Iron Maiden: Aces High Meaning

Song Released: 1984

Aces High Lyrics

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...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Apr 14th 2009 !⃝

   This song is about an airfield scrambling Supermarine Spitfires. (You can tell from the line "rolling and turning our Spitfires to face them") This was a common British fighter plane in world war two. The scrambled aircraft encounter German bombers (Most likely He-111s Ju-88s or Do-17s). This can be justified by the line "move in to fire at the mainstream of bombers." After a a couple passes the notice enemy escort fighters at 8 o'clock.(These were Messerschmidt Me-109s not the first jet plane,the Messerschmidt Me-262, but a nimble Nazi fighter. They turn into the attack. the chorus that follows describes an intense dogfight. We cannot be certain of what happens after that. I personally feel that after defeating many enemies the ace pilot is in the gunsight of an enemy and desperately attempts to evade the attack. He is hit, spiraling towards the ground, and unable to bail out of his doomed spitfire when the music closes, but that is only my personal belief and the real ending is open to interpretation.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Sep 23rd 2008 !⃝

   There is no doubt in my mind that this is about the Battle of Britain...ME 109s vs Spitfires...just read the lyrics...with the Spitfires being in the defence. I don't know about you, but this song and The Trooper fire me the hell up...I cranked them in my gun truck my last deployment and I'll be doing the same this next one.

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   DarkLord

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   Mar 14th 2007 !⃝

   Well, Bruce Dickinson learned how to fly indeed. In fact, he is a professional jet pilot now (He is also a great swordsman...) That's not why he cut his hair though. And that's not the reason why Maiden have so many war songs too. He wasn't taking flying lessons by "The Number Of The Beast" period, when the first war songs came up. By the way, almost the most songs about war were written by Steve Harris.
4. anonymous

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   Oct 22nd 2011 !⃝

   A song about the battle of Britain when fighters scambled to intercept German bombers. The last verse describes attacking from a hopeless position. The spitfire is attacking from low altitude against a Me-109 coming out of the sun. To make matters worse, the Spitfire is armed with light machineguns while the Me-109 has cannon. That means the German can rain lead down on the spitfire, but the Spitfire's bullets might not even reach the Me-109.
5. anonymous

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   Oct 14th 2008 !⃝

   Yea, this song is about The Battle of Britain in WWII. You all described it well. The scramble, the combat, the adrenaline rush.
   
   Just somthing that somone posted about Bruise Dickenson that pissed me off. Yes, he is a piolet. However, there is a HUGE difference between sword fighting (what you said) and fencing (what he actually does). The weapon he fences, does not swing the blade around in a crazed fashion like one would with a combat sword. A foil (his weapon) is only allowed to perform a lunging (or poking you could call it) action on the opponent's torso (no arms legs or head).
6. anonymous

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   Apr 26th 2008 !⃝

   It is about the Battle of Britain in WWII. If you don't believe me, then why does the music video and live performance of it start with a speech from Winston Churchill about the Battle of Britain? And yes, Bruce was learning to fly, and he supposedly actually flys the band around from show to show occasionally.
7. anonymous

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   Oct 6th 2007 !⃝

   You don't even know anything about these guys, Bruce is a pilot and he is very inspired with airplanes, I think his first song about airplanes is "Where eagles dare", read it and you'll got it, and song is about a WW2, you have a video spot, there is Churchill's encouraging speech for pilots, and airplane's fights in black & white movie clips... And Bruce was a swordsman a long time ago, long before "Somewhere in time" album, two or three times he represented UK on a tournaments...

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
8. anonymous

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   Apr 28th 2007 !⃝

   It's about the battle for Britain I think. Germans were bombing Britain when the British air forces had to scramble to get in the air.
   
   "10 ME-109s out of the sun"
   
   an ME-109 is a Messerschmidt fighter plane I think it may have been the first jet powered plane. a Messerschmidt is a german plane
9. anonymous

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   Feb 27th 2007 !⃝

   Umm Nicko wasn't learning how to fly, Bruce Dickenson was in the Airforce that's why he cut his hair, that's also why a lot of their songs are about war.
10. anonymous

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    Jan 28th 2007 !⃝

    This song is definitely about WWII and air combat, how could it be more obvious? The WWII and war in general always inspired Steve Harris.I thing I've heard somewhere the thing about Nicko's flying lessons, I'm not sure though...
11. anonymous

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    Nov 26th 2006 !⃝

    Nicko was learning to fly about the time this song was written and that could have been an inspiration for Steve HArris.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
12. Wintermut3

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    Jan 4th 2006 !⃝

    It's obviously a war song.
    
    In my mind it's always best fit the Battle of Britian during WWII, where british RAF defenders had to rapidly scramble to the air at the first sign of enemy bombers and V-2 'buzz bombs', the frantic rush to get airborne, and the description of desperate arial combat both fit, as the RAF was often outnumbered and outclassed by the superior ME-109 and ME-110 aircraft the Germans used.
13. anonymous

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    Jan 3rd 2006 !⃝

    No it's not. Charge of the Light Brigade inspired The Trooper. About the 6000 calvery who took on Russian Artillary and got bombed to pieces.
14. anonymous

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    Nov 8th 2005 !⃝

    This song has its roots from the poem "Charge of the light brigade". Its basically about a horrific scene of war.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
15. Modlovecat

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    Jul 16th 2005 !⃝

    Describes an air battle from the viewpoint of a flying ace. The lyrics and fast-paced style have made the song commonly associated with war, and it appeared in the 1986 film Incident at Channel Q, about a war between headbangers and conservative "straight people".

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