Iron Maiden's Steve Harris give's his oversight about his love of Prog!
[B][U]Harris is a huge fan of progressive rock, and particularly of that all- important first wave of now legendary bands that ruled the earth in the early 70s. Aside from the fact that Maiden have covered both Jethro Tull’s Cross-Eyed Mary and Hocus Pocus by Focus – Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain’s demented channelling of Thijs Van Leer’s yodelling powers will haunt you forever, so approach with caution – the band’s penchant for elaborate epics and multiple mood and tempo shifts has always been a dead giveaway.
Iron Maiden have released at least one bona fide concept album and are renowned for their extravagant, eye-melting stage productions: both sturdy prog traits, of course, and ample evidence that growing up amid the original progressive era has indeed had a colossal effect on Harris’ notoriously uncompromising vision.
Never has that influence been more apparent than on Maiden’s new album The Book Of Souls. At an eye-watering 92 minutes in length, it is both the band’s first legitimate double album (or triple album, if you favour the lavish vinyl edition) and the most unashamedly ambitious record of their illustrious career. It is also, at certain points, magnificently adventurous and very plainly indebted to Harris’ prog obsession, particularly on the album’s lengthier and more intricate tracks. Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson – another prog aficionado, it turns out – also contributes to the record’s exploratory squall, most significant on 18-minute closer Empire Of The Clouds, an insanely grandiose and evocative recounting of the R101 airship disaster of 1930 that crams more twists, turns and orchestral flourishes into its duration than most supposed prog bands would dare to attempt.
Harris’ own songs aren’t exactly straightforward or succinct either, not least the grandiloquent bluster of the 13-minute The Red And The Black, and with artwork inspired by the imagery and iconography of Ancient Mayan civilisation and an underlying sense of soul-searching unease, The Book Of Souls may not be a textbook prog rock album, but its progressive credentials are unquestionable.
Despite this, and with typical humility and a dash of bemusement, Harris is surprised and delighted to be nimbly crossing over into the prog realm, if only for this interview.
“Well, I wouldn’t say it’s been my lifetime’s ambition to appear in Prog magazine,” he smiles, “but I must admit I’m really happy about it. I grew up with that stuff and I absolutely love all those bands, to this day. So this should be fun…”
People might be surprised that you’re a proper prog rock aficionado, but you were the perfect age to discover all that stuff.
Yeah, I guess I was. I grew up listening to all kinds of stuff, I suppose. I used to listen to The Beatles and The Who and stuff like that. I used to live at my grandparents’ house and my aunts would always be playing that stuff, whether it was The Doors or Simon and Garfunkel, a wide variety of music but all with loads of melody. I guess that’s where I picked up a lot of that sense of melody from. Then I started getting into more rock stuff and that led to Wishbone Ash and then onto prog.
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