Psychedelic Lunch

Welcome to our “Psychedelic Lunch” series, “Spooktober Edition” where we find out how deep the rabbit hole really goes and explore music from the 60’s to today. Weekdays At Noon EST. Enjoy the trip!

Fear Of The Dark By Iron Maiden, Album: Fear Of The Dark 1992

This song is about a paranoid man who constantly fears that there’s someone or something about to spring out at him from the dark as a result of watching horror films and studying the occult. Themes like this appear on much of Maiden’s cover art (see: “Sanctuary,” “Women in Uniform,” “Iron Maiden,” “Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter” etc.).

Some consider this a sequel to “Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “Innocent Exile,” which also deal with a paranoid and nervous man. In those songs, he was on the run from the law after being falsely accused of murder.

When Bruce Dickinson first joined Iron Maiden, he was still using a student train pass and unofficially living above a hair salon. He lived about 100 miles outside of London, where he’d travel to practice with the rest of the band.

About five miles down the road, he’d pass time drinking scrumpy — a hallucinogenic cider made from undesirable apples — at a pub in the village of Elmley Castle. The establishment was full of semi-conscious metalheads and had a large pentagram on the floor. About ten miles west was Bredon Hill — the storied location said to have hosted the last recorded human sacrifice. Thirty miles in the other direction was the birthplace of the notorious Aleister Crowley, the mythical occultist and walking satanic symbol.