| Iron Maiden – Tailgunner Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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You are wrong. This has got nothing to do with gay people and AIDS. "Trace your way back 50 years To the glow of Dresden - blood and tears" Dresden was a German city that was completly obliterated by RAF and USAF bombs Febuary 13th-Febuary 15th 1945. It is famous in history and still raises alot of debate as to whether it crossed the line of human cruelty to kill so many people-there were around 25,000 civilian casaulties .Hence 'the glow' as the city was first illumniated with 650,000 lbs of firebombs to light the way for hundreds of 40,000lb bombs. "In the black above by the cruel searchlight Men will die and men will fight - yeah" RAF bomber command normally did their bomber sorties by night (whilst the USAF did them by day) so this refers to a nightime bomber sortie being saught by anti-aircraft searchlights. "Who shot who and who fired first? Dripping death to whet the bloodthirst" Simply made to rhyme reffering to the bloodthirsty adreneline there is in operating a gun against enemy fighters. Especially in the speed of air-air combat is was hard to know who had fired the first shot and who had been shot. "No radar lock on - skin and bone The bomber boys are going home" Simply what it means- aircraft in those days aircraft didn't have radar lock on to enemy target just gun sights on the end of their machine gun, bullets, flesh and blood. "Climb into the sky never wonder why - Tailgunner You're a Tailgunner" The Tailgunner, not being the responsible for pilot, navigator or bombardier had one simple job- to fire his weapon to defend the aircraft. Hence the 'never wonder why' because the tailgunner didnt know much about the navigational details of the flight because that wasn't his job. "Nail that fokker kill that son. Gonna blow your guts out with my gun" Fokker could reffer to the FOCKE-wolf 190 a fighter aircraft used by Nazi Germany often in the late stages of the war to intercept bombers of Germany. It's a word that fits into the song well. The second line is the trigger happy attitude of somebody pumped with adreneline-afraid for their lives in combat. "The weather forecast's good for war Cologne and Frankfurt? Have some more" Colonge and Frankfurt were also cities in Germany that were heavily bombed by allied bomber aircraft. "Tail end Charlie in the boiling sky The Enola Gay was my last try" Tail end Charlie was a British nickname for the tailgunner of the aircraft. The Enola Gay was 'my last try' because it was the name of the B29 bomber aircraft that dropped the first ever atom bomb 'little boy' on Hiroshima in 1945, it was soon after this that the Japanese surrendered and World War 2 was over. "Now that this Tailgunner's gone No more bombers (just one big bomb)" The first line can refer to the tailgunner dying in combat, before the end of the war which was partly ended by the 'one big bomb' atom bomb. Darkenrahl your interpretations by the end are bordering stupidity to be frank. The lyrics mean what they mean you can make anything appear as gay innuendo if you read too far into it. Furthermore Iron Maiden are all just about as heterosexual as you get, judging by some of their songs and the fact most of them are married with kids. Bruce Dickinson himself has 3 kids born in 1990, 1992 and 1994. Pretty much the rift in his time with Iron Maiden between when he left and rejoined. Part of the reason leaving was to help raise his young children. I love Iron Maiden, I love Bruce Dickinson, in a non-sexual manly way. It IS possible, for 'love' and adoration of somebody of the same sex to not be sex related in the slightest, and the same goes for a song- not all songs are sexual innuendos. |
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