Day 39 - Wasted Years

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij99dud8-0A

In a break from tradition, on hymn Saturday, I would like to talk about a different sort of music, one that is very close to my heart, and that has been formative in my development since I was 15 years old.

The wonderful, loud, rocking world of Iron Maiden, the best band in the world - as far as I’m concerned anyway (I’m happy to discuss this assertion with any and all responders over a pint of beer at any time!!).

In 2025, Maiden (as they are referred to by their friends) celebrated 50 years in music. The band was formed by Steve Harris and some friends, in Leyton, East London, back in 1975 (when I was only 4 and so I can’t say it was something I remembered!). They spent nearly 5 years playing gigs in local pubs, recording demos and trying to get noticed, before being signed to EMI records in December 1979, which led to their first album called, perhaps rather unimaginatively, “Iron Maiden”, released in 1980.

And the rest as they say is history. A history that includes 24 band members (obviously not all at the same time), 197 recorded songs, 17 studio albums, 47 singles, 13 live albums, 27 world tours, and more Iron Maiden T-shirts and other merchandise than you can shake a stick at.

I have seen Iron Maiden play live more than 30 times in the past 40 years and to me there is nothing like standing in the dark, surrounded by people who like the same band as you, waiting ... just waiting for the lights to come on and that first drum beat, that first guitar chord, that first note from Bruce Dickinson’s vocal chords to hit the auditorium and for the gig to begin.

John 10:10 says “I have come so you can have a life that can be lived to the full” - and through my love of all things Rock and Metal I hope I am doing that – living life to the fullest.

Maiden’s songs cover topics as diverse as historical events, love and loss, mythology, literature, philosophical and existential themes. My personal favourite song, and the one I plan to have at my funeral, is a song from the 1986 “Somewhere in Time” album, Wasted Years. This is not a song that celebrates wasting time, but instead asks us to think that there is no point looking for what has gone, but instead to give thanks for what we have been blessed by, all around us.

The chorus goes ...

So, understand

Don't waste your time

Always searching for those wasted years

Face up, make your stand

And realize

You're living in the golden years

Take what you are blessed with and look to a future to be lived to the full with God and with one another.

Oh, and enjoy the Iron Maiden track...!!

Catherine Booton