For My Sunday Song #405, we have Harrison’s next pick of “Lord of Light” by Iron Maiden. The song is off their 2006 album, ‘A Matter of Life and Death’. The song was not a single, but after listening to it, it easily could’ve been despite it’s over 7 minutes in length. The song was written by Adrian Smith, Steve Harris and Bruce Dickinson. The album itself, went to #9 in the U.S. Billboard Chart and #4 in the UK and #1 in Germany and several other countries.
The song has a very dark, disturbing view point…at least disturbing to me. Bruce Dickinson had this to say about it…
Just imagine there was a whole range of places between Heaven and Hell and that you got to pick, and that Lucifer is, in fact, the ‘lord of light’ downstairs, which is kind of what his name means. And all this stuff about the vengeful, eternal God wagging his finger and punishing you is all just a load of PR nonsense.” – Bruce Dickinson
It is an interesting viewpoint to take and one that would make you think really hard about it especially on a Sunday. The lyrics lead me to believe that is truly what the song is about as there is talk of Lucifer by name and hell and demons. If you could pick where you go, why would you ever pick hell, but I guess there are a lot of evil people out there.
The song itself, starts of slow with an acoustic guitar and it is all dark and a little eerie. Bruce, softly speaks the lyrics and it makes it quite haunting. Then the guitars come screaming followed by Bruce at full voice. He does have one of the best metal voices out there. Nicko McBrain’s drums are pounding with an electric intensity. It goes soft again, almost gentle as Bruce softens his tone again. It builds and then the explodes out with a guitar solo that will leave you holding on for fear life. It is a wild ride of riffs and shredding with a barrage of gun fire drumming. Then it is full on solo with fiery fingers flying over the frets. You are out of breath when it finally ends. A killer song even if it is something I don’t want to think about.
Give the song a listen and let me know what you think. What are your thoughts on the meaning of the song. Could you chose some place other than Heaven? Thanks to Harrison Kopp for all the choices for this 10 song set. Go check him out on Grab a Stack of Rock as co-host and on his Instagram page where he has a ton of Lego artwork.
“LORD OF LIGHT”
There are secrets that you keep
There are secrets that you keep
There are secrets that you tell to me alone
I can’t reach things I can’t see
You don’t see this strange world
Quite the same as me
Don’t deny me what I am
Nothing hidden still you fail to see the truth
These are things you can’t reveal
These are things you can’t reveal
We are part of some strange plan
Why the slaughter of the brotherhood of man
Infernal sacrifice of hell
Fire breathing lead the way
Mounds of bodies as they all burn into one
Revenge is living in the past
Time to look into a new millennium
Spiral path leads through the maze
Down into the fiery underworld below
Fire breathing lead the way
Lucifer was just an angel led astray
Free your soul and let it fly
Give your life to the Lord of Light
Keep your secrets and rain on me
All I see are mysteries
Free your soul and let it fly
Give your life to the Lord of Light
Keep your secrets and rain on me
All I see are mysteries
We are not worthy in your black
And blazing eyes
We gather demons in the mirror every day
The bridge of darkness casts a
Shadow on us all
And all our sins to you we give this day
Others wait their turn
Their lives were meant to last
Use yours wisely as the light is fading fast
Free your soul and let it fly
Mine was caught I couldn’t try
Time returns again to punish all of us
We are cast out by our bloody father’s hand
We are strangers in this lonely promised land
We are the shadows of the one unholy ghost
In our nightmare world the only one we trust
Free your soul and let it fly
Give your life to the Lord of Light
Keep your secrets and rain on me
All I see are mysteries
Free your soul and let it fly
Give your life to the Lord of Light
Keep your secrets and rain on me
All I see are mysteries
Songwriters: Stephen Percy Harris / Bruce Dickinson / Adrian Frederick Smith
2 Loud 2 Old Music 
“The song was not a single, but after listening to it, it easily could’ve been despite it’s over 7 minutes in length.”
It seems to be a rule of reunion Maiden that every song goes on at least two times but usually three times longer than it needs to.
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They do have some long songs.
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That’s a good point, John – if given a choice of destinations, that would be quite far from my first choice of a place to go!
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Baffling as to why you’d choose anything other than Heaven!! But if they had really good pizza and steaks and donuts…I don’t know…LOL!!
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Anything off of this album is worth a writeup.
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I can’t answer that, but I enjoyed the song.
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I always took this one to be an illustration of how humanity uses Lucifer as a scapegoat to justify doing wicked stuff, like “Oh, the devil made me do it.” It’s a really nice song from one of my favorite Maiden albums.
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The devil doesn’t make you do anything you don’t already have in your heart!!
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Gosh, I really need to give ‘A Matter of Life and Death’ another listen!
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Another listen, I still need to give A listen. LOL!!
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Lol! You need to dedicate at least 72 minutes for the whole album!
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