It feels like a million years ago now, but sometime in my 7th grade year, I went to a Turtle’s Records & Tapes and bought my very first-ever heavy metal cassette, which was Iron Maiden’s Somewhere In Time. My buddy went with me, and he bought a cassette of his own, which was the self-titled Iron Maiden album, and a few days later, we swapped them (and in true 80s metalhead fashion, taped the other’s choice onto our own blank cassette for further listening, of which there was much, at least for me). Those two cassettes, purchased at the same time and heard more or less back-to-back, are why I’m here today, blathering on about the finer points of loud, fast, and awesome music.
Anyone who knows Maiden’s trajectory knows that there are many differences between those two albums, but the most notable (and the most surprising upon my first listen, since I was new to it all) was the different voice behind the mic. The majority of Maiden’s successes have been topped with the siren-like soar of Bruce Dickinson, but my buddy’s decision to start at the beginning showed me that the earliest days were colored differently, rawer and rougher and realer with the sandpaper pipes of Paul Di’Anno. If Bruce was the fantastic fencer, the master swordsman with skill on the rapier, then Paul was the streetwise bruiser who’d cut you just as deep with a blunted switchblade and then mosey down to the pub for a(nother) pint. There are tomes written about the two — and no reason to belabor those points yet again, and nothing particularly new to add — but each has his own take on the NWOBHM majesty that Maiden did and does so much better than all but the absolute best of the best of their peers, and each is an integral part of one of the greatest bands of all time.
Paul’s struggles were well documented, but his voice was legendary, his legacy undeniable and eternal, there in the grooves of two of the most iconic heavy metal albums ever made. As the metal world now collectively shares in tears for remembrance and tears for joy, and tears for somebody and this lonely boy, we’re as lucky now as we always have been to have those records and the voice that forever defines them. Thank you, Paul Di’Anno.
Paul was one of the founding members of the 2nd-greatest metal band in the world. And his time with Maiden stands the test of time. Killers is one of my favorite Maiden albums to this day. I regret never seeing him live. You will be missed, Paul Di’Anno. I’m having a beer in your memory tonight.