Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

This article is about the Iron Maiden album. For the folklore concept, see Seventh son of a seventh son.
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Studio album by Iron Maiden
Released 11 April 1988
Recorded Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany, February – March 1988[1]
Genre Heavy metal
Length 43:51[2]
Label EMI
Capitol (US)
Producer Martin Birch
Iron Maiden studio albums chronology
Somewhere in Time
(1986)		 Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
(1988)		 No Prayer for the Dying
(1990)
Singles from Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
  1. "Can I Play with Madness"
    Released: 20 March 1988
  2. "The Evil That Men Do"
    Released: 1 August 1988
  3. "The Clairvoyant (live)"
    Released: 7 November 1988

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is the seventh studio album by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, released in 1988 by EMI in Europe and its sister label Capitol Records in the US (it was re-released by Sanctuary/Columbia Records in the US in 2002).

It is the first Iron Maiden release to feature keyboards. Like The Number of the Beast and, later, Fear of the Dark, The Final Frontier and The Book of Souls, it debuted at No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart. It also marks the first appearance of many progressive rock elements which would be used frequently in later albums, seen in the length and odd time signatures of the title track "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son", and by the fact that it is a concept album.[3]

Background

The idea to base the album around the folklore concept of the seventh son of a seventh son came to bassist Steve Harris after he read Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son.[4] Harris states, "It was our seventh studio album and I didn't have a title for it or any ideas at all. Then I read the story of the seventh son, this mystical figure that was supposed to have all these paranormal gifts, like second sight and what have you, and it was more, at first, that it was just a good title for the seventh album, you know? But then I rang [[Bruce Dickinson|Bruce [Dickinson]], vocalist] and started talking about it and the idea just grew."[5]

After his songwriting contributions were rejected from the band's previous album, 1986's Somewhere in Time, Dickinson felt that his role within the band had diminished, as he "just became the singer,"[6] but felt renewed enthusiasm when Harris explained the concept to him; "I thought, 'What a great idea! Brilliant!' And of course I was really chuffed, too, because he'd actually rung me to talk about it and ask me if I had any songs that might fit that sort of theme. I was like, 'Well, no, but give me a minute and I'll see what I can do.'"[7] Speaking about the record in later years, however, Dickinson remarked that "we almost did [something great]", explaining that, "it was only half a concept album. There was no attempt to see it all the way through, like we really should have done. Seventh Son... has no story. It's about good and evil, heaven and hell, but isn't every Iron Maiden record?"[6]

In addition to Dickinson's return to writing, the album was also notable for its number of co-written pieces, in contrast to its predecessor, with five of the eight tracks being collaborative efforts. According to Harris, this was probably because they "spent more time checking up on each other to see what everybody else was up to, just to make sure the story fitted properly and went somewhere."[8] To make sure each song fitted with the record's concept, the band drew up a basic outline for the story, which Harris states "didn't make the actual writing any easier ... I probably took longer over the writing I've done on this album than any I've done before. But the stuff we all started coming up with, once we'd agreed that we were definitely going for a fully fledged 'concept' album, really startled me. It was so much better than anything we'd done in ages..."[8]

Stylistically, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son developed the sounds first heard on Somewhere in Time, although, on this occasion, the synth effects were created by keyboards rather than bass or guitar synthesisers. According to Dickinson, the band decided not to hire a keyboard player, with the parts being "mainly one-finger stuff from [[Adrian Smith|Adrian [Smith]], guitarist], Steve, the engineer or whoever had a finger free at the time."[9] Harris was fond of the development, in spite of the fact that the record did not sell as well as its predecessor in the United States;[10] "I thought it was the best album we did since Piece of Mind. I loved it because it was more progressive—I thought the keyboards really fitted in brilliantly—'cause that's the influences I grew up with, and I was so pissed off with the Americans, because they didn't really seem to accept it. Everyone said afterwards that it was a European-sounding album. I'm not so sure about that. What's a European-sounding album? To me, it's just a Maiden-sounding album."[5]

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son marked the end of guitarist Adrian Smith's first stint in the band.

The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart (their first since The Number of the Beast) as well as No. 12 in the US, while the singles "Can I Play with Madness", "The Evil That Men Do", "The Clairvoyant (live)" and "Infinite Dreams (live)" reached No. 3, No. 5, No. 6 and No. 6 positions respectively in the UK Singles Chart. Smith highlights "Can I Play with Madness" as "our first proper hit single."[11]

To promote the album, the band hosted an evening of television, radio and press interviews at Castle Schnellenberg in Attendorn, Germany prior to the record's release,[12] before holding a small number of "secret" club shows, under the name "Charlotte and the Harlots", at Empire, Cologne and L'Amour, New York.[13] In May, the group set out on a supporting tour which saw them perform to more than two million people worldwide over seven months.[12] In August, the band headlined the Monsters of Rock festival at Donington Park for the first time before a crowd of 107,000, the largest in Donington's history,[14] and recorded a concert video, entitled Maiden England at the NEC, Birmingham in November.[15] To recreate the album's keyboards onstage, the group recruited Michael Kenney, Steve Harris' bass technician, to play the keys throughout the tour, during which he would perform the song "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" on a forklift truck under the alias of "The Count" (for which he would wear a black cape and mask).[11][16][17]

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and its supporting tour marked the last appearance of Adrian Smith until he returned to the band in 1999. The guitarist left during the pre-production stages of the band's following album, 1990's No Prayer for the Dying, as he was unhappy with the more "street-level" direction the group were taking, professing that he "thought we were heading in the right direction with the last two albums" and that he "thought we needed to keep going forward, and it just didn't feel like that to me."[18]

Songs

"The Clairvoyant" was the first track written for the album. According to Steve Harris, the song's lyrics were inspired by the death of psychic Doris Stokes,[19] after which he wondered to himself whether "she could foresee her own death".[20] Harris then began to write the song "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son", which gave him the idea of turning the full album into a concept record given that the main character would also have the power of clairvoyance.[20]

According to Smith, the song "Can I Play with Madness" "actually started life as a ballad I had been working on called 'On the Wings of Eagles'. Then Bruce had a verse for it but wanted to change the title to 'Can I Play with Madness.' I must admit, it did sound better that way. So we took that one and Steve liked it, too. It was Steve who came up with the time change in the middle and the instrumental passage, which again gave it that lift it needed."[11] According to Dickinson, however, Harris' addition resulted in "a big row ... Adrian absolutely hated it."[21]

Of the album's remaining songs, Metal Hammer states that "Moonchild" is loosely based on the Aleister Crowley novel of the same name, while "Infinite Dreams" is about a character who "implores a spiritualist to unlock the meaning behind his tortured dreams",[22] although Sputnikmusic state that the song also explores "themes of reality, life after death, and the meaning of life."[23] The final track, "Only The Good Die Young", closes the storyline[23] and was later featured in an episode of the 1980s' TV series, Miami Vice.[24] The record opens and closes with an identical brief acoustic piece accompanied by two verses of lyrics,[8] written by Dickinson,[19] which, according to Sputnikmusic, "foreshadows doom and failure for the protagonist" and "wraps up the album".[23]

"The Evil That Men Do", "The Clairvoyant" and "Can I Play with Madness" have been played live the most frequently following the Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour.

Cover art

According to Rod Smallwood, the band's manager, the brief given to Derek Riggs (the group's then regular artist) was, unlike with previous albums, to create "simply something surreal and bloody weird".[25] Riggs confirms that "they said they wanted one of my surreal things. 'It's about prophecy and seeing into the future, and we want one of your surreal things.' That was the brief ... I had a limited time to do the picture, and I thought it was pretty weird their concept, so I just went with that."[25]

According to Dickinson, his revitalised enthusiasm, brought about by Harris's idea to make a concept album, carried forward into the cover artwork, saying that "I was probably responsible in a large part for the cover, with Derek."[26] Dickinson states that the idea to set the painting in a polar landscape may have originated from when he showed Riggs a Gustave Doré piece, depicting traitors frozen in a lake of ice in the ninth circle of Dante's Inferno.[27] In contradiction of this, Riggs states that the setting was because he "might have just seen a documentary about the North Pole or something ... I wanted something that was a departure from all the cityscapes and things. It was about prophecy and seeing the future, and so I just wanted something distant. And then they said, on the back, 'Could you stick all the other Eddies in the ice?' So I did."[26]

Speaking about the depiction of the band's mascot, Eddie, Riggs states that "I thought, you know, I don't feel like painting all of Eddie, so I'll get rid of him. I'll chop him off, and make it look kind of non-pleasant."[26] In addition to the lobotomy and cyborg enhancements, left over from the Piece of Mind and Somewhere in Time album covers respectively, this incarnation also comes with a baby in his left hand and an apple, inspired by the Garden of Eden and featuring a red and green yin and yang.[26] On top of this, Eddie's head is on fire, which Riggs states is "a symbol for inspiration", an idea which he "stole" from Arthur Brown.[26]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
Kerrang!5/5[28]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal6/10[29]
Rock Hard9.0/10[30]
Sputnikmusic4.0/5[23]

The album has received consistent critical praise since its release, with AllMusic rating it 4.5 out of 5, saying that the addition of keyboards "restores the crunch that was sometimes lacking in the shinier production of the previous album" and that it "ranks among their best work."[3] Sputnikmusic scored the album 4 out of 5, and, while they state that "the band has better releases, such as Powerslave and Somewhere in Time", they argue that it is "lyrically... one of Maiden's finest efforts."[23] In 2005, the album was ranked No. 305 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.[31]

Although Geoff Barton states that contemporary reviews contained "a definite reaction against Maiden emphasising their prog-rock pretensions", and that "one critic... slammed Maiden for Seventh Son... and accused them of having regressed into Genesis-style prog rockers from the 70s",[9] Kerrang! were extremely positive upon the album's release, awarding full marks and stating that "[with Seventh Son of a Seventh Son] Iron Maiden have given rock music back its direction and its pride" and that the record "will eventually be hailed alongside such past milestones as Tommy, Tubular Bells and [The] Dark Side of the Moon."[28]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Moonchild"  Adrian Smith, Bruce Dickinson5:38
2."Infinite Dreams"  Steve Harris6:08
3."Can I Play with Madness"  Smith, Dickinson, Harris3:30
4."The Evil That Men Do"  Smith, Dickinson, Harris4:33
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
5."Seventh Son of a Seventh Son"  Harris9:52
6."The Prophecy"  Dave Murray, Harris5:04
7."The Clairvoyant"  Harris4:26
8."Only the Good Die Young"  Harris, Dickinson4:40
Total length:43:51
1995 Reissue Bonus CD
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Black Bart Blues"  Harris, Dickinson6:41
2."Massacre" (Thin Lizzy cover)Phil Lynott, Scott Gorham, Brian Downey2:53
3."Prowler '88"  Harris4:07
4."Charlotte the Harlot 88"  Murray4:11
5."Infinite Dreams" (live)Harris6:03
6."The Clairvoyant" (live)Harris4:27
7."The Prisoner" (live)Smith, Harris6:09
8."Killers" (live)Harris, Paul Di'Anno5:03
9."Still Life" (live)Murray, Harris4:38

Personnel

Production and performance credits are adapted from the album liner notes.[2][32]

Iron Maiden
Production

Charts

Album

Country Chart (1988) Peak
position
Austria Ö3 Austria Top 40 6[33]
Finland The Official Finnish Charts 1[34]
Germany Media Control Charts 4[35]
Japan Oricon 39[36]
Netherlands MegaCharts 2[37]
New Zealand RIANZ 3[38]
Norway VG-lista 3[39]
Sweden Sverigetopplistan 2[40]
Switzerland Swiss Hitparade 2[41]
United Kingdom Official Albums Chart 1[42]
United States Billboard 200 12[43]
Country Chart (2010) Peak
position
Greece IFPI Greece 45[44]
Country Chart (2013) Peak
position
Finland The Official Finnish Charts 40[45]
Germany Media Control Chart 96[46]
Norway VG-lista 25[39]
Sweden Sverigetopplistan 32[40]

Singles

Single Chart (1988) Peak
position
"Can I Play with Madness" Dutch Singles Chart 6[47]
German Singles Chart 23[48]
Irish Singles Chart 3[49]
Norwegian Singles Chart 4[50]
Swedish Singles Chart 12[51]
Swiss Singles Chart 23[52]
UK Singles Chart 3[53]
"The Evil That Men Do" Dutch Singles Chart 23[54]
Irish Singles Chart 4[49]
Norwegian Singles Chart 7[55]
UK Singles Chart 5[56]
"The Clairvoyant" Irish Singles Chart 7[49]
UK Singles Chart 6[57]
Single Chart (1989) Peak
position
"Infinite Dreams" Irish Singles Chart 6[49]
UK Singles Chart 6[58]
Single Chart (1990) Peak
position
"Can I Play With Madness / The Evil That Men Do" UK Albums Chart[note 1] 10[59]
"The Clairvoyant / Infinite Dreams" 11[60]

Notes

  1. ↑ Re-release of all four singles as part of The First Ten Years box set. Exceeded the length limit of the UK Singles chart.

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/Sales
Canada (Music Canada)[61] Platinum 100,000^
Germany (BVMI)[62] Gold 250,000^
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[63] Gold 25,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[64] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[65] Gold 500,000^

^shipments figures based on certification alone

Preceded by
Now That's What I Call Music 11
by Various Artists		 UK number one album
30 April 1988 – 6 May 1988 		Succeeded by
The Innocents by Erasure

References

  1. ↑ Wall, Mick (June 2000). "The Iron Age". Classic Rock (15): 44–47.
  2. 1 2 Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (Media notes). Iron Maiden. EMI. 11 April 1988.
  3. 1 2 3 Huey, Steve. Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son at AllMusic. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
  4. ↑ Popoff, Martin (2005). "Commercial Break!". Metal Hammer presents: Iron Maiden 30 Years of Metal Mayhem: 108–109.
  5. 1 2 Wall, Mick (2004). Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills, the Authorised Biography (3rd ed.). Sanctuary Publishing. p. 264. ISBN 1-86074-542-3.
  6. 1 2 O'Regan, Denis. "Running Free". Kerrang! Legends (2): 103.
  7. ↑ Wall, Mick (2004). Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills, the Authorised Biography (3rd ed.). Sanctuary Publishing. p. 265. ISBN 1-86074-542-3.
  8. 1 2 3 Wall, Mick (16 April 1988). "Plucky Seven". Kerrang! (183): 44.
  9. 1 2 Barton, Geoff (2005). "Commercial Break". Metal Hammer presents: Iron Maiden 30 Years of Metal Mayhem: 106.
  10. ↑ Wall, Mick (2004). Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills, the Authorised Biography (3rd ed.). Sanctuary Publishing. p. 263. ISBN 1-86074-542-3.
  11. 1 2 3 Wall, Mick (2004). Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills, the Authorised Biography (3rd ed.). Sanctuary Publishing. p. 266. ISBN 1-86074-542-3.
  12. 1 2 Wall, Mick (16 April 1988). "Plucky Seven". Kerrang! (183): 45.
  13. ↑ Smolden, Michael (October 1988). "Iron Maiden Plays the Numbers.". Guitar World: 34. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  14. ↑ Wall, Mick (2004). Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills, the Authorised Biography (3rd ed.). Sanctuary Publishing. p. 269. ISBN 1-86074-542-3.
  15. ↑ Wall, Mick (2004). Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills, the Authorised Biography (3rd ed.). Sanctuary Publishing. p. 272. ISBN 1-86074-542-3.
  16. ↑ "Michael Kenney – the Man Behind the Maiden". Keyboard. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  17. ↑ Johnson, Howard (20 August 1988). "Waiting for the (Seventh) Son". Kerrang! (201): 12.
  18. ↑ Wall, Mick (2004). Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills, the Authorised Biography (3rd ed.). Sanctuary Publishing. p. 286. ISBN 1-86074-542-3.
  19. 1 2 Baddeley, Gavin (April 2013). "The Prophecy". Metal Hammer (242): 48–49.
  20. 1 2 "The History of Iron Maiden part 3". Maiden England '88 (DVD). EMI. 25 March 2013.
  21. ↑ Popoff, Martin (2005). "Pop Goes Eddie". Metal Hammer presents: Iron Maiden 30 Years of Metal Mayhem: 108.
  22. ↑ Popoff, Martin (2005). "Bastard Offspring". Metal Hammer presents: Iron Maiden 30 Years of Metal Mayhem: 106.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 Stagno, Mike (4 June 2006). "Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  24. ↑ "Iron Maiden". Internet Movie Database. 1988. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  25. 1 2 Popoff, Martin (2006). Run for Cover: The Art of Derek Riggs (1 ed.). Aardvark Publishing. p. 98. ISBN 1-4276-0538-6.
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 Popoff, Martin (2006). Run for Cover: The Art of Derek Riggs (1 ed.). Aardvark Publishing. p. 99. ISBN 1-4276-0538-6.
  27. ↑ "Heavy Metal". Arena. 17 April 1989. BBC 2.
  28. 1 2 Welch, Chris (16 April 1988). "Seventh Son... Eighth Wonder". Kerrang! (183): 18.
  29. ↑ Popoff, Martin (November 1, 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-894959-31-5.
  30. ↑ Kühnemund, Götz. "Iron Maiden – 7th Son of a 7th Son". Rock Hard (in German) (26). Retrieved 31 May 2013.
  31. ↑ Rock Hard (2005). Michael Rensen, ed. Best of Rock & Metal die 500 stärksten Scheiben aller Zeiten (in German). Königswinter: Heel. p. 90. ISBN 3-89880-517-4.
  32. ↑ Seventh Son of a Seventh Son Remastered (Media notes). Iron Maiden. EMI. 1998.
  33. ↑ "Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son". Ö3 Austria. Austriancharts.at. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  34. ↑ Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 166. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
  35. ↑ "Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son". Media Control Charts (in German). charts.de. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  36. ↑ "Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  37. ↑ "Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (album)". MegaCharts (in Dutch). Dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  38. ↑ "Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (album)". Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. Charts.org.nz. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  39. 1 2 "Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son". VG-lista. Norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  40. 1 2 "Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son". Sverigetopplistan. Swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  41. ↑ "Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son". Swiss Hitparade. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  42. ↑ "Iron Maiden – UK Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  43. ↑ "Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son". Billboard. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  44. ↑ "Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (album)". IFPI Greece. Greekcharts.com. Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  45. ↑ "Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (album)". The Official Finnish Charts. Finnishcharts.com. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  46. ↑ "Iron Maiden > Longplay-Chartverfolgung". Musicline (in German). PhonoNet GmbH. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  47. ↑ "Iron Maiden – 'Can I Play with Madness'". MegaCharts. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  48. ↑ "Iron Maiden Single-Chartverfolgung". Media Control Charts (in German). Musicline.de. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  49. 1 2 3 4 "Irish Charts Archive". IRMA. irishcharts.ie. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  50. ↑ "Iron Maiden – 'Can I Play with Madness'". VG-lista. Norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  51. ↑ "Iron Maiden – 'Can I Play with Madness'". Sverigetopplistan. swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  52. ↑ "Iron Maiden – 'Can I Play with Madness'". Swiss Hitparade. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  53. ↑ "Top 40 Official Singles Chart UK Archive 2 April 1988". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  54. ↑ "Iron Maiden – 'The Evil That Men Do'". MegaCharts. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  55. ↑ "Iron Maiden – 'The Evil That Men Do'". VG-lista. Norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  56. ↑ "Top 40 Official Singles Chart UK Archive 20 August 1988". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  57. ↑ "Top 40 Official Singles Chart UK Archive 26 November 1988". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  58. ↑ "Top 40 Official Singles Chart UK Archive 25 November 1989". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  59. ↑ "Top 40 Official Albums Chart UK Archive 21 April 1990". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  60. ↑ "Top 40 Official Albums Chart UK Archive 28 April 1990". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  61. ↑ "Canadian album certifications – Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son". Music Canada. 27 May 1988. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  62. ↑ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Iron Maiden; 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  63. ↑ "The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community: Awards (Iron Maiden; 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son')". IFPI Switzerland. Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  64. ↑ "British album certifications – Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son". British Phonographic Industry. 14 April 1988. Retrieved 8 July 2012. Enter Seventh Son of a Seventh Son in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Gold in the field By Award. Click Search
  65. ↑ "American album certifications – Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 8 July 2012. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
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