iron maidensteve harris
19:34 Friday, 4 October 2024
During a conversation on the Scars and Guitars podcast, Iron Maiden's iconic bassist and founder, Steve Harris, was asked to pinpoint the one song from his career that encapsulates his musical legacy.
It's a very difficult question, as Harris himself acknowledged (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar): "That's an odd one because there are so many songs I've written," Harris reflected. "I don't know how many I've written, but it's got to be more than 150 songs at least over the years. It's a really tough one to say. I don't know. I think it's probably something you would probably ask the fans."
Harris noted that fan responses would likely vary widely, with each person having their own personal favorite. "I think when you ask people — we'd never really do that — but if you did ask people, I think you'd probably get 10 or 12 people saying 10 to 12 different songs. It's just such a personalized thing, so it's very difficult."
When the interviewer suggested "Flight of Icarus" as a contender for the ultimate Iron Maiden song, Harris politely disagreed. He emphasized that the perfect Maiden track would need to reflect the collective spirit of the band rather than focusing on individual contributions. Harris responded: "Not really, because I think it would be better to choose a song that's written by, say, three of us, or whatever because that song was written by Adrian and Bruce. It doesn't really have the elements of my writing in there."
In contrast, Harris offered "The Evil That Men Do" as a better example of a quintessential Iron Maiden track, citing its collaborative writing process. "I would probably pick something like ‘The Evil That Men Do,' which is written by all three of us. David does write, too, but he's not very prolific. Nicko doesn't write, Janick joined a lot later, but he's become quite a prolific writer. I still probably say 'The Evil That Men Do.'"
