Watch rare footage of metal’s biggest band performing the 1980 Iron Maiden cut live on YouTube
![Footage of Metallica performing live in 1992 and a photo of Iron Maiden's debut album](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/PPfF8o3zDwfw45mQeKKVoA-320-80.png)
(Image credit: kryptory via YouTube | EMI)
At one San Francisco stop during the Black Album tour in 1992, Metallica preceded a performance of Master Of Puppets with a quick jam of Iron Maiden’s Prowler (footage of which is embedded below). The song, which opened Maiden’s 1980 self-titled album and featured ex-vocalist Paul Di’Anno, is a seedy metal number that introduced many to the band’s punky yet progressive ways. Then, in the hands of James Hetfield and the boys, it became a gravelly thrasher that sounded even more aggressive and sordid.
Papa Het’s raspy vocals make Di’Anno’s lecherous lyrics – “See the ladies flashing all their legs and lashes, I’ve just got to find my way!” – sound even more threatening. Meanwhile, the sharp lead guitar line is perfectly tackled by Kirk Hammett and his wah-wah pedal, as Jason Newsted and Lars Ulrich give the old-school stomper a fresh speed metal verve.
Metallica never played Prowler live again as far as we know (there’s no reference to it anywhere on setlist database setlist.fm), and they certainly didn’t record a version of it either. Considering the band’s penchant for putting their snarling metal stamp on other artists’ material, it’s a crying shame. It certainly had all the intensity and catchiness to become the next Am I Evil? given the chance.
Currently, Maiden don’t even perform Prowler live. The last time they did, according to setlist.fm, was in 2005, during a tour where the band exclusively played material from their first four albums: Iron Maiden, Killers, The Number Of The Beast and Piece Of Mind. It begs the question, why does nobody want to do anything with this absolute banger of a song?!