Wednesday, November 28, 2012

theSPEECH of the CENTURY STORY


Iron Maiden's "Live After Death" Double-Live-Disc

theSPEECH of the CENTURY STORY
by theKONGBLOG

Once upon a time... ...I was considered the biggest metal head in my vast inner-circle of friends and most music critics & music historians would agree w/ my opinion that the pioneers of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal — Iron Maiden, is also Thee Greatest Heavy Metal Band of All-Times!

With that being said, Perhaps the Greatest Live Album of All-Times is their 1985 release called, "Live After Death" -which was double "live" album featuring a collection of their greatest hits from their World Slavery Tour.

[Note: Iron Maiden have sold over 85 million records worldwide w/ little radio or television support — a truly astounding & remarkable feat in the music industry.]


Winston Churchill - House of Commons June 4th, 1940

Please note, the beginning intro from "Live After Death" before the opening live concert track "Aces High" is part of the, "We Shall Fight On The Beaches" speech made by Winston Churchill on June 4th, 1940 in the House of Commons:

"... We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender..."





As my biopic tale goes...the Catholic school I attended planned on having their first annual Speech Contest for their students from 4th -to- 8th grade. I was selected as one of the participants for the speech contest -which really had no prerequisite requirement except that the student had to recite a speech of any kind. 

With that in mind, the only speech I knew of were the typically famous American speeches from Lou Gehrig, Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy...but then the "light-bulb" popped-up in my head and I remembered the "infamous" opening speech to Iron Maiden's "Live After Death" double-disc album by Winston Churchill....which was inevitably my speech of choice.

Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden
I went to library and eventually discovered that Churchill's speech intro from Iron Maiden was only an excerpt — the actual speech was longer than expected. Since it probably wasn't well-known amongst my teachers & peers, I condensed most of the speech and focused more or less on the "Live After Death" intro.
 

Since I practically knew it by heart, I recited the speech during the practice/preliminary round w/ such arrogance & confidence — mimicking the way Churchill had presented it (word-for-word) along w/ Bruce Dickinson's wailing arms & hand movements (which was what the lead singer of Iron Maiden was known for in concert). 

I can see all my classmates eyes-popping wide open & jaws-dropping to the floor and can see that the teachers were mesmerized by my recital and strong hand-gestures...it was as if I wrote the speech myself. 

To make a long story shorter, I breezed my way through the prelims that were held inside our classrooms and eventually won the finals in the school's auditorium –which was actually a converted gymnasium. As easy as it was to capture first place in my school's very first speech contest, I do recall making a few mistakes — deviating from the actual lines of the speech and even leaving-out a bulk of it. 

No matter.

Because in the end, I saved Winston Churchill's "We Shall Fight On The Beaches" excerpted speech as the outro — the grand finale. And with that, cemented my legacy and personal lore in my Catholic school's history w/ theSPEECH of the CENTURY!

~The End~

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