About The Song
“The Evil That Men Do” is a song by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It is the band’s seventeenth single and the second from their seventh studio album, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988). The single debuted at number six in the UK charts and quickly rose to number five. The single’s B-sides are re-recordings of “Prowler” and “Charlotte the Harlot” which appear as tracks number one and seven/eight respectively on the band’s debut album Iron Maiden.
The title of the song is taken from Marcus Antonius’s speech while addressing the crowd of Romans after Caesar’s murder (Act 3, scene 2, “The Forum”) in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.” Bruce Dickinson may sometimes repeat this before playing the song, but with the order of the clauses reversed (as he did in Rock in Rio). The poetic lyrics of the song are not related.
The guitar solo in “The Evil That Men Do” is played by Adrian Smith while the guitar solo in “Prowler ’88” is played by Dave Murray. In “Charlotte the Harlot ’88”, the first guitar solo is played by Dave Murray followed by Adrian Smith.
The music video was filmed at The Forum in Inglewood, CA, during the Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour in 1988.
Video
Lyrics
Love is a razor and I walked the line on that silver blade
Slept in the dust with his daughter
Her eyes red with the slaughter of innocence
But I will pray for her, I will call her name out loud
I would bleed for her, if I could only see her now
Living on a razor’s edge, balancing on a ledge
Living on a razor’s edge, balancing on a ledge
Balancing on a ledge, living on a razor’s edge
Balancing on a ledge, you know, you know
The evil that men do lives on and on
The evil that men do lives on and on
The evil that men do lives on and on
The evil that men do lives on and on
Circle of fire my baptism of joy at an end it seems
The seventh lamb slain, the book of life opens before me
And I will pray for you, someday I may return
Don’t you cry for me, beyond is where I learn
Living on a razor’s edge, balancing on a ledge
Living on a razor’s edge, you know, you know
The evil that men do lives on and on
The evil that men do lives on and on
The evil that men do lives on and on
The evil that men do lives on and on
Living on a razor’s edge, balancing on a ledge
Living on a razor’s edge, you know
The evil that men do lives on and on
The evil that men do lives on and on, yeah
The evil that men do lives on and on
The evil that men do lives on and on
The evil, the evil that men do
The evil, the evil, the evil that men do