“I was inspired to write this song after watching Meryl Streep’s performance in the movie “The Iron Lady”.

The lyrics and melody came to me together this time, which was rather unusual for me. I’ll probably blog about this another day.

But for now, here is the sample track with some reverb for a sense of how it is playing in my head. And the separate stems for the vocal parts.”

Lyrics below:

Heart of Steel

All these years
Of learning
To be brave
Has taken
Away my pains
Now I have
No more tears

All this time
Of fighting
All those lies
Has forged me
A heart of steel
So heavy
It’s weighing down inside

Bridge
So you can’t
Just walk in here
And take everything away
You don’t know
The rules to this game

There is more than
A will to make this work
You’ll never know
You’ll never learn
You’ll never want to
Anyway

Chorus
Friend or foe
I won’t know
Till the day they let their cards show

But I know
I’ll never be
The one they love. So let it be.

Day and night
I have to fight
This denigrating feeling inside

I’ve died a thousand times
Time and again I will rise
Against your darkness I will shine
No one can take me down this time

oddly, the melody reminds me in places of China In Your Hands by T’Pau, a hit in the mid 1980s!


Maggie, as the Iron Lady is affectionately or otherwise known by us Brits , is an interesting theme for a song. Whilst opinion is divided over whether she belongs in the Churchill, Gandhi and Mandela camp or the Hitler and Stalin one, she certainly had an amazing presence and charisma that few politicians have had before or after.

My dad was, in his job, a staunch political opponent, but even he said when she appeared on TV that “She’s royalty”- I think that sums her up nicely.

My remix was kind of inspired by Shirley Bassey’s James Bond themes, with a beat verging on dubstep and plenty of pop and reggae influences.

I’ve included most of the separate parts, which may be of use to someone wanting to orchestrate the acapella.