Episode 3.5 - 45 Seconds of Ecstasy | Requiem Metal

We open every episode of Chat out of Hell by asking "what is this" and it's never been more apt. Two baffling track choices hit the table today as we interrogate some of the shortest and least interesting songs in the Loaf / Steinman catalogue. We do learn a few things on the way, though. Things like:

- What do Jim Steinman and Giuseppe Verdi have in common?

- How long is 45 seconds? Is it 66 seconds?

- What's cooler than Gene Pitney?

PLUS a conversation about merch, a listener isn't sure how young we sound and assorted sundry nonsense. The live video of 45 Seconds Emma mentions is here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8VML3nVXgs.

Keep your comments, reviews and arguments flying in to chatoutofhell@gmail.com, find us on Facebook or Instagram by searching Chat out of Hell and don't forget to use the hashtag #dearA1saucepleasesendsomeofyourA1saucetosamfromthereallygoodpodcastchatoutofhell or the much shorter one #pleasegiveemmaamichaelbaybudget

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:

45 Seconds of Ecstasy by Meat Loaf from the album Welcome to the Neighbourhood (1996)

Requiem Metal by Pandora's Box from the album Original Sin (1989)

Transcript

Sam 0:00

What is this?

Emma 0:01

This is Chat Out of Hell, the leading Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman podcast being recorded at this point in time. Probably.

Sam 0:11

who is Meat Loaf.

Emma 0:13

Oh, Meat Loaf. He is a singer who nearly had a fight with Prince Andrew in the 80s while appearing on It's a Royal Knockout.

Sam 0:22

Meat Loaf was in It's a Royal Knockout! Yep. Amazing.

Emma 0:25

Apparently, Andrew's then wife, Sarah Ferguson, had taken a bit of a shine to Meat, and Andy wasn't going to stand for it. Meat Loaf said,"Fergie wasn't exactly flirting with me, but she was paying attention to me, and I think Andrew got a little, I could be wrong, I'm just reading into this, I think he got a little jealous."Anyway. he tried to push me in the moat, so I turned around and I grabbed him and he goes,'You can't touch me, I'm royal.' And I said,'Well, you tried to push me in the moat, Jack. I don't give a shit who you are, you're going in the moat'."

Sam 1:02

Sorry, is this still the intro?

Emma 1:03

Yeah.

Sam 1:05

I mean, that's amazing. Who's

Emma 1:06

know. Who's Jim Steinman?

Sam 1:09

Steinman? Jim Steinman was a composer and musician who Q Magazine called the lord of excess hyperbole."

Emma 1:17

Which I think is very accurate.

Sam 1:19

It's not as good as your

Emma 1:23

who are we?

Sam 1:23

I am Sam Wilkinson and you are Emma Crossland and we are retired fishermen from Nova Scotia and liars.

Emma 1:31

Okay.

Sam 1:33

Welcome to Chat Out of Hell! Bow now, now, now.

Emma 1:38

Ding.

Sam 1:38

Syouhe found something good in his autobiography then

Emma 1:42

even in the autobiography.

Sam 1:44

what? Where was it?

Emma 1:45

I found it on the internet when I just searched for weird Meat Loaf facts this afternoon. And fell down this rabbit hole.

Sam 1:55

Does that mean we have to add

Emma 1:56

we have to add, it's a

Sam 1:58

it's a royal

Emma 1:58

it's a royal knockout.

Sam 2:00

Show some respect.

Emma 2:01

Sorry. Sam, sorry. I've forgotten you are a staunch royalist.

Sam 2:05

even to that one. So yeah, that's going in FilmClub, is it?

Emma 2:11

I think it probably is. Film Club is getting nearly as long as the list of songs we've still got to

Sam 2:16

cover. Yeah, we've got more suggestions for FilmClub on the spreadsheet than we do for songs. Emma, you're wearing a lovely hat. That

Emma 2:24

Thank you. I am. you like my hat? It is relevant to the podcast. that's

Sam 2:30

tell the listeners about your noggin topper.

Emma 2:32

I've been trying to find this for ages, and I finally managed to dig it out of a box in my parents house. But atop my head is a baseball cap from the Meat Loaf gig that I went to when I was 10 that my mum bought for me while we were there.

Sam 2:46

How exciting! And may I say, with your baseball cap on, and your big headphones on top of it, You've never looked more like you're on the Joe Rogan

Emma 2:56

Oh God, that's not what I was going

Sam 3:00

That's what they do, the men.

Emma 3:02

I'm not even one of the men. The hat is something that I did insist on wearing to school a bit while I was ten. And it was met with the appropriate levels of derision. He he he he he he he

Sam 3:16

I

Emma 3:17

I'm delighted to have it back in my life

Sam 3:21

and it fits your head perfectly as a 41 year old woman.

Emma 3:25

Yeah.

Sam 3:26

So what was going on for 10 year old Emma?

Emma 3:29

Very much sort of a lollipop

Sam 3:31

Rattling around in

Emma 3:33

It is adjustable the back, there are snaps.

Sam 3:38

Obviously I've not worn a 30 years, so I remember these facts.

Emma 3:42

You can try this one on if you like, I promise I have a very clean head.

Sam 3:47

That's a Crossland guarantee. So this is Chat out of Hell where you and I both delve into the Meat Loaf slash Jim Steinman back catalogue every fortnight to see what treasure we come up with and then dissect that treasure on a scientific table. Really went weird that,

Emma 4:07

Treasure can be very hard to dissect.

Sam 4:09

It can, and that's why we sometimes do quite badly at

Emma 4:12

at it. What have you brought this time, Sam?

Sam 4:16

Emma, this time I have fallen into the Pandora's Box

Emma 4:20

that could be a dangerous thing to

Sam 4:21

dangerous thing to do. Well, this one is especially dangerous, because I've brought the track Requiem Metal. Yeah. we'll talk about that later on, let's talk about your song first, Emma. What have you got?

Emma 4:32

well, I have brought 45 Seconds of Ecstasy

Sam 4:35

well. Yeah,

Emma 4:36

and I brought a song as well.

Sam 4:38

you did that joke last time.

Emma 4:39

Yeah, I know.

Sam 4:41

had to listen to you do it about four or five times during the edit.

Emma 4:45

I brought 45 Seconds of Ecstasy from the Welcome to the Neighborhood album. I'd suggest you go away and listen to it, because it's not going to take very long. Which is a welcome relief in this podcast.

Sam 4:57

That's certainly true. Yeah. So listeners go away, find your YouTubes or your Spotifies or your mini disc. Listen to 45 Seconds of Ecstasy from the album Welcome to the Neighbourhood. And then join us in our complaint that it's 66 seconds long. Never mind. We're gonna listen to it now.

Music 5:15

Forty five seconds of ecstasy How it comes right back to me Fly so high and feel so free

Emma 5:30

that was 45 Seconds of Ecstasy. it came from the Welcome to the Neighborhood album. It's an album track, as I said, and it came out on October the 30th, 1995. So I was 11. As you said before it comes in at one minute and seven seconds. According to Apple Music,

Sam 5:49

Oh, that version on YouTube was one minute and six. I feel

Emma 5:51

second show you've been robbed of, I don't know, a little bit of sex noise, probably. Because there's a bit of sex noise in

Sam 5:59

in there. Do you mean to tell me that this song is about doing it?

Emma 6:02

Well, I don't usually leap to the people of the internet first, but

Sam 6:07

Ha ha ha ha

Emma 6:08

You're gonna like this. Mouse said,"Are you sure this isn't a Jim Steinman song? He's the only person I know who stretches 45 seconds to over a minute."

Sam 6:20

a minute. Well done, Flying Mouse. Absolutely brilliant.

Emma 6:25

Absolutely

Sam 6:26

You are one of us.

Emma 6:28

The people of songmeanings.

Sam 6:30

com have

Emma 6:31

this to say. Selvy666 said"anyone else think this song's about orgasms?" And then xmeatxloafxfreakex, who I think we've quoted before, said,"Yeah, I think it's about orgasms." But then Collino, or Collino, who I think

Sam 6:51

Collino,

Emma 6:52

Said, not just about orgasms. It's from Welcome to the Neighbourhood, which is a concept album about life, from first love to death. Circular as he dies, he sees his first love again in the song Martha. 45 seconds of ecstasy is about a brief affair his wife, brackets, or her husband, was having, and whether the 45 seconds of pleasure was worth the sacrifice. The second line can be interpreted two ways. one, it was not complex at the time, second verse, but it came back to haunt them. or two, how the enjoyment of sex comes back after being married for so long."It's great how a song can say so much in so few words and shows how great and overlooked an album Welcome to the Neighborhood is. I don't know if he was listening to a different

Sam 7:42

song. I don't think a comment is allowed to be longer than the song. Yeah. out there. Yeah, that's just

Emma 7:49

Yeah. But I would like to say to Colino that no, it's just about orgasms. It is just about orgasms.

Sam 7:58

People who wang on about concept albums. I know, We've both been that wanker in our own youths, but fuck it, give it a rest, man.

Emma 8:09

But also, there is nothing in here to imply any of that. It is literally a song about having a lovely orgasm. A lovely orgasm. A lovely orgasm. Yeah, I think that comment is a big load of bollocks by somebody that's trying to read something.

Sam 8:22

It's very try hard for this. So just to re contextualise the album, shall we this is the one that came out after Bat Out of Hell 2 and is still alright in some ways but has quite a bit of wank on it.

Emma 8:35

Yeah. The song is not performed by Meat Loaf. It's not written by him or Jim. It's got nothing to do with either of them really, it's just on the album. It's written by a woman called Martha Minter Bailey, who only seems to have actually written this one song. I can't find anything else about her online. There is a Martha Bailey who I discovered who was a singer songwriter, but I don't know if she's the same one. So there's very little about the writer that I can find but it was sung by a woman called Susan Wood. Which brings me to another online comment that I found from Matt Fitch 3460, who said, Meat Loaf wouldn't sing this song, but Susan would.

Sam 9:24

What?

Emma 9:25

So it was sung by a woman called Susan Wood.

Sam 9:28

No, I'm not following

Emma 9:30

Meat Loaf wouldn't sing this song, but Susan would.

Sam 9:33

Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you! Okay, I'll, I'll fess up to what was happening there, which is that I've quickly been opening an anagram finder just to see if Martha Minter Bailey is an anagram for somebody else.

Emma 9:46

And is it?

Sam 9:47

I don't know, because you distracted me by doing the podcast.

Emma 9:50

You should have just told me.

Sam 9:53

Oh, I wanted to surprise you. No answers found. No. No. So I, don't think Didn't seem like an easy one. But Susan Wood! Ho, ho, ho,

Emma 10:04

Off you fuck.

Sam 10:07

So, what else has Susan Wood sung? Is she elsewhere on the album? Okay.

Emma 10:12

but I did find her Instagram. and she doesn't use it much. She's very family oriented. It seems. Which is nice, and she's done a lot of, like, musical theatre. So she was in the 1994 Broadway revival of Grease. Sandy. So, that's pretty that's the main one, yeah in the

Sam 10:33

Grease. Uh,

Emma 10:34

Yeah, that's the main one who I have feminist problems with. That's Grease as a whole. We're not doing Greasecast. We're not doing Greasecast, so we'll leave that. But no, seems like a nice lady. And Meat Loaf died, she did post on her Instagram,"I was fortunate enough to be able to sing solo on Meat Loaf's Welcome to the Neighbourhood album. It's called 45 Seconds of Ecstasy and it's literally only 45 seconds long."" It's not, Susan! It's not!

Sam 11:01

All

Emma 11:02

Having grown up a fan of his music, this is such an honor. He was a true gentleman with a heart of gold, and his immense talent and epic songs will be remembered forever. Keep shining your light, Meat". I thought that was quite sweet. Yeah, it's a little

Sam 11:17

grew up on his music and then appeared on. A recording.

Emma 11:20

Yeah.

Sam 11:21

You, you seem to have a but. I sent

Emma 11:23

sent you a video.

Sam 11:24

Okay. So this is a live version.

Emma 11:28

I don't know if this is her. Listeners, we will pop a link to that in the write up of this particular episode, but don't watch it, please. Watching Sam's face while he watched that was tremendous. I don't think that's Susan Wood. I don't think it sounds

Sam 11:43

So just for the listener's benefit, it's a very low res video that somebody's tried to upscale slightly of a, looks like an afternoon festival gig wherein the female singer. He's singing the number, and Meat Loaf is creepily walking towards her, and then there's some grinding, and

Emma 12:06

He spends a fair bit of time with his head buried in her chest, which is, but she encouraged

Sam 12:14

It's, it's, Emma. Sensual. The choreographer on that did not put in a lot of effort,

Emma 12:19

No, no. No.

Sam 12:23

It was during the Casa de Carne tour, apparently.

Emma 12:25

lovely.

Sam 12:29

Bit weird. Yeah. Uncomfortable. Bit uncomfortable. Yeah, so this is late, this is 2008, so it's, er

Emma 12:36

Oh, it's like over a decade

Sam 12:37

after Late era

Emma 12:39

Yeah.

Sam 12:39

that's a bit

Emma 12:40

creepo It's uncomfortable. I didn't like

Sam 12:43

it. I find it. weird that that's still in the tour set ten years later.

Emma 12:50

I don't remember seeing that at any of the live gigs. But maybe it was there and I just don't remember or have, repressed it.

Sam 12:59

Push it

Emma 13:02

there's not much else to talk about with this song.

Sam 13:05

it's a song about doing it.

Emma 13:07

It's a song about doing it, but more specifically, I think it's a song about orgasms.

Sam 13:11

Yeah, no arguments here.

Emma 13:14

it. It's not a sophisticated track,

Sam 13:16

It's not as

Emma 13:17

what Colino thinks.

Sam 13:19

Ha ha What's it doing there,

Emma 13:22

well, it's in a weird spot. It's sandwiched between Original Sin and Running for the Red Light. Okay. On the album. Are you familiar with Running for the Red Light? It's quite an upbeat

Sam 13:34

I am with Original Sin, but they're both quite smashy, upbeat, numbers. then we've got this song about A lady havin a good time!

Emma 13:45

I found an interview on YouTube with Meat Loaf about Welcome to the Neighbourhood and his words are"Welcome to the Neighborhood is Divine Intervention, and I actually believe that." I don't know what that means, but that's what Meat Loaf said

Sam 14:00

Oh. I suppose because he's so used to doing interviews with Jim Steinman, who doesn't believe a word he says

Emma 14:06

he said the entire album is a period piece set in the 30s and 40s and it all revolves around these true detective magazines and true detective novels. So it's that kind of pulp. Yeah. We've not actually talked about this, but there is a cool kind of piece of pulp artwork for each song Yes. In the liner there is. And they are really cool.

Sam 14:24

cool. Yeah. Yeah. I think they're all takes on sort of pulp films or,

Emma 14:27

Yeah. Cause one of them is the classic Lolita with lollipop, Which is creepy but they are. Cool. impressive pieces of that style of art. I think the idea behind the album is that the first track is supposed to be the beginning of a love life. And the end is the end of a life and the end of a love life. And so it's different loves and stuff throughout all different parts of a relationship. So evidently this is about the the more upbeat parts The shagging.

Sam 14:58

Thank you for clarifying.

Emma 15:00

welcome.

Sam 15:01

In my head I'm setting this sort of 1930s pulp tale in the New York City of The Shadow. The Shadow!

Emma 15:11

Yep, I think it could be there but I also think it could possibly be the Jim Steinman esque city in Streets of fire.

Sam 15:19

yeah, no, that's true. The timeless, The timeless Is it the 20s? Is it the 80s? Yeah. Who knows? It's

Emma 15:25

both and also neither. So yes, it's a funny little song. Lots of people don't know why it's there. Yeah.

Sam 15:31

Do you know?

Emma 15:33

No there's a lot of sex noises and basically it's just a very horny song. It's a horny song about being horny. That's it.

Sam 15:43

Okay.

Emma 15:44

That's it.

Sam 15:46

Any other business on this song?

Emma 15:48

No other business.

Sam 15:49

Emma, is it time to rate this song? okay. So listeners, as always, we'll be using our government certified Meat Loaf song

Emma 15:57

don't know if it's still a valid system for this because he's not involved in it.

Sam 16:03

well, give me 10 seconds. Right. Got it. So Emma, we're gonna rate this twice. We're gonna rate it on the Meat Loaf certified Song Rating Scale. Yeah. Of Marvin Lee Aday for the Good Songs. Marvin Lee Okay for the middling numbers and Marvin Lee No Way for Meat Loaf's shitter songs. And then we're also going to rate it on the scale of Susan Wood to Susan Should I Keep Listening to This, or Susan No Good

Emma 16:36

So

Sam 16:37

So what's this?

Emma 16:38

thought you were going to go for Susan Wouldn't.

Sam 16:40

for Susan Wood.

Emma 16:41

damn it!

Sam 16:47

if you like.

Emma 16:47

If you want.

Sam 16:48

Yeah, okay. So what is it on the Meat Loaf scale?

Emma 16:53

On the Meat Loaf scale, it's not catastrophically

Sam 16:58

what's it for? Why is it

Emma 17:01

is it there?

Sam 17:01

Why is it in his festival set 15 years later? Other than so that he can get an attractive young woman to grind on

Emma 17:09

Do you think it's a Marvin Lee No Way

Sam 17:11

is A waste of, a bit of CD to me, I'd

Emma 17:16

It would be forgivable if it was 45 seconds.

Sam 17:21

also that! Because

Emma 17:21

Because that really winds me

Sam 17:23

up. Okay, so, I think it's a Marvin Lee No Way. You are welcome

Emma 17:27

no, I think I'll go with the Marvin Lee.

Sam 17:29

Lee No way. Okay, and is it a Susan Wood, a Susan Should I Keep Listening, or a Susan Wouldn't?

Emma 17:36

It's a Susan Wouldn't.

Sam 17:38

Oh, okay.

Emma 17:39

It's all you. Well, I think

Sam 17:41

I'm gonna say this is the best Susan Wood song

Emma 17:43

the best Susan Wood song ever. Wood from you that is it?

Sam 17:48

Yeah, I'm gonna say this is a Susan Wood. She performs admirably.

Emma 17:53

She does well with what she's given. Okay I'll reconsider.

Sam 17:57

Like to hear more 1930s pulp songs sung by Susan Wood But I'd like them to be long and not just an excuse for Meat Loaf to rub his face in a girl's tits.

Emma 18:10

Cool.

Sam 18:12

So that's a Marvin Lee No Way! Susan Wood?

Emma 18:17

So Sam, what did you bring this time?

Sam 18:19

I brought Requiem Metal, which is a 52 second track from the Pandora's Box album Original Sin.

Emma 18:28

Why did you bring that

Sam 18:29

I just looked down the track listing. And thought it would be something other than it is. But listeners, go away and find it on your YouTubes or your Spotifies. It won't take you very long. You'll think you know it, but you don't, We're gonna listen to it now.

Emma 19:02

I managed to pull quite a lot out of my arse for that nothing song that I've just gone through. I can't wait to hear what you've got to say about

Sam 19:09

The first thing I want to say is, when we were choosing our songs last time, I misremembered this as being, like An electric guitar cover of Verdi's Requiem, because Jim and Meat Loaf have done some modern rock covers of classical music on other recordings. There's a version of Bolero that they do. So I assumed it would be that, but what we have, Emma, is an excerpt from Verdi's Requiem, just like, slightly cut up in a jarring way

Emma 19:37

yeah, it's been butchered, hasn't

Sam 19:38

Yeah, just banged in the middle of the album. For some reason. And I'm working towards what that reason is. I've found the shape of it, perhaps. But we'll get there. song facts, that's track 6 of 14 on the album. It sits after Good Girls Go To Heaven, which we've not covered on the podcast yet, but pretty good song. And then before, I've Been Dreaming Up A Storm Lately

Emma 20:05

which is one of the weird monologues,

Sam 20:07

creepy monologue. My notes say, Why have you done this, Jimmy? This is the B side to some of the singles. If you went out and bought the It's All Coming Back To Me Now single, Which you should have done, because it's probably the best song off the album.

Emma 20:26

Yeah,

Sam 20:27

Possibly. This would have been the B-side you got.

Emma 20:31

a rip off! Back

Sam 20:33

Back to my notes. Why? Why have you done it,

Emma 20:35

though? It's baffling, right?

Sam 20:37

right Yes. liner notes don't really help, they say this was arranged by Jim Steinman, excerpt from Messa di Requiem composed by, Giuseppe Verdi, which we already knew. We've talked about this in the past, I think. When Jim was young, he would listen to classical music and rock and roll records back to back and not see any distinction between them. I'd listen to an entire Wagner opera and be totally paralysed by it. I literally wouldn't move an inch because I was afraid I might upset something. I was somewhat insane in those days",

Emma 21:10

It's good that he grew out of that. Yeah.

Sam 21:12

"So I'd be virtually paralyzed there listening to these five hour operas in complete form. Then when it was over I'd sit in awe for an hour or so and then I'd put Little Richard on and it would be a magnificent combination. The more I listened the more I was convinced that Wagner and Little Richard came from the same place".

Emma 21:29

I just wonder what Jim's parents made

Sam 21:31

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Well, at least he's not out taking

Emma 21:35

drugs

Sam 21:35

he

Emma 21:36

he he

Sam 21:37

he he yet that feeds He he he Obviously that feeds into the big operatic rock opera stuff that we know and love from Jim later on in life. The other thing I really like about that is that it's the sort of thing you get when you don't know what's cool.

Emma 21:55

Yeah.

Sam 21:56

Like when I was a kid This isn't quite a Meat Loaf memory, but my siblings and I were given, they weren't Walkmans, because we weren't that rich, they would have been Goodman's brand personal stereo device and a tape each that would have been, you know, a cool compilation of the time. But we didn't really, I certainly didn't have any other tapes, so I would just go through my mum's tape collection and, and, I had no idea about music, I'd just pull something off the shelf and listen to it.

Emma 22:22

Yeah, I did very similar things with my mum's

Sam 22:27

But what I didn't realize was the cool one to have grabbed was the Jeff Wayne's adaptation of the War of the Worlds, whereas I grabbed Gene Pitney. So I would go from listening to Now92 to Gene Pitney until my older brother was like, oh, Gene Pitney, you loser. And there's something quite sweet in that when you're so unaware of what's cool that you can kind of just throw stuff together. And there's the stages of coolness that go like. I don't know what's cool. Other people tell me what's cool. Actually, I now decide what's cool. Oh, no, I was wrong. Other people tell me what's cool.

Emma 23:06

And then of course there's the stage that we're now at, which is cool doesn't really matter anymore. We are irrelevant.

Sam 23:17

Yeah. Fair enough. So I do see where Jim is coming from and wanting to include these influences of his in Pandora's box, Newer listeners might not be up to speed on Pandora's Box. It's mostly a female led group that sings a lot of his best songs that Meat Loaf later picks up on Bat out of Hell 2. But what's it doing there? Why is it there? Why is it cut up in the way that it is? Unsurprisingly, nobody has anything to say about this. Critics don't really mention it. Jim's never to my knowledge, talked about it or written anything about what he's done here. He does recycle it though.

Emma 23:57

Oh!

Sam 23:58

We've talked about the recycled version already.

Emma 24:01

Have we?

Sam 24:03

This appears as the backdrop to Wasted Youth on Bat Out of Hell 2. Your face! Yeah.

Emma 24:12

I, yeah, I can hear that now. It's in the weird mix in the background,

Sam 24:16

in the background of the monologue when it starts reaching a peak and he's about to bring the guitar crashing down upon my parents' bed. But it still doesn't answer why he did this in 1989 and what it was for, other than, and I'm fairly certain this is the answer, there were 55 seconds

Emma 24:32

left on the CD. And he's been playing at cutting something

Sam 24:36

Yes. Tower Records magazine calls this"keyboard insanity." And there is one quote from Jim that says,"my version of Verdi", and that's all I can find. The recording itself is credited to the Warsaw National Philharmonic conducted by Kazimierz Kord. Shout out to Kazimierz Kord. I didn't look up anything to do with Kazimierz Kord. He might be an arsehole. I'm hoping he's lovely. The same article says that Jim paid for the music video for It's All Coming Back to Me Now. erotic filth. By selling this to Ford for an advert. Why didn't Ford just go straight to the source? I don't get it. Which idiot at Ford paid for this when you could have just got and bought a CD of

Emma 25:25

Oh my God!

Sam 25:28

But also, relevant to a conversation we have been having for a while on and off this podcast. As of the writing of this article, Jim Steinman confirmed he couldn't drive. The evidence for Jim never having owned a motorbike is starting to build.

Emma 25:46

He couldn't drive.

Sam 25:47

Couldn't drive as of 1989. He definitely never owned a motorbike, Emma.

Emma 25:53

He didn't own a motorbike, did He

Sam 25:55

own a motorbike. He

Emma 25:56

He just liked to think of them having sex with each other in back

Sam 26:01

doesn't Hee hee hee hee and who doesn't love that?.

Emma 26:05

do you think he thought that they were actual creatures?

Sam 26:09

Like horsies?

Emma 26:10

Yes, like horses. Like horses. driving is a useful skill. Not everybody needs to have it. It's fine. But I feel like for an American, it's different. It's much harder in the U. S. to get about without a car.

Sam 26:24

He spent a lot of time living in New York City.

Emma 26:26

I suppose

Sam 26:27

that's At some point he does move out to rural Massachusetts. Presumably he's able to drive by then. Or, well, he's also rich enough to be able to afford a driver, I guess. Yeah. You know, perhaps he had some medical condition that stopped him from being able to drive. I don't know. But yes, it is very hard to get around in Massachusetts without a car, certainly.

Emma 26:45

And all that stuff written about cars and bikes

Sam 26:50

Yeah.

Emma 26:51

Feels like such a fraud. He probably never even experienced any paradise by the dashboard light.

Sam 26:59

He never even saw a dashboard.

Emma 27:01

I feel cheated, Sam. Who knew that this would be the track that brought all of this up?

Sam 27:09

This is an excerpt from Verdi's Requiem. It's the Dies Irae, and I have mangled the Latin there. So, any ancient Romans who want to shout at me, do email in. chatoutofhellatgmail. com Dies Irae is the day of wrath. It's about when Jesus will come back. And, ascend the righteous to heaven and have a word with the sinners.

Emma 27:29

It's about Rapture Day.

Sam 27:30

It is about Rapture Day, if you want to put it in your modern Baptist terms. But this is Catholic, Emma. sorry. which is about sins. What's the name of the album? Original Sin. That's as good a link as I can find. Except there is some good stuff going on with Verdi this is Verdi's version of the Requiem Mass, which few classical composers have taken on. The mass itself has been set to music going back to at least the 15th century. many people have done it. Verdi's version was considered too operatic to be performed in a liturgical setting. The Requiem is usually given in concert form, taking around 90 minutes to perform. Much longer than other Requiem versions. Too operatic!

Emma 28:18

Starting to ring a bell, yeah? Yep.

Sam 28:22

This was first performed on May the 22nd, 1874. Some sample lyrics from the Dies Irae section. the famous bit that we all know, which I don't have the range to sing, but you're hearing it in your head. The day of wrath, that day will dissolve the world in ashes as David prophesied with the Sybil. How great a terror there will be when the judge shall come who will thresh out everything thoroughly. I feel the air is getting hot, like you baby, I'll make you mine, you know I'll take you to the top, what? ha

Emma 28:55

I think some of those lyrics might not have been

Sam 29:00

All of that was from the Latin, Emma, if you translate it. Was Yeah! Whigfield's Saturday Night was a version of the Requiem Mass.

Emma 29:09

Oh god, I wondered how you were gonna do it and here we go and every Yeah, it hurt a little bit more.

Sam 29:18

I had real difficulty working out how to link Electro pop dancehall hits Saturday Night with Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem for the Dead. But I think I did it, so Good stuff. Yeah,

Emma 29:35

Do you got anything else to

Sam 29:36

I do. Yes Verdi is very much the Jim Steinman of his day He revolutionized the world of opera in

Emma 29:44

Did he sleep on a mattress in a pantry?

Sam 29:50

Have not researched where Verdi slept, but I do have some quotes for you for our quiz Oh God. So I've got two quotes from Giuseppe Verdi and one from Jim Steinman. I've updated the language in Verdi's to match Jim's vernacular. Okay. But it's very much the modern take on what he said.

Emma 30:10

So it's a case of spot the Jim.

Sam 30:11

Spot the Jim here.. Is it a,"I like to tell the truth, but I like to make up the truth more". Is it, B,"criticism is stupid, but praise is even stupider", or is it c? Music and theatre are together. The same thing. True theatre is not being cautious."

Emma 30:34

They all sound like pure Steinman, don't they? So this is tough. I have no idea. So I'm just going to go with A.

Sam 30:42

"I like to tell the truth, but I like to make up the truth even more". Giuseppe Verdi.

Emma 30:48

But that could be so Steinman. I know.

Sam 30:50

It

Emma 30:51

Go on, which one was it then?

Sam 30:52

"music and theatre are together. The same thing. True theatre is not being cautious." That is Jim Steinman. The other two were the 19th century Jim Steinman. Giuseppe Verdi.

Emma 31:04

Magnificent. Yes. Bravo. Well done.

Sam 31:06

Thank you. Just to quickly point out, we're talking about Giuseppe Verdi and it gives the music a level of cachet. His name translates to English as Joe Green, which rather ruins the mystique, I

Emma 31:19

of a bit. Old Joe.

Sam 31:22

Old Joe Green's requiem mass. Obviously it's a brilliant piece of classical music. Why is it there, Jim? What have you done with it? What, what, nobody has it. Confused. Do you want to hear what the people of the internet think?

Emma 31:38

Yeah! Are there any that think anything? There

Sam 31:41

are no comments on the Pandora's box version So I I had to find something that people said on the proper Verdi versions. At Simon Bartles dash Y4G,"This is one of the best pieces of music ever composed. But nothing beats the Cantina Band from Star Wars

Emma 32:02

God,

Sam 32:03

You don't get that on Jim

Emma 32:05

Steinman videos.

Sam 32:07

Shall we rate this we'll call it a song.

Emma 32:09

Yeah.

Sam 32:10

we we rate whatever this is, Emma?

Emma 32:12

Yeah. Okay.

Sam 32:12

so we're also gonna double rate this one. We're gonna rate it on our traditional Jim Steinman rating scale, which runs from Jim Steinman at the top to Jim Fineman in the middle, all the way down to Jim Declineman for the mysterious baffling wastes of a CD that sometimes come up.

Emma 32:30

Oh, I wonder what this one

Sam 32:31

And we're also going to rate this on the scale of Giuseppe Verdi to Giuseppe V-uh-di? All the way down to Guiseppi Bleurghdi is this?

Emma 32:45

What is this? What is this? What is this? For me it is a Jim Declineman

Sam 32:50

it's absolutely a Jim Declineman. It's Jim farting about

Emma 32:55

Filling space

Sam 32:56

If I'd known what I was getting into when I chose this, I wouldn't have chosen it and I'd have saved it for later, but

Emma 33:03

least, it's outta the way.

Sam 33:04

out of the way now. Thank you, Jim Declineman. And obviously it's a Giuseppe Verdi, right? It's an absolutely lovely piece of classical music that Jim has, for no reason, taken a scalpel to.

Emma 33:18

Oh, this has felt like struggle this week. pick some better songs next time. Chatter Out

Sam 33:28

So that was Chat out of Hell.

Emma 33:30

Lovely

Sam 33:30

did you agree with our ratings? Let us know, chatoutofhellatgmail. com. Do you have any explanation for what Jim was up to there? Please do tell us, chatoutofhellatgmail. com.

Emma 33:41

or indeed what Meat Loaf was up to with that

Sam 33:43

yeah, email any thoughts on those to chatoutofhellatgmail. com. Just like these people have here. This is from Kayleigh.

Emma 33:52

Kayleigh.

Sam 33:53

Hi, Sam and Emma.

Emma 33:54

Aw,

Sam 33:55

My name is Kayleigh. I'm the person who commented on Spotify that you two should watch Roadie on the most recent episode and may I say Kayleigh, thank you for telling me that there are comments on Spotify because I had no idea up until that point and we've got a few so I'll get on to them in a

Emma 34:11

in a minute. Some sent me a text with a screenshot. It was a revelation! We're good at

Sam 34:16

I'm a chronically ill and autistic 23 year old who, like Emma, went to college for media studies. When I got sick in June of 2023 with the chronic illness, I started really getting into 70s music. I don't know why, your guess is as good as mine, because it's better than modern music. Meat Loaf really stuck out to me as I had yet to see someone with his body type in the world of rock and roll. He's like a male version of Mama Cass. She also had a really weird life, but that's unimportant. We'll go back to Meat Loaf's body type in a second, but it's not unimportant that Mama Cass had an amazing and fascinating life. I Mama Cass. Loaf's body type, we've not really mentioned it, have we? I mean, obviously, It comes up a lot in passing, yeah, he's a mountain of a man who dominates the stage and a big part of his success as a performer, I think, does come from the way he uses his size as a, tool.

Emma 35:13

I guess. It's not something that ever held him back. We have the Meat Loaf rating system, which is the Marvin Lee Aday thing, but he did actually change his name to Michael Lee Aday because way back, there was a Levi's advertising campaign, and he talks about this in his biography. The advertising campaign was, Poor Fat Marvin Can't Wear Levi's. Whoever this Marvin kid was, and of course, it rang true for Meat Loaf. And speaking as a fat woman fuckin yeah!

Sam 35:45

And also, fuck you Levi's

Emma 35:46

Yeah! It is always good to see different body types represented. It should go without saying. Humans come in all shapes and sizes. And Along with those shapes and sizes come various talents, and your worth as a human is not defined by your size. And the fact that Meat Loaf was such a fucking legend, despite not being chiseled and body sculpted and, a generically handsome bloke is fucking brilliant, as far as I'm concerned. So yay for that. Yeah!

Sam 36:23

might play some applause in

Emma 36:24

ha ha ha

Sam 36:28

Back to Kayleigh. Also, for a man who said he was only friends with his voice, Jim really seemed to like the attention he got from being around Meat. Or at least it looks that way in most of the photos of the two men together. Yes, absolutely. Can't wait to listen to the new episode when it comes out, as I have binged listened to the entire series within the space of a week. Bye!

Emma 36:48

Aw, Kayleigh, that's lovely, thank

Sam 36:49

That is lovely. Thank you so much for listening, Kayleigh. And thank you for writing in. And let me just go back to your comment. some other comments from Spotify. So Kaylee's pitched Roadie for. Film Club. It's a 1980 movie where Meat Loaf plays the titular roadie and wants to get with an Alice Cooper crazed 16 year old. And no, we never find out how old Meat Loaf's character is". Good

Emma 37:12

Yay.

Sam 37:13

to

Emma 37:14

Looking forward to that one. Alright,

Sam 37:15

that Kayleigh has pitched that as part of a double bill with Dead Ringer. Yeah. I don't want to be too bummed out in one Film Club So I don't know if Dead Ringer is

Emma 37:26

well maybe we do that the same time as we do Spice World.

Sam 37:29

that good call.

Emma 37:31

Ha And then some

Sam 37:32

And then some other comments on Spotify Thank you to these people. Living After Midnight. This is on our Christmas Horror.

Emma 37:38

on Ahhh And

Sam 37:39

I was listening to this while packing in my parents' house and was laughing so hard that they had to come and check on me and that's in different levels of the house.

Emma 37:47

you haven't listened to the Christmas Horror if you're feeling brave, give it a shot. But don't listen to it in company. Certainly don't listen to it with family. Okay.

Sam 37:58

And then from Jacob's Davies or possibly Jacob S Davies comment on the first episode,"this podcast seems to have been tailor made for me. Massive fan of Meat and Jim, and having spoke with both of them while they were alive, I reckon they'd love it". Oh, it's so

Emma 38:13

nice, Thank you! That might just be based on the first episode when we were probably still being quite nice.

Sam 38:21

Another email? is This is from Chris Matts.

Emma 38:24

Hi Chris.

Sam 38:25

Hey guys, I discovered the pod about a week or so ago, and I'm slowly working through it. I'm roughly around the same age as Emma. And I just want to cut in here, because I'm also roughly around the same age as you, but Chris has assumed I'm not.

Emma 38:39

I wonder if Chris has assumed that you are MUCH older!

Sam 38:42

let's imagine that's happened. Thank you, Chris, for the implied compliment to my youthful voice. I'm roughly around the same age as Emma and seem to have gone through a similar introduction to Meat Loaf. heard Bat Out of Hell 2 on cassette and then saw Meat Loaf when I was 8 years old on the Welcome to the Neighbourhood tour. So actually that does put Chris bang on my age rather than yours. No, Welcome to the Neighbourhood, that was 96?

Emma 39:08

You're only a year younger than

Sam 39:09

me. Yeah, I'm a year younger than you, Chris is three years younger than me. So actually, massive compliment to you! Yeah! Thank you! I saw on socials that you're looking for songs to cover, and looking ahead at the episode descriptions, I don't think you've covered Good Girls Go to Heaven. We have not. Or, I'm Gonna Love Her for Both of Us.

Emma 39:27

That's from Dead Ringer.

Sam 39:28

Thank you, Chris, for those. And then Chris has dropped an incredible question for us. I'd love to know what songs you would have liked to hear Meat Loaf tackle. For me, it would be the Steinman slash Fire Inc. song, Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young. Or, Always by Bon Jovi. His voice would suit Always, I'll grant you that.

Emma 39:47

I have said right from the first time I heard it, that I would have loved to have heard the Meat Loaf version of Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young.

Sam 39:54

Yes.

Emma 39:55

Of course, there is the Meat Loaf version of the other song from that, which is Nowhere Fast, which the Meat Loaf version is far inferior the Fire Inc. version, and I am a massive fan of the Fire Inc. stuff, and Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young is a proper belter song.

Sam 40:13

Yeah, I do have to go on the record. So when we rated Nowhere Fast, I rated the Meat Loaf version higher and I do want to rescind that now and tell you that having listened to the Fire Inc one a few more times, that one absolutely whips.

Emma 40:27

it's so good. It's such an upbeat song. It's the kind of song that I would put on while getting ready to go out. For a big night out. Oh,

Sam 40:35

not Saturday Night by

Emma 40:36

not Saturday Night by Whigfield, no. Tonight is What it Means to be Young. And nowhere fast.

Sam 40:43

So what do you want Meat Loaf to cover, Emma? What are your suggestions? I've got a few.

Emma 40:48

I've given this some thought, and I've gone into two different camps. Okay. one is songs that I think he would do a really good job of. Yep. And for that, I've got If I Could Turn Back Time by Cher.

Sam 40:59

Oh, hello!

Emma 41:00

I think that would be really good. Nice, okay. And also, In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins.

Sam 41:06

can hear that. Nice. That's good.

Emma 41:09

big.

Sam 41:10

A booming in the air

Emma 41:11

And then there's the ones that I think he would cover later in his career when he's doing terrible things. Uh, the two most hilarious ones that I could come up with were You Outta Know. By Alanis Morissette. Of

Sam 41:25

he

Emma 41:25

think he would really butcher that.

Sam 41:27

Okay, hang on, what era Meat Loaf is this?

Emma 41:29

Oh, this is like end of

Sam 41:31

Ravage voice Meat Loaf.

Emma 41:32

yeah.

Sam 41:34

So when he can't even carry a tune, you want him to do You Oughta Know.

Emma 41:38

But more than that, I want him to do Gangster's Paradise.

Sam 41:45

We think on very similar lines. Do we? Yeah, I've taken a slightly different take. I've split Meat Loaf into three sections. Okay. So I've got early Meat Loaf, like 70s through to mid 90s. Yup. And I would like to hear him going back to his musical theatre roots. I want him play Javert in Les Mis. He's got the perfect voice for Javert. Have you seen the Hollywood film

Emma 42:08

I have not. I'm not overly familiar with Les Mis. Okay. I was put off it at school by musical theatre

Sam 42:14

Which is fine. thing that really ruins the film of Les Mis. Everything else about it is brilliant, but Russell Crowe plays the role of Javert. So Javert is meant to have a very deep, he's a big booming threat who follows the main character around doesn't sound anything like Brian Blessed, but he's supposed to have this big deep booming voice and be constantly stalking the and, Russell Crowe has the weediest voice you can imagine. He utterly ruins it. So I think Meat Loaf would have played that part I feel like I've complained to you about the film of Les Mis on a podcast before. I must have done it on my other podcast Inform, Educate, entertain. Anyway, um, that's my early Meat Loaf in his prime. Then mid level Meat Loaf, so late 90s to mid 2000s.

Emma 43:02

Yeah.

Sam 43:03

This is Hang Cool Teddy Bear era, when he's singing skater punk songs. Let's lean into that. I want him to cover Heaven is a Half Pipe by OPM.

Emma 43:12

Ha ha ha. Yep, love it.

Sam 43:14

And United States of Whatever by Liam Lynch

Emma 43:17

Oh, brilliant call. Fucking hell. Oh, I've not even thought about that song in forever.

Sam 43:24

That's what I'm here for.

Emma 43:25

for. Oh no.

Sam 43:28

And then if you go fast forward to the end, Heroic Ravaged Voice era Meat Loaf. We've talked a lot about how His choices for Braver Than We Are were dreadful. His voice was right to go back to Tom Waits. Yeah. Something like Diamonds on My Windshield or Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night. Yeah. Something from the, kind of, Tom Waits most bluesy, 1930s y, rain drenched cityscapes. Era Listeners, This is a really great question that Chris has asked. If you've got an answer to what you would like Meat Loaf to have covered, let us know. Chat out of hell@gmail.com. One more email from comedy friend of the show. Silky.

Emma 44:09

Hi, silky.

Sam 44:10

Hi, silky. Hi Silky. He says, I've had a few days away and I've immersed myself in the meaty verse. And I'm now caught And yeah, may I second that we're not having this be the meaty verse.

Emma 44:23

the meat of this.

Sam 44:25

enjoying it hugely despite not having listened to any Meat Loaf or Jim Steinman other than the clips and the episodes. So that's the mailbag. Emma, what songs are we covering next time

Emma 44:36

I'm going to dig back into the Dead Ringer album, and I'm going to cover I'll Kill You If You Don't Come Back.

Sam 44:41

And I am going to return to Bat Out Of Hell to cover the fourth song on that one, all revved up with No Place To Go. And we're also going to do something else next time. Yeah, you're looking at me. We made a promise to our listeners at the start of this series to give them an update on the Jim Steinman style songs that we're working on, so we do owe them something. And Emma just to give you some inspiration, I've got this little quote from Jim for aspiring songwriters.

Emma 45:10

Okay, I'm sure this will really

Sam 45:11

help First, stop trying to imitate what you hear on the radio. Next, experiment with my method. Try to envision a scene, like one from a movie or a play. See the characters, the situation, the setting, everything you can."Then, at the peak, visualize the singer of the song standing on a pitch dark stage, right in a column of intense blue light, with 5, 000 people in the audience. The song has got to hold those people completely at that point. The audience should be completely captured." Now that does ask a lot of us. Yeah. The first half is, is, I nearly said good advice. Interesting advice. Picture it

Emma 45:55

advice, yeah. Some of advice.

Sam 45:59

And then the second half of the advice is, make it be good. So yeah, we do owe our audience perhaps an update on some lyrics

Emma 46:07

some Then we should do that.

Sam 46:11

Yes, we should and we will do that. for the last episode in this third series.

Emma 46:17

series. Because what I need is more homework.

Sam 46:20

You're the one who promised this about four episodes ago. As always, everyone, please do keep your Meat Loaf thoughts and memories flying in. Did you see Meat Loaf at Five Guys wondering who eats the peanuts and forgetting that you always get too many fries? So why did I order a medium? I could've just got a small and there's still too many fries. Why did I get a medium? Let us know. chatoutofhell@gmail.Com. As always, thank you so much for listening. We'll see you again in two weeks time for another Chat Out of Hell! Bow now now now! The end.