Dickinson's Top Five Favorite Iron Maiden Tracks
1. "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
(from "Powerslave," 1984)
"Because I can remember all the words and have a cup of tea in the middle. Steve [Harris] wrote the song and when he came up with it, I thought, 'This is fantastic,' because it tied together so much stuff that I was interested in. When it turned out to be 13 minutes with a whole dreamy chunk in the middle... I was amazed at how he'd précis'd the [Samuel Taylor Coleridge] poem. It's the closest thing you're going to get to an Iron Maiden symphony movement."
2. "Moonchild"
("Seventh Son of a Seventh Son," 1988)
"Because it's years since we played it and I'd forgotten how good it was. It started out as part of what was going to be a story album. 'Moonchild' comes around to the film we're just doing, 'Chemical Wedding,' because one of [Aleister] Crowley's novels was called 'Moonchild,' about a reincarnated soul invested in a body created by ritual."
3. "Run to the Hills"
("The Number of the Beast," 1982)
"We were working with Martin Birch, one of the great rock producers of all time. He taught me a huge amount on that record about singing."
4. "The Number of the Beast"
("The Number of the Beast," 1982)
"The song that kicked off my career with the band. It was the more metal follow-up to 'Run to the Hills' and it was the source of all the controversy that people like to pump up about devil worship, all the usual nonsense."
5. "Paschendale"
("Dance of Death," 2003)
"No flippancy on this one. A very poignant metal epic about a tragic and hugely wasteful military catastrophe. Sound familiar? It was Adrian [Smith's] song, and when we did it live we really tried to make it theatrical, with barbed wire and gunfire."