Aces High

Lore & Background

The song's lyrics are written strictly from the viewpoint of a British RAF pilot fighting during the Battle of Britain in 1940. This specific conflict is noted as the first military engagement to be fought entirely with aircraft. The visual identity for this track was established through artwork depicting Eddie the Head situated within the cockpit of a Supermarine Spitfire, a principal aircraft that participated in the battle. The song has become one of Iron Maiden's most popular tracks and has been covered numerous times by various artists over the decades.

In Their Own Story

The narrative unfolds through a music video filmed in Poland in September 1984 during the World Slavery Tour, directed by Jim Yukich. To ground the fictional account in reality, the video was accompanied by footage of The Battle of Britain as seen on historical newsreels. This combination of performance and archival history became a staple for the band; these specific footages were later reused as the startup sequence for every Iron Maiden concert on their stage screens. During live shows, this visual introduction plays while background music mixes Winston Churchill's speech with a snippet of the original song, setting the scene before the band begins playing.

Reader's Guide

For fans attending concerts, 'Aces High' is frequently used as the opening song. As documented in concert videos like Live After Death and Iron Maiden: Flight 666, the performance is usually preceded by Winston Churchill's famous 'We shall fight on the beaches' speech, accompanied by the sound of planes in the background. This specific intro structure was also present at the beginning of the original music video. The track has been performed across six distinct Iron Maiden tours. It served as the set opener for four major tours: World Slavery Tour, The Ed Hunter Tour, Somewhere Back in Time World Tour, and Legacy of the Beast World Tour. For two other tours, specifically the Maiden England World Tour and Run for Your Lives World Tour, it was positioned as the first song in the encore.

Did You Know?

• The first B-side is a medley of Nektar's 'Crying in the Dark' and 'King of Twilight', the last two songs from their 1972 album A Tab in the Ocean.
• The music video was filmed in Poland in September 1984 and directed by Jim Yukich.
• Gerard Way stated in a 2014 Q magazine interview that the live version of 'Aces High' from Live After Death first made him interested in performing live.
• The song appears in the soundtracks for Madden NFL 10, Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now, and the mountain bike film New World Disorder III.
• Children of Bodom covered the track in 2008 on their album Skeletons in the Closet.