Home Taping is Killing Music

Last week I was driving home from (The) London kinda late. The M4 was deserted. Rain was falling, and I struggled to peer through the streaks on my windscreen left by my decomposing wipers. I was pretty tired. To stop myself nodding off I decided to switch from whatever CD I was listening to & check out the radio.

The moment I turned over, Ras Kwame (who is one of the 3 DJs chosen to take over John Peel's slot) introduced this track. I was blown away.

Hiram Abiff - The Number of The Beast

I could find no trace of it on the internet, so I decided to record it from the Radio 1 site - hence the DJ Intro / Outro & low quality recording.

I know nothing about Hiram Abiff, and I can find no information about him. If this is his debut single, this will be a man to watch. He has quite an issue with the number '6'!

Appropriately given the apocalyptic nature of the track, putting 'Hiram Abiff' into Google brings up numerous sites about Freemasons. This is what Wikipedia has to say...

According to Masonic mythology, Hiram Abiff was the master of the construction of King Solomon's Temple. This temple was built about 988 BC. Hiram Abiff is assumed by some to have been the same person as King Hiram I of Tyre, who is given credit in the Bible itself for having sent building materials and men for the construction of the Temple (see 2
Samuel 5:11).

Others make Hiram Abiff the representative of the king, rather than the king himself. 2 Chronicles 2 relates a formal request from Solomon to King Hiram for workers and for materials; King Hiram replies by sending a "cunning man, endued with understanding, of Huram my father's", whose father formerly lived in Tyre, and is deceased (2 Chronicles 2:13-14). By this telling, this man was Hiram Abiff. The phrase "Huram my father's" in Hebrew is huram abi; this may be the origin of the name. As a result, Hiram Abiff is often referred to by Freemasons as the widow's son (see also 1 Kings 7:13-14). This is allegedly used in a verbal Masonic distress cry: "Is there no help for the widow's son?"

According to the legend which figures in the lore of Freemasonry, Abiff was murdered by one of three workers who assaulted him in their attempt to discover the secret Abiff held. The secret was never divulged. Hiram Abiff's death is commemorated in various Masonic rituals.

That's not important though... just crank it up, picture yourself racing along a rainy motorway on a cold winter's night, and enjoy.