Track title: “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
Album: Powerslave
Year: 1984
Written by: Steve Harris
Subject: Based on the poem
Type: Epic rocker
Length: 13:45
Familiar? Oh **** yes
Rating: 10/10
Is there any other band, never mind metal band, who could not only base one of their songs on an nineteenth-century epic poem, but also have it become one of their fan favourites? Drawing on the epic work of English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” takes the huge saga not quite word for word but very close, and makes an unforgettable metal anthem out of it. The song ended up being, until 2015, Maiden's longest ever at just under fourteen minutes, and quite possibly one of the longest metal songs too, and stands as one of Steve Harris's finest works, despite the **** I gave him for his later work.
If you don't know the poem, it kind of doesn't matter because it's explained in the song, but basically an old sailor shoots an albatross while at sea. This is bad luck, and robs the ship of any wind so that it becomes becalmed, easy prey for Death and his missus when they show up. Kicking off as a fast headbanger, the song goes into a dark, brooding section in the middle, driven by Harris's moody, ominous bass, with a spoken section taken directly from the poem which describes the plight of the mariners as they all begin to die. Slowly then, the song begins to pick up speed as the winds blow and the ship starts to move again, ending both triumphantly and tragically, as the ancient mariner is the only one to survive the harrowing of his vessel.
I'm really not sure any other metal band could have pulled this off, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a huge Maiden fanboy. There's something about their fans that not only accept, but expect and enjoy being treated as more than just meatheads. As I said before in one of the entries, Maiden don't very often sing of motorbikes and beer and wimmen – they do occasionally, but by no means do these standard staples of the metal song form the basis of their songwriting – but seek to educate through their music, while still keeping it heavy enough to headbang to even if you don't particularly care about the history or ethical lessons being taught within the music. Kind of the thinking man's metal band, really, and with this song they proved they deserve that title. Who else but Maiden could do this, and pull it off so successfully?
A very interesting thing about this song (as if it wasn't interesting enough already) is that there's hardly a guitar solo in it at all. We only get one after the song is about ten minutes long, and that's saying something for a band who love their solos!
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