Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

Seven deadly sins
Seven ways to win
Seven holy paths to hell
And your trip begins

Seven downward slopes
Seven bloodied hopes
Seven are your burning fires
Seven your desires...

So begins Iron Maiden’s seventh studio album, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son [1988]. Bassist and chief songwriter Steve Harris has drawn inspiration from many sources: television [The Prisoner], movies [Run Silent, Run Deep, Children of the Damned], history [The Trooper, Aces High], poetry [The Rime of the Ancient Mariner], and contemporary literature [Sign of the Cross]. For Iron Maiden’s seventh album he had just finished reading the story of The Seventh Son series of books written by author Orson Scott Card. This series draws on the English folklore tale of a boy, the seventh son of a seventh son, is born with supernatural powers – the power to heal, the power to see into the future [“the gift of second sight”]. Not content to write a song or two about what he read, Steve Harris thought it would be great to base an entire album around such a story. Concept albums are a mixed bag – some can be great [The Who’s Tommy], but some can be downright cheesy [Judas Priest’s Nostradamus]. But luckily for Iron Maiden, the band has two very literate lyricists – Steve Harris and frontman Bruce Dickinson. Somewhere in Time, Seventh Son’s immediate studio predecessor did not feature any songs from Bruce Dickinson. The songwriting was split evenly between Steve Harris and guitarist Adrian Smith. On Seventh Son, the songwriting spoils are shared by Harris, Smith and Dickinson, with one writing credit going to guitarist Dave Murray. With all of this musical and lyrical input from the entire band, Seventh Son presents a very strong band effort.

The leadoff track, Moonchild, starts with the aforementioned lyrics with only an acoustic guitar. The after the “seven your desires” comes a synth passage, then power chords from Adrian Smith and Dave Murray. It’s Lucifer [“the bornless one,” “the fallen angel watching you”] commenting on the birth of “the chosen one” and also a warning to his mother that no matter what she does “this child was born to die.” Moonchild is in my Maiden Top 20. In Infinite Dreams, the Seventh Son’s father has dreams that torment him, so much so that he’s afraid to fall asleep. In Can I Play With Madness, the Seventh Son’s father goes to see a prophet to see his future, only to find that his soul is going to “burn in a lake of fire.” On a side note, Graham Chapman of Monty Python appears in the video for the song. It would be one the last times Graham Chapman would appear on television. As for The Evil That Men Do, I’ve seen it written that it is a song about his falling in love with the devil's daughter, his agony over the effects of the evil schemes against him as well as his own failings, and his quest for redemption and the road that remains ahead after his death. Both God and Lucifer want the Chosen One for himself, and here’s how Lucifer tries to get him. I’ll go with that as one finds this in the title song:

Then they watch the progress he makes
The Good and the evil which path will he take
Both of them trying to manipulate
The use of his powers before it's too late

The title song also sets the stage with this:

Today is born the seventh one
Born of woman the seventh son
And he in turn of a seventh son
He has the power to heal
He has the gift of the second sight
He is the chosen one
So it shall be written
So it shall be done

In the next song [The Prophecy], the Seventh Son sees disaster for his village, but nobody believes him. When disaster does strike, the villagers blame him for all that went wrong. They feel as if he brought a curse upon them. What the villagers don’t realize is that the Seventh Son is the one who is cursed – they don’t know what it’s like to be him and have the powers he posses.

In The Clairvoyant the Seventh Son can’t tell the difference between his normal vision and what he dreams. He wonders why he seems to be growing stronger, and he’s scared he can’t control his growing power anymore. Then in mid-song, the narration goes from first person to third person. The narrator is somewhat befuddled that the Seventh Son, despite all his powers of clairvoyance, couldn’t foresee his own death. But the explanation is here “fate”:

There's time to live and time to die
When it's time to meet the maker
There's time to live but isn't it strange
That as soon as you're born you're dying...
...and reborn again??

But what really killed him? Did his supernatural powers consume him, or did the people from the village do the deed?

The album concludes with Only the Good Die Young. This tells of how corrupt and sinful people are, and is given in the form of a sort of lecture, as from an angel, finishing with the lines:"So I think I'll leave you, with your visions and your guilt, and until the next time have a good sin", giving the impression that the deliverer of the speech doesn't expect the guilt to last long. Only the good die young – all the evil seems to live forever. Bruce Dickinson leaves us with this:

Seven deadly sins
Seven ways to win
Seven holy paths to hell

[Bruce chuckles because he knows you've already made the trip to Hell]

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was the last Iron Maiden to feature guitarist Adrian Smith until 1999’s Brave New World. For some reason, everything clicked - the songwriting, the stellar musicianship, the crisp production. As Maiden's singer this would be Bruce Dickinson's finest hour. This album would prove over time to be the high water mark for Iron Maiden. This was the culmination of a string of excellent albums - Killers [with Paul DiAnno], The Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave, Live After Death, Somewhere in Time, and this one. After Smith’s departure in 1990, the quality of Maiden’s output dropped significantly until both he and Bruce Dickinson returned to the fold in 1999.

Up the Irons!

Moonchild

The Clairvoyant

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son