“Here’s what not to do when a bird shits on you.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge almost certainly never imagined such an introduction to his epic poem The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, yet this is how Bruce Dickinson announced his song of the same name to a Long Beach audience some 187 years later. It’s no secret that literary influences run through Iron Maiden’s back catalogue like a golden thread, with songs inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune, Alistair Maclean’s Where Eagle’s Dare and Huxley’s Brave New World. Poetry too, has inspired several of Maiden’s most iconic songs. Written in 1798, The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner is an epic, both in terms of length and its impact on British poetry. At 635 words, the poem is full of ...
Related article
