Be Quick or Be Dead
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| "Be Quick or Be Dead" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by Iron Maiden | ||||
| from the album Fear of the Dark | ||||
| B-side | "Nodding Donkey Blues" "Space Station #5" "Bayswater Ain't a Bad Place to Be" |
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| Released | 13 April 1992 | |||
| Recorded | 1992 | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal | |||
| Length | 3:25 | |||
| Label | EMI | |||
| Writer(s) | Bruce Dickinson Janick Gers |
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| Iron Maiden singles chronology | ||||
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"Be Quick or Be Dead" is the first single from the Iron Maiden album Fear of the Dark, released in 1992. The song is about several political scandals taking place at the time of its release, including the Robert Maxwell banking scandal, European stock market crashes, and the BCCI case. It was released a month prior to the album and reached #2 on the UK singles chart. The song is faster and heavier than most Iron Maiden songs, and is the band's first single co-written by Janick Gers.
The B-side features two official songs and one hidden track, including an original blues number ("Nodding Donkey Blues") and Montrose cover ("Space Station No. 5"), and the unlisted "Bayswater Ain't a Bad Place to Be". The last is a spoken word comedy piece by Bruce Dickinson (along with acoustic guitar accompaniment from Janick Gers) in which he imitates and makes fun of Maiden manager Rod Smallwood. A similar mockery of Smallwood was released before, as a B-side titled "Sheriff of Huddersfield", which was available in the "Wasted Years" single.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
- "Be Quick or Be Dead" (Bruce Dickinson, Janick Gers) – 3:25
- "Nodding Donkey Blues" (Iron Maiden) – 3:18
- "Space Station #5" (Ronnie Montrose, Sammy Hagar; Montrose cover) – 3:47
- "Bayswater Ain't a Bad Place to Be" (Dickinson, Gers) – 8:05 (unlisted) (UK release only)
[edit] Chart performance
| Chart (1992) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart | 47[1] |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 26[2] |
| German Singles Chart | 32[3] |
| Irish Singles Chart | 10[4] |
| New Zealand Singles Chart | 12[5] |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 3[6] |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 15[7] |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 15[8] |
| UK Singles Chart | 2[9] |
[edit] Personnel
- Bruce Dickinson – vocals
- Dave Murray – guitar
- Janick Gers – guitar
- Steve Harris – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Nicko McBrain – drums
[edit] References
- ^ Steffen Hung. "Iron Maiden - Be Quick Or Be Dead". australian-charts.com. http://australian-charts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Iron+Maiden&titel=Be+Quick+Or+Be+Dead&cat=s. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
- ^ Steffen Hung. "Iron Maiden - Be Quick Or Be Dead". dutchcharts.nl. http://dutchcharts.nl/showitem.asp?interpret=Iron+Maiden&titel=Be+Quick+Or+Be+Dead&cat=s. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
- ^ musicline.de / PhonoNet GmbH. "Die ganze Musik im Internet: Charts, News, Neuerscheinungen, Tickets, Genres, Genresuche, Genrelexikon, Künstler-Suche, Musik-Suche, Track-Suche, Ticket-Suche". musicline.de. http://www.musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/title/Iron+Maiden/Be+Quick+Or+Be+Dead/single. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
- ^ "Irish singles archive". http://www.irishcharts.ie/search/placement. Retrieved 2011-10-14.
- ^ Steffen Hung. "Iron Maiden - Be Quick Or Be Dead". charts.org.nz. http://charts.org.nz/showitem.asp?interpret=Iron+Maiden&titel=Be+Quick+Or+Be+Dead&cat=s. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
- ^ "Iron Maiden- Norwegian Charts". http://norwegiancharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Iron+Maiden. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
- ^ "Iron Maiden- Swedish Charts". http://swedishcharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Iron+Maiden. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
- ^ "Be Quick or Be Dead- Swiss Singles Chart". http://swisscharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Iron+Maiden&titel=Be+Quick+Or+Be+Dead&cat=s. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
- ^ "Official UK Singles Archive 25th April 1992". http://www.theofficialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1992-04-25/. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
