When The Wild Wind Blows by Iron Maiden

Album: The Final Frontier (2010)

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This 11-minute track is one of the longest songs Iron Maiden have ever recorded. "The rhythm's a little bit different from what we've done before, and there's lots of melodies," guitarist Dave Murray told Billboard Magazine. "It's a big song. We learned it in sections just because it was such a complex arrangement, but it sounds quite natural (on the record)."
Despite the world appearing to be ending in apocalypse, the narrator has hope "now the days of our ending have begun." The song is based on author Raymond Briggs' post-nuclear fallout graphic novel When The Wind Blows.
Longtime Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain considers this one of the best songs bandmate Steve Harris has ever written. "It's a stunning piece of music," McBrain enthused during the An Evening With CapnHarris event. "It is, in my opinion, the second-best song Steve Harris has ever written, next to 'Hallowed Be Thy Name' and 'The Red And The Black.'" (He didn't disclose which of the two was his #1 song).

"It's got a great storyline to it," McBrain continued. "It's a tragedy. It's a love story but with a tragic ending, isn't it?"

Comments: 4

Robert from Grand Junction CoBeautifully done song, such Great Musicianship...I agree with Scott, I get a little chocked up at the end every time I hear the song.
Ian from Ragama, Sri Lanka (ceylon)I simply love the part where they say "Now the days of our ending has begun".. One of the best from maiden........
Scott from Edmonton, AbSuch a powerful song. I cry every time that final wind gust blows at the end.
Aaron from Edmonds, WaThis song is based off Raymond Briggs 1982 graphic novel When the Wind Blows, about an elderly couple attempting to save a nuclear attack. There are some differences between the two stories as in the novel the two are killed by radiation sickness, but in the song the two mistake an earthquake for the nuclear attack and poison themselves fearing the fallout.

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