"Life Down Here Is Just a Strange Illusion..." The Number of the Beast, Forty Years On
On songwriting, Steve Harris' bass playing, and moral panics
“Woe to you, oh earth and sea/For the devil sends the beast with wrath” Barry Clayton ominously says, in his introductory monologue at the start of Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast’s B-side. Along with the retro horror movie-esque album art, depicting Iron Maiden’s iconic mascot Eddy as the puppet master of the devil, the song “The Number of the Beast” instigated a heavy metal moral panic. Indeed, the condemnation of The Number of the Beast as satanic seems ridiculous now, but the outrage at Iron Maiden – at all metal – was sincere.
Of course, The Number of the Beast isn’t a landmark album solely because it was the source of undeserved outrage. Most importantly, the songs on The Number of the Beast songs are incredible. After two strong but flawed albums with original singer Paul Di’Anno, Iron Maiden hit their stride with The Number of the Beast. The Di’Anno years produced some great songs, but those great and memorable songs. like “Wrathchild” and “Phantom of the Opera,” were accompanied with inane sludge. The Number of the Beast is distinct first because every song is at least somewhat memorable. Even the album’s weakest cut, “Gangland,” features some great drumming and singing even if it really only fills out space on the album. The best songs on the album; “Invaders,” “22 Acacia Avenue,” “The Number of the Beast,” “Run to the Hills” and “Hallowed Be Thy Name” are among heavy metal’s best. This album is full of incredible guitar riffs and solos, basslines, drum fills, vocal melodies, and lyrics that have been etched in the minds of metalheads everywhere.
The songwriting isn’t Iron Maiden’s only improvement on The Number of the Beast. Paul Di’Anno does a fine job on Iron Maiden and Killers, but he did not have the range nor power to match bassist, bandleader, and chief songwriter Steve Harris’ increasingly ambitious compositions. Instead, Bruce Dickinson’s soaring singing made him the perfect singer for Iron Maiden. There is a small but significant subset of Maiden fans who earnestly prefer Di’Anno to Dickinson. To each their own, but Dickinson, on this album and afterwards, elevated Iron Maiden’s increasing melodicism in a way Di’Anno couldn’t; could you imagine Di’Anno singing on “Children of the Sea?” On “The Number of the Beast?” On “Hallowed Be Thy Name?” No, Dickinson was the perfect match for these perfect songs.
Of course, Steve Harris, drummer Clive Burr, and guitarists Dave Murray and Adrian Smith had already proven themselves as great musicians on Iron Maiden and Killers, but their playing here is even tighter than before. In particular, the synergy between Murray and Smith in creating massive guitar harmonies, dueling solos, and spectacular riffs are more pronounced on this album. The mournful instrumental passage of “22 Acacia Avenue,” the Hadean frenzy of “The Number of the Beast,” and the desperate dueling solos of “Hallowed Be Thy Name” make those songs some of the best guitar work in all of music. Iron Maiden of course did not introduce the twin guitar attack to heavy rock and metal; Steve Harris freely admits that Maiden’s guitar harmonies were inspired by Wishbone Ash and Judas Priest were creating awesome heavy metal based around two guitars at the same time. It just so happens that Maiden did it the best up to that point. Iron Maiden’s unique sense of harmony and melody while still retaining heavy metal grit inspired bands including Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Death to push the bounds of metal even further while still based on the twin guitar model popularized by Iron Maiden.
Likewise, Steve Harris’ basslines are uniquely creative. You don’t need to listen to The Number of the Beast to know he is one of the most talented bassists ever, but The Number of the Beast shows how creative his basslines are. In metal, bassists like Ian Hill of Judas Priest or Rex Brown of Pantera approach the bass similar to a rhythm guitar; they play along with the root notes of the chords in a song, holding down the fort as the rest of the band are doing more interesting stuff with their instruments. Bassists like Ian Hill serve their purpose, insofar as their slavish coordination with the guitarists makes heavy guitar riffs even heavier, but it’s not great bass playing. Instead, Steve Harris is able to strike a balance; sometimes, when the song calls for it, he plays along with the guitars, other times his basslines are distinct from the guitar playing.
Take “Run to the Hills” as an example. During the opening passage and the pre-choruses, Steve Harris is playing in tandem with the guitars, giving those sections weight, but during the chorus he plays far more rhythmically and distinctly from the guitars. The chorus to “Run to the Hills” is perhaps the definitive moment for his signature galloping technique, which is defined by an eighth note being rapidly accompanied by two sixteenth notes. The bass gallop thus conveys the sound of a horse’s gallop, which is particularly effective given the imperialistic themes of the song and the imagery of colonial soldiers chasing down indigenous civilians. Likewise, Harris plays with Adrian Smith during Dave Murray’s solo, but after the solo terminates into the bridge, Harris starts plucking hard while playing a countermelody to Bruce Dickinson’s ascending vocals. Finally, after an extended chorus, Harris plays something like a small bass solo during the outro, all making “Run to the Hills” a bass tour-de-force.
Though this was Clive Burr’s final album with the band – he was fired shortly after The Number of the Beast’s release – he still gave an excellent account of his drumming. Songs like “Invaders,” “Gangland,” and the closer “Hallowed Be Thy Name” have awesome drumming. Even if his successor, Nicko McBrain, overshadows him as a drummer, Harris and Burr were a great rhythm duo. The production, handled by Martin Birch, is also fantastic on this album; the band sounds duly energetic and each instrument sounds crisp. Unlike much metal, the bass isn’t buried in the mix, and manages to stand-out while still having a clean woody tone.
Steve Harris isn’t just a great bassist and composer; he’s also one of rock’s most interesting lyricists. Thematically, his lyrics have dealt with historical themes (“Invaders,” “Run to the Hills”) and science fiction (“Children of the Damned,” “The Prisoner.”) It may seem like he’s retreading unsubtle 70s progressive rock clichés, but even the cheesier lyrics are still interesting and don’t feel ham-fisted. Likewise, these themes are certainly better than the oversaturated validity of glam metal that would follow a couple years later. Even if you aren’t fond of the lyrics, they’re both substantive and authentic. Steve Harris wrote the lyrics he wrote because he was interested in those subjects, not because of pandering.
“Run to the Hills” has particularly interesting lyrics, as the song deals with the colonial subjugation of the indigenous peoples of North America from both the indigenous perspective, but also the colonialists themselves. The song manages to portray what the colonial attitude was to indigenous peoples while still clearly denouncing their imperialist violence. Anecdotally, my father grew up near a reserve in northern Alberta, and the First Nation people on the reserve loved “Run to the Hills.”
The greatest controversy from the album stems from the title track, which concerns a nightmare a man has, where the devil attempts to possess him. Offended Christian mothers and people who merely looked for things to get outraged over brushed over that the song is about a dream, and that Satan was clearly not the good guy in the song. Instead, they took the album art and the chorus of “Six! Six, six!/The number of the beast!/Hell, and fire/Was spawned to be released!” as definitive proof of Iron Maiden’s devil worship. As Black Sabbath had already dealt with accusations of Satanism before, there was shoddy precedent for accusing metal of Satanism, but precedent nonetheless. This moral panic reached a point that extending into the wonderfully-named World Slavery Tour in 1984, religious groups protested Iron Maiden concerts, concerned that they were corrupting the hearts and minds of the youth.
Still, the best lyrics on the album – and probably of Steve Harris’ entire career – belong to the closer, “Hallowed Be Thy Name.” “Hallowed Be Thy Name” tells the story of a man about to be executed, building tension until the climax, when the Lord’s Prayer is read out to him right before the end. The song deals with his feelings of despair and frustration; how is any of this real? Am I afraid of dying? If God loves me, then why is he allowing them to kill me? The dread drips from this song like oil into water. Harris’ writing is eloquent and passionate, and it helps too that Bruce Dickinson’s vocal performance and the escalating frenzy of Adrian Smith and Dave Murray’s guitar playing are both spectacular. Simply put, “Hallowed Be Thy Name” is a masterpiece within a masterpiece.
The 1980s were a great period for heavy metal, thanks in great part due to Iron Maiden. They released a slew of great albums, from their self-titled debut in 1980 and Killers in 1981,1983’s Piece of Mind, 1984’s Powerslave, 1986’s Somewhere in Time, and 1988’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Yet the most important of those albums was The Number of the Beast, which was not just the best Maiden album, but also the most influential. It is nothing short of genre-defining.