Princess of the Night

Any uninitiated metal fan listening to this uptempo track might conjecture that it is a bizarre tribute to a groupie who is well past her sell-by date. In fact, it was inspired by a train. In the very first issue of Kerrang!, June 1981, an interview with vocalist Biff Byford and guitarist Paul Quinn, Saxon - The Barnsley Connection, makes this clear. Byford explained it is a song "about a steam train that ends up in the scrap yard." Later, that year, in the November issue, he went into more detail: "Some time ago we used to park our van at Barry Island in Glamorgan... There's a huge compound there where they keep all the old steam trains that they don't use anymore. They're just left to rot and I suppose that upset us because they really were magnificent machines. Well you can't beat the days of steam can you?" He continued: "Anyway, late at night if I couldn't sleep I would look at those ghostly engines and imagine them painted up and back in their glory. It's my romantic side coming out again."

Biff Byford had the lyrics written for this song about a year before the band put music to it. When that music came, it came quickly Byford explained in our 2014 interview: "Paul Quinn (Saxon guitarist) came up with a riff and it sort of fit my lyrics. So that song was written very quickly, very quickly indeed. I already had the lyrics and the riff went together so simply, really smooth."