 16, 2017 [9 favorites]


This, no doubt, pissed off his teachers. And there's the failure of most public school systems in a nutshell.

Actually, the teacher gave Eddie a "C", mostly because he was perennially cutting class. He was cool with all the Eddies. (it was Berkeley in the early 80s...)
posted by chavenet at 3:34 PM on April 16, 2017


If you like this get Run to the Hills, The Derek Riggs book. Its got all this and a lot more.
posted by Liquidwolf at 4:51 PM on April 16, 2017



Interesting to know that the cover art for Dance of Death was a rush job that hadn't finished rendering. Easily the worst Iron Maiden art, and one of the all time baddies of heavy metal art in general.


The art for Dance of Death was a SKETCH and was never meant to be used as final art. Dave Patchett ( who did all Cathedral's amazing art ) was so mortified they used it that he refused to have his named associated with it. I don't know if it said all that in the article, sorry to be repetitive if so,
posted by Liquidwolf at 4:56 PM on April 16, 2017


There was a lot of crappy metal from my HS days. It is evident now, listening back to it, that this is so. But when I went back to listen to IM all these many years (this was a couple years ago), I thought, holy crap. This is great. What a shame it was buried under that mass of metal dross.

Oh yes, I was in 5th grade. I needed to get a gift for a friend's birthday party. I thought, I'll get him a record. So I asked a friend (who had an older brother) what I should get (I was 10 and didn't have a musical clue). He said, Number of the Beast is so cool! So I bought it. I still have a clear vision of my friend and his mother's WTF expressions as he opened the present and saw Eddie staring at all of us.
posted by persona au gratin at 5:07 PM on April 16, 2017 [3 favorites]


I want to be friends with the couple who had an Iron Maiden wedding cake.
posted by persona au gratin at 5:11 PM on April 16, 2017 [3 favorites]


UP THE IRONS!!! \m/ \m/
posted by Amor Bellator at 7:07 PM on April 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


I love the accidental cubism. Just look at that gun that Tatcher is holding, or the jumping motorcycle. So many different points of view rendered in a single image.

And by love I mean it is the graphic equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. Ouch my poor visual processing.
posted by Dr. Curare at 7:34 PM on April 16, 2017


Top five Maiden songs. Go.
posted by hototogisu at 7:51 PM on April 16, 2017


1. All of them
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:08 PM on April 16, 2017 [5 favorites]


Yeah but I gotta start somewhere.
posted by hototogisu at 8:12 PM on April 16, 2017


My introduction to Iron Maiden was a high school English class in which our teacher played Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

My high school English teacher accepted my invitation to play Rime of the Ancient Mariner for the class. 13 minutes, 45 seconds later I was the coolest kid in school (is how I prefer to remember it).
posted by Knappster at 8:15 PM on April 16, 2017 [3 favorites]


Oh! In that case, start with:

1. The Trooper
2. Run For The Hills
3. The Number of The Beast
4. Wasted Years
5. Aces High

And bonus:

The Red and The Black
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:20 PM on April 16, 2017 [3 favorites]


FWIW I was over Maiden until they released The Book of Souls and now they're back on my GOAT list after a fifteen+year absence.
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:21 PM on April 16, 2017


I was over Maiden until they released The Book of Souls and now they're back on my GOAT list after a fifteen+year absence.

Four epic-length tracks! Now there's a band that is just not giving any quarter. \m/ \m/
posted by Ber at 9:00 PM on April 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


I never got into heavy metal but I always ran into these album covers back in the day. The cover for Powerslave blew my pre-pubescent mind. I remember going to Camelot Music in the mall and just staring for the longest time at those pyramids.
posted by zardoz at 3:26 AM on April 17, 2017


Top five Maiden songs. Go.

in no particular order:

The Trooper
Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner
Number of the Beast
Wasted Years
Brave New World
posted by MartinWisse at 4:43 AM on April 17, 2017 [2 favorites]


Drummer Niko McBrain is co-owner of a rib restaurant in my smallish Florida town. SUPER nice guy. Lots of Eddie art and band memorabilia hanging around. Going there for a meal is so cool: all of us fans being the NORMAL ones in a public setting other than a concert or record store. It makes me wonder what it would have been like socially if I'd not been the only metal-loving girl in my middle and high schools. Why, yes...I do sit there and sketch Eddie on the napkins. And I am NOT ALONE. \m/ \m/
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 5:00 AM on April 17, 2017 [5 favorites]


Quite a few of them look like Omni magazine covers from Hell's waiting room.

They were a favorite of wrestlers, at my junior high and high school, for some reason. The wrestling room - which, if you've never been in one during a full-on practice, is quite an experience - sometimes absolutely resounded with their stuff.
posted by Caxton1476 at 7:20 AM on April 17, 2017


Number of the Beast
Flight of Icarus
Running Free
Two Minutes To Midnight
The Trooper

Honorable Mention : Tattooed Millionaire by Bruce Dickinson solo.
posted by jonmc at 8:36 AM on April 17, 2017 [1 favorite]


Dave Patchett ( who did all Cathedral's amazing art ) was so mortified they used it that he refused to have his named associated with it. I don't know if it said all that in the article, sorry to be repetitive if so,

They did say that! Even went so far as to deliberately leave the artist anonymous, since they didn't want to be associated with it... but the cat's out of the bag now! ::points and laughs at Dave Patchett, is summarily dismembered by Eddie for my disrespect::
posted by FatherDagon at 8:50 AM on April 17, 2017


Top Five Paul Di'Anno songs

Prowler
Running Free
Wrathchild
Killers
Murders in the Rue Morgue
posted by cazoo at 9:23 AM on April 17, 2017 [2 favorites]


The Clairvoyant
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Fear of the Dark
Brave New World
Sanctuary

I also enjoy the 'Something Wicked' saga.. oh wait
posted by xorry at 1:29 PM on April 17, 2017 [1 favorite]


Hallowed be Thy Name
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Phantom of the Opera
Alexander the Great
Revelations

I had a cool English Lit teacher in High School. He allowed me to present a listening of both Rime of the Ancient Mariner and then Xanadu (by Rush) as we had been covering the Lake Poets and Coleridge was a fave of his. Saved him from lesson planning for that day!
posted by stonesy at 2:58 PM on April 17, 2017 [2 favorites]


Joey Michaels:

1. The Trooper
2. Run For The Hills
3. The Number of The Beast
4. Wasted Years
5. Aces High


I'm totally on board with this as a top list.

But I also have a soft spot for "Can I Play With Madness" off of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son - IMHO, not their greatest album. But teenage me really liked "Madness." And older me is still liking it.

TedW:

Tipper Gore and the PMRC of course!

And you know, as a gay teen metalhead, part of whatever process imprinted me to Iron Maiden was probably partially rooted in the "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." I mean, the music was it, for sure. But knowing who Christian fundamentalists were and what they stood for vs. who I was and wanted to be really cemented that in some way. It was like "Ok, I like guys, and you say that's the worst thing in the world. You also want to take away my metal? Fuck you."

From the imgur list in the FPP:

Holy Smoke
A song about televangelists. As you can see, Eddie does not approve.


Heh.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:30 PM on April 17, 2017 [3 favorites]


I was always somewhat tepid on Maiden (started really getting into metal in the late eighties, by which time they were sorta old hat). But man I kept trying, because the iconography and all the weird sci fi covers just made it seem so substantive, especially compared with bands like Overkill or Anthrax, who were kinda . . . dumb, even if I liked some of the music better.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:06 PM on April 17, 2017 [1 favorite]


« Older Because Easter Needs Truffles too   |   Tea comes out of a teapot Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments