| Iron Maiden – The Clansman Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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@[douipastor:35214] It's about Wallace's Rebellion, dude. Even a modicum of research shows that this song has no ties to the 1915 book, and is purely about William Wallace's Rebellion, which took place between 1297 and 1305. |
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| Iron Maiden – The Clansman Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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The song's about William Wallace. While the song sings a more glorified version of William Wallace, likely based on Blind Harry's 15th century poem, it nevertheless hits the main points. Wallace was a member of lesser Scottish nobility, and during the time when he grew up, King Alexander III ruled Scotland. It was known as a time of relative peace and economic stability. Problem is, King Alexander III died on March 19th, 1286, his only heir being his granddaughter, Margaret, Maid of Norway. As she was still a child and in Norway, the Scottish lords set up a government of guardians. Margaret fell ill on the voyage to Scotland and died in Orkney in late September 1290. The lack of a clear heir led to a period known as the "Great Cause", with a total of thirteen contenders laying claim to the throne. The two who had the strongest claims were John Balliol, and Robert the Bruce. With Scotland threatening to descend into civil war, the Scottish nobility invited King Edward I of England to arbitrate on matters. King Edward I was known as Longshanks, and seeing an opportunity to expand his kingdom, agreed to arbitrate as long as they recognized him as Lord Paramount of Scotland. In early November 1292, Balliol was the strongest contender, and Longshanks immediately took steps to undermine Balliol's authority, treating Scotland as a feudal vassal state, demanding them to pay homage to him, as well as supporting his ongoing wars with France. The Scots began to grow tired of their king being undermined, and the direction of affairs was allegedly taken out of his hands by the leading men of the kingdom, who appointed a Council of Twelve at Stirling in July 1295. Scotland then made a treaty with France, called the Auld Alliance. In retaliation for Scotland's treaty with France, Edward I invaded, storming Berwick-upon-Tweed and commencing the Wars of Independence. The Scots were defeated at Dunbar Castle on April 27th, 1296. Longshanks forced Balliol to abdicate his throne, and imprisoned in the Tower of London in July 1299. Now, William Wallace, due to his seal, might actually had some prior military experience as an archer either as a mercenary, or as a member of Longshanks's army. However he achieved his experience Wallace, likely wanting Scotland to become the country he knew, started out his war against the English. His first act was the murder of William de Heselrig, the English High Sherriff of Lanark in May 1297. He then teamed up with William the Hardy, Lord of Douglas, and carried out the raid of Scone. This uprising took a blow to the English, and inspired other similar uprisings, while Wallace and William the Hardy continued their rebellion. Wallace used the Ettrick Forest as a base of operations, as he raided English caravans. On September 11th, 1297, Wallace joined up with Andrew Moray and defeated the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. John de Warenne's feudal army of 3,000 cavalry and 8,000 to 10,000 infantry met disaster as they crossed over to the north side of the river. The narrowness of the bridge prevented many soldiers from crossing together (possibly as few as three men abreast), so, while the English soldiers crossed, the Scots held back until half of them had passed and then killed the English as quickly as they could cross. The infantry was sent on first, but was pushed back by the Scottish formations and pushed the infantry back into the charging cavalry. A pivotal charge, led by one of Wallace's captains, caused some of the English soldiers to retreat as others pushed forward, and under the overwhelming weight, the bridge collapsed and many English soldiers drowned. The Scots won the battle, and was a huge boost of morale for the army, as well as strengthening the support for Scotland's independence. Hugh Cressingham, Longshanks's treasurer at the time, was reportedly dug out of the river and his skin was flayed to the bone by the Scots wanting trophies of their victory. After the battle, Moray and Wallace assumed the title of Guardians of the Kingdom of Scotland on behalf of King John Balliol and Moray died of wounds suffered on the battlefield sometime in late 1297. On April 1298, Longshanks ordered another invasion of Scotland. Just two days prior to the battle, 25781 foot soldiers were paid, along with 1500 of Longshanks's personal cavalry of 1500 they plundered Lothian, and took back some castles. Then Longshanks heard that the Scots were camped at nearby Falkirk. Then, later on, the Scots and English fought. The English longbowman pierced sizable gaps at the Scottish formations, leading their cavalry to exploit the weakness and trounce the Scots. Wallace reportedly fled, resigned as Guardian of Scotland in favor of Robert the Bruce, and went to plead the French to assist the Scots in their War of Independence. Sources are vague as to what happened specifically during this time before his arrest. Wallace evaded capture by the English until August 5th, 1305, when John de Menteith, a Scottish knight loyal to Edward, turned Wallace over to English soldiers at Robroyston near Glasgow. Letters of safe conduct signed by King Philip IV of France, John Balliol, and Haakon V of Norway were found in his possession and delivered to Edward by John de Segrave. Wallace was transported to London, lodged in the house of William de Leyrer, then taken to Westminster hall where he was tried for treason and for atrocities against civilians. He was crowned with a garland of oak to suggest he was the king of outlaws. When hearing the charge of treason, Wallace responded, "I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject." After the trial, on April 23rd, 1305, Wallace was hanged, drawn, and quartered. The song is definitely about Wallace's Rebellion, and his wish for Scotland to be free. |
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| Iron Maiden – Be Quick Or Be Dead Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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The song is about several political scandals going on during 1992, the year this single was released. The first one was the Robert Maxwell banking scandal. Now, let me tell you, Bruce's snarling vocals signify his anger, and it's totally justified, as Robert Maxwell was an asshole, and is the reason Eddie's on the cover of the single strangling Maxwell. Here's a few things that Maxwell did that justify Bruce's fury in this song, and Eddie strangling Maxwell: *Maxwell had links to several Eastern European totalitarian regimes, as evidenced by hagiographies (biographies that glorify a person) written by the leaders of those countries. *Maxwell had known links to MI6, the British Secret Intelligence, to the Soviet KGB, and to Mossad, the Israeli intelligence. Noted in the the New York Times, and two members of the Labour and Conservative parties in Britain. This resulted in Maxwell sacking Davies, one of the former employees of Mossad was imprisoned for 18 years on the charge of treason, for reporting on what Maxwell had known about Israel's nuclear capabilities. *Maxwell was known to be litigious against those who would criticize him. In a satirical magazine, Private Eye, they did a satire piece, heavily criticizing Maxwell, and he sued them for libel. This resulted in the magazine losing 225,000 British pounds, and then Maxwell personally financing another satirical magazine, called Not Private Eye. *In 2007, we found out that Maxwell, in the years leading up to his death, became increasingly paranoid of his employees and was wire tapping their phones. This was brought to light by his former head of security, John Pole. *After his death, it was revealed that he was stealing his employee's pensions valued at some hundreds of millions of British pounds, meaning that his sons, trying to keep the businesses together, almost had to file for bankruptcy, but Goldman Sachs and Shearson Lehman paid off the discrepancies. This replenishment was limited and also supported by a surplus in the printers' fund, which was taken by the government in part payment of 100 million British pounds required to support the workers' state pensions. The rest of the 100 million was waived. Maxwell's theft of pension funds was therefore partly repaid from public funds. The result was that his workers received half of the pensions that they were rightly entitled to. *Maxwell invariably had ties to Jeffrey Epstein, and Maxwell's daughter, Ghislaine Maxwell was also arrested for aiding and abetting Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking ring. While a couple of these facts came to light years after the single released, it's no wonder that this song heavily criticizing this man has the anger and fury in it. But that's not the only thing this song is criticizing, there's other issues that the song talks about. The other thing it's talking about is Black Wednesday, a stock market crash resulting in the British government removing the Pound sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). The UK Treasury lost a reported 3.1 billion pounds as a result, and the British housing market crashed, a large number of successful business had to file for bankruptcy, leading Britain into a pretty bad recession that they recovered from in 1997. A number of conservative politicians tried to excuse this, calling it a "White Wednesday" an "opportunity for further economic growth" but every other Brit knew that their livelihoods were at stake, something the song is heavily criticizing. And I'm still not done! There's a lot to unpack here! The other thing the song is criticizing the BCCI case. BCCI, or the Bank of Credit and Commerce International came under fire during the 1980's with officials saying that the bank was poorly regulated. In the early 90's, it was later found out that the bank was engaging in money laundering, and other financial crimes, as well as gaining control of another American bank illegally. So this case crossed the pond, and affected millions of people and their livelihoods. BCCI was later found to be laundering money to figures such as Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega, Hussain Muhammad Ershad, and Samuel Doe, as well as for criminal organizations involved in trafficking. Intelligence experts and police rightly called out BCCI as the "Bank of Crooks and Criminals International." Under a joint investigation by American and British law enforcement and intelligence, they finally found evidence of these crimes, and brought BCCI to trial in 1990. After a six-month trial, BCCI, under immense pressure from US authorities, pleaded guilty in 1990. The company cited that they weren't responsible, the issue was settled. Until in the months leading up to another investigation, where a Manhattan grand jury had indicted BCCI on twelve counts of fraud, money laundering, and larceny. The Manhattan district attorney at the time, Robert Morgenthau, had been investigating BCCI for over two years, claimed jurisdiction because millions of dollars laundered by the bank flowed through Manhattan. Also, Morgenthau cited BCCI's secret ownership of First American, which operated a subsidiary in New York City. Morgenthau said that all of BCCI's deposits had been fraudulently collected because the bank misled depositors about its ownership structure and financial condition. Just a month later after this trial, BCCI was found guilty, and its assets liquidated. BCCI paid $10 million in fines and forfeited all $550 million of its American assets. At the time, this was the largest single criminal forfeiture ever obtained by federal prosecutors. Now this really puts into context all of the lyrics of this song, now doesn't it? Robert Maxwell parading his belly in an ivory tower, Goldman Sachs, BCCI, and the British governments investing our lives in their political schemes and powers. They don't know what's wrong, as evidenced by their criminal activity, as long as they come out on top. Bruce urging to see what's ruling all our lives and see who's pulling the strings. It's a political song, without a doubt, but with these schemes all happening in the months leading up to this single, it's no wonder Iron Maiden were rightly furious with what's going on. Is it a wonder the single cover shows Eddie strangling Robert Maxwell to death? |
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| Iron Maiden – Moonchild Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Except that Maiden has never once wrote a song about the devil in any way. Most of Maiden's references to the devil or the occult are tongue in cheek. |
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