Iron Maiden

Updated 23 October 2024

To work oneself back through the catalogue of a favorite composer or band and find out that their early work already was full of substance and on moments eclipsed the music that would save their names for posterity. It happened with Richard Wagner (I like his first two operas, Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot, both more than Rienzi, his most famous pre-Fliegende Holländer opera) and it happened with Iron Maiden. Their debut album is a fresh heap of metal in a punk coat and I prefer it over a lot of their later output. Singer Paul Di'Anno sounds more pop and punk than metal. We're still a few years away from the band that would grow into a football stadium rock act. Compared to the Bruce Dickinson-years Maiden sounds on their debut album like a band that still has to make up their mind on a lot of things but the signature sound (with Steve Harris' galloping bass and the brazing guitar appergios) is already there. 

Paul Di'Anno possessed a charisma that was undeniable. With an unwavering refusal to let his hair grow, he performed with the brash defiance of a punk, infusing that genre's energy into the sometimes overly technical world of heavy metal. His snarling, piercing voice catapulted Iron Maiden to the heights of the charts, especially following the release of Killers in 1981, an album that became a landmark in what would come to be known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

Yet, as so often happens in the tempestuous lives of those on the cusp of greatness, Di'Anno's fortunes began to unravel. Steve Harris, the band's founder and bassist, deemed Di'Anno too unreliable for their impending breakthrough, largely due to his rampant cocaine use. And so, in 1981, he was dismissed, replaced by Bruce Dickinson, whose tenure would indeed elevate Iron Maiden to the status of one of the greatest bands in the world.

Di'Anno pursued a solo career thereafter, performing tirelessly for many years, even as illness confined him to a wheelchair in his later days. But throughout, he would always return to the repertoire he had been privileged to perform with Iron Maiden, the very work that had made him a cult hero.

His personal life, however, was far less heroic. In 1990, Di'Anno was convicted of domestic violence after threatening a girlfriend with a knife while under the influence of cocaine—a crime for which he would later confess to feeling lifelong shame.

Shortly after his death, his former band honored him with a gracious tribute, acknowledging his pivotal role in their early success: “His pioneering work as our frontman and vocalist, both on stage and on our first two albums, will always be remembered with affection—not only by us but by fans around the world.”

Remember Tomorrow is a song of superb schizophrenia. A song that carries its teenage resentment with a mature attitude and will be forever linked with its singer. 

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- Wouter de Moor