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Kindle Notes & Highlights
Nothing in childhood is ever wasted, except occasionally parents.
Bullying happens because weak people need to prop up their ego by beating up or humiliating others.
‘One bloody feast after another, a long dreary walk, a battle and some rubbish songs.’
It was masturbation and libraries that saved my soul from the narrow-minded proselytising and a stifling, evangelical straitjacket, and thank God for that.
John Campbell was one of those rare but essential teachers who give you permission to dream.
The idea that it didn’t matter what it was that you engaged in, as long as you respected its nature and attempted some measure of harmony with the universe.
I suddenly understood why a lot of Maiden vocal lines were virtually unsingable, or at least required careful attention to phrasing to ensure you didn’t bite off the end of your tongue while wrapping your gills around the unnecessary consonants.
“No. You have to sum up your entire life in the first line. I don’t hear it yet.”’
‘Pride and ego. Pride to do your very best and ego to take it that bit further.’
Eddie is Iron Maiden’s mascot, monster, alter ego – call it what you will. Part supernatural, part primal, part aggressive adolescent, Eddie is a super anti-hero with no backstory. Eddie doesn’t give a fuck. He just is.
Rock stars, of course, have long had the capacity to act like babies but have not had the sense to sing like them.
People who don’t understand Iron Maiden won’t comprehend the impact it has had on so many people’s lives. Maiden has represented a personal affirmation of self-worth for millions of people down the years. Above and beyond pop music, fashion and the detritus and useless decadence of ‘reality’ celebrity, Maiden was hard work and tangible, substantive and complex, but also visceral and aggressive.
You are never so alive as when learning something new and overcoming adversity.
I have often been asked, ‘Would you have changed anything?’ The answer is a simple no. A different and better question is, ‘Have you made any mistakes?’ And the answer to that one is equally easy – loads of them.
