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.]