This album is the latter part of the summer of 1990 in a nutshell. I think I bought this a few days before I went away to college and those last few days were pretty memorable. I was working at a grocery store just a few blocks from home at the time saving up money for my first semester at Ball State University. I actually made a few friends at the grocery store. We were all pretty young; ages 16 - 18. On a couple of occasions we went to a water slide park north of town, all piled into my dad's station wagon. Good times. I remember meeting up at one of the cashier's house one night to play Euchre. It was good, on the level times. But a few other things were going on too. This wasn't just a male only party. One of my high school buds... we'll call him 'Chris' and one of the cashiers... we'll call her 'Jane' were bagging more than just groceries, so to speak. 'Chris' was a good looking guy with a lot of charm with the ladies. He was (and still is) the kind of person who could tell you the most ridiculous thing in the world and you couldn't really tell if he believed it or not. 'Jane' wasn't bad looking but was not drop dead gorgeous either. She somewhere in the middle area that makes a girl approachable and I think she was 21 too. She had a boyfriend who was probably a schmuck but he was about half the size of Chris so it wasn't a concern of his if he got caught.
Anyways, 'Jane' had a least one good female friend at the grocery store named 'Veronica' who was 23 or 24 but looked all of 17 years old. She was blonde and pretty and very sweet. She was involved with someone but I don't think it was too serious. I also think she had 2 kids too. So what happened was 'Chris', 'Jane', 'Veronica' and I all went to the state fair together. It wasn't a 'date-date' or 'double date' but it was definitely one of my first date like experiences. It was actually a really good time. She even held my hand a few times, which really blew my mind. Hey, any female contact was good female contact, especially when they looked like her. But the really funny part, that really sticks with me is that at about midnight, 'Veronica' suggested we go to a night club. I'm thinking... 'you realize I'm only 19, right?' "Don't worry about it, they know me there and they don't check ID's this late at night," was her response. Well, she was right. It was my first real experience at a night club with no ID. I remember the place was packed and being totally self conscious. I didn't dare go to the bar an order a beer, so Veronica went ahead and got me one! At this same bar was someone else my age, from my graduating class. Her name was 'Lucy' (yeah I'm changing all these names) We actually had a pretty good conversation, which we probably never did in high school. She was really pretty, and still is to this day. Turns out that she, like me, felt like she was never accepted in school. That blew my mind. I thought she was popular party girl, but that may have all been an illusion. She was there with some other guy who I knew and had good relations with, even though I barely knew him. But for the longest time, I remembered talking with 'Lucy' that night, thinking how I really didn't know her but we had so much in common. I'm sure no one else really remembers the events of that night. It was all just fun, but it has always stuck with me. In some ways I divide my life between 'pre college', 'college' and 'post college' and this night really represented the last night of my 'pre college' life.
There's nothing in the post about the music so far, but Piece of Mind is always connected to that night, those places, and those people even if time has slipped away. The bridge between my pre college life and my college life is the place mentally that Piece of Mind occupies. Musically, it still holds up 100% even if 'Quest for Fire' is not a great song. This was Iron Maiden at a creative peak during metal's glory years. Up the Irons!
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