10. Iron Maiden - Total Eclipse (A-Side)

Total Eclipse is a song that had been recorded in the sessions for the album The Number of the Beast (1982) and that first appeared on the single Run to the Hills as a b-side.

When the band recorded the 9 songs on the album, one of them had to be left out. For the release of the single Run to the Hills, they were between 2 songs to use as a b-side: Gangland and Total Eclipse. They finally chose to use the latter.

Steve Harris has stated that he regrets leaving this song out, despite the fact that he feels that the lyrics of said song did not fit the theme of the album (and without necessarily being a concept album).

For some reason, it doesn't appear in Best of the B'Sides in Eddie's Archive (2002). Most likely, this song had already been played live before, and that's why it was already known.

The song was performed live on tour for The Number of the Beast album in 1982, and appears on the live album Beast over Hammersmith of the Eddie's Archive (2002).

The band will release a compilation of The Number of the Beast album and Beast over Hammersmith live album in 2022, and on the original album Total Eclipse replaces Gangland, as originally intended, this being the first time the song appears as a main track and not as a re-release bonus track.

On November 18, 2022, it was released as a single, the same day as the album's reissue with Beast over Hammersmith. With this, the trilogy of singles from the first 3 albums is completed, along with Sanctuary (1980) and Twilight Zone (1981). In this way, the song stopped being a B-Side and became an A-Side.

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Listen:

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Lyrics:
Cold as steel the darkness waits, its hour will come

A cry of fear for our children worshipping the sun

Mother nature's black revenge on those who waste her life

War babies in the garden of Eden shall turn our ashes to ice

Sunrise is gone, freezing up the fires

Sunrise is gone, numbing all desires

Sunrise is gone, Sunrise is gone

Around the world the people stop with terror-stricken eyes

A shadow cast upon them all to crush them like a fly

In the icy rain and whiplashed seas there's nowhere left to run

The hammer blows of winter fall like a hurricane

Sunrise is gone, freezing up the fires

Sunrise is gone, numbing all desires

Around the world the nations wait for some wise words from their leading light

You know it's not only madmen who listen to fools

"Is this the end?" the millions cried clutching their riches as they died

Those who survive must weather the storm

Gone are the days when man looked down,

They've taken away his sacred crown

To be so free, it took so long,

It's not the journeys end, it's just begun

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Category: B-Side (early); A-Side (later)

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Appears in:

Run to the Hills (Single) (1982) (EMI)