Holy Smoke (song)

Infobox Single
Name = Holy Smoke


Artist = Iron Maiden
from Album = No Prayer for the Dying
B-side = "All In Your Mind"
"Kill Me Ce Soir"
Genre = Heavy metal
Released = 10 September 1990
Recorded = Summer 1990
Length = 3:50
Label = EMI
Writer = Steve Harris
Bruce Dickinson
Chart position = * 3 (UK charts)
Last single = "Infinite Dreams (live)"
(1989)
This single = "Holy Smoke"
(1990)
Next single = "Bring Your Daughter...to the Slaughter"
(1990)

"Holy Smoke" is Iron Maiden's 21st single and the first to feature guitarist Janick Gers, who joined the band in the summer of 1990. It was released just weeks before the album "No Prayer for the Dying". The song deals with the many Televangelist scandals that took place in the United States in the late 1980s, including mentions of "Jimmy the Reptile" (a reference to Jimmy Swaggart), "The TV Queen" (a possible reference to Tammy Faye Bakker), Noah, and "plenty of bad preachers for the Devil to stoke." Contrary to what some believe, however, this song is not aimed at the Christian religion itself, but rather the people that abuse it to make gains for themselves. This is one of the very few Iron Maiden songs with profanity in the lyrics (for example, "I've lived in filth/I've lived in sin/and I still smell cleaner than the shit you're in"), which is replaced by gunshot sounds in censored versions.

The song is atypical for the band standards, being short and straight. It features a common pop-rock song structure with intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, verse and ending with another chorus. The guitar solos are very fiery making use of artificial harmonics, sweep picking, tapping and wild bends.

The band took a humorous approach for the video of the song, as the band members are filmed on Steve Harris's farm (who directed the video), playing football and driving a tractor, while everything happens in bright daylight. Bruce Dickinson is bouncing in a turnip field and wearing a pink T-shirt. The band's producer, Martin Birch, can also be seen on the video, wearing a kind of sadomasochist costume. The video was directed by Harris himself. Harris's daughter Lauren, who was around five years old at the time, also appeared towards the end of the video.

The b-sides are covers of Stray's "All In Your Mind" and "Kill Me Ce Soir" originally performed by Golden Earring.

Track listing

# "Holy Smoke" (Harris, Dickinson) – 3:50
# "All In Your Mind" (Bromham; Stray cover) – 4:31
# "Kill Me Ce Soir" (Kooymans, Hay, John Fenton; Golden Earring cover) – 6:17

Versions

Credits

*Bruce Dickinson – vocals
*Dave Murray – guitar
*Janick Gers – guitar
*Steve Harris – bass guitar, backing vocals
*Nicko McBrain – drums