I guess I'm officially old now, because I'm getting to the point in life where I really, really enjoy nostalgia.

The good thing about it, I suppose, is that I've come to a better understanding of the awesome power that nostalgia used to have over the adults I knew when I was a kid.

My mother, for instance, always seemed very sober and serious when I was a teenager. She did love oldies music from the '50's, though... and I remember specifically that she liked Buddy Holly quite a bit. The little Buddy Holly bobblehead to the left would probably be a great novelty gift for my mom. Now, when I was a kid, she was pretty serious most of the time... but, now and then, nostalgia would take hold of my mom and shake her like a rag doll. It wasn't an every-day thing, in fact, it was very rare.... but sometimes an Everly Brothers or Buddy Holly song would inspire my mom to get up and sing and dance around a little. As a teenager, I was horrified whenever this happened. When you're a teen, you only want your parents to do two things: be as quiet and invisible as possible, and hand you the car keys. So when nostalgia would occasionally overtake my mom, it was an affront to everything I believed in. It was like watching some kind of demonic possession, as my mom would twist around and heave back and forth, her aging back and knees clearly outraged that they were expected dance on command. I can remember one instance in specific, one summer evening when I came home, walked into the kitchen, and saw Mom contorting like a palsy victim, warbling how "That'll be the day, when you make me cryy-eyeee..."

I've spent years trying to block that out.

Of course, Buddy Holly wasn't my idea of good music. Like all teenagers, I was a big fan of music that horrified my parents. I'm sure my grandparents were disgusted by Elvis and Buddy Holly when my mom was a kid, just as she was disgusted by Iron Maiden when I was a kid. That was a big part of it, actually. Knowing that the adults despised Iron Maiden made them oh-so much more appealing to me.

I've been thinking about Iron Maiden for the last couple of days, ever since I found out about the scandal involving their last performance at this year's Ozzfest. Ozzfest is a traveling heavy metal festival, headlined by Ozzy Osbourne, and although the members of Iron Maiden are all about 115 years old (making them nearly half as old as Ozzy himself), they've been on this year's tour. Apparently, Maiden's lead singer, Bruce Dickinson, had been making offhand remarks during the shows; mocking Ozzy's status as a comic reality show figure and a doddering old clown. That must have been too much for Sharon Osbourne, the Osbourne family matriarch, who apparently arranged to have Iron Maiden's last performance on this year's tour turned into a debacle. There's been a lot of accusations tossed around by both sides since the show. Ultimately, though, it's the fans who really lost out in the end.

Basically, it's a big, dumb, heavy metal soap opera.

My point, though, is that after reading that story, I had a hankering to drag out Live After Death, Maiden's stalwart double-live album from 1985. Live After Death was pretty much my favorite album when I was a teen, and hearing it again was like a flood of happy memories and sentimental reminiscence. I was surprised at how well I remembered it, how easy it was for me to sing along with songs I haven't heard in years and years, and how willingly I turned into a head-bobbing, warbling fool, listening to my ancient metal and bopping around to the best of my ability.

God help me, I'm turning into those old farts from my family... the ones who used to perplex me so much when I was growing up.

The really funny thing about Maiden, though, is the innocence of their music and their scene. Today's kids (and I mean this in the grouchiest possible way) listen to the worst music you can imagine. So-called artists like Slipknot and Kid Rock and 50 Cent... it's all garbage. It's repetitive, boring, stupid, loud, and abrasive. It's not like those good old Iron Maiden songs from my youth; songs that had actual melodies and fun little lyrical themes.

People who don't know anything about Maiden are probably at least familiar with Eddie, the zombie who serves as a band mascot and is on the cover of all of their albums. When I was a kid, Eddie posters were just about the coolest thing you could have in your room. And the main reason for that was because our parents hated Eddie. They thought he was some sort of satanic symbol and saw him as evidence that heavy metal music was corrupting the minds of their kids. That was probably the main thing that made Eddie so cool. Iron Maiden still uses Eddie as their mascot and band symbol, but now that their fans are all rushing headlong into middle age, I don't imagine Eddie posters are quite the big seller they used to be. However, Eddie bobbleheads, like the one to the left, probably can be found on desks here and there.

Lyrically, Maiden typically stuck to three topics... English history, war, and the devil. Of course, our parents looked at the album artwork and assumed that Iron Maiden's lyrics were all of the "praise hail satan" variety. The joke was on the grownups, though, and I remember getting a big kick out of that. Maiden's devil songs were always like little soundtracks to horror movies, with heroes who opposed evil and tried to stop it. It was kinda like the heavy metal version of a musical comic book, and being a dorky 15 year old, I ate it up.

For the most part, however, Maiden didn't do many "devil songs." English history and war were the bands primary lyrical preoccupation.

There goes the siren that warns of the air raid
Then comes the sound of the guns sending flak
Out for the scramble we've got to get airborne
Got to get up for the coming attack.
Jump in the cockpit and start up the engines
Remove all the wheelblocks there's no time to waste
Gathering speed as we head down the runway
Gotta get airborne before it's too late!

Now, when I look back at Maiden's lyrics, I realize that being exposed to them not only didn't hurt me, but may have actually done me some good. For one thing, they triggered an interest in European history (and specifically English history) that no teacher was able to achieve in me. For another thing, some of Maiden's songs got me interested in classic literature that I'd never have taken a personal interest in without them. One of their songs, for instance, is basically Samuel Taylor Coleridge's epic poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, set to music. Others quoted G.K. Chesterton. Of course, as a 15 year old, I didn't know who Chesterton was. I wouldn't develop an interest in the famous Christian Apologist until just a few years ago. Imagine my surprise when I made the connection: You mean This is the guy that Iron Maiden used to quote in their songs?

O God of earth and altar
Bow down and hear our cry
Our earthly rulers falter
Our peolple drift and die
The walls of gold entombe us
The swords of scorn divide
Take not thy thunder from us
But take away our pride.

It's kind of funny, now that I think about it. Our parents were convinced that we were listening to dope-smoking, devil-worshiping music... and, really, we were just a bunch of dorky teenage boys listening to stories about Winston Churchill and the London Blitz and the The Crimean War, all set to the strains of screaming electric guitar.

The horse he sweats with fear we break to run
The mighty roar of the Russian guns
And as we race towards the human wall
The screams of pain as my comrades fall
We hurdle bodies that lay on the ground
And the Russians fire another round
We get so near yet so far away
We won't live to fight another day

To this day, I have an intense interest in World War II and Normandy, and a fascination with "the greatest generation," and if I have to give credit to any specific source that sparked that first interest, it would probably be the lyrics of Iron Maiden.

Of course, kids today think that Iron Maiden is lame. But, what do they know? They don't know anything about lame. It's not like I'm listening to Buddy Holly or something, right?

Well, maybe it kinda is.