Iron Maiden – Holy Smoke (album: No Prayer for the Dying 1990)

This next song is by Iron Maiden. To be honest, this is the only album that I’ve purchased of Iron Maiden because I’m not a huge fan of Bruce Dickinson’s Voice. In fact he scares the shit out of me! But I do admit they have some really good songs.
I do have quite a history with this band. First of all, when I started listening to heavy metal music, I’ve came across Iron Maiden and their amazing posters. I really wanted to cover my entire room with all of their scary creatures. My cousin was a huge fan of Iron Maiden, he had all their albums and his room was covered with Iron Maiden posters. I wanted to get my hands on his posters. At the same time he just got his driving licence and he wanted to buy a car. His dad told him that he needs to get a job. Because he was quite a lazy bugger he started selling all his belongings. My Dad wanted to help both of us and offered a lot of money to buy two Iron Maiden posters of him. That’s how I got my Iron Maiden posters. I’ve hanged them on my bedroom door which was the perfect location for it ;) I thought my Dad is so awesome for getting me those posters. It’s not every day that parents allow their kids to hang dead creatures on their walls!

Once I got the posters it motivated me to buy an album so I did get their newest album at that time which was this album. Back then I was investing all my money and energy in music and new albums.  At the same time I had a friend which was a complete clueless and didn’t understand anything in music but always had to have everything you had (you probably know the kind I’m talking about!) anyway, every time I bought a new album she wanted to record it. When I got my Iron Maiden she wanted a copy of my new cassette. Another friend and I decided to teach her a lesson. We gave her a recorded cassette of Leonard Cohen that we found in my friend’s house and we told her that it’s Iron Maiden. Because she didn’t really listen to anything I’ve given her, she believed that it is Iron Maiden. We never told her the truth. It’s funny because after all these years I still wonder if whenever she hears “Hallelujah”  on the radio she thinks she is listening to Iron Maiden… check out this holy smoke song…

Link to the song: Holy Smoke Iron Maiden




Lyrics: Holy Smoke Lyrics

What’s this song about?

The song deals with the many Televangelist scandals that took place in the United States in the late 1980s, including mentions of "Jimmy the Reptile" (a reference to Jimmy Swaggart), "The TV Queen" (a possible reference to Tammy Faye Bakker), Noah, and "plenty of bad preachers for the Devil to stoke." Contrary to what some believe, however, this song is not aimed at the Christian religion itself, but rather the people that abuse it to make gains for themselves. This is one of the very few Iron Maiden songs with profanity in the lyrics (for example, "I've lived in filth/I've lived in sin/and I still smell cleaner than the shit you're in"), which is replaced by gunshot sounds in censored versions.(Wikipedia – Holy Smoke)


Band’s Official Website: Iron Maiden

Info about the band: Wikipedia - Iron Maiden