Released 22 November 1986 Recorded 1986 Length 5:42 | Format Vinyl (7", 12") | |
B-side "That Girl" (FM cover)"Juanita" (Marshall Fury cover) | ||
"Stranger in a Strange Land" is a song by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, released as the second single from their sixth studio album, Somewhere in Time (1986). The song is unrelated to Robert A. Heinlein's novel by the same name.
Contents
Synopsis
The lyrics are about an Arctic explorer who dies and is frozen in the ice. After a hundred years his body is found preserved by other people exploring there. Adrian Smith was inspired to write about this song after talking to an explorer who had a similar experience of discovering a frozen body.
The guitar solo in "Stranger in a Strange Land" is played by Adrian Smith. The song is one of only four Iron Maiden songs to fade out, the others being "The Prophecy" from Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, "Women in Uniform", a single included on some pressings of Killers, and "Kill Me Ce Soir", a 1990 B-side. The lyrics "brave new world" were also present in Iron Maiden's 2000 studio release, Brave New World.
Cover details
Eddie's appearance on the single cover is an homage to the Clint Eastwood character "Man with No Name", although it can also be seen as a mixture of Deckard from Blade Runner and the "Man with No Name". This version of Eddie would later be used in the Camp Chaos music video for "Run to the Hills".
B-sides
The B-sides to this single, "That Girl" and "Juanita", were both played during The Entire Population of Hackney secret gig on 19 December 1985, with Adrian Smith on vocals. This is probably where the idea came from to play them as B-sides, especially with Adrian's large presence on this single and the Somewhere in Time album.
"That Girl" was written by Merv Goldsworthy, Pete Jupp and Andy Barnett in an early line-up of the band FM and was one of the demo tracks which secured them a record deal with CBS in 1984. The song was eventually released by both Iron Maiden and FM in 1986. By then the brothers Steve and Chris Overland had joined FM and some parts of the original song (mainly choruses) had been rewritten for its inclusion on FM's debut album Indiscreet, released just three weeks prior to Iron Maiden's Somewhere In Time which featured a cover of the original arrangement. On this Iron Maiden version the first guitar solo is played by Dave Murray while the ending guitar solo is played by Adrian Smith, who also played bass on the recording because Steve Harris refused to play the song.citation needed
"Juanita" was originally played by Barnett's band Marshall Fury in the early 1980s, and it was written by Steve Barnacle and Derek O'Neil. Marshall Fury never recorded a studio version of the song. Iron Maiden's version features Bruce Dickinson (who reportedly changed some of the lyrics during the recording) on vocals, Nicko McBrain on drums and Adrian Smith on all guitars and bass.
Track listing
'7" single
Personnel
Production credits are adapted from the 7 inch vinyl, and 12 inch vinyl covers.