Iron Maiden-2.The Angel And The Gambler(Curitiba,Brazil 1998)

Iron Maiden - Pedreira Paulo Leminsk, Curitiba, Brazil, Dec. 6, 1998, during the '' Virtual XI World Tour'' 1998.

The Angel And The Gambler (Harris)

Blaze Bayley:Vocals
Steve Harris:Bass
Janick Gers:Guitar
Dave Murray:Guitar
Nicko McBrain:Drums

[Lyrics]

Roll of the dice, take a spin of the wheel
Out of your hands now, so how do you feel
But you're not gonna win, you'd better go back again

Do you feel lucky or do you feel scared
Take what luck brings and be devil may care
But you're down on your luck and what will the next day bring

Adrift on the ocean, afloat in a daydream
Or lost in a maze, or blind in the haze
So what does it matter, so why don't you answer
So why did you send an angel to mend

Best make decisions before it's too late
Take all your chances take hold of the reins
A roll of the dice, ahead of the game again

Nothing to lose but so much to gain
A little danger, it goes without saying
But what do you care, you're gonna go in the end

Gate open to heaven is ready and waiting
Or straight down to hell, can go there as well
I'll suffer my craving, my soul's not worth saving
So why don't you go, just leave well alone

Don't you think I'm a saviour
Don't you think I could save you
Don't you think I could save your life (x 12)

There's like a hunger that knocks on your door
You've had a taste of it, still you want more
You've made your mistakes, won't play it the same again

You have been warned but still you plunge in
You play high stakes but there's nothing to win
You've only one life and so many things to learn

The Angel on one side, the Devil the other
Which path do you take? Decisions to make
Arrive at the crossroads, you know where you're going
And what if you wait, it may be too late

Don't you think I'm a saviour
Don't you think I could save you
Don't you think I could save your life (x 10)
................................
'The Angel And The Gambler' is a song from Iron Maiden's album ''Virtual XI '',released in 1998.

''This was from an idea that I had when I was driving on the M4 motorway to Wales! Thank God I had a small cassette recorder with me! The idea reminded me of The Who/U.F.O so I took it in that direction. It's got a very 70s rhythm feel to it which I like a lot.''(Steve Harris)

'The Angel And The Gambler' was the first single from the Virtual XI album, and was released in two parts. Taken at face value, it seems to be a light-hearted song about an incorrigible gambler and an angel that is attempting to save him by persuading him to quit gambling. In a possibly unintended lyrical irony, an "angel" is also a term for a rich person who finances a gambler, allowing him to keep gambling using the rich person's money.

This is quite a long song nearly 10 minutes but it is a bit more repetitive than most of Harris's epic songs. It may not appeal to you at first, but it possibly will grown on you after a few listens, although it could have been a bit shorter and less repetitive.

On an ironic note, it could also be a song about the complementarity of good and evil, implying that these two notions need to co-exist and that it is impossible to envisage one without the other. Awareness of good automatically generates that of evil too, as all light unavoidably casts shadows. The same can be said about life that cannot be fully appreciated if death is ignored. 'The Angel And The Gambler' is in this way reminiscent of an episode in the old television series, The Twilight Zone, which highlights the absurdity of a world with only good and no evil in it.

'Virtual XI' (pronounced: Virtual Eleven) is the 11th studio album by British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. The album was released on March 23, 1998. It was the second and final Iron Maiden album recorded with vocalist Blaze Bayley. The album is slightly unusual in the Iron Maiden catalogue for its extensive keyboard use. For this album all the keyboard parts were performed by bandfounder / bassist Steve Harris whereas on previous albums the keyboard parts were handled by session musician Michael Kenney. The album also had a reduced songwriting input from Janick Gers compared to the previous Iron Maiden albums since he joined the band in 1990.
Just like the tour of The X Factor album, the tour for this album was cut short when Bayley suffered from an allergic reaction caused by certain elements used on the stage.