Eddie the Head

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Edward "Eddie" The Head, referred in short as simply Eddie, is a music character and mascot of Iron Maiden. Being one of the most famous band mascots in the music industry, Eddie has appeared in various incarnations throughout Iron Maiden's discography.

Development
During the 1970s, the young Iron Maiden was undergoing many lineup and layout changes. The band had a menacing face next to the band's logo on live stages. The face was known as "Eddie the Head" by the band's members. In 1980, Iron Maiden was due to release their first studio album and were looking for an artist to draw the cover. Many artists turned up with fantasy artworks, including Derek Riggs. As a result of Iron Maiden disapproving of Riggs' fantasy artwork, the artist submitted an artwork that was originally intended for a punk rock album. The art piece featured a zombie character near a yellow, light-emitting street lamp at night, with detailed clouds and a bright moon. The band approved of the artwork, but requested that the character was given hair. The "Running Free" single cover had Eddie the Head as a silhouette so not to spoil the first album's cover before release. Derek Riggs would continue to draw all of Iron maiden's album and single covers until 1992. Since then, Riggs has occasionally made a few special art pieces for the band.

Incarnation history

 * Iron Maiden, the first artwork featuring Eddie, originally created for a possible punk record, based on an American's head allegedly stuck to a Vietnamese tank.
 * "Running Free", the band's first release to depict Eddie, painted after the album cover so his face was hidden to protect his identity.
 * "Sanctuary", showing Eddie above Margaret Thatcher's corpse, wielding a knife. According to Riggs, the band's management censored the image themselves to gain publicity.
 * "Women in Uniform", according to Riggs features Margaret Thatcher about to get "her own back" on Eddie.
 * Killers, featuring Eddie with an axe and his victim clawing at his shirt. Based on a block of flats in which Riggs lived at the time, it contains several references to the band, such as the "Ruskin Arms" and "Charlotte the Harlot".
 * "Twilight Zone", features Eddie's spirit reaching towards a woman through a mirror. According to Rod Smallwood, Iron Maiden's manager, the band were criticized as Eddie appeared to be attacking the woman.
 * "Purgatory", depicts the devil's face crumbling away to reveal Eddie.
 * Maiden Japan, shows Eddie with a Samurai sword. The cover was painted at short notice as the original, featuring Eddie decapitating Paul Di'Anno, was withdrawn as the band were considering replacing him.
 * The Number of the Beast, depicts Eddie controlling the Devil like a puppet, who, in turn, also controls a puppet Eddie, causing controversy with American evangelists. Originally painted for the "Purgatory" song, Smallwood withheld the artwork for the following album, deeming it too good for a single.
 * "Run to the Hills", shows Eddie fighting Satan with a Native American tomahawk, a reference to the song itself.
 * "The Number of the Beast", the single cover showing Eddie holding the devil's severed head, which Riggs claims was meant to look like Salvador Dalí.
 * Piece of Mind, a lobotomized Eddie, in a straitjacket, is chained at the neck to a padded cell.
 * "Flight of Icarus", shows a metal-winged Eddie torching Icarus with a Flamethrower, which Riggs states was meant to look like Led Zeppelin's Swan Song logo. The painting also contains a small box, meant to be Eddie's Piece of Mind padded cell.
 * "The Trooper", depicts Eddie as a red coat, during the Charge of the Light Brigade.
 * Powerslave, featuring a statue of Eddie as an Egyptian pharaoh.
 * "2 Minutes to Midnight", showing Eddie sitting in front of an atomic explosion.
 * "Aces High", depicts Eddie in a Spitfire cockpit.
 * Live After Death, shows Eddie rising from the grave.
 * "Run to the Hills (live)", contains live versions of "Run to the Hills" and "Phantom of the Opera" and so featured Eddie as the phantom in a hilly landscape.
 * Somewhere in Time, Eddie appears as a cyborg in a Blade Runner-inspired future. The cover is notable for containing dozens of Easter eggs relating to the band and pop culture references.
 * "Wasted Years", as the single came out before the album, the band did not want to reveal Eddie's new cyborg guise, so he appears only as a partial reflection in a time machine's monitor.
 * "Stranger in a Strange Land", depicts a Clint Eastwood-like Eddie in a Star Wars-esque bar.
 * Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, depicts a surreal Eddie with most of his body removed, which Riggs claims was because he was "sick of painting him" and this would mean there would not be as much of him to draw. Riggs also comments that he set it in a "polar landscape" after seeing a documentary on the North Pole, and that Eddie's head on fire was inspired by Arthur Brown.
 * "Can I Play with Madness", shows Eddie's brain being destroyed by a forearm on a corkscrew.
 * "The Evil That Men Do", according to Riggs he drew the artwork in a single night.
 * "The Clairvoyant", depicts Eddie with three faces, indicating the ability to see the past, present and future.
 * "Infinite Dreams"/ Maiden England, featuring Eddie riding a motorcycle.
 * No Prayer for the Dying, shows Eddie bursting out of another grave. The cover originally had Eddie strangling a gravedigger while bursting from the grave. The gravedigger was removed from the cover for the 1998 remastered release. Unlike the band's previous artworks, in which he would retain the same features gained with each release (such as the Piece of Mind lobotomy), Eddie returned to how he was in the first few albums.
 * "Holy Smoke", depicting Eddie destroying a group of televisions broadcasting TV evangelists, who the song itself attacks.
 * "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter", featured several different covers, such as one in which Eddie is stood outside The Paradise Club (a British TV series which Bruce Dickinson featured in) with a woman who resembles Jessica Rabbit, and one in which Eddie appears as the Grim Reaper in a graveyard.
 * Fear of the Dark, the first cover not created by Derek Riggs, features Melvyn Grant's design of Eddie as a tree monster.
 * "Be Quick or Be Dead", shows Eddie attacking Robert Maxwell. According to Riggs, Eddie was drawn directly onto a photo of Maxwell.
 * A Real Live One, depicts Eddie biting through an electrical cord.
 * "Fear of the Dark (live)", has Eddie as Steve Harris. The artwork was also used for the Raising Hell video.
 * A Real Dead One, features Eddie as a radio DJ.
 * "Hallowed Be Thy Name (live)", as lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson was leaving, the artwork depicts him being skewered with a trident by Eddie, who appears as the devil.
 * Live at Donington, re-release depicts Eddie with a pair of wings, originally created by Mark Wilkinson for the Monsters of Rock 1992 poster.
 * The X Factor, created by Hugh Syme, shows Eddie on an operating table being vivisected by machine with most of his insides showing. Due to the cover's graphic nature, the band had to provide a less-violent alternative consisting of a similar Eddie from a distance.
 * "Man on the Edge" is a close-up of the model's head.
 * "Lord of the Flies", also by Syme, has Eddie in an electric chair surrounded by two giant flies.
 * Best of the Beast, features a selection of Riggs' past Eddies.
 * "Virus", two covers, one by Syme, and one by Riggs featuring Eddie on a printed circuit board.
 * Virtual XI, Eddie reaches towards a child wearing a virtual reality headset, created by Melvyn Grant.
 * "The Angel and the Gambler", Eddie with wings standing outside a floating casino, created by Derek Riggs.
 * "Futureal", also by Riggs, Eddie appears as a statue head with his brain exposed. Alternate covers for these two singles are renders of Eddie as he would appear in Ed Hunter.
 * Ed Hunter, featuring the version of Eddie used in the game.
 * Brave New World, this Eddie originally appeared in a cloud of smoke coming from a burning "Wicker Man" Eddie, a piece of artwork created by Derek Riggs, but was removed and placed into the album art, wherein his cloud form looms over a futuristic version of London.
 * "The Wicker Man", Eddie appears as a Wicker Man, created by Mark Wilkinson.
 * "Out of the Silent Planet", features Eddie at a press conference, also designed by Wilkinson. An alternate cover uses the same Eddie from the Brave New World cover.
 * Rock in Rio: in both the CD and the DVD, as a cloud similar to the Brave New World cover, but looming over the Rock in Rio stage where the band played instead.
 * "Run to the Hills (2002 CD)", released to fund the recently created charity Clive Burr MS Trust Fund. One version had in its cover a Ross Halfin picture of Dickinson taken during the Rio concert digitally manipulated to turn him into Eddie.
 * BBC Archives, created by Derek Riggs for Billboard, the artwork originally depicted Eddie destroying Capitol Records (with whom they had just signed) with the pole of a British flag, but the building was changed for the album cover to him destroying the Broadcasting House instead.
 * Beast over Hammersmith, shows Eddie planting a British flag in the earth, adapted from The Beast on the Road tour programmed from 1982, drawn by Derek Riggs.
 * Best of the 'B' Sides, depicts Eddie mooning from behind the wheel of a truck (with the words "Up the Irons" written across his rear end), illustrated by Mark Wilkinson. Wilkinson also designed the Eddie's Archive embossed metal case.
 * Edward the Great, showing Eddie on a throne in full royal regalia, was created by Tom Adams.
 * Dance of Death, features Eddie as the Grim Reaper, created by David Patchett.
 * "Wildest Dreams", shot of Eddie in a top hat from the "Wildest Dreams" music video.
 * "Rainmaker", cover also taken from its music video.
 * Death on the Road, features Eddie as an undertaker, designed by Melvyn Grant.
 * A Matter of Life and Death, shows Eddie riding a tank, created by Tim Bradstreet.
 * "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg", depicts Eddie destroying the grave of Benjamin Breeg with a pickaxe, created by Melvyn Grant.
 * "Different World", cover is a still from the song's music video.
 * Somewhere Back in Time, shows the cyborg Eddie (from Somewhere in Time) erupting from the Powerslave pyramid.
 * The Final Frontier, drawn by Melvyn Grant, shows Eddie as an Extraterrestrial retrieving a key from a space ship. The artwork confused many fans claiming that it was not Eddie. Melvyn Grant himself has distanced this new monster from previous Eddie incarnations, stating that it "is not Eddie, as such," although the band members state that it is.
 * The "El Dorado" and "Satellite 15... The Final Frontier" radio promo covers, featuring Grant's new Eddie in a comic book sleeve, were created by Anthony Dry.
 * From Fear to Eternity, created by Melvyn Grant, shows three different incarnations: the Wicker Man Eddie from the "Wicker Man" single, the tank-riding Eddie from the A Matter of Life and Death album cover and a cross between the Dance of Death, Fear of the Dark and The Final Frontier Eddies.
 * The Book of Souls, created by Mark Wilkinson. This Eddie draws inspiration from Maya civilization, wearing face paint and earspools similar to those of the Mesoamerican people.
 * Senjutsu, also created by Mark Wilkinson, depicts Eddie as a Samurai from Feudal Japan based on an idea from Steve Harris. Samurai Eddie made his first appearance in the animated video for the first single from the album, "The Writing on the Wall", released four days prior to the announcement of Senjutsu on 15 July 2021.

Live appearances
To be added.

Trivia
To be added.