Eddie iron maiden uncle sam9/24/2023 ![]() charts, and its video was the first Maiden video that actually told a story rather than the usual live concert shots and movie clips. 2 Minutes to Midnight (Smith, Dickinson)Ģ Minutes to Midnight is another classic Maiden single, and among the best songs written by Adrian Smith. Nuclear war shatters that protection, and so no-one is safe.1. The image of a womb is a very comforting one normally, as it implies protection of the vunerable and weak, safe from the outside world. I think the reasoning behind that line is that nuclear war destroys everyone, and will cut through all protection. It reminds me of one of Brutus' soliloquys (I hope I spelt that right) in Julius Caesar where he says something like "Think of Caesar as a Serpent, and that Serpent must be killed in it's shell." I can't remember the rest, but it was similar sounding to the line from '2 Minutes.', so is there any connection there? Are the meanings similar? I think it's a metaphor, but I can't understand exactly what it means. Only then did I realise that I can't understand the line "To kill the unborn in the womb". I was listening to this song earlier and I randomly typed the chorus into an MSN conversation. I am quite certain that these news were what inspired the song. The blunt simplicities of force threaten to displace any other form of discourse between the superpowers.” “Arms control negotiations have been reduced to a species of propaganda. On an interesting side note, in 1984, the Doomsday Clock was moved to three minutes to midnight, the closest it had ever been since 1953, when it was at two minutes. I don't know if Israel was engaged in a true war in 1984, but the words 'Israel' and 'war' were a common combination even back then.Ĭuba- I don't know when, but Cuba was engaged in Angola and other African countries at some point.Įddie is obviously in the 'Uncle Sam' pose, saying "I want YOU". The USA was guilty of being a major warmonger in the world at that time, supporting military coups and delivering weapons all over the world (the same applies to the USSR). The UK and Argentina had just fought the Falklands War. In 1979, the USSR had invaded Afghanistan. At the time the single was released, all these countries were all engaged in an armed conflict of some sort. The concerning countries do have something in common, however. There is no alphabet in the world that would place these flags in that order. The flags are, from left to right: Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, UK, Argentina, USA, Israel and Cuba. Judging by the flags, the nuclear explosion can not be at the United Nations headquarters. There is much more to the sleeve picture than that. QUOTEThe sleeve picture is another one of Derek Riggs's masterpieces, showing a soldier Eddie sitting in front of a nuclear explosion, which judging by the flags is at the United Nations headquarters. Here's one hint: "Sign Of The Cross" contains some clever and unusual rhythmic modulations. Finding other examples is left as an exercise to the reader. The bass remains on E as the guitars play a C-D-E progression.Īs I mentioned above, these techniques appear in other Maiden songs. The bass remains on an A note while the guitars change chords.ī ) The closing of the guitar solo section Two clear examples in this song are:Ī ) "The killer's breed or the demon's seed." In general, this term refers to the bass remaining on a single note while the melody instruments (guitars in this case) change chords. This is a common type of rhythmic modulation, and in these cases the slower sections are sometimes called 'half-time' - or, conversely, the fast sections can be called 'double-time'.Ģ. That is, two beats in the fast sections become one beat in the slow section. In this song, the fast and slow sections are related by a ration of 2 to 1. In general, this term refers to a tempo change in which the new tempo is based on some rhythmic element of the old tempo. Rhythmic modulation (also known as metrical modulation). They also appear in other Maiden songs, but they are especially prominent here.ġ. There are two interesting compositional techniques which are used in this song. I never get tired of hearing this song, especially live versions.
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