Everything Compared To A Single Song?
 

I was listening to 2 Meat Loaf songs the other day in the car on high volume - and really enjoyed them. As songs in their own right, I think they are both absolutely cracking soft rock tracks. Ok, I do cringe a bit whenever the lyric is "before your lonely world collides", but that aside, I thoroughly enjoyed them.

The songs were "Cry Over Me" and "If God Could Talk".

This got me thinking - I enjoy them when I don't hear them as part of a Bat / Steinman album, but think they were out of place on Bat 3. It is not the quality of the song as such - as I say above, I really like these songs, and think these would have massively improved CHSIB if they were on it instead of eg YRIWW.

It is more the difference in production style between those songs and Steinman written or influenced songs - I guess I would sum it up as "soft rock" rather than "operatic rock".

And then I was thinking about non-Steinman songs that could possibly have been a better fit on a Bat album, and came up with ILFYATTT, NADEITH, DIST, and CHSIB. There probably are others (MG?), but I didn't have all day ;):D


Anyway, to cut to the chase, IGLHFBOU is to me the best song in the world ever. Amazing lyrics, great music, hilariously over the top and yet appropriate production (possibly controversial I know, but I don't think the CD version does it justice!), brilliantly sung (and it is HARD to sing, as most Meat songs are), and superbly theatrical, with a setting that I like to imagine myself in as the hero. The whole storming into a castle on a thundery night to rescue my girl from the clutches of her evil father... wicked in every way. I get emotional every time I hear it.

Every new song Meat Loaf does, I always rate on the basis of how well it compares to IGLHFBOU. On the basis that it needs to appeal to me on all the levels above, this sets the bar pretty high!

Some of the non-Steinman songs I list above get pretty close (DIST and ILFYATTT in particular).

I was wondering - do you, dear reader, have a similar standard to which you compare, or am I as mad as a box of frogs?

Quite possibly :twisted:

The two songs you've mentioned are in my opinion two of the worst songs Meat has ever recorded.

agreed. even if they were on CHSIB they would suck

I will state my frame of mind on this thread too about Cry Over Me.

LOVE IT! AND I LOVE IT MORE LOUD!

If God Could Talk - I go through phases with this song. Sometimes I skip, sometimes I feel I need to be a bit Holy, I crank it loud so god has to say "turn it down please" (not because it's a bad song, but because he wants me to preserve my hearing). :)

Suzieq

I don't really go for all this analysing whether a song belongs on a Bat album or not, I just enjoy them for what they are, regardless who wrote them. But I do agree that I'd Lie For You, Couldh't Have Said It Better, Did I Say That and Not A Dry Eye are fantastic songs. And while Cry Over Me and If God Could Talk aren't my favourites on Bat 3, I don't hate them.

Carole

Even if they were on BBIS they would suck ;)

Me too :) Some stand out each and every time as ones which make me stop what I'm doing (unless driving!) and just listen, rapt, as they lift me away from the mundane .. many others will do that at times when the song suits my mood or circumstances, and all of them I can enjoy ..

Sometimes people ask "What song do you skip?", and there isn't a song Meat has delivered on an album that I do .. he put his best into every one and I can enjoy each for that.

I'd Lie for You and Did I Say That are ones that always stand out for me :) The passion and energy of Meat's delivery in the latter bowled me over the first time I heard it, and it never fails to have the same effect .. love the urgency, love the vocals .. in fact there isn't a song on CHSIB that I don't love, from Do It! with it's incisive delivery in which I can hear every word, to the gentle and lovely message in Forever Young. If they tore every Meat album from my hands the last two I'd give up would be CHSIB .. and Bat3, because I love every song on that too, and it has Alive!, which I adore and which just IS Meat to me.

Caryl

i like what i like at any given moment, it changes all the time, there are times i dont want to listen to some songs from the first bat albums, for example today i was listening to bat 2 in the car and skipped almost hlaf the album, just wasnt in the mood for most of it.

Having said that i'm never in the mood for lost boys and golden girls :?

Other than that one and masculine, i cant really pick any songs i never listen to.

Caryl and Carole,

I agree with the both of you. I know the analyzing of which songs should go where and on what album is not something I do well, if I do it at all. I leave that for Meat to determine. I know I enjoy the fruits of his labor regardless :)

For clarification only, skipping songs for me is not a matter of good song/bad song. It's just whatever suits my mood at the time and I, too, can enjoy each song on its own. If we are talking about a time where I'm playing an album from start to finish (which before IPod or random technology) I wouldn't skip any of them as the album does have a theme or an audio story. However, I rarely listen from start to finish anymore due to the "random" button on the CD player (I like to be surprised by the Meat song it picks) or the playlists that I've created on my IPod.

I will go on kicks with a song for days to weeks. But the beauty of it is, I never know which one it's going to be.

Suzieq

:twisted: If God Could Talk is fecking brilliant!

oh i agree neil....... but i dont

LMAO :lmao:

Yep, the ability to make our own cd's and playlists have made us more critical over time i think. When before you were only able to carry so many cds with you, or have to cause an accident to change cd's in the car, you were more likely to listen to the album as intended.

and then there was audio tapes :D but we wont go there
(much harder to skip crappy songs)

yep lol, and if you wanted to make one with your own mix on, it took a hell of alot longer to make :p

i made you laugh :D