The Daily Mantra is all about seeking knowledge, wisdom and spiritual guidance, opening your mind to a multitude of sources, so we’re feeling student Ricky Travis’ frustration. The pupil at Harry S. Truman High School draws his personal inspiration from English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, studying history and anthropology through the group’s eyes. Sadly this 10th grader’s efforts have been under-appreciated by his world history teacher, Mr. Bradley, who gave Ricky an F grade for the class last semester.
“I suspect that perhaps Mr. Bradley just feels threatened that I know more about the subject he teaches than he does. It's not exactly a secret that I've seen the band Iron Maiden in concert 57 times, and that I own every album they've ever released,” says Ricky in an online statement, co-signed by six of his classmates.
At the heart of Ricky’s objection to Mr. Bradley’s closed-minded curriculum, is the class’s official reading material, World History & You. “This so-called educational textbook completely ignores the crucial influence of Iron Maiden's mascot Eddie in the events that have shaped human history,” argues Ricky. “The omission of Eddie from the text amounts to dangerous revisionist history on the part of the publishers.”
Ricky contends that the Iron Maiden song “Quest For Fire” is, “a badass track that chronicles the true story of man's life and death struggle with dinosaurs, wooly mammoths and fire in caveman times,” a position that Christian Creationists would surely agree with. Ricky quotes song lyrics to support his passionate belief that the group offer text on the subject of world history, that is equally – if not more valid – than that of the official class tome. “Mr. Bradley would have us believe that the logic of this song is flawed just because of the fact that dinosaurs and humans never actually co-existed, but how many platinum albums has he released? Relatively few, I suspect.” The Daily mantra also suspects that unlike monsters of rock Iron Maiden, Mr. Bradley has neither an Ivor Novello Award or a spot on the Hollywood Rock Walk, adding more fuel to Ricky’s fire.
Offering further examples of Iron Maiden’s historically factual lyrics, Ricky focuses on the group’s song "Alexander The Great (356-323 B.C.)" from the album Somewhere In Time, which accurately portrays events in the life of the Macedonian king, in chronological order. “I performed an a cappella air guitar version of the entire song while standing atop my desk as my final project in World History 101, and Mr. Bradley was forced to admit that it was –- despite being 'inappropriate and disruptive' -– 100% historically accurate,” says Ricky. In a historical footnote, the student also assures us that there are no Satanic messages in the track if played backwards, but “Alexander does get younger, and his life progressively less impressive.”
Other songs from the band’s impressive catalog offer important information on the Roman empire circa 100 B.C. (“The Ides Of March”), ancient Egyptian culture (“Powerslave”), the Viking conquests of the 11th Century (“Number Of The Beast”), Genghis Khan’s 13th century empire (“Genghis Kahn” from the album Killers), medieval torture (“Iron Maiden”), The Crimean War ("The Trooper"), and 19th century American history ("Run To The Hills”). For further study, the Daily Mantra suggests readers check out Eddies Head, a definitive 16 CD collection of the band’s most important works.
(Ricky's post "Everything I Need To Know I’ve Learned From Iron Maiden" appears on the spoof blog site SpazOutNY.com)
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