Meat Loaf Is Awesome
Your Music Collection Sucks: Part II
If you didn't rush out and buy Bruce Springsteen's The Wild The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle, you suck.
This morning I found an even better and more up to date all-time greatest albums list from some American radio station. THIS is an awesome list. They even remembered that Pinkerton exists (though they rated it below the Blue Album...grr...).
http://www.xpn.org/885ATGA.php
Bat Out Of Hell - Meat Loaf (1977)
On that list, (too low) at number 134 is Bat Out Hell, a seven-song album from, at the time, a three-hundred-and-something-pound actor going by the name of Meat Loaf (I mean that in the sense that he'll ask you call him "Meat" for short), and an album which has sold 34 million copies worldwide, making it one of the ten biggest records ever. Bat Out Of Hell rose from the ashes of Never Land, a dark Peter Pan musical written by Jim Steinman which never got off the ground, and is essentially what you'd expect from such a project - imagine Grease with more grunt and a seventies (rather than fifties) youth attitude. The opening title track is a stunner, a ten-minute hard-rocking epic saga about a gruesome motorbike crash showcasing Meat's unrivalled vocal power. From there the album offers some variety; the straight-from-broadway banter of the hilarious high-school sex song Paradise By The Dashboard Light (at the time the longest song to ever make the US top 40), the classic You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth - another one you could imagine done on the stage, and gentler songs like Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad (his biggest hit until the early 90s), Heaven Can Wait and the powerful For Crying Out Loud. What makes this album so great is its mixture of classic melodies, Meat's powerful voice (at his best, he's arguably the most intense singer in rock music) and writer Jim Steinman's ability to mix wit with emotion, rock with piano ballads, and craft an album that's appealed to fans of all genres for three decades.
Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell - Meat Loaf (1993)
Proving that if lightning can't strike twice it can still hit nearby, Jim Steinman's second set of Bat songs sixteen years later was better than anyone had any right to expect, and while it didn't match the original's critical acclaim or hit the 34-million mark, 18 million copies sold is hardly something to laugh at when you consider that Meat Loaf basically had NO CAREER between Bat I and Bat II. Every album he tried with various writers was a flop, and by the mid 80s he was a washed-up one-hit-album wonder whose popularity was limited to the tour circuit in Europe. And yet somehow he and Steinman (Steinman himself having failed to launch his own solo career or his late-eighties girl-band project Pandora's Box into stardom) collaborated once more to create what is unquestionably the greatest comeback by any artist ever. I'm not just saying it, its a fact that no one's ever been that big, disappeared that emphatically, and comeback that big again, and they probably never will. Bat Out Of Hell II wasn't just a success because of what its title promised as a marketing tool. It was a success because of what the content delivered. I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That), perhaps longer than it needs to be at twelve minutes, was cut down to seven for the radio and MTV and quickly became the most successful rock single of all-time, hitting number one in twenty-five countries including the US and UK. The rest of the album is not as consistent as Bat Out Of Hell. The first three songs are up there as rock classics, no question, and there's nothing less brilliant about Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are (yes, there are many songs on this record which Steinman gave 'odd' names to, but when you hear this song you see the title in a different light). And the final track, Lost Boys And Golden Girls (another one reportedly straight from Steinman's original Never Land songbook) is simple but effective - basically Bat II's Heaven Can Wait. That said, Good Girls Go To Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere) and its instrumental continuation Back Into Hell don't add anything but an unwelcome stench of the eighties. The rest of the tracks are actually great, as in "within millimeters of Bat I"-great, but they're more growers than immediately accessible classics. Overall, this is one of the greatest rock albums you'll ever hear, there's a reason why a middle-aged guy no-one had heard from in a decade and a half became a huge star AGAIN, and you should get it because I'm always right.
So yeah, two albums that will save your record collection. Try turfing out that generic TV-show soundtrack sitting on your shelf while you're at it.
The Monster Is Loose: Bat Out Of Hell III - Meat Loaf (2006)
Now here's a question: three in a row? Meat Loaf hasn't been a no-one since Bat II like he was after the first one, he's been in movies (like Robert Paulson, or 'the guy with boobs,' in Fight Club), had a platinum-album without the help of Steinman in 1995 and toured around the world as a sell-out live act for years on end, and is now set to play Jack Black's father in the Tenacious D movie this November. But it's not as if he's the type of star who guarantees a multi-platinum hit each time out. He's released one album in the last ten years and he had a few health problems which limited his promotion of it (that and the record company sucked ass and screwed up big time) and while it did "okay" in Europe that's not quite the description typical of someone who can still be considered a mega-star. Throw in the factor of Jim Steinman's non-involvement beyond providing a few of the songs (he produced and/or arranged the last 2 Bat albums and wrote every track on each), and it's not as if Bat III's shaping up, on paper, to be another great rock classic. I mention it here because when it comes out on October 31st, it's going to kick ass on the sole basis that I love the last two Bat albums too much that I refuse to believe otherwise.... :(
Here's the first song that got leaked onto the net, hitting radio in July or August, and was reportedly written by producer Desmond Child, Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx and former Marilyn Manson guitarist John 5. It's grown on me. A lot. My hopes are up a little.
http://www.badongo.com/file/675382
It's... MUCH less Steinman-esque than expected (except for the epic length), but at least they aren't just trying to imitate his lyrical humour and pop-sensibilities because they'd probably fail to nail what makes it so good and come off sounding second-rate. I just hope there's SOME classic Steinman on the album too or it wouldn't be the same. But yeah, I like the metal-style, interesting for anyone who's heard the first two Bat albums to see if III's consistently like that especially seeing as this record also features another of Steinman's Never Land tracks It's All Coming Back To Me Now, a song originally set for Bat II, then shelved for Bat III, only for Steinman to give it to Celine Dion before Meat Loaf could record it (it was huge in 1994-ish, and yes it's the one you're thinking of). Something covered by Celine Dion... I'd like to hear THAT as a hard rock song :D
If you didn't rush out and buy Bruce Springsteen's The Wild The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle, you suck.
This morning I found an even better and more up to date all-time greatest albums list from some American radio station. THIS is an awesome list. They even remembered that Pinkerton exists (though they rated it below the Blue Album...grr...).
http://www.xpn.org/885ATGA.php
Bat Out Of Hell - Meat Loaf (1977)
On that list, (too low) at number 134 is Bat Out Hell, a seven-song album from, at the time, a three-hundred-and-something-pound actor going by the name of Meat Loaf (I mean that in the sense that he'll ask you call him "Meat" for short), and an album which has sold 34 million copies worldwide, making it one of the ten biggest records ever. Bat Out Of Hell rose from the ashes of Never Land, a dark Peter Pan musical written by Jim Steinman which never got off the ground, and is essentially what you'd expect from such a project - imagine Grease with more grunt and a seventies (rather than fifties) youth attitude. The opening title track is a stunner, a ten-minute hard-rocking epic saga about a gruesome motorbike crash showcasing Meat's unrivalled vocal power. From there the album offers some variety; the straight-from-broadway banter of the hilarious high-school sex song Paradise By The Dashboard Light (at the time the longest song to ever make the US top 40), the classic You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth - another one you could imagine done on the stage, and gentler songs like Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad (his biggest hit until the early 90s), Heaven Can Wait and the powerful For Crying Out Loud. What makes this album so great is its mixture of classic melodies, Meat's powerful voice (at his best, he's arguably the most intense singer in rock music) and writer Jim Steinman's ability to mix wit with emotion, rock with piano ballads, and craft an album that's appealed to fans of all genres for three decades.
Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell - Meat Loaf (1993)
Proving that if lightning can't strike twice it can still hit nearby, Jim Steinman's second set of Bat songs sixteen years later was better than anyone had any right to expect, and while it didn't match the original's critical acclaim or hit the 34-million mark, 18 million copies sold is hardly something to laugh at when you consider that Meat Loaf basically had NO CAREER between Bat I and Bat II. Every album he tried with various writers was a flop, and by the mid 80s he was a washed-up one-hit-album wonder whose popularity was limited to the tour circuit in Europe. And yet somehow he and Steinman (Steinman himself having failed to launch his own solo career or his late-eighties girl-band project Pandora's Box into stardom) collaborated once more to create what is unquestionably the greatest comeback by any artist ever. I'm not just saying it, its a fact that no one's ever been that big, disappeared that emphatically, and comeback that big again, and they probably never will. Bat Out Of Hell II wasn't just a success because of what its title promised as a marketing tool. It was a success because of what the content delivered. I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That), perhaps longer than it needs to be at twelve minutes, was cut down to seven for the radio and MTV and quickly became the most successful rock single of all-time, hitting number one in twenty-five countries including the US and UK. The rest of the album is not as consistent as Bat Out Of Hell. The first three songs are up there as rock classics, no question, and there's nothing less brilliant about Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are (yes, there are many songs on this record which Steinman gave 'odd' names to, but when you hear this song you see the title in a different light). And the final track, Lost Boys And Golden Girls (another one reportedly straight from Steinman's original Never Land songbook) is simple but effective - basically Bat II's Heaven Can Wait. That said, Good Girls Go To Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere) and its instrumental continuation Back Into Hell don't add anything but an unwelcome stench of the eighties. The rest of the tracks are actually great, as in "within millimeters of Bat I"-great, but they're more growers than immediately accessible classics. Overall, this is one of the greatest rock albums you'll ever hear, there's a reason why a middle-aged guy no-one had heard from in a decade and a half became a huge star AGAIN, and you should get it because I'm always right.
So yeah, two albums that will save your record collection. Try turfing out that generic TV-show soundtrack sitting on your shelf while you're at it.
The Monster Is Loose: Bat Out Of Hell III - Meat Loaf (2006)
Now here's a question: three in a row? Meat Loaf hasn't been a no-one since Bat II like he was after the first one, he's been in movies (like Robert Paulson, or 'the guy with boobs,' in Fight Club), had a platinum-album without the help of Steinman in 1995 and toured around the world as a sell-out live act for years on end, and is now set to play Jack Black's father in the Tenacious D movie this November. But it's not as if he's the type of star who guarantees a multi-platinum hit each time out. He's released one album in the last ten years and he had a few health problems which limited his promotion of it (that and the record company sucked ass and screwed up big time) and while it did "okay" in Europe that's not quite the description typical of someone who can still be considered a mega-star. Throw in the factor of Jim Steinman's non-involvement beyond providing a few of the songs (he produced and/or arranged the last 2 Bat albums and wrote every track on each), and it's not as if Bat III's shaping up, on paper, to be another great rock classic. I mention it here because when it comes out on October 31st, it's going to kick ass on the sole basis that I love the last two Bat albums too much that I refuse to believe otherwise.... :(
Here's the first song that got leaked onto the net, hitting radio in July or August, and was reportedly written by producer Desmond Child, Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx and former Marilyn Manson guitarist John 5. It's grown on me. A lot. My hopes are up a little.
http://www.badongo.com/file/675382
It's... MUCH less Steinman-esque than expected (except for the epic length), but at least they aren't just trying to imitate his lyrical humour and pop-sensibilities because they'd probably fail to nail what makes it so good and come off sounding second-rate. I just hope there's SOME classic Steinman on the album too or it wouldn't be the same. But yeah, I like the metal-style, interesting for anyone who's heard the first two Bat albums to see if III's consistently like that especially seeing as this record also features another of Steinman's Never Land tracks It's All Coming Back To Me Now, a song originally set for Bat II, then shelved for Bat III, only for Steinman to give it to Celine Dion before Meat Loaf could record it (it was huge in 1994-ish, and yes it's the one you're thinking of). Something covered by Celine Dion... I'd like to hear THAT as a hard rock song :D
posted by Steve @ 12:07 PM
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