Background info video WTTN

[Tina.K.]

Couldn’t find a special thread about WTTN.

Found this one on Facebook, some background info about the album WTTN. I have never seen it before. Maybe you haven’t seen it too.

Enjoy this short but nice video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=9imXC40ILFo

[Adje]

Wow, that dude has a great yt channel. Good find! :twisted:

[Tina.K.]

Wow, that dude has a great yt channel. Good find! :twisted:

Niet op gelet! Whahahaha.

I see it now Adje! Like the vids of that dude! 😉

[duke knooby]

Aye, I enjoyed that, good vid

[AndrewG]

Remember seeing some of this interview footage originally in Poland during a school trip in 1996 on the youth hostel room's TV set.
It was horribly dubbed by a single Polish narrator who did all the voices on his own and even spoke over Dana Patrick.

Mental.

[loaferman61]

Wow, that dude has a great yt channel. Good find! :twisted:

Definitely the Meat Loaf Youtube Universe.

[Tina.K.]

A few years ago, I asked Meat on this forum about the clip of ILFY cause I read somewhere an accident happend recording it. Here’s what he said.

“ It was Dusk and the hit a Electric Guide wire that he couldn't see , Him and the Camera man were both Killed . I had just gotten out of the Helicopter . M”

[AndrewG]

A few years ago, I asked Meat on this forum about the clip of ILFY cause I read somewhere an accident happend recording it. Here’s what he said.

“ It was Dusk and the hit a Electric Guide wire that he couldn't see , Him and the Camera man were both Killed . I had just gotten out of the Helicopter . M”

Must have been an awful experience.

I really liked the ILFY video and watched it over and over again in the 90s.
Thought it was a cool idea to have a sort of sequel to AFL. A shame there was never a 3rd part in some way. To me Did I Say That? or Blind as a Bat would have been possible closures. But the big budget music video days were over by then. We had Beauty and The Beast and Indiana Jones. Maybe something following on from that that would have been set as James Bond (Meat as the villain who actually gets/keeps the girl for a change) or even Star Wars (Meat as Han Solo) would have been totally awesome. (Several ways they could have transitioned the burning fuel truck into those worlds I reckon, Tatooine desert for Star Wars for example)

Interestingly the ILFY video had a few peculiar bits. The scene after the waterfall rescue has a very low quality video part of the helicopter flying away. Not sure if that was related to the horrible incident but it always looked weird to me.
There were two versions, one with an added CGI dragon when the witch woman appeared from the crate in the cave and one without. What were the reasons for this I wonder?

There is only a super low quality version of ILFY on youtube. Shame.

[loaferman61]

Must have been an awful experience.

I really liked the ILFY video and watched it over and over again in the 90s.
Thought it was a cool idea to have a sort of sequel to AFL. A shame there was never a 3rd part in some way. To me Did I Say That? or Blind as a Bat would have been possible closures. But the big budget music video days were over by then. We had Beauty and The Beast and Indiana Jones. Maybe something following on from that that would have been set as James Bond (Meat as the villain who actually gets/keeps the girl for a change) or even Star Wars (Meat as Han Solo) would have been totally awesome. (Several ways they could have transitioned the burning fuel truck into those worlds I reckon, Tatooine desert for Star Wars for example)

Interestingly the ILFY video had a few peculiar bits. The scene after the waterfall rescue has a very low quality video part of the helicopter flying away. Not sure if that was related to the horrible incident but it always looked weird to me.
There were two versions, one with an added CGI dragon when the witch woman appeared from the crate in the cave and one without. What were the reasons for this I wonder?

There is only a super low quality version of ILFY on youtube. Shame.

I remember this very well. VH-1 (and maybe MTV) had been promising a "world premiere" at a certain date and time. Probably due to the success of IDAFL. I thought something was missing when I saw the debut. I have it somewhere in a huge closet filled with old VHS tapes without the CGI. Around 2 days later I caught it again with the CGI and then the channel pretty much just dropped it when it didn't take off like IDAFL did. I remember they were selling the CD single (remember those, I do yet yesterday is rather fuzzy). My local office supply store even had a huge stack of them for like .50 cents each.

I think the expectation of the networks was set too high and they gave up on it too soon. IDAFL is a high bar to set and I think they wanted that again.

[AndrewG]

I remember this very well. VH-1 (and maybe MTV) had been promising a "world premiere" at a certain date and time. Probably due to the success of IDAFL. I thought something was missing when I saw the debut. I have it somewhere in a huge closet filled with old VHS tapes without the CGI. Around 2 days later I caught it again with the CGI and then the channel pretty much just dropped it when it didn't take off like IDAFL did. I remember they were selling the CD single (remember those, I do yet yesterday is rather fuzzy). My local office supply store even had a huge stack of them for like .50 cents each.

I think the expectation of the networks was set too high and they gave up on it too soon. IDAFL is a high bar to set and I think they wanted that again.

I can see why they stopped investing the mega bucks in the videos after that indeed.

I was a member of the "International Meat Loaf Fan Club" at the time. I paid something like £30 per year for a magazine that never was made (always almost ready to print apparently) but I did get a few updates sent to me in letter form in 1994 and 1995. It promised the next album after Bat 2 would indeed feature "sessions with Jim Steinman". Never heard from the club after WTTN was launched. Pretty ridiculous. If it wasn't for my dad spotting the Meat Loaf show in Rotterdam advertised in a newspaper I'd never seen Meat live at the time probably. The club was useless.

When ILFY dropped I initially did think it was Steinman-esque but didn't sound complex enough to really be him or that it was perhaps penned quickly or something. It wasn't until I got my hands on the album I saw what was going on.
The price tag on my (in a Dutch cd shop) bought cd of WTTN read "Escape From Hell". Too bad I removed it as it may actually have made the CD more rare to own now.

Those were interesting times though without the internet for sure.

[loaferman61]

Meat had one of those "900" number fan lines for a short time. I called once and the title of the new album was definitely "Escape from Hell". I wasn't thrilled with another album with "Hell" in the title but I guess the record company wanted it as it seemed a rather obvious ploy for them thinking the albums sold better with it in the title.
Somewhere along the way it got changed to WTTN. I remember buying my copy at Walmart the day of release. Not sure how I even knew it was out. Maybe it was the video. What you had was probably rare, probably printed up for the initial intended title. The album may have been set up in some type of system well ahead of time, things were slower back then.

[letsgotoofar]

Indeed, as Evil Nickname's site (https://mljs.evilnickname.org/meatloaf/promo/escapefromhell.html) bears out, that title lasted, in one form or another, right up to advance promo CDs.

[duke knooby]

Meat fought with the record company over the title of that one...

If I recall correctly, when he was promoting it on GMTV, (breakfast TV show in the UK) he ended up describing it as.. they wanted to call it one thing, and I wanted to call it something else, and went on to explain about the artwork for the album, having two front covers, and explaining about the artwork... Eamon Holmes was interviewing, and they laughed about it having two covers, and two titles.

And in a different, hopefully sometime to surface interview, he explained the record company wanted to call it escape from hell, and Meat went on to explain that it had nothing to do with that, a bat record is something completely different, and he wasn't gonna put a hell in the title unless it was him and Jim Steinman.

Or words to that effect.

[M.Bison]

Here's a Meat interview that explains more around the title dilemma.

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/dec/20/lovin-meat-hell-was-good-to-meat-loaf-but-hes/

There's this on YouTube as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdBO0JnF57E where he describes using "Hell" as "easy [and] predictable".

If you search around Google as well, there's plenty a Billboard article to be found referring to the upcoming album as "Escape From Hell" or alternatively "Escape From Hell: Welcome to the Neighbourhood" or some other variation of the two.

I was always curious about the dragon vs non - dragon versions of the ILFY video as well. Disc 2 of WTTN Collector's had the dragon and anytime it makes a rare showing on TV it's the dragon so I always assumed that was the official version...

...I saw a clip of the final chorus on a site a while back with some slightly different inserts, the plane is shown instead of the dragon... so that makes at least three versions of the video?

[ThatWriterGuy]

The vastly more interesting take on WTTN is what the album could've been, at the developmental stage, had certain ideas been explored at the time.

I don't want to ruin it, because this story may come out at some point in the future, but it would've made for a much tighter, narratively relevant follow-up to Bat 2 (while NOT being a Bat album, in the strictest sense of those involved with the writing at the time).

[letsgotoofar]

Nor, for that matter, might any Jim songs have been involved period, but based on the concept I heard, they would probably not have been missed. The real pity is that the opportunity to explore those ideas was squandered.

[ThatWriterGuy]

Nor, for that matter, might any Jim songs have been involved period, but based on the concept I heard, they would probably not have been missed. The real pity is that the opportunity to explore those ideas was squandered.

Who are you?

How do you know these things???

;)

[letsgotoofar]

I'd wager the same way you know, Rosencrantz.

Love,

Guildenstern

;)

[loaferman61]

Man did this thread turn vague and cryptic.

[ThatWriterGuy]

I'd wager the same way you know, Rosencrantz.

Love,

Guildenstern

;)


Does that make our mutual friend Ophelia???

I think we both know who Hamlet is.

[anotherday]

...Well then...

[Adje]

Just to get back-ish on topic. That youtube channel from the OP has recently, up till today posted a bunch of background videos and old tour info videos and such. Worth to scroll through if you have nothing to do during this weird time. :cool:

[ThatWriterGuy]

If you ever see that swashbuckling sailor of the seven high seas, tell him he's doing a pretty good job.

[Adje]

bla bla bla.

You know they invented the PM option for this. Or start your own thread ;-)

[ThatWriterGuy]

You know they invented the PM option for this. Or start your own thread ;-)

So, let me get this straight.

You want me to PM you, just to tell you what I already told you in the post above?

Take the compliment - I'm enjoying your pirate bootleg videos (so much for tact).

[nightinr]

I've been listening to WTTN the last week...it really is a great album and reminds you of great, exciting times of Meat's career....

It was never going to be as good as Bat 2 and thats why I think some people treat the album in a slightly negative way.

Martha is a weak song but other than that great song after great song.

One question though - why did Jim allow Original Sin and Left in the Dark go on the album?

[ThatWriterGuy]

Why did Jim allow Original Sin and Left in the Dark go on the album?

Answer: $,$$$,$$$.

[Evil One]

It was never going to be as good as Bat 2 and thats why I think some people treat the album in a slightly negative way.I treat it in a slightly negative way as it was clearly a rush job to cash in on the success of Bat 2. It's still a mostly great album, but it's missing a bit of polish.

[Tina.K.]

Martha is a weak song but other than that great song after great song.


Martha a weak song? OMG, that’s imo the best on the album (and the best non-Steinman song Meat ever sang). Well, different people, different opinions I guess....

But I agree that the whole album is great!

[AndrewG]

Martha a weak song? OMG, that’s imo the best on the album (and the best non-Steinman song Meat ever sang). Well, different people, different opinions I guess....

But I agree that the whole album is great!

A lot of people who like rock I find have a huge problem with the 3/4 waltz like tempo. One of the very few times we heard Meat tackle that (in the choruses here).