Iron To Shoot Strangers(Milan 1993)

Iron Maiden - Forum, Milan, Italy, May 9, 1993, during the ’’ A Real Live Tour’’ 1993. Afraid To Shoot Strangers (Harris) Bruce Dickinson:Vocals Steve Harris:Bass Janick Gers:Guitar Dave Murray:Guitar Nicko McBrain:Drums [Lyrics] Lying awake at night I wipe the sweat from my brow But it’s not the fear ’cause I’d rather go now Trying to visualise the horrors that will lay ahead The desert sand mound a burial ground When it comes to the time, are we partners in crime? When it comes to the time, we’ll be ready to die God let us go now and finish what’s to be done Thy Kingdom come, thy shall be done... on Earth Trying to justify to ourselves the reasons to go Should we live and let live, forget or forgive? But how can we let them go on this way? The reign of terror corruption must end And we know deep down there’s no other way No trust, no reasoning, no more to say Afraid, afraid to shoot strangers ........................................... ’Afraid To Shoot Strangers’ is a song from Iron Maiden’s album ’’Fear Of The Dark’’,released in 1992. Bruce Dickinson told the crowd at the Live At Donington concert what this song is about: ’’[This song] was written about the people that fought in the Gulf War. It’s a song about how shitty war is, and how shitty war is that it’s started by politicians and has to be finished by ordinary people that don’t really want to kill anybody. ’’(Bruce Dickinson - 22nd August 1992) Unlike most war songs that usually deal with the combat itself, like ’The Trooper’, or with its terrible consequences, like ’The Aftermath’ or Metallica’s ’One’, ’Afraid To Shoot Strangers’ takes us into the mind of a soldier preparing for battle. Although he is nothing but an anonymous element of the powerful tool used by the government of his country and known as the Army, he remains human, with his feelings and his doubts. He’s “trying to visualise the horrors that will lay ahead“, the main one being the fact that he probably will have to kill (hence, “afraid to shoot strangers“). These verses are probably the worst written since those of ’Quest For Fire’, with the dinosaurs walking the earth at the same time as Man. Not only in retrospect, but even at the time, it was obvious that the First Gulf War was not about ending a dictatorship, but about protecting (and controlling) the crude oil drilling in Kuwait. There’s a “reign of terror, corruption“ in many other countries, but no one is interested enough in ending any of them in any way. Steve’s lyrics sound here like the headlines of The Sun or any other disgustingly jingoistic tabloid “trying to justify to [the gullible population] the reasons to go.“ It is obvious that the use of force can be necessary in certain situations and that “we know deep down there’s no other way“, but in the case of this particular war, such justification doesn’t stand a close examination of the real reasons to engage in a conflict. What is a fantastic song musically is quite sadly somehow ruined by lyrics that seem to condone a rather dubious international action. ’’ ’Fear of the Dark’ is the ninth studio album released by British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It topped the UK albums chart. Released on 11 May 1992, it was the final studio album to feature Bruce Dickinson as lead vocalist who left the band following the album’s support tour to pursue a solo career. He was succeeded by Blaze Bayley, formerly of Wolfsbane, for two studio albums until Dickinson returned to Iron Maiden for the 2000 release of Brave New World.