For D-Day: The Longest Day/Iron Maiden

For tomorrow's anniversary of D-Day--the Allied invasion of France during World War II that commenced on June 6th, 1944--we're featuring Iron Maiden's The Longest Day, from their 2006 album A Matter of Life and Death.  The song's title and subject matter derive from Cornelius Ryan's bestselling 1959 account of the invasion, The Longest Day (as well as the 1962 film adaptation).  The lyrics depict the brutal combat many soldiers experienced that day (The world's alight, the cliffs erupt in flame/No escape, remorseless shrapnel rains) and the terrible human toll  (And we rush with the tide/All the water is red/With the blood of the dead).  There is also a reference to Overlord, the codename for the Allied operation to liberate German-occupied Europe (Overlord, your master not your god).  Ryan, who died in 1974, had something else in common with the band besides this song--he and Iron Maiden's drummer, Nicko McBrain, shared the same birthday: Today, June 5th--the eve of D-Day.

The Longest Day (Kindle Edition)

Celebrate Your Neanderthal DNA: A Trick of the Tail/Genesis

Neanderthals made the news last week.  Genetic researchers announced their discovery that Neanderthals, who died out about 30,000 years ago, mated with modern humans, settling once and for all the most salacious unanswered question in modern science.  For people alive today who are descended from ancestors in Europe or Asia, this means that up to 4% of their genes are Neanderthal in origin.  This got us thinking about William Golding's 1955 novel The Inheritors, which depicts the final encounter between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens and the end of the Neanderthal line.  (It was reportedly Golding's favorite of all his books, and that includes the classic Lord of the Flies.)  It also got us humming the Genesis song A Trick Of The Tail, from their 1976 album of the same name, which was inspired by Golding's novel.  Genesis Forum Italia quotes band member Tony Banks: "I got the idea for the lyric after reading William Golding's The Inheritors. It's about a race who were on earth before man and it's the story of the last survivor of this race. The very last chapter deals with our reaction to him whereas the rest of the story is his reaction to us."  The song's connection to the book is more thematic than literal.  It isn't about cavemen; as Banks says, "It's about an alien with horns and a tail who appears in a modern city and how people react to him."  We wonder if Banks might have been influenced as much by the book's cover art as by the book itself--when The Inheritors was first published, the jacket bore the image of a famous prehistoric cave painting known as The Sorcerer, which depicts a mysterious shamanistic figure with antlers and a tail.  It's comforting to know that Neanderthals have a future, and not just because their genetic descendants are walking around today.  Rumors abound that the new Iron Maiden album The Final Frontier, due later this summer, includes a track called "The Inheritors (William Golding)."  This hasn't been officially confirmed, but consider this:  The album is being produced and mixed by Kevin Shirley--aka The Caveman--and his Caveman Productions.

Alan Sillitoe 1928-2010: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not/Arctic Monkeys, and more

Writer Alan Sillitoe died today at the age of 82.  Although he considered himself primarily a poet, Sillitoe also produced novels, short stories, screenplays, stage plays, and children's books.  He is best remembered for his first novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, published in 1958, and his 1959 short story The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Both of these works have inspired popular music.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, about a hard-drinking, womanizing British factory worker, captured the frustrations of the working class in post-War Britain and helped get Sillitoe lumped into the "angry young man" school of British writers, a label Sillitoe resisted. The book, and the 1960 film version starring Albert Finney, had a major influence on Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, the debut album  by the Arctic Monkeys, released in 2006. The album's title comes from a line in the book, when the protagonist Arthur Seaton thinks to himself: "I'm me and nobody else, and whatever people think I am or say I am, that's what I'm not, because they don't know a bloody thing about me."  Alex Turner, the primary songwriter for the band, told the British tabloid The Sun: "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is what the album is about," adding that "songs including The View From The Afternoon, Dancing Shoes, Still Take You Home , and From The Ritz To The Rubble all cover that bit of the weekend and feature the same character" [via Yahoo! Music News].

In The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Sillitoe portrays Colin, a rebellious working-class youth who is sent to Ruxton Towers, a prison school for delinquents.  A talented distance runner, Colin is offered the chance of early release if he will represent the school in a cross-country race.  In the end, Colin--well ahead of the pack and certain to win--deliberately stops short of the finish line as an act of defiance against the authority figures he detests.  The story inspired Iron Maiden's song The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner, from their 1986 album Somewhere in Time: You reach the final stretch/Ideals are just a trace/You feel like throwing the race/It's all so futile.  Sillitoe's story also influenced the Belle and Sebastian song The Loneliness Of A Middle Distance Runner, from their 2005 album Push Barman to Open Old Wounds, particularly the lines: Have you seen The Loneliness of A Middle Distance Runner?/When he stops the race and looks around. Sillitoe's story also provides the title for recordings by Belinda Gillett, Gunnar Mossblad, and the Angelic Upstarts, as well as for albums by saxophonist Dave Liebman and the band The Lost Society.  In addition, the school in the story provided the name for the band Ruxton Towers.  Also noteworthy:  A video by internet musician Jacob Ruefer for his song Not Too Late, which features clips from the 1962 film The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner--including the story's climax.

As for Alan Sillitoe's own musical preferences?  Last year when he appeared on the BBC radio program Desert Island Discs, Sillitoe provided this list of recordings he'd want to have with him if he were a castaway:

Mack The Knife, Bobby Darin

Ol' Man River, Paul Robeson

The Battle of Agincourt, Sir Henry Walton (from the 1946 film Henry V)

"Seventeen Come Sunday," Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vernon Handley

Le Ca Ira, Édith Piaf

"Let's Slip Away," Cleo Laine

Chopin: Prelude in D flat major "The Raindrop," Arthur Rubinstein

Where'er You Walk, from Handel's Semele, Bryn Terfel

Where Eagles Dare/Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden's 1983 album Piece of Mind features a song called Where Eagles Dare, based on the 1967 thriller by Alistair MacLean.  Or is it based on the 1968 film version?  Hard to tell--MacLean reportedly wrote the novel Where Eagles Dare at the same time he was writing the screenplay.  There are some differences between book and movie (most notably in the level of violence:  moderate in the novel, considerable in the film).  However, the characters and plot are essentially the same: During World War II, a group of commandos parachutes into Bavaria to rescue an American general who is being held by the Nazis in a seemingly unassailable castle, accessible only by cable car.  The song's lyrics reflect both the rising action of the story (They're closing in the fortress is near/It's standing high in the sky/The cable car's the only way in/It's really impossible to climb) and the thrilling climax as the heroes escape from the castle (The panicking cries the roaring of guns/Are echoing all around the valley/The mission complete they make to escape/Away from the Eagles Nest).  However, in MacLean's hands the straightforward rescue mission becomes complicated with multiple plot twists and surprises that the song couldn't hope to replicate.  On the other hand, the song features a vigorous performance by drummer Nicko McBrain that MacLean probably couldn't have pulled off.

Lord of the Flies/Iron Maiden

This week Classics Rock! is observing Banned Books Week 2009 (September 26-October 3) by featuring songs based on frequently challenged books.

Iron Maiden's Lord Of The Flies, from their 1995 album The X Factor, is based on William Golding's 1954 novel of the same name. In Lord of the Flies Golding depicts a group of British school boys who are stranded on a deserted island. Without adult supervision or the constraints of civilization to guide their behavior, they descend into savagery and violence. The song takes the point of view of a boy who has embraced this wild lifestyle: I like all the mixed emotion and anger/It brings out the animal the power you can feel/And feeling so high with this much adrenaline/Excited but scary to believe what we've become. [In another musical reference to Lord of the Flies, U2's song Shadows And Tall Trees, from their 1980 debut album Boy, takes its name from the title of Chapter 7 in the novel.]