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Of course, there was no crowd in the original tale, as D?dalus and Icarus were discreetly escaping the labyrinth where they were held prisoners (and that ironically D?dalus had designed himself!). The purists in Greek mythology always have had a problem with this song. He and his son Icarus fashioned wings from feathers and wax and made their escape, but Icarus flew too near the sun, melting the wax that held the feathers, and he fell to his death in the sea. It's a different type of song, and I think it's good to do different stuff.'Flight Of Icarus' is very loosely based on the ancient Greek myth of D?dalus who was imprisoned by king Minos of Crete. I think it's how it should have been done in the first place. The way we do it live now is way better, to me. "As for 'Flight of Icarus,' I did think that the tempo was a little slow. "Well, there are a lot of songs that have been retired for long periods and then you bring them back," he told Rolling Stone in 2019. Once again, Harris defended "Flight of Icarus" but said he preferred the live rendition. "Flight of Icarus" remained a concert fixture for the next few years, but after being played a scant six times in 1986, Maiden retired it from their set lists until 2018, when the song returned for the Legacy of the Beast tour. This little extra touch gives it a bit more fire." Looking back on it now, we feel we could have played it at the faster speed on the album. "We tend to play it a little bit faster live. Harris didn't mind playing "Icarus" in concert, at least not initially. "It's a really good song, but we much prefer it live," he said in 1983. "As it happens, I think it is the right tempo regardless, but I'm sure Steve would disagree because we haven't played the song live for 30 years," Dickinson wrote. 8 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, giving Maiden their first and only Top 10 hit in America. Vindication followed when "Flight of Icarus" climbed to No.
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Watch Iron Maiden Play 'Flight of Icarus' in Concert Dickinson described the exchange with Harris: "'This is nothing to do with getting it on the radio, is it?' he demanded. I told him that 'Flight of Icarus' was the one."ĭickinson first had to get the song past bassist and chief songwriter Steve Harris, who thought it needed to be faster. But Dickinson stood his ground, and Harris ultimately capitulated. It was radio that ruled the roost, and if we could get a radio track away, we were home and dry - hard work and touring would do the rest. and had gambled on us being able to do the business as an arena headliner. Manager Rod Smallwood "had decided to go for broke in the U.S.A. The taut, mid-tempo rocker was a notable departure from Iron Maiden's typical high-speed gallop, which Dickinson knew they could use to their advantage. "I quickly realized that we potentially had a song under four minutes that could do the unthinkable for Maiden: airplay on U.S.
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I said, 'If you could give an adolescent wings and they would fly, what do you think they would do?'" "The original Icarus story is, 'Do what your dad says, otherwise bad shit will happen to you,'" Dickinson told Rolling Stone in 2021. "I flipped it on its head, and I made the father the villain. The lyrics invert the myth of Icarus, who escapes from the island of Crete with his father Daedalus but succumbs to his hubris when he flies too close to the sun and melts his wax wings, falling into the sea and drowning.