Iron Maiden - Palais Omnisport de Bercy, Paris, France, Nov. 29, 1986, during the '' Somewhere in Time Tour'' 1986 -1987.

The Number Of The Beast (Harris)

Bruce Dickinson:Vocals
Steve Harris:Bass
Dave Murray:Guitar
Adrian Smith:Guitar
Nicko McBrain:Drums

[Lyrics]

'' Woe to you, oh Earth and Sea,
for the Devil sends the beast with wrath,
because he knows the time is short...
Revelations 12:12
Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast
for it is a human number, its number is Six hundred and sixty six.''
Revelations 13:18

I left alone, my mind was blank
I needed time to think, to get the memories from my mind
What did I see? Can I believe
That what I saw that night was real and not just fantasy

Just what I saw in my old dreams
Were they reflections of my warped mind staring back at me
'Cause in my dreams it's always there
The evil face that twists my mind and brings me to despair

Night was black, was no use holding back
'Cause I just had to see was someone watching me
In the mist dark figures move and twist
Was this all for real or just some kind of hell?

Six six six the Number of the Beast
Hell and fire was spawned to be released

Torches blazed and sacred chants were praised
As they start to cry hands held to the sky
In the night the fires burning bright
The ritual has begun Satan's work is done

Six six six the Number of the Beast
Sacrifice is going on tonight

This can't go on I must inform the law
Can this still be real or some crazy dream?
But I feel drawn toward the evil chanting hordes
Seem to mesmerize me, can't avoid their eyes

Six six six the Number of the Beast
Six six six the one for you and me

I'm coming back, I will return
And I'll possess your body and I'll make you burn
I have the fire, I have the force
I have the power to make my evil take its course
..................................................

''Basically this song is about a dream. It's not about devil worship. '' (Steve Harris)

This song was loosely inspired by the 1978 movie Omen II, and a Steve Harris nightmare. It begins ominously with quoted text from the Bible:

Woe to you, oh Earth and Sea,
for the Devil sends the beast with wrath,
because he knows the time is short...
Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast
for it is a human number, its number is Six hundred and sixty six.
(Revelations 13:18)

The reference of this quote is however not entirely correct, as only the last sentence corresponds to Revelations 13:18, the first one being found in Revelations 12:12. There are several English translations of the Bible, but Steve Harris seems to have used the quotes from the Revised Standard Version:

Rejoice then, O heaven and you that dwell therein! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!(Revelations 12:12)

This calls for wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon he number of the beast, for it is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six.(Revelations 13:18)

Still on the topic of the song intro, Bruce mentioned during a Radio Scotland special 2-hour Download Festival programme that the band had asked the famous horror films actor Vincent Price to read the text. However, still according to Bruce, Price refused to do it for anything less than £25,000. They had heard of someone who reads ghost stories at the Capitol radio station and got him to do it. The man was a thespian (a theatre actor) who had no interest in Maiden, but they asked him to put on a Vincent Price kind of voice and he was amazing.

In the Number Of The Beast video, Steve mentions that the song was somehow also inspired by Robert Burns's poem Tam O' Shanter.

Here is Mick Wall's account of the controversy that occurred at the time:

''In America, where the title of the album had caused a storm of protest from the emerging so-called "moral majority", a right-wing American political pressure group ludicrously accused Maiden of being Devil worshippers and of "trying to pervert our kids". As Steve says, "It was mad. They completely got the wrong end of the stick. They obviously hadn't read the lyrics. They just wanted to believe all that rubbish about us being Satanists." Nevertheless, the resulting publicity kept the band's name in the news in every town that they visited that year, as kids everywhere were desperate to check out for themselves this band that was putting the fear of God into their parents.''

Mick Wall (2001) Run To The Hills The Authorised Biography of Iron Maiden Revised Edition p. 228.

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