Iron Maiden Archives

The Best Cover Songs of October 2024

Posted by Ray Padgett at 9:00 am No Responses »

Oct 312024

Farmer’s Wife — Season of the Witch (Donovan cover)

Austin rockers Farmer’s Wife go full shoegaze-psych on this Donovan cover just in time for Halloween. They write: “Our cover of ‘Season of the Witch’ materialized out of a drum beat and pedal feedback two Halloweens ago. This creepy classic opened us to more experimentation and allowed us to dive into an eerier side of our sound.”

Fiona Apple — Lately (Don Heffington cover)

The late Don Heffington was an acclaimed drummer, so, naturally, his new tribute album includes drum greats like Jim Keltner. But he was also a singer-songwriter, so friends and collaborators like Jackson Browne, Victoria Williams, and Fiona Apple cover his songs. Apple selected “Lately,” the closing song on the final solo studio album of his lifetime, 2016’s Contemporary Abstractions in Folk Song and Dance. Continue reading »

The HU Cover Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper” in Mongolian Before Their Tour Together

Posted by Mike Tobyn at 12:00 pm No Responses »

Oct 152024

Iron Maiden is currently on a North American tour. Bruce Dickinson will pilot Eddie and the band across the West for the next few weeks. For the current dates they are being joined by their buddies from The HU as the support act. The latter have released their version of Maiden’s “The Trooper” as an appetizer, sung entirely in their native Mongolian. A song about the glories of comradeship in the cause of a dangerous, but futile, war certainly sets the scene for an assault on the arenas of the United States and Canada! Continue reading »

The Best Cover Songs of October 2023

Posted by Ray Padgett at 1:31 pm No Responses »

Oct 312023

Deer Tick – Dancing In The Dark (Bruce Springsteen cover)

“For me, ‘Dancing in the Dark’ isn’t a song about romance, but instead a desperate plea to break out of some degraded, stagnant situation. The narrator is filled with angst, self doubt, and the only way out is to the sheer force of unwavering will power,” says Deer Tick guitarist/vocalist Ian O’Neil. “Bruce really shows us who he is on this one and it looks an awful lot like the rest of us.”

Die Sauerkrauts Polka Band — Now That’s What I Call Polka! (Weird Al cover)

There are a lot of Weird Al covers out there (okay, maybe not a lot, but more than you might think). This is new though. This band didn’t cover one of Weird Al’s parodies. They didn’t even cover a Weird Al original, like “Dare to Be Stupid.” They covered one of his polka medleys (a subject I interviewed Al about in Cover Me the book—excerpt at The AV Club). Meaning, they covered polka versions of hits by Miley Cyrus, One Direction, Gotye, and many more, all in a brisk medley. A very silly music video brings it home. Continue reading »

Silent Skies Turns Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper” Into a Melancholic Piano Ballad

Posted by Riley Haas at 2:00 pm No Responses »

Oct 042023

Silent Skies is a collaboration between pianist Vikram Shankar and vocalist Tom Englund of metal bands Evergrey and Redemption. We first encountered them at Cover Me when they covered Linkin Park back in April. Now they’ve tackled Iron Maiden.

“The Trooper” is one of Iron Maiden’s few hit singles outside of the UK. In addition to nearly being a Top 10 hit in the UK for them (something that became a regular occurrence), it was a rare for them Top 40 (Modern Rock) hit in the US. It’s most famous for its knotty opening guitar salvo, its instantly recognizable main riff and the breaks right before Bruce Dickinson sings his lines in the verses. Continue reading »

The Best Cover Songs of June 2022

Posted by Ray Padgett at 11:13 am No Responses »

Jun 302022

Angel Olsen – Greenville (Lucinda Williams cover)

Angel Olsen dropped two terrific covers this month. Her version of Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings,” recorded for the TV show Shining Girls, features haunting electronic textures underpinning her voice. It’s a surprisingly un-folky cover of one of Bob’s early folk songs. Her version of Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road standout “Greenville” is just as good, guitar echoing behind her mesmerizing double-tracked vocals. Continue reading »

Myles Kennedy Covers Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper” Acoustically

Posted by Riley Haas at 9:00 am No Responses »

Nov 102020

“The Trooper” is one of Iron Maiden‘s most iconic songs; in America, it was one of only three Top 40 singles in the band’s history. The song pairs the classic Maiden gallop with one of the band’s most memorable riffs and vivid lyrics about The Charge of the Light Brigade.

Alter Bridge lead singer Myles Kennedy grew up listening to Maiden and covered “The Trooper” for SiriusXM. In the discussion before his performance, he says he’s going for a “Johnny Cash” vibe. Not sure how Johnny Cash would handle a Bruce Dickinson vocal, but Kennedy acquits himself impressively.

The song is stripped of everything save Kennedy’s commanding voice and his acoustic rhythm guitar playing. There’s no twin lead guitars and there’s no trademark galloping bass – just Kennedy. It’s a compelling performance showing off not just Kennedy’s voice but his ability to capture the song’s rhythm with just an acoustic guitar.