Iron Maiden could also be one of many planet’s largest metallic bands, however they’ve by no means made any secret of their progressive rock influences.
Maiden bassist and founder Steve Harris grew up listening to such prog giants Genesis and Jethro Tull, and Maiden lined the latter’s 1971 basic Cross-Eyed Mary on the b-side of their very own 1983 single The Trooper.
They went even additional the next yr, exhibiting off their progressive rock bona fides with covers of Rainbow’s Gold by cult British prog act Beckett on the b-side of the 2 Minutes To Midnight single and tackling King Of Twilight by the equally obscure German-based ex-pat Brits Nektar on follow-up single Aces Excessive.
Singer Bruce Dickinson, who joined Maiden in late 1981, grew up listening to most of the identical prog bands as Harris. Jethro Tull, particularly, had been a giant affect – particularly 1971’s Aqualung album, which featured Cross-Eyed Mary.
“Aqualung was a giant go to [album],” he instructed Loudwire in 2024. “What a fantastic report, nice lyrics… he [Tull frontman Ian Anderson] was a fantastic storyteller along with his lyrics. He had a type of a folks custom factor happening within the background. People songs inform tales, they’re the unique rock’n’roll storytelling.”
However there was one other, altogether spikier prog band who galvanised the younger Dickinson’s creativeness, partly due to a private connection.
Van der Graaf Generator had been fashioned in Manchester in 1967 by singer and multi-instrumentalist Peter Hammill and drummer Chris Choose Smith.
They had been a part of the primary wave of progressive rock, due to albums corresponding to 1969’s The Aerosol Gray Machine, 1970’s The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Every Different and 1971’s visionary Pawn Hearts, an album that featured dizzying 23-minute prog blow-out A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers.
Van der Graaf Generator, aka VdGG, had been extra abrasive than boundary-pushing friends corresponding to Sure and Genesis, due to Hammill’s high-tension vocals and the presence of saxophone participant David Jackson.
That maverick streak might clarify why VdGG by no means achieved a lot business success within the UK or US, but it surely was one of many issues that caught the eye of younger Bruce Dickinson.
“Completely,” he instructed Basic Rock in 2024. “‘Let me simply put this report on, and clear the room!’ Or play it to a possible girlfriend after which marvel why she threw herself out the window. However I used to be enjoying Van Der Graaf’s H To He, Who Am The Solely One and Pawn Hearts to demise, together with Purple and Sabbath.”
However there was one other facet of the band that was even nearer to residence.
“Peter Hammill was an previous boy at my college, and so was David Jackson I consider,” he instructed Basic Rock in 2011. “They put VdGG collectively there, they usually performed a gig on the college after I was 15 years previous.
“A VDGG album corresponding to Pawn Hearts isn’t one million miles away from Maiden stuff corresponding to [1984’s lengthy] Rime Of The Historic Mariner.”
Dickinson additionally revealed that he smuggled a Van der Graaf Generator easter egg right into a twenty first century Maiden basic
“I’ve to admit there’s a little bit of a nod to VdGG on [Maiden’s 2006 album] A Matter Of Life And Loss of life. On Brighter Than A Thousand Suns there’s a line that goes: ‘No matter would Robert have stated to his God/About how we made conflict with the solar.’
“There’s a observe referred to as No matter Would Robert Have Stated on VDGG’s The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Every Different.”
The ‘Robert’ in query is US scientist Robert Oppenheimer, the so-called father of the atomic bomb, as performed by Cillian Murphy within the Oscar-winning 2023 film Oppenheimer.
“Albert Einstein as soon as made a remark concerning the arms race: ‘Each step seems to be the unavoidable consequence of the previous one, and in the long run there beckons an increasing number of clearly complete annihilation,’” continued Bruce.
“Nicely, Hammill used these actual phrases on the finish of one other VdGG observe, After The Flood. And I point out Einstein’s principle E=MC2 on Brighter Than A Thousand Suns. So it’s all bomb-related, actually.”
Van der Graaf Generator themselves by no means actually rose above cult band standing. Their profession was erratic: they break up in 1972, solely to reform three years later, then break up once more in 1978.
Peter Hammill would pursue a solo profession for a lot of the 80s and 90s, however VdGG unexpectedly reunited as soon as extra in 2005. This time, the return has held – they’ve launched a 5 albums since then, the latest of which was 2016’s Do Not Disturb.
