Contact us
Back to All Posts

Will she be Bridezilla? Possibly. But for luck even worse than a wedding gone amok, go ask Iron Maiden, and their hero/villain the Ancient Mariner, about that bitchy albatross

This was a meeting of marriage, Maiden and Mariner:
Is it just a coincidence that at a time I was finally, and a bit obsessively as far as time, getting into streaming the cautionary-tale-tune told in a wedding setting in Iron Maiden’s anthem Rime of the Ancient Mariner, that the latest woman became by marriage a princess in England’s royalty.
If you think wedding days can go very badly, check out the horrific plight of the mariner after he is cursed to ride the seas forever when killing an albatross. (Maybe this type of thing is why they are now extinct). The 13-minute song starts with him as a wedding guest and offering to regale his tale to the bride, then taking ten-minutes-or-so to go through it, the redemption of which leaves all at the wedding sadder but wiser. The song is vintage Maiden, taking a lengthy classic poem from about 300 years ago and rewriting it in shorter form.
This at a time when there are all things Maiden going on locally. To wit:
— A semi-trailer truck has been periodically parked and taking up four spaces in front of the Wells Fargo Bank, and the side of it gives a pitch for a Twin Cities restoration company along with art that suggest the huge stage backdrop of many a Maiden concert, conceived from the tombs of ancient civilizations such as those of the Egyptians and very recently, the Mayans.
— In a video for the Mariner number, there was rare footage of the drum kit taken from the arena ceiling, and even showing the foot pedals being played simultaneously. I’ve always thought one way to gauge the aptitude of a drummer is the size of his drum kit, and this one was just as large as the living rooms of their just-turning adult fans.
— I have first noticed that the longest tenured guitarist for the band, if you make him a bit younger and thinner, might as well be local rock guitarist Bob Schillinger. And another resemblance starts with the hero-villain in one of the videos for Hallowed be Thy Name by Maiden; there is an occasional patron at Dick’s who has much the same look, right down to the furrowed bridge of his nose. Dick’s, of course, is the venue where Bob and the boys for years hosted their open mic night. And then there was the guy from the other night who looks just like the Maiden drummer, (also slightly balding, like the guitarist).
— Also in Dick’s, this time tucked away in the back of the dining area, is an actual Iron Maiden, which is an interesting choice since you would think it might take away your appetite. This one has a poor, tortured soul, (from their latest CD Book of Souls?), trapped inside, and you know its from centuries ago because the guy is only five feet tall, a typical height in those days where you didn’t have to worry just about evil overlords, also the bad nutrition and lack of food that stunted your growth and took away inches of your height.
— But this is now, and one-man-bander Jeff Loven was just wearing one of his favorite Maiden T-shirts, promoting the 1981 album Killers. And how many royal weddings have there been since that time?

Share the Post:

Related Posts

  • Drop by drop, taking a big step. One Drop Refillery lets you refill, over and over, a plethora of non-toxic household liquid and dry good products in a single stop, and not always buy new and often plastic containers that fill up landfills, or even oceans. A passion for nature, you can drop in or order other ways. Two Hudson locations (see end of post for addresses.)
When walking down Second Street in Hudson, you may have seen a sign in a doorway saying One Drop Refillery, and like me thought it was a distillery, like a new place to have a drink. That would not fill the bill. Rather, this new shop that’s like a small mill, as in a dispensary, but quickly grew into featuring much more though related goods, reduces one of your steps and will be a first step toward saving the environment. It’s tucked inside the north half of a long existing photography studio by Lisa Buth and being what the former name says, it’s...
Read More
  • Whether good witch of the north or east, or wicked witch of the south or west, there are treats galore as you walk the varied directions of Hudson’s streets, stopping at stores galore in this the former small business crawl. It leads off a pre-Halloween weekend with a lot to do, and see the Brew CRew too.
The pre-Halloween haunts are now hanging out their hat, and their head if they still have one, to harangue you, with a Witch’s Night Out — warlocks are apparently out of luck, although they can walk the street beside you, though she just might pass you by — on Thursday, Oct. 22, when things and heads really start rolling. (I was caught in a burning ring of fire, the circling flames lift my smoldered hat higher. Then rims settled for grab globs by Godiva, so she came a horseback witch attired.) So this is a night not only of bad lyricism and sometimes...
Read More
  • ALL hALLOWS alert: For more on what to do in this last full weekend before Halloween, starting with THURSDAY, and One Drop at the Refillery, see the lead post shown in the latest dispatches heaDING below. —– Strolling the streets of not Soho in the sunshine, bothering beauties at streetlights, a-chipping heads off rattlesnakes and lighting up eels orbs in the direction of their land holes … All in a hot day’s, cool night’s work — could be Kid Rock — with mild-sauce, hot-pink-dress dreaming, and circling toward Mars and an art night with that drumming Replacement.
To all you true blue followers, hope you enjoy the following run-on expanse as humorous and very warped and a little redneck. It is all true, except for the dream part, which was dreamt. Welcome to Halloween early! Drank a couple of energy drinks, no Monster, and pulled an all-nighter typing somewhat late-dropped-into-my-lap advertorials and carried on my sleeplessness into the next morning and afternoon, all the while walking around the downtown and delivering draft copies and even picked up another assignment, one that could go boo in the night, say what is so. Was at the light by Agave and for some...
Read More
  • Buddy, can you please spare me a can opener? Since mine doesn’t work. Again. So you can ‘spin’ it this way: The truisms of life today, in the USA, so many of them, can come down to the fact that a can opener tells all, coming full circle. That does, and the fact that its Octoberfest time, but so many seasons have still not arrived, even though it’s very near mid-terms, for both pupils and politicians at the polls.
It’s roughly mid-October in a roughly MAGA America and how is your rough life going? (Seems like early November, but only politically, not as far as the mal-adjusted seasons.) Well I’ll tell you about mine, thank you. And roughly. Halloween haunts — got to find some extra dough for candy and costumes for the kids and myself, more and more obligatory for adults, but all I have is some spare change, can you please bum me a dime? — are already becoming reality in our everyday lives. Note use of the word “everyday.” Master of Reality? Black Sabbath nailed it...
Read More
  • I’ll say it, and play it, again. And again. Pick one for how fast you can pick. With fingers or using a pick. How many notes per second on a guitar? This is real world, not guitar hero. So I asked a veteran blues man, sitting next to me at the music club. And that’s just for starters. —– PLay it again Sam; though a chore for the door and out on the floor, Halloween decor and more is now roaring in.
How fast can you swing the axe? Ask the axe-man not on stage but sitting next to you. Bar math can be fun, as I’ve said many a time, but especially when it’s coming from a decades-long blues man. Imagine going to a bar to have a drink, or two, and then end up talking to a musician about how many more (notes) than that he can play a second! Try five or maybe six. Off to Hudson Tap, and tapping into the knowledge of a guy older than I who is a veteran blues man, mostly — and I...
Read More
  • Oops, I did it again! I yes slipped up, as did Facebook, on teasing my last couple of posts. So read well past the two headline(s), down below, to get the whole football picture and put it on your grid, Facebook aside …
Thou protesteth too much?!? That be me. Computer geek? Can’t see. Omniscient? I am not He. If you are reading my attempted Facebook teaser, it was supposed to be All About The Football, or even futbal, in freeze frame or infinite loop, but that Alleged Giant, of social media, clipped off the wording top and bottom, front and back, fore and aft, day and night, (that last part is important), then sent the post anyway, a yammering of names! I tried to fix it, and must own up to my own part, but I was just shown more ads. I...
Read More
Scroll to Top