The shallowest deep delve in to the works of Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman continues.
Comedians Emma Crossland and Sam Wilkinson know a bit about Meat Loaf but, as they're rapidly learning, not enough to do a review podcast. Still, they'll give it a good old go.
This episode sees the pair dive into Hot Summer Night and its creepy weird opening dialogue, before getting deep into why the smoky dive bar of Midnight at the Lost and Found would never work in Britain.
The video of the man in the strange pub discussed in the opening section can be found at https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=392007290481199&rdid=slF5utGyZx866PNu
Check out Mosolele, they're great! This is their Soundcloud. - https://soundcloud.com/moselele
Next time! Prepare yourselves for Meat Loaf's grim and sensitive sides as we dive into Martha and Where the Rubber Meets the Road, both from the Welcome to the Neighbourhood album.
Chat out of Hell is a is a review podcast: all music extracts are used for review/illustrative purposes. To hear the songs in full please buy them from your local record shop or streaming platform. Don't do a piracy.
Music extracts on this episode:
Bat out of Hell by Mosolele
You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night) by Meat Loaf from the album Bat out of Hell (1977)
The Eve of the War by Jeff Wayne (monologue by Richard Burton) from the album Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds (1978)
The Muppet Show Theme by the Muppets (featuring Joanna Newsom) from the album The Muppets (Soundtrack) (2011)
Midnight at the Lost and Found by Meat Loaf from the album Midnight at the Lost and Found (1983)
The shallowest deep delve in to the works of Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman continues.
Comedians Emma Crossland and Sam Wilkinson know a bit about Meat Loaf but, as they're rapidly learning, not enough to do a review podcast. Still, they'll give it a good old go.
This episode sees the pair dive into Hot Summer Night and its creepy weird opening dialogue, before getting deep into why the smoky dive bar of Midnight at the Lost and Found would never work in Britain.
The video of the man in the strange pub discussed in the opening section can be found at https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=392007290481199&rdid=slF5utGyZx866PNu
Check out Mosolele, they're great! This is their Soundcloud. - https://soundcloud.com/moselele
Next time! Prepare yourselves for Meat Loaf's grim and sensitive sides as we dive into Martha and Where the Rubber Meets the Road, both from the Welcome to the Neighbourhood album.
Chat out of Hell is a is a review podcast: all music extracts are used for review/illustrative purposes. To hear the songs in full please buy them from your local record shop or streaming platform. Don't do a piracy.
Music extracts on this episode:
Bat out of Hell by Mosolele
You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night) by Meat Loaf from the album Bat out of Hell (1977)
The Eve of the War by Jeff Wayne (monologue by Richard Burton) from the album Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds (1978)
The Muppet Show Theme by the Muppets (featuring Joanna Newsom) from the album The Muppets (Soundtrack) (2011)
Midnight at the Lost and Found by Meat Loaf from the album Midnight at the Lost and Found (1983)
On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
Emma:I'm sorry, what?
Sam:It's that bit from the beginning of you took the words right out of my mouth brackets hot summer night
Emma:Oh, Oh. Right.
Sam:S- so would you
Emma:will he offer me his mouth?
Sam:Yes
Emma:Will he offer me his teeth? Actually that's quite off-putting when you think about it
Sam:Yes
Emma:Will he offer me his jaws? Does that mean his copy of Jaws on DVD
Sam:I don't I think it was supposed to be sexy or something at the time
Emma:Will he offer me his podcast recording equipment?
Sam:Yes
Emma:Again, will he offer me his podcast recording equipment?
Sam:Yes!
Emma:And will he sound like yet another man shouting into the void without me?
Sam:Yes!
Emma:And does he love me?
Sam:As a friend, yes.
Emma:This is quite cringey.
Sam:Yeah so on a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
Emma:Yeah, probably.
Sam:I bet you say that to all the boys with podcasts.
Emma:Welcome to Chat Out of Hell
Sam:Oh, that was very smoothly delivered. Emma, we need to reintroduce this podcast very quickly. We are both stand up comedians We spend a lot of time driving around together listening to Meat Loaf albums we love Meat Loaf, but not, like, creeps or anything. And we just really want to dig into what makes it work, and why he fell out with Jim Steinman, and why he made shit albums in that fallout time.
Emma:But also, we want to use all of that information so that we can build our own Jim Steinman
Sam:Yes, that's right. At the end of this series, End Date TBC,
Emma:will write
Sam:write and produce our very own Jim Steinman esque mini rock opera and test it against ChatGPT to see who comes off better. So that's gonna be fun, innit? So we've had listeners, and we've had emails and that.
Emma:That's incredible.
Sam:know!, we need a name for our listeners. Like, loaf loafiacs? Loafers? Loafers? Loafers? I'm all right with
Emma:loafers. Okay, loafers.
Sam:okay. We'll
Emma:Hey, loafers.
Sam:Hey loafers, if you've got a better name for yourselves Do write in and let us know. Chat out of hell at gmail. com first up. This is a message from our fellow comedian John
Emma:Mm-Hmm.
Sam:Very funny man. He mentioned this one to me the other day that we've we've ruined his Facebook algorithms
Emma:I love
Sam:now it's throwing things like this at him
Laptop:Damned you know I'm gonna be damned. Dancing through the night, dancing through the night, dancing through the night with you
Sam:think that's enough of that. Emma, just describe to the listeners what it is that's going on there.
Emma:it is the worst pub karaoke session, but it's also brilliant and beautiful. There is a man very enthusiastically singing along to
Sam:quite a good singer as well.
Emma:He's not a bad singer. The karaoke backing track's fairly awful. But what I love most of all is this is, this feels like quite a football pub on Match Day or St George's Day celebrations. In the background for the whole video there is a bloke getting his face painted and I love it. I'm so here for that Man
Sam:it's a real dichotomy. So the singer listeners and I will put a link into the, notes for this, the singer is a man with a similar physique to Meat Loaf, say, yeah, wearing a Mandalorian t shirt.
Emma:Yeah
Sam:Absolutely having the best time of his life singing Meat Loaf
Emma:He's really
Sam:Every single other person in this pub is plastered in St George's Cross clothing, face
Emma:And the man in the background is having his face painted with the St George's Cross And, I can't quite describe his facial expression while he's having it done
Sam:Slapped arse
Emma:Slapped arse! Yeah, that's it. Slapped arse. Yes.
Sam:It's the most miserable fucker you've ever seen listening to Meat Loaf. So thank you for that, John. And we're really glad to know that we are...
Emma:ruining algorithms.
Sam:Yes. absolutely savaging people's social media results so if you do want your social media mixed up a bit, give a like to Chat Out of Hell on Facebook, or other platforms, if I put it on there. Here's a really lovely one, this one's from Daz Wright who said,"I listened to this, and it was better than Ted Danson on the Beef and Dairy Network podcast," which, you Ted Danson did phone it in a little bit, I've got to say. Back to Daz. As you asked for Meat Loaf related anecdotes, and there was a passing mention of ukuleles, I'm submitting this. About 10 years ago, I worked out how to play Bat out of Hell on the ukulele. This is about 30 of us playing it. We were drunk, so no apologies for quality." You don't need to apologize, Daz. Listen
Laptop:1, 2, 3. the
Sam:Daz sent this to me, the day after the podcast came out. I sent it to you. This is joyful AF.
Emma:Honestly, it made me slightly tearful because it's so glorious and
Sam:isn't it? I'll put links into the show notes, but this is a ukulele band called Moselele, Moselele, don't know how you pronounce it. M O S E L E L E. Oh,
Emma:Moselele. Moselele. Yeah.
Sam:They've got loads of incredible songs Check out their SoundCloud. It's utterly fantastic. Thank you, Daz. And like, completely joyous. Yeah.
Emma:honestly, it's made me emotional. It's just so lovely. This is what my mum's ukulele event that she runs every year is like when they all start slightly drunkenly getting the ukuleles out and playing along at the pub in the evening.
Sam:sounds so nice
Emma:I'm going to try and get her to add this to the playlist, I think
Sam:Oh, that's incredible. I imagine some of the people in Moselele might have heard of your mum's event.
Emma:Mum's event is called Duke Fest. And it runs in Worksop from the 28th to the 30th of June and it's super crazy fun. If you just go onto Facebook and look for Duke Fest, then you'll find all the details there. This year they've got some mad stuff happening like bands coming to play, there's a comedy night that I think some comedians that we know are gonna
Sam:going Oh, okay. This plug is, now getting very self centred It's okay. I thought we were just going to plug your mum's stuff. But yeah, that's lovely, isn't it? That's really nice. And if, either you've made your own Meat Loaf y covers, or you've just found incredible twists on Meat Loaf, do send them in to us, chatoutofhellatgmail. com. We really loved getting those messages. We also got some commentary on this week's songs. Which I will scatter in throughout but yeah, shout out please to Alice Marie Colburn, possibly Coburn, I'm shit with names. But Alice Marie did send in some thoughts on this week's songs,
Emma:I look forward to hearing them.
Sam:Our two songs this episode I'm gonna be bringing You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth brackets Hot Summer Night
Emma:And I am going to be bringing Midnight at the Lost and Found.
Sam:Listeners track those down if you haven't already. Find them on YouTube or Spotify or whatever We're about to listen to You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth. You should too. We'll see you after the We'll call it a break. Non advertised break.
Laptop:Burning, and there was fog crawling over the sand. When I listen to your heart I hear the whole world turning I see the shooting stars falling through your trembling hands You were licking your lips and your lipstick shining I was dying just to ask for a taste
Sam:We've just listened to You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth. And hopefully you have too. Either that, or it's imprinted on your brain like it is on Emma's
Emma:Forever and ever and ever.
Sam:Shall we start with the dialogue?
Emma:Yeah, I think we probably should. Especially since we've just done our own little riff on it.
Sam:Some facts this was released in 77 first single from the album
Emma:Really? Yes before Bat Out
Sam:This was before Bat oh Bat out of Hell wasn't a single except in the UK that was the fourth single in the UK. This was the very first Meat Loaf single So You're a DJ, or a radio station owner. Somebody comes in, they say, I've got this great new record, here's the first single off it. And it's a man going on about biting a woman with his lovely big teeth. You playing that?
Emma:I mean Coming at it from, already knowing it, then of course I'm playing it, because it's a banger!
Sam:it. It's an absolute
Emma:banger. But I can understand that it would be a hard sell.
Sam:sell. Well, that's interesting that you say that. So, thank you Alice Marie, this is one of Alice Marie's facts. When Bat out of Hell, the album, was being sent to record companies, it was this song that got it signed. And Steve Popovich, Popovich, we're just gonna make a thing out of me not being able to say names, alright? The founder of Cleveland International. Signed it based only on the dialogue.
Emma:The song is glorious and, I mean, daft, but really glorious. The dialogue that comes before it is awful, real cringe stuff.
Sam:It's a gothy slut shame.
Emma:It is, it's a gothy slut shame, oh my god.
Sam:Very out of keeping with the actual content So the song itself. Not that problematic. Quite poppy, two people in love doing it
Emma:on a beach,
Sam:on a beach,
Emma:which we'll come to in a minute.
Sam:Yep, sure. But there's this creepy man at the beginning
Emma:With his wolf stuff
Sam:Calling a girl a hussy for saying yes to weird questions.
Emma:They are really weird
Sam:he's found a girl who's into his creepy stuff and he's still questioning it.
Emma:Oh, Jim.
Sam:Listen, men on the internet. So, yes that was dialogue at the beginning. Depends which version you listen to. The video version that you and I have just watched was performed
Emma:Seriously, if you haven't heard the video version, it was a revelation to me. Go and watch it because it's just, it's, it's like, it's avant garde student theatre.
Sam:Oh, the best kind of theatre.
Emma:The best kind of theatre
Sam:So yeah, that was performed by Jim Steinman and Marcia McLean. The album version was Todd Rundgren, the producer. And if you listen to the album version, it's slightly more believable. He is more capable of delivering a line than Jim Steinman. Jim Steinman in the video version comes across like a maths nerd annoyed that somebody took his favorite protractor.
Emma:That's a very good description of it, I think.
Sam:Thanks. I much prefer the Jim version, to be honest we're both massive nerds. Research that we've done into this podcast has really underlined just what colossal fucking dorks both of them were. And it's so nice to be in that
Emma:company isn't it. It is.
Sam:Marcia McLean, who did the female part of the dialogue, has two entries on IMDB. One for this. And one for the role of Dawn"Dee". Stewart in a U. S. soap opera called As the World Turns, 1976 to 1978, What happened to Marcia McLean? It's not a quiz, I don't know
Emma:is this the first Chat out of Hell mystery
Sam:yeah, if you do know what happened to Marcia McLean, do write in and let us know. Why doesn't she have a more full IMDB page? I'm not sure if that is a failing on IMDB's part or something dodgy happened. Or she just went into a different role after having topped acting.
Emma:I she just like went into teaching or something.
Sam:Yeah, well, I mean, once you've said,"will he offer me his teeth", where do you go?
Emma:Will he offer me his teeth? It makes me feel really uncomfortable.
Sam:So the dialogue, that was written by Jim Steinman for his musical Neverland which we'll touch in a lot on this show, but to catch everybody up, Jim Steinman is obsessed with Peter Pan. A lot of his songs are Peter Pan themed. He wrote a musical called Neverland. Before Bat out of Hell came out, it was performed once or twice. Eventually it resurfaces as the Bat out of Hell musical. you've read the synopsis. Can you describe what kind of show is this, Emma?
Emma:we're talking sort of a post apocalyptic landscape with Peter Pan overtones.
Sam:So yeah, should more songs Start with lengthy off topic monologues
Emma:You don't get it very much
Sam:I've put something together that I'd like to play for you.
Emma:Okay, oooh you have done some homework
Sam:I have done a bit of homework. I'm quite proud of this. I think you'll enjoy it. Have a listen to this
Laptop:No one in the last years of the 19th affairs the timeless No one could have dreamed as someone with a microscope studies and multiply Few men the possibility of life And yet, across the gulf of space, we Minds immeasurably to ours regarded with envious eyes. plans
Sam:You can laugh into the mic, it's fine.
Emma:Oh my What have you done?
Sam:So yeah, that was, you look slightly confused at that, did you recognise that monologue?
Emma:Is it War of the Worlds?
Sam:It is, yes, it's Richard Burton doing the opening bit from War of the Worlds.
Emma:And then.
Sam:then the Muppets. Listeners, if you can come up with a better combination of speech, and song. Stick them together, do send them in, chatoutofhellatgmail. com. We will play or read out the best ones in future pods. That's all I've got on the dialogue. Anything from you?
Emma:uh, I'm still slightly stunned from that I mean, it's creepy and it's weird, which makes it amazing. I do have some concerns over the song. for the most part, the song is, as Meat Loaf songs go, not too problematic. The main concern that I've got is over the weather at the beach. So, it's a hot summer night. The beach is burning, which is going to be very difficult to shag on start, but we'll come to that in a minute. And then the next bit is, there's fog crawling over the sand.
Sam:That's smoke isn't it?
Emma:Yeah, that's not fog. That weather system doesn't work. Is there a beach fire somewhere?
Sam:Fog crawling over the sand, and the beach is burning, and it's a hot summer
Emma:summer night. That
Sam:is a very cold weather system hitting a very hot one.
Emma:Are we in significant storm territory they need to evacuate the beach? Instead of, you know, shagging on it?
Sam:If I'm going to be a Steinman defender here, and I am I'm going to point out that the combining weather system is them doing it.
Emma:Shit, that's deep
Sam:Yeah, man.
Emma:Oh my God. so they're doing it so
Sam:they're doing it so well
Emma:so well that they've created fog.
Sam:Yeah.
Emma:I need to up my game. That's my main concern.
Sam:My main concern is the following pair of lines. Most of the song is really good. It's a really catchy song. It's got a lovely sentiment. It's about young love and boning on a beach. There's no death in it. no,
Emma:no death. no difficult attitudes towards women.
Sam:Yeah, we're very pro this song. It's got a lovely
Emma:Oh, I do
Sam:The hand clap outro. Yeah, it's got that. It's fantastic. These lines."While you were licking your lips and your lipstick shining, and I was dying just to ask for a taste." Can I taste your lipstick,
Emma:I
Sam:lipstick can be
Emma:that he wants to kiss but
Sam:but you don't want to taste. Lipstick doesn't taste nice
Emma:I'm not a makeup girl. I don't understand it. It scares me a little bit. But when I have had to wear makeup often for stage stuff in the past The feel of it and the taste of it is just horrific. So, you know, maybe if it was like a delicious cherry lip gloss, she says, pretending she knows about things like that, then I could understand it. But no, the thought of it, I've worried about that waxy, but also like, you know, but also The taste of it. I can imagine it being like really waxy and horrible, but
Sam:also
Emma:like I get an image of lipstick on teeth as well, which is, oh, the
Sam:oh,
Emma:Horrible!
Sam:Kiss me Meat Loaf.
Emma:No, don't like it. So yeah, I agree. I don't like that line.
Sam:Yeah, it's grim. But otherwise, we'll rate it in a minute. I'm a big fan of this song. I think you are too. Cool. Do you want a quiz? Yeah. This is my new tradition. We're going to get a quiz for every one of these songs that I bring. So once again, Emma, one of these three facts is a lie. Is it fact one? According to Meat Loaf's autobiography, this song exists because the record label asked Steinman to write a pop song that wasn't 15 or 20 minutes long. Is it fact two? The dialogue at the beginning of this song was written for Neverland. The Peter Pan sci fi musical that we've just mentioned. It was intended to be Peter and Wendy's wedding vows. Or, is it fact three? Jim Steinman described the cover art for the Bat out of Hell album as endlessly horny for wonder and magic. One of those is a lie.
Emma:I want to believe all of them. The wedding vows! I completely believe the wedding vows. if you've made that up, that's incredible.
Sam:I am an incredible and creative...
Emma:We need to work with that more Okay I'm going to say that fact number one is the lie.
Sam:you're saying it's fact number one, which is that according to Meat Loaf's autobiography, this song exists because the record label asked Steinman to write a pop song that wasn't 15 or 20 minutes long.
Emma:I'm choosing that one because it's the one that I most want to believe is a
Sam:lie. Okay, that is The lie. Because it was Meat Loaf that asked for that, not the record label.
Emma:Amazing. Which sort of means that all of them are kind of true. Ah.
Sam:They're all true. The dialogue was written to be wedding vows. And we've not yet watched a bootleg copy of the Bat out of Hell musical, but we do have that on the agenda
Emma:the
Sam:on in the series. So I'll be interested to see if that did make it in there in the end.
Emma:wow.
Sam:Endlessly horny for wonder and magic.
Emma:If I was single, that would definitely be going on my Tinder biography.
Sam:So the full quotes the artist was Richard Corbin, who did some work for Heavy Metal magazine, Basically, any time you've seen a picture of a big strapping Conan the Barbarian with a lady in a chainmail bikini. It's almost certainly by somebody from Heavy Metal. The perverts of the comic world are filtered into this one little corner. the quote."The sexual richness of Richard Corbin's work is overwhelming. This is a world that is endlessly horny for wonder and magic. The intertwining of light and dark forces here, of love and decay, of unknown altars and inescapable tombs, of unchained gods and insatiable demons, of unending dreams and unyielding nightmares. All this is dazzling. With Corbyn, not only is anything possible, it is inevitable. Where's my good protractor, you bastard
Emma:Yeah, teenage Emma would have been so into that I mean I'm Wasn't Emma
Sam:Was teenage Emma into the man on the cover of The Bat out of Hell?
Emma:No, not really my, cup of thing, but I love that sort of... again, it's coming back to the post apocalyptic, wanting to be a hero, billowing Jacket, long hair. I the
Sam:who writes ills.
Emma:a hero, but a troubled hero.
Sam:A troubled hero, of course.
Emma:Talking about billowing hair,
Sam:Yes.
Emma:I just wanted to say that in the video that we've just watched of this song, at times, Meat Loaf's hair looks lovely and shiny. I'd like to know what his hair care regime was back then because mine, I could do with a bit of a lift. But then, at other times, this didn't necessarily relate to the time in the video. So, The continuity's off. At some points his hair looks lovely and shiny. At some points he looks very sweaty
Sam:He's a he's a very sweaty man.
Emma:He's a very sweaty man. And again, I can totally identify with that. I come off stage drenched.
Sam:And you don't even sing.
Emma:No, I don't even sing. I'm just standing there,
Sam:words into a
Emma:genuinely alarming. And I should probably see a doctor.
Sam:anyway, I'm looking for a new co-host, guys we're very sad to lose Emma, but it was a lovely funeral. We did play Bat out of Hell,
Emma:she
Sam:requested., The YouTube comments, Most YouTube comments are just people saying I like this song and a lot of R. I. P. Meat Loaf, R. I. P. Jim Steinman, et cetera, you get that on all of their work on YouTube now. You also do get incredibly horny people. lost my virginity in summer 1978 with the Bat out of Hell album on the 8 track in my 1970 Ford Maverick. I was parked at a pond in my hometown North Jersey on a hot August night. It will always be the most important album of my life. And thank you, Kathy.
Emma:Kathy, you lucky girl. I I feel like that's very American. Yeah. Because in the uk, your first car is a tiny shit heap, and you definitely can't fuck in the back of that. Yeah, this true, yeah. My first car was a Nissan Micra. And no way can you shag in a Nissan Micra. If anybody has, please let us
Sam:let us know. Oh, is that what we're doing now? what's the smallest car you've had sex in? Do write in! chatoutofhell at gmail. com I don't know how big a Ford Maverick is, but I am picturing one of those big American cars that's basically a boat. But yeah, you're absolutely right, Emma. American teens, certainly on the films and that, it's Grease isn't it
Emma:Most British teens haven't got a car.
Sam:No, it would be a bus.
Emma:Oh.,
Sam:Hate to admit this, but this song reminds me of my ex wife and myself on the beaches of San Diego in 1978. The good times we had. Shelley, I'm sorry it didn't work out for us.
Emma:Oh, this is a place for heartbreak
Sam:place for heartbreak, but don't worry because there was a reply by JoelDukes2583 who said, chin up, fella!
Emma:Amazing.
Sam:There's something I do want to call out It's the Law of YouTube music videos, I think, that any music video on YouTube, scroll down through the comments, you will find somebody saying, this was my dad's or wife's or whatever's favourite song, R. I. P. we buried them today. Even on the Logical Song by Scooter.
Emma:You keep coming back to The Logical Song by Scooter.
Sam:Yeah. only 99p on iTunes One more from SC Dorfman one time my husband tried to dress as a vampire but only wound up looking like Meat Loaf instead. And it did things. Not gonna lie. Good for you, S. C. Dorfman!
Emma:Did things! Wow. So that's sort of, like, fetish unlocked
Sam:If this is your first time listening to the podcast, we'll just introduce our rating scheme now. So, for all songs written by Jim Steinman, we have a three tier scheme. At the very top, Jim Steinman. Middle tier, Jim Fineman. And if it's very bad, Jim Declineman. So how are you going to rate this song?
Emma:It has to be Jim steinman It
Sam:it? Let me say the thing, Jim Steinman! This started out as just the thing I said because I was going to do a jingle for it, but I'm going to do it live every time from now
Emma:on. Okay, okay. It's
Sam:Emma! Let's talk about your song
Emma:Okay. Well, my song is Midnight at The Lost and Found, so you should go and find a version of that on YouTubes, or your streaming service of preference, or the CD that you got buried at the back of the drawer. Have a listen and come back to us.
Laptop:Silver bullets in a jukebox Spinning up the round Everybody at the back of the line It's midnight at the lost and found Midnight At the lost and found Lost souls in the hunting ground Limited for all your kills at the lost and found Midnight Hit you right away Very
Emma:first opinions then, Sam.
Sam:It's not a song I knew before we started this podcast, I've
Emma:listened to
Sam:it a few times in the last couple of weeks. It's alright, It's alright alright it's a bit catchy, it's got a catchy little a clappy bit. I love a clappy bit.
Emma:a good one for today's episode. Because we've got two
Sam:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And it's it's got a fade out ending as well. The cop out ending, yes
Emma:Commit, dammit. Commit!
Sam:If you're not ending on fireworks, you're not doing it right.
Emma:an explosion.
Sam:Yeah. So Emma you gave us a bit of biographical detail last time about your previous song. Does this song have any emotional resonance to you?
Emma:Not like previously. This was in the more sort of upbeat part of my teenage playlist.
Sam:This was in your upbeat playlist?
Emma:It's A
Sam:song about sad drunks
Emma:yeah, but it's got quite a It wasn't necessarily about the lyrics, because also, you can't understand anything.
Sam:No, that's true.
Emma:Do you know what the opening lines are? No,
Sam:A herbly berbly hebbedy harbala no go for it
Emma:Hey Ricky!
Sam:You so fine
Emma:That's Mickey. Hey Ricky, now mine is empty, how about one for you? we could sell it out together. Seems tomorrow's overdue. Captain Video whoever Whoever it is. Captain Video done went home. One pilot laid to rest. And Dragon Ladies talk that talk about who loves who, who loves best. What?
Sam:So, was Captain Video an airline pilot whose funeral they've just been at?
Emma:Maybe. It does sound like the funeral's got quite rowdy. And I have been to funerals like that. so maybe it is. It's obviously some dive bar, Where everybody's having a good time, but there's,
Sam:Yeah. They're having a good time because if you stop having a good time, you'll think. Yeah. No, it's so, the setting and the story of the song I'm on board with. That is really good song
Emma:Mm-Hmm.
Sam:I just don't think Meat Loaf achieves what he's setting out.
Emma:Well it's funny you say that because this is from the album Midnight at The Lost and Found. Which came out in September 83. Meat Loaf had fallen out with Jim Steinman at this point, so there were no Steinman songs for this record. Even though Steinman had offered Total Eclipse of the Heart.
Sam:Fuck off. off
Emma:Yep, and Making Love Out of Nothing at All.
Sam:Oh my God.
Emma:Have both been offered, but because of the fallout, it just never happened.
Sam:Listeners I can't imagine many of you have listened to the whole album. But this is the best song
Emma:on it.
Sam:Can you imagine a world in which Meat Loaf turns down Total Eclipse of the Heart
Emma:It would have been epic!
Sam:this album?
Emma:Total Eclipse of the Heart by Meat Loaf would have been epic. I still want to hear it and it will never happen. There were a variety of writers on the album, but for this particular track
Sam:Alice Marie's email mentions
Emma:mentions this.
Sam:So Alice Marie says Meat Loaf was one of the songwriters on this
Emma:he was indeed.
Sam:And he hated his own songwriting.
Emma:Yes he did, this is what I was about to come to. Meat Loaf's credited with being involved in the writing of this particular track. The quote from Wikipedia is, However, as Meat would later admit, he was not much of a songwriter and did not like the songs he'd written for the album. I love this. It's an album that was made because Meat Loaf was contractually obliged to make it, which, as I'm sure everyone will agree, always produces the best music.
Sam:LAUGHTER
Emma:So Meat wasn't alone in writing this abomination. It was also written by Steve Buslow, who was a bassist for Meat Loaf Paul Christie, who was a writer, comedian, and voice actor, and did the voice for Louis the Lizard in the Budweiser adverts. And then Dan, Peyronel, who's written for a bunch of rock bands that I've never heard of, including Tarzenn heavy Metal Kids I'm not familiar with their oeuvre, and I don't plan on finding out just yet. Because, oh dear.
Sam:ha ha ha ha!
Emma:So, that quartet of people.
Sam:It took four people to make a song this good.
Emma:It's so, rubbish.
Sam:yet
Emma:And yet I still kind of like it because it's, it's
Sam:does, it's, got a catchy hook.
Emma:a country vibe
Sam:a country vibe. It makes me think of songs like Piano Man. Huh. and Tom Waits has a few songs like it as well. Yeah. About the dive bar where you go when you're at rock bottom and there's other people at rock bottom with you. It's sort of an evil cheers, if you like.
Emma:Oh! I would like to go to evil cheers! cheers
Sam:Where, everybody wants you to go fuck yourself
Emma:It's
Sam:it's rich ground for songwriting. And I think that's why I'm most disappointed in it.
Emma:Yeah. Do you want another verse of lyrics? Have a double, it's getting late. You'll get home, just rely on fate. The place just finally came alive. Good old boys just arrived. Stools keep changing faces and the night just slips
Sam:Oh.
Emma:like a long distance love affair, soon you've got to pay.
Sam:Going back to our chat about teenagers. This isn't a British pub. this is the American dive bar. What's the British equivalent? This is like the old man who is playing the fruit machine all night. Tries to talk to you.
Emma:Yeah. Yeah, smells. Smells bit. Smells of cigarettes, cheap whiskey, and despair. Eau de spair
Sam:Eau de spair
Emma:somehow the British equivalent doesn't feel as glamorous. It feels more squalid, even though I imagine that
Sam:is, yes. He's describing a very squalid situation.
Emma:But it's a movie version of the squalid situation.
Sam:It yeah, because it's raining and the streetlights are reflected in the puddles.
Emma:But inside it's weirdly warm and it's camaraderie amongst the bums, presumably.
Sam:The bums.
Emma:Bums sounds, again, more rock and roll than the homeless.
Sam:There is a link between these two songs
Emma:can't believe you found a lyrical link.
Sam:There is a link between these two songs, Emma. And that is Vampires and that, because we've got the lost souls in the hunting ground. And the creepy man who wants to give a lady his teeth.
Emma:I mean, I feel Do
Sam:you
Emma:you
Sam:want my teeth?
Emma:No! I feel like this is set in the same universe. as I think most Meat Loaf songs are set in the same universe. Not all.
Sam:No, you're right, there is a loaf verse
Emma:There's a loaf verse Oh no! We've created a
Sam:Yeah.
Emma:Fan art of the Loafverse is encouraged.
Sam:We've asked a lot of the listeners already on this episode.
Emma:We're just planting seeds, that's all. Okay, fine.
Sam:if you do have any fan art of the loaf verse, God help you.
Emma:You troubled, troubled souls.
Sam:Silver bullets in the jukebox. Spin another round. Everybody at
Emma:at the back
Sam:the
Emma:line!
Sam:How can everybody go to the
Emma:back of the line?
Sam:Meat Loaf, you idiot!
Emma:Well, he said he wasn't happy with the lyrics and you can understand why!
Sam:Alice Marie, says I have to say Midnight at the Lost and Found is a good song for the time, but being a fan of his music, it's not one I would easily put in my top five albums or songs. Alice Marie, I'm really glad that you wrote in and emailed us, but there's no way this is a good song for the time. This is 1983.. Karma Chameleon? Better. Uptown Girl? Better. Red Red Wine? Can go fuck itself. Let's Dance, David Bowie. Total Eclipse of the Heart?
Emma:I mean
Sam:down under, men at work.
Emma:Billie
Sam:only you by the flying pickets. All Night Long, Lionel Richie, Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This,
Emma:Oh God, I mean
Sam:Phil Collins. This was a good year for music.
Emma:it was a good year for music.
Sam:So yeah, I am going to take issue with it being a good song at the time. This podcast is not about objective measurement of song quality. And we are going to talk about a lot of Absolutely dreadful songs that we love
Emma:in
Sam:future. So Alice Marie, please don't take it to heart that we don't like it
Emma:well once again, I should confess that you know, I quite like it I think it's all
Sam:It's 2 1 this current vote. Yeah
Emma:I don't think it's a great song, but there's something fun about
Sam:It is fun. Is it time to rate this song?
Emma:I think it probably is
Sam:Okay, so our rating system for Meat Loaf songs that don't involve Jim Steinman Are, of course, Marvin Lee Aday, Marvin Lee Okay, or Marvin Lee No Way.
Emma:What is it for you, Sam?
Sam:it's not his best song, it's certainly not his worst song. It's a firm Marvin Lee Okay to me. I
Emma:Marvin Lee Okay.
Sam:Marvin Lee Okay! Next time I'll let Emma do that
Emma:LAUGHTER Oh good.
Sam:I saw the look in your eyes that said, I wanna do that, I wanna do the voice
Emma:I do. I really wanna do the
Sam:voice So there we go, that was our songs this episode. I've had a lovely time, have you had a lovely
Emma:course o f course I've had a lovely time
Sam:That's good. listeners, do let us know what you think of those two songs Midnight at the Lost and Found and You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth. Email that in, chatoutofhellatgmail. com. Or, tell us what you think about the songs that we're going to be discussing next time because I will be bringing to the table one of meat Loaf's less okay songs. And that's gonna be Where the Rubber Meets the Road from the album Welcome to the Neighborhood. Emma, what are you going to bring us?
Emma:I'm gonna bring us another one from Welcome to the Neighborhood, Martha, which is a Tom Waits cover.
Sam:Now Martha is one of my favourite songs by Tom Waits.
Emma:That's why I picked it.
Sam:I've not listened to it at all yet. I'm really looking forward to this and dissecting what Meat Loaf's done to Tom Waits's baby, let us know what you think about those listeners. We are going to be recording next episode before this one comes out Because Emma wants to go on holiday to Florida and a podcast isn't a good enough reason to stick around apparently You can let us know and I will sort of edit them in and message Emma for comment afterwards So you'll still be heard your opinion will be noted We're still on the quest for Meat Loaf anecdotes. Do send us in cool Meat Loaf covers you've heard anything that you've made did Meat Loaf ever go to Scarborough jazz festival and interrupt a performance that you were enjoying? Let me know
Emma:I have one final thing, so as you know, Sam, and as our listeners are about to find out, I like a bit of art and craft work.
Sam:Yeah,
Emma:So I done made us badges, Sam
Sam:LAUGHTER
Emma:for you.
Sam:Oh my God LAUGHTER listeners this is I'll take a photo of this as well um, um this is. A is it resin?
Emma:It's shrink plastic coated in resin.
Sam:It's a resin coated shrink plastic version of the cartoon bat that Emma has drawn for our chat out of hell artwork. It is fantastic. We need to give this bat a name.
Emma:We do.
Sam:Oh, do you know what? Listeners need to give this bat a name.
Emma:And the name that we pick. Why don't we send them a badge?
Sam:I didn't want to say that. because you're the one making the badges.
Emma:do that. That'd be
Sam:So yeah, if you want to win a chat out of hell badge, take a look at our podcast artwork, send us in a name for our lovely bat mascot. Any final thoughts?
Emma:I think all of my thoughts are
Sam:Fantastic.
Emma:That's a weird way of saying it.
Sam:this has been Chat out of Hell, I've been Sam Wilkinson
Emma:and I've been Emma Crossland, and
Sam:we will look forward to speaking to you all in two more weeks time when we discuss Where the Rubber Meets the Road and
Emma:Martha
Sam:Marvelous. See you all then. Bye. Bye
Emma:bye.