This song is Iron Maiden’s first-ever fully acoustic track. The song was originally recorded with electric instruments, however, as Bruce Dickinson has stated on the Death on the Road DVD:
After all the battering that we’ve given the listener over the last hour of music it just seemed right to play...
[Verse 1]
From the red sky of the east
To the sunset in the west
We have cheated death, and he has cheated us
But that was just a dream
And this is what it means
We are sleeping, and we'll dream forevermore
[Pre-Chorus 1]
And the fragment remains of our memories
And the shadows we made with our hands
Deeper grey, came to mourn
All the colours of the dawn
Will this journeyman's day be his last?
[Chorus]
I know what I want
I'll say what I want
And no one can take it away
I know what I want
I'll say what I want
And no one can take it away
[Chorus]
I know what I want
I'll say what I want
And no one can take it away
I know what I want
I'll say what I want
And no one can take it away
[Verse 2]
But the memory still remains
All the past years, not so strange
Our winter times are like a silent shroud
And the heartbeat of the day
Drives the mist away
And winter's not the only dream around
[Pre-Chorus 2]
In your life, you may choose desolation
And the shadows you build with your hands
If you turn to the light
That is burning in the night
Then your journeyman's day has begun
[Chorus]
I know what I want
I'll say what I want
And no one can take it away
I know what I want
I'll say what I want
And no one can take it away
[Chorus]
I know what I want
I'll say what I want
And no one can take it away
I know what I want
I'll say what I want
And no one can take it away
[Instrumental Break]
[Whispered]
(Spare your life
And you choose the destruction
Of time over yourself)
[Pre-Chorus 2]
In your life, you may choose desolation
And the shadows you build with your hands
If you turn to the light
That is burning in the night
Then your journeyman's day has begun, yeah
[Chorus]
I know what I want
I'll say what I want
And no one can take it away
I know what I want
I'll say what I want
And no one can take it away
[Chorus]
I know what I want
I'll say what I want
And no one can take it away
I know what I want
I'll say what I want
And no one can take it away
Journeyman was written by Steve Harris & Bruce Dickinson & Adrian Smith.
Journeyman was produced by Kevin Shirley & Steve Harris.
Iron Maiden released Journeyman on Mon Sep 08 2003.
‘Spare your life and you choose destruction of time over yourself’.