09/30/2026
I love writing, but I also rewrite the s**t out of everything. I have books full of stuff that probably qualifies as essays, although calling them essays makes it sound like somebody assigned them and there’s a teacher somewhere wondering why I’m 35 years late handing them in. Most are about music, records, places, people and whatever thought got stuck in my head long enough that I had to get it out, and a surprising amount of it has never seen the light of day.
Sometimes I’ll write something because an album has an anniversary coming up, spend far too long screwing around with it, and then life happens and the date passes. At that point it feels weird posting it. An anniversary piece three days late has the same energy as forgetting somebody’s birthday and trying to convince them the card was already in the mail. It makes me wonder how many things I’ve written over the years that are just sitting in notebooks because I missed whatever tiny window existed to share them.
This one nearly joined them, which would have been particularly appropriate because Iron Maiden released Somewhere in Time 40 years ago today.
In March of 1987, we were visiting Toronto. My older brother and I were walking past Maple Leaf Gardens when we noticed Iron Maiden was playing. We weren’t there for the concert, we didn’t have tickets and none of it had been planned. We asked Mom if we could go and, somewhat amazingly considering I was 13 and my brother was 17, she said yes. That’s how my first major concert became Iron Maiden at Maple Leaf Gardens on the Somewhere on Tour tour, basically because we happened to walk past the right building at the right time.
What I find interesting nearly 40 years later is how differently you remember these things as an adult. At 13, the story was entirely about seeing Iron Maiden. Now I also think about Mom agreeing to it, waiting for us, and the fact that I don’t think I’ve ever asked what they did for those few hours while we were inside. I apparently considered their evening considerably less important than mine, which seems perfectly reasonable considering I was 13 and Iron Maiden was playing.
Some records remind you of a particular year or a place you used to live. Somewhere in Time takes me straight back to Toronto with my brother, accidentally discovering that one of the biggest bands in the world was playing down the street and realizing we might actually get to go. Forty years later I still love the record, but I probably appreciate the story attached to it even more.
And with September 29 almost gone, this one narrowly avoided joining all those other things I’ve written that nobody ever got to read. Maybe someday I’ll have to figure out what the hell to do with those too.
Happy 40th to Somewhere in Time.
