10 Greatest ‘Legacy Of The Beast’ Set Songs From Iron Maiden
4. The Trooper
Piece Of Mind released in 1983, was the hugely successful follow-up to The Number Of The Beast, and was the album that cemented Iron Maiden’s classic Eighties line-up, as drummer Nicko McBrain joined the band. The album is thought of by many as the finest in Maiden’s catalogue, and The Trooper is a track that has remained a live mainstay for the group ever since.
Lyrically themed around Lord Tennyson’s poem of the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava (1854), on The Legacy Of The Beast tour mascot Eddie enters the stage dressed in army apparel from the period. Alongside this, Dickinson mimics the attire while waving a Union Jack flag set against an impressive visual backdrop.
The main guitar riff in the song is one of the finest the band have produced, and is instantly recognisable as the lead harmonies superbly play off one other. Of course, bassist Steve Harris plays the legendary galloping bass line that symbolises the charging of horses and that remains a signature sound for the band.