2. "The Prisoner" was a song inspired by the sixties acid-tab TV series of the same name and open with a phrase from the series.  The phrase "I'm not a number, I'm a free man!" sums up the spirit of the central rebel character portrayed by the series writer, maverick Danger Man Patrick McGoohan. British heavy DJ Tommy Vance had the tapes so Steve Harris could find the quote he wanted; all that remained was to get permission to lift it from the man himself.  Rod Smallwood was quite nervous in doing it, but called up McGoohan and told the actor the details.  "What was the band's name again?" he asked.  "IRON MAIDEN", replied a terrified Rod.  "A rock band  you say?" McGoohan mused and then snapped the command "DO IT!" The full dialog at the beginning of "The Prisoner" is as follows: 
 "We want information...information...information..." 
 "Who are you?" 
 "The new number two." 
 "Who is number one?" 
 "You are number six." 
 "I am not a number!...I am a free man!" 
 "<laughter>" 

3. The quote on the back of the Piece Of Mind LP sleeve:  again from Revelations (ch. xxi, v.1):  "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death.  Neither sorrow nor crying.  Neither shall there be any more Brain."  (where 'pain' was replaced by 'Brain', obviously). This refers to Eddie's brain being removed in Piece Of Mind. 

4. The first and last verses of the song Revelations are taken from an old English hymnal by G. K. Chesterton. 

5. At the end of Still Life, if you crank up the volume right after the last note you can hear someone (Nicko I think) say "that was fuckin' great!" But it's almost silent...you gotta listen hard. 

6. During the bridge of "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner", the following is actually a quotation from the original poem of the same name, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:  "Day after day, day after day, we stuck nor breath nor motion, As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean; Water, water everywhere and all the boards did shrink, Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink." -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798 - 1834). 

7. During the middle slow part of "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner", the following is also a quotation from the poem of the same name, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:  "One after one by the star dogged moon, too quick for groan or sigh; each turned his face with a ghastly pang, and cursed me with his eye; four times fifty living men, (and I heard nor sigh nor groan), with a heavy thump, a lifeless lump, they dropped down one by one." -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798 - 1834). 

8. On the LIVE AFTER DEATH cover: "That is not dead/which can eternal lie/ yet with strange aeons/even death may die." This is from H. P. Lovecraft's "Nameless City." The proper quote is "AND with strange aeons" instead of "yet." In the story, this is written in the Necronomicon by Abdul Alhazred. The complete works of H. P. Lovecraft consist of only three volumes and I think it's worth buying and reading them. 

9. At the beginning of the LIVE AFTER DEATH album and video, right before the beginning of the song "Aces High", there is a Winston Churchill speech, from back at the beginning of World War II (the exact date is June 4th, 1940.) I think it's the speech he gave as the official "Declaration Of War" speech. It goes like this:  "We Shall go on till the end.  We shall fight in France, We shall fight in the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cause may be.  We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight on the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills.  We shall never surrender!" 

10. From the sleeve of the "Stranger In A Strange Land" single:  "The android with no name walked into the crowded spaceport bar, eight foot tall, with death in his cold android eyes, he strode across the room.  Small green aliens scuttled out of his path, fearsome martian warriors would not meet his gaze and the air froze when he croaked in his dark gravelly voice, "A pint of bitter please, mate". 

11. At the beginning of the song "Alexander The Great":  "My son...ask for thyself another Kingdom, for that which I leave is too small for thee." by King Philip of Macedonia - 339 B.C. (Alexander the Great's father, obviously). King Philip had a wild horse that none of his men could break (i.e. stay on!)  Then Alexander who was around 13 then, jumped on the horse and broke it.  The king laughed and said "My kingdom's not gonna be big enough for you!" Twisting the English around a little you get a more sophisticated version which is what appears on the album. 

12. "Hello, let me to introduce myself, my name's Rodney, I'm immensely strong... The reason I never took up martial arts is because I'm immensely fearsome. And I'd probably kill everybody that I came into contact with. I was phenomenally strong....fly with eagle my lad, fly with the eagle, 'cos it's what makes the world rotate. And everybody knows that the center of the universe is Huddersfield, that's why I don't live there anymore... I live in Los Angeles - it's great... I think. I don't know why you make such a fuss about it... I'm not in it for the money! I like it here, the sun shines all night..." "Also I used to be able to lift 95 navvies on a shivel...you're not bloody listening to me are you?" - courtesy of Rodney Smallwood, Bloody Yorkshireman 

13. On A REAL DEAD ONE, the first track, "The Number Of The Beast" has something weird going on before the song starts.  During the Revelations quote, at approximately 0:10, 0:18, 0:20 and 0:25, if you turn up the volume a good bit, you can hear some sort of gibberish in the background, After it says "For it is a human number", Bruce says "What is it please?". Anybody know anything else about this?! 

14. On A REAL LIVE ONE, Bruce Dickinson takes out about a minute of time speaking French to the audience, right before going into the song "Wasting Love."  Below is a pretty accurate transcription of what he says in French, and its equivalent English translation, more or less...  :) 
 Original version (in French) 
  ---------------------------- 
  Eh bonsoir, bienvenue C'est la premiere fois que je parle le francais pour une annee et demie, tres dangereux. Nous avons un nouveau album, oui c'est ca, Fear Of The Dark, oui. Cette chanson, c'est un peu different pour nous de faire ce type de chanson, mais pour nous c'est important, parce qu'il est un chanson qui est pour le coeur. L'amour ce n'est pas seulement un homme fuck(*) un ami, ce n'est pas. L'amour c'est, c'est plus en bas, dans la tete, dans le coeur, dans toute la forme. 

  In English 
  ---------- 
  Eh Goodnight, welcome  It's the first time I've been speaking French for one year and an half, very dangerous. We have a new album, yes that's correct, Fear Of The Dark, yes. This song, it's somehow different for us to write this type of song, but for us it's important because this is a song which is for the heart. Love, this is not only a man fuck a friend, no this is not Love is, it's more deep, in the mind, in the heart, in the whole of the being (is that correct?) 
 

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