The Trooper
Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris built 'The Trooper' from Tennyson's poem about the 1854 Charge of the Light Brigade -- a Victorian cavalry poem turned into a galloping heavy metal riff.
By Song Reviews · October 1, 2026
Greatest of All Time!Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris built 'The Trooper' from Tennyson's poem about the 1854 Charge of the Light Brigade -- a Victorian cavalry poem turned into a galloping heavy metal riff.
“The Trooper” was written by bassist Steve Harris and drew on Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s 1854 poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” about the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. It was the second single from Piece of Mind, which EMI released in the UK on May 16, 1983, and it reached the UK singles chart at No. 12 after its June 20, 1983 release. In the US it peaked at No. 28 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and the single’s B-side, a Jethro Tull cover, got more US airplay than the A-side did.
Piece of Mind was drummer Nicko McBrain’s first album with the band, and “The Trooper” is where its rhythm section earns the billing: the galloping figure is the poem’s subject, a cavalry charge, translated into bass and drums. AllMusic called the composition “an all-time genre classic,” singling out the harmonized lead riff from guitarists Dave Murray and Adrian Smith and the trademark gallop. Choosing a Victorian poem about a doomed charge as the source is a specific literary decision, and it fits Maiden’s habit of writing metal as historical storytelling.
The song has kept its theatrical afterlife: singer Bruce Dickinson regularly performs it waving a Union Flag and wearing an authentic red coat of the kind worn in the battle it describes. It has also turned up in Guitar Hero II, Rock Band and the Stranger Things series finale.
Greatest of All Time. A Crimean War cavalry charge, turned into a galloping riff Bruce Dickinson still performs in a redcoat.
Hero image: “Piece of Mind” album cover art, EMI / Capitol Records. Used under fair use for editorial commentary.