And Rock Begot Metal

The boarding school where Bruce's parents dropped him off was not much better than what Mister Lewis endured. At Bruce's school, boys could be beaten with sticks.

Mingled with school memories, Bruce dropped a few remarks about the differences between Americans and Britishers:

"Americans say what they mean."

"Only the English understand Shakespeare, because it makes us feel better about ourselves."

"I can recognize graduates of English schools. None of them has any chin."
 
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Boys at the boarding school were at least allowed to have stereo sets in their dormitory rooms. Young Bruce used to hear music coming from the behind the doors as he walked along the corridor. If I remember correctly, he says that he was especially impressed by hearing Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

Wishing to take up music, young Bruce lacked money to buy an instrument. So he, cough cough, borrowed from the music room a set of bongo drums which no one was using, and provided percussion for other boys who did have instruments of their own to play.
 
Bruce Dickinson was not a founding member of Iron Maiden, and Iron Maiden was not the first band he ever sang for. His professional singing career began with a band called Samson. I believe Wood Nymph is prepared to share something about Samson.
 
During the second half of the program, Bruce Dickinson talked about the fact that he is a licensed airline pilot. Most remarkable was his tale of a time when an airliner on which he was a co-pilot was found, before takeoff, to have something wrong with one of its engine housings. Either Bruce himself or his plane captain (I forget which) urged that they transfer the passengers and luggage to an unused airplane which was available at that airport, and so make the flight without worrying about the problematic engine. But management preferred to ignore actual safety, rather than create the APPEARANCE of being inefficient. The flight was made in the original airliner, with only a rough and hasty repair job to the faulty engine housing. To the relief of all heavy-metal fans, they made it to their destination.

I am reminded of a Bible verse, from the 18th chapter of Proverbs: "He who is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys."
 
One of the high points of the second half of the event was the screening of an animated Iron Maiden video, "The Writing's on the Wall." This featured the new "samurai" version of Eddie the Mascot, and he was accompanied by four "Ghost Rider"- style motorcyclists, who were intentionally suggestive of the Four Horsemen in the Book of Revelation. In this mini-movie, Eddie and his "Horsemen" broke into an evil tyrant's fortress, to rescue a man and woman held captive there.

Wood Nymph says, and I agree, that we ought not to link this video here, because it is very much not intended for children.
 
When the audience first entered the Paramount Theater that evening, we were all invited to write down questions for Mister Dickinson. My question was which fencing style he preferred. Wood Nymph's question was how it was for him being in the band Samson. Tying in with this was a discussion of the drum kits used by drummers he had worked with.

The answers were given after the intermission. Bruce likes to fence with the epee, which is the next-heavier sword type after the foil. He spent some time telling about his time with Samson; he had first caught their attention when he was singing in a bar.

The fencing provided another anecdote. One time when Iron Maiden was working on a project on the English-owned Isle of Jersey, at a rest stop in the project, both Bruce and the Iron Maiden drummer flew to mainland Europe to compete in a fencing tournament. But when they needed to get back to Jersey, the only plane available for them was one whose carrying capacity could only JUST BARELY hold them plus the already-booked other passengers. They made it, with nothing to spare; and at the destination, to keep from getting in trouble with aviation authorities, their pilot concealed just how many people HAD been on board.

As a conclusion of the excellent show, Bruce sang, a capella, part of one of Iron Maiden's well-known songs. I forget which song it was, but he sang it superbly, WITHOUT high-tech enhancement. We left the theater well satisfied.
 
Saturday night, Wood Nymph and I went to a club in Colorado Springs, where four bands were playing. Headlining the night was a tribute group for Iron Maiden: five women, calling themselves The Iron MAIDENS. They captured the style of Bruce Dickinson's act very well; and their lead singer mentioned from the stage that they had been to see the same speaking presentation which Wood Nymph and I had attended. Incidentally, one of their guitarists was possibly EVEN MORE fabulously beautiful than Madeleine Liljestam, which is saying plenty.

NO ONE can argue that metal music is a "patriarchal" preserve that excludes women. Only one of that night's groups, called The Dirty Kings, had a man as lead singer. Besides the above-named Iron Maidens, our long-followed female-led band Cryptic Writings was there. And, completely new to us, the band Sabbatar also had a female singer fronting. As I told that woman afterward, she sounded exactly like Pat Benatar if Pat Benatar had gone into metal.
 
I just found an apparently new metal band. Like other bands, this one figured out that it REALLY DOESN'T HURT to have a beautiful woman with a theatrical vibe fronting them.

 
Remember my description of an apocalyptic-looking animated video Bruce Dickinson showed us, featuring "Samurai Eddie"? Well, it turns out that Megadeth has produced similar videos with its mascot "Rattlehead." He is shown on a battlefield, singlehandedly defeating some sort of enemies. Wood Nymph will have more to say in this connection.
 
Well, it turns out that MANY metal bands consider it a good idea to have a female front-singer. Some of the women in this video are ALMOST as attractive as my crush Madeleine Liljestam.

 
The merciless pressures of real life, including a sick friend of ours who needed immediate help, have delayed Wood Nymph and me from describing the metal show, headlined by Megadeth, which we recently attended in Colorado Springs. Let me now give an outline, which Wood Nymph can fill out when she's ready.

The concert was held at the Broadmoor Arena, where we had previously seen the Harlem Globetrotters. There were four bands, in order of appearance: "In Flames," "Trivium," "Lamb of God," and of course Megadeth. Sorry to say, "Lamb of God" WAS NOT at all a Christian group. Wood Nymph informs me that other metal bands have assumed Bible-derived names, like "Testament." She believes that in many cases, such bands, though not Christians, assumed those names just because they sounded cool, not as a deliberate act of hostile mockery.
 
To be sure, there is "death metal," or "black metal" (nothing to do with race), which actually does outright celebrate evil. But that's only a fraction of the metal scene, and we don't go for it.
 
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