Chat out of Hell

Episode 4.2 - Dead Ringer for Love | Runnin' for the Red Light (I Gotta Life)

• Sam Wilkinson

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I don't know anything about you baby, but Chat out of Hell is everything you're dreaming of. Assuming you dream of adequate podcast analysis of the works of Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman.

This episode we take a break from Jim Steinman's byzantine theatre career and go back to the absolute rockers from the mouth of Meat Loaf. Dead Ringer for Love and Runnin' for the Red Light vie for your affections this time, and one of them is the clear winner. This epsiode we'll answer the deep questions, questions like:

- What did the 80s smell like?

- Is there anything Jim Steinman won't recycle?

- Were the Easybeats any good?

PLUS a load more sundry nonsense including a good chat about Smash Hits Magazine and an even better magazine Sam's excited to share.

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 #DearA1saucewedontneedyoursaucenowwevegotourown

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:

Dead Ringer for Love by Meat Loaf and Cher from the album Dead Ringer (1981)

Delta House theme by Jim Steinman, Sean Kelly and Tony Hendra (1979)

Runnin' for the Red Light (I Gotta Life) by Meat Loaf from the album Welcome to the Neighbourhood (1995)

Good Times by the Easybeats from the album Vigil (1968)

Good Times by INXS (1986)


Send us a text

Emma:

What is this?

Sam:

This is Chat out of Hell, the podcast equivalent of a warm bath in a vat of liquid Meat Loaf with bubbles of Jim Steinman.

Emma:

Oh God.

Sam:

You right there. Who is Meat Loaf?

Emma:

Meat Loaf was a singer and actor, but most importantly he was a man known as Meaty to Sarah Ferguson, the former wife of Prince Andrew. The less said the better. Who's Jim Steinman?

Sam:

Jim Steinman is a composer and musician who was inducted into the songwriters' Hall of Fame in 2012, which is the same year that he started work on a heavy metal version of the Nutcracker.

Emma:

Of course he did.

Sam:

Who are we?

Emma:

Oh, we are comedians. You are Sam Wilkinson. And I am Emma Crossland. And when our powers combined, we become the mighty robot known as Samma, protector of Worlds, Slayer of Demons, and Eater of Cheese. I'm running out of ideas for this it is what it is.

Sam:

Fine. Welcome to Chat Out of Hell. Bow. Now. Now, now.

Emma:

Bing.

Sam:

So we've recovered from seeing the Bat out of Hell musical. Yes.

Emma:

Yes. We're over it now.

Sam:

We're over

Emma:

We're over it now. It's fine. Everything's

Sam:

we're past our obsession with Jim Steinman's, musical theatre career the time being. if you've been turned off by us talking about musical theatre shows, when we should be talking about giant men rocking out. This is the episode for you. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So this is Chat Out Of Hell, which is a podcast wherein you and I, both big Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman fans, we both bring a song to the table to dissect and analyze in our inimitably half-arsed way. we'll review them, we'll rate them on our patented Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman song rating scales. And in passing, we'll all learn something.

Emma:

Will we

Sam:

All right. Some people will learn something. Emma, what song have you brought for the listeners

Emma:

I've gone back to Welcome to the Neighbourhood, and I have brought Running for the Red Light, brackets, I Got a Life,

Sam:

Crikey. Well, I've gone to the album Dead Ringer. And the song on that album Dead Ringer for Love.

Emma:

an excellent choice,

Sam:

it's a good choice, isn't it? So we're gonna start with, Dead Ringer I think this time. So listeners, go away, find your YouTubes or your Spotifys or your minstrels. right? There is a video for this. it is both unnecessary, but it's also I think, good fun. So if you have access to it, go to your YouTube and find that. We are gonna watch it now and we'll see you all in like a twenty second clip.

Soundtrack:

Who you.

Sam:

We've been listening to Dead Ringer for Love, and we've had a lovely old time with it, haven't we? You

Emma:

Bloody love that one.

Sam:

banger. you want the

Emma:

Yes.

Sam:

Good

Emma:

I've got a bit stuck in the

Sam:

beautiful. Crikey. okay, I I, I'm supposed to deliver some sexually aggressive response,

Emma:

Yes,

Sam:

Well, here's the facts, baby. that was a duet by Meat Loaf featuring Cher. if you'd like to know why Cher was involved on this song. I don't know either. Um, in my limited research, I couldn't find any particular reason why it was Cher that was chosen for that. But she's fucking brilliant on it, didn't she? Oh, They are both absolutely top of the game on that. This was the second single off the album Dead Ringer, in November, 1981. it peaked at number five in the UK. Didn't chart at all in the US

Emma:

What

Sam:

I know America sort yourselves out. Universal advice, I guess.

Emma:

Yeah.

Sam:

So this song is another instance of recycly Jim.

Emma:

Recycle Jim.

Sam:

Emma, do you know where the source of

Emma:

is it the Dream Engine?

Sam:

It's not the

Emma:

because the Dream Engine is the source for all things Jim.

Sam:

No, no. You've not recognized the source. Okay, we'll come back to that.

Emma:

Oh,

Sam:

have a bit of fun with that later

Emma:

Ooh.

Sam:

We needed this song, right? Because we've

Emma:

just oh, we really,

Sam:

needed this two and a half episodes getting deep into theatre, Uh, and now we can answer the question, what if Jim just wrote a really good song about two people wanting to do it? Yeah. And it was over in less than five minutes. This song is a svelte four minutes, 20 in length, which by Jim's standard is half of a and it's only 10 seconds longer than Macarena by Los del Rio. So,

Emma:

got that in quick. You got the Macarena in quick today.

Sam:

Okay. Yeah,

Emma:

No, no, that's, it's good. It means,

Sam:

fine. it it's over. Now

Emma:

drop my gut off. relax

Sam:

or can I, where is the next bit of Macarena gonna come from? Emma?

Emma:

Oh, well there'll definitely be some more in there. I don't think you're gonna I don't think you're gonna let me go that easily.

Sam:

It's a classic Jim mashup of fifties and eighties tunes, right?.

Emma:

Bombardi did di wuas. Cher gets one of the best lines that Jim has ever written.

Sam:

it.

Emma:

As they flirting their way through the evening. Meat Loaf says"you've got the kind of lips that do more than drink" and Cher responds with"you've got the kind of mind that doesn't have to think."

Sam:

Mm-hmm. Ah, It's very, there's some really good lines in this. another good line. This is Cher. I'm looking for anonymous and fleeting satisfaction. I wanna tell my daddy I'll be missing in action."

Emma:

It was so good,

Sam:

But, there are some lyrics that just don't work here in the UK.

Emma:

Yeah.

Sam:

Most of the song in fact, because the chorus is"rock and roll and brew, rock and roll and brew" tea. Yeah. For our American listeners, a brew to us is a lovely hot cup of tea, which changes the timbre of the whole song.

Emma:

It's less wild night out, isn't

Sam:

it's more oh, a game of Scrabble and a cup of tea. And we'll flirt over the letter x when it gets drawn,

Emma:

Which is of course how all British couples do meet.

Sam:

Yes, of course. Yeah. Cher birth name, Cheryl Sarkisian

Emma:

I didn't know that.

Sam:

Cher became her legal name in 1979. Okay. there is some claim here and there that Cher actually wrote some of the lyrics to this. Okay. But I can't find any verifiable source for it. I've not heard that come from the lips of either Cher or Jim or Meat Loaf. It's just kind of secondary sources everywhere. So possibly she was involved, but in my half an afternoon's research into this song, I couldn't really find a lot of ties as to why Cher's involved other than she sings this role perfectly. Shall we talk about the video?

Emma:

Oh, that's a lovely fun video.

Sam:

Me just tie this to a reviewer quote. This is from Donald A Guarisco for Allmusic."This song feels like a long lost outtake from the Grease soundtrack on steroids." It's

Emma:

that kind of, vibe Cher's there chewing gum being sexy.

Sam:

you noticed that she chews gum to the beat? Yes. Which is beautiful. Cher and her girls are hanging down their local dive bar. They're all chatting away and then Meat Loaf and his boys all walk in wearing Meat Loaf t-shirts. Yes, they

Emma:

Yes, they do.

Sam:

that is because, I believe, they are the t-shirts from Meat Loaf's softball team. Right. He got really into softball, in the run up to Dead Ringer, I think as part of his recovery from, doing all the drugs. he played in a softball league in Central Park, and I think he's paid for the team shirts and Aw. Meat Loaf and his softball boys come in, and Cher, sticks a song on the jukebox

Emma:

and Meat Loaf there. There's eye

Sam:

There's eye contact. It's gonna be sexy

Emma:

Yeah.

Sam:

gonna spend all night flirting in the bar. and then we break into song and dance. But did you notice the superhero element of Meat Loaf,

Emma:

When he got rid of his shirt and the frilly shirt became

Sam:

The song kicks Meat Loaf turns from softball Loaf into sexy stage performer Meat Loaf in a snap of a

Emma:

finger. up. Yep.

Sam:

and then it's three minutes of, boys, one side girls the other side dancing and flirting at each

Emma:

other. Yep. Then at the end of the song, just as they're, doing the Dead Ringer repeat ad infinitum. Cher and Meat Loaf suspiciously walk off together.

Sam:

suspiciously, not

Emma:

suspiciously. Sex ly walk off together. Yeah. cause they're gonna go and do it. imagine.

Sam:

So it's a great song and It's a great video. I don't have too much to say critically about it it really hits the sweet spot of what you want from Jim and from Meat.

Emma:

It's, a banger to sing along to for

Sam:

Yeah. or the performance wise Meat is at the top of his

Emma:

Yes.

Sam:

Lyrically Jim hasn't fallen too far into utter stupidity. Yeah, it's, it's such a good tune as well.

Emma:

it's the only tune from that album that makes it onto any kind of greatest hit

Sam:

Yeah. So my copy of, Bat of Hell has this stuck on the end of it as we've mentioned earlier on Dead Ringer is not as well rated an album. I am coming around to it, but it's not as well rated as Bat out of Hell. So some record executive just decided to go, that one's

Emma:

quite good. They

Sam:

We've got room on the CD. Jim would've approved.

Emma:

And I guess it gets it out to a wider

Sam:

it does., It's very well known here. I think it did take, quite a while to settle into the Meat Loaf canon in

Emma:

Okay. I we love a good bar based sing along.

Sam:

We do love a bar based singalong, but also we've talked about this before, this video is so American in the way that would appeal to yes. Britain

Emma:

Britain

Sam:

It's rock and roll and it's dingy and it's a bit like Cheers, but with a bit of edge.

Emma:

It's cool in the way that Britain couldn't be at that time.

Sam:

Exactly.

Emma:

I remember being a kid and the thought of America was like, oh, America. It just seemed impossibly glamorous and exciting. And not all dingy and smelly like pubs in the UK Were,

Sam:

this is another music video that you couldn't see happening in a UK pub.

Emma:

You go down the Spoons where you're not even allowed music,

Sam:

but there would be a grumpy old man in a flat cap sat between the two,

Emma:

And he

Sam:

shielding his pints. He won't move. I've sat here every night since 1974 and I'm not moving For you young people with your flirtations

Emma:

Exactly that. He's having none of it.

Sam:

Speaking of the glitz and glamour of America, Emma would you like a quiz. Here's the quiz hinted tantalizingly at this. I did. Jim recycled this tune. But where did he recycle it from? Was it A, the theme to a sitcom spinoff from the movie National Lampoon's Animal House sample lyric. They're crazy, wild, and they're rough and rude. The dean their attitude. Was it B, the music from a TV commercial for Irish Spring brand deodorant sample lyric. Your armpits feel fresher when you use the Spring. Make yourself smell better for that hot young thing. Was it C a radio jingle for the New York City government advertising their new helpline for reporting rat infestations. Sample lyric: those rodents aren't going to get it their way. Call NYC Rat Report line and we'll take them away." One of those is true. Where did Jim get that music from?

Emma:

Oh God, this is bleak. Which one of those is the Macarena?

Sam:

Yes. Translate all of those into Spanish and just see if they fit the rhythm of the

Emma:

Look, I reckon you would do

Sam:

that.

Emma:

Oh, uh, I'll go for b

Sam:

the music from a TV V commercial for Irish Spring brand deodorants. Yeah."your armpits feel fresher when you use the Spring. Make yourself smell better for that hot young thing." Yeah, I made that up.

Emma:

Wow. when are you making your career move into advertising, Oh God. Is it the rats? It can't be the rats. Is it the

Sam:

"Those rodents aren't going to get it their way. Call NYC Rat Report Line and we'll take them away." I made that up as well.

Emma:

you rhyming away with way I should have known

Sam:

Yeah. Jim wouldn't have done that. No, It was A, it was the theme tune to the spinoff from Animal House, which was called Delta House and ran for about eight episodes.

Emma:

Oh, a huge success. Then.

Sam:

Get ready to watch this. Emma, you are going to love it. Oh speaking of classic Americana. Okay. This is the opening credits to Delta House.

Soundtrack:

They're crazy, wild and they're rough, the Dean don't like their attitude The animal fraternity well it could mean the end of you and me house. Let's go down to the Delta house. All the they're saying and the things they do. Are A okay with me If I can do them too? Oh yeah. Come on baby. Let's go. Please. Let's go down. Let's go.

Sam:

that was the intro sequence to Delta House. Wow. The spinoff from Animal House.

Emma:

Jim write the theme music for that, or

Sam:

Uh, Jim wrote the music. Okay. The lyrics were by Tony Hendra and Sean Kelly. things. But Emma, did you catch a certain lyric in there that Jim definitely reuses later on?"The things they're saying and the things they do are only gonna scandalize a girl like you".

Emma:

The things they're saying and the things they do. Ah, Jimmy

Sam:

Tonight is What it Means to be Young originates

Emma:

in the

Sam:

in, the opening sequence to a spinoff to Animal House. Have you seen Animal House? I haven't. No, Okay. Animal House is frat Yeah. It's like a frat boy comedy thing. it's very, raunchy and trying to spy on girls in the showers and all that sort of a thing. Mildly problematic probably. but the TV spinoff, and America does this a lot. the TV spinoff was scheduled in a family friendly 7:30 PM slot. slots.

Emma:

Oh, it makes no sense. It makes no sense It was almost like Saved by the

Sam:

It was very much that, wasn't it? you've got crazy things happening

Emma:

to crazy zany teenagers played by 29 year olds

Sam:

Animal House is still apparently quite well regarded. all I know of it is from secondary spinoffs, like Simpsons did a parody of it and Futurama did and stuff. things like the trope of at the end of the film or the episode, you get a little summary of what happened to everybody afterwards. Homer Simpson went back to work at the

Emma:

nuclear powerhouse

Sam:

plant that is from Animal House.

Emma:

So that's where it originated. Because even the Bakeoff do that now.

Sam:

That's where Bakeoff got it from. That's some corking lines in there, but yeah, the things they're saying and the things they do are only gonna scandalize a girl like you. And then later on the line becomes the things they're saying and the things they do are ao okay with me if I can do them too? Oh

Emma:

Oh God. Good.

Sam:

Woo.

Emma:

Don't like that.

Sam:

Nope, that.

Emma:

There's nothing he won't recycle, is there?

Sam:

No, I have a quote on that and I don't know where it's from. But I did come across it in some other reading. This is a bit of a paraphrase perhaps, but Jim said once, I've only written one song in 200 movements,

Emma:

200 bowel movements. Hey, hey.

Sam:

Are you auditioning for a part on Delta

Emma:

think I might be. It just had it, it presented itself, but also that's what she said. I'm so sorry.

Sam:

Oh my God.

Emma:

What have I become? I hate this.

Sam:

I love the link with Delta House as well, because describing beers as brew Yeah. Is something to me that frat boys do. Yeah. Let's get some brewskis would you like to know what the people of the internet think,

Emma:

I would,

Sam:

at Tom Power 8 1 4 7, this song was played. Sorry. You do have to refresh your brain a bit'cause we're no longer talking about the Delta House theme I'd love to, I have Delta House theme in mind for all of these comments.

Emma:

Let me just press refresh on my brain then

Sam:

at Tom Power 8 1 4 7. This song was played at our wedding night as I rode my Harley onto the dance floor in

Emma:

April 14th, It works perfectly for both songs.

Sam:

then I had a wonderful,

Emma:

Boy,

Sam:

then I had a wonderful dance with my wife. Magical.

Emma:

My wedding venue would've gone ape shit

Sam:

At B hacky 2, 3, 5. The early eighties was so sweaty.

Emma:

It's true. Everybody looks pretty sweaty in that video, so sweaty in that video. Video. But I respect that because that's what real life is like.

Sam:

sweaty.

Emma:

This was a time when sweaty meant sexy.

Sam:

Yeah.

Emma:

I'm all for that time. As a sweaty woman,

Sam:

It was a time before Irish Spring deodorants. Your armpits feel fresher when you use the spring. Make yourself smell better for that hot young thing."

Emma:

buy

Sam:

it. Yeah. If Irish Spring do wanna send me some retroactive sponsorship money, that would be lovely. At Peter Jerk 4, 6 0 3 gum should be illegal,

Emma:

this is the eighties and Sexy sexy. Chewing Chewing

Sam:

Sweat is sexy. Uhhuh, obscene, quantities of hairspray. Sexy. Imagine the smell.

Emma:

Oh, that video reeks. That video is why smoking was allowed in bars for such a long time.

Sam:

true. We couldn't ban smoking until we'd sorted out deodorant availability. Deodorant like Irish Spring, your armpits feel better when you use the spring. So, Emma, shall we write this song? Yes. On our trademarked Jim Steinman song Rating Scale? Yes. So this runs Jim Steinman for the very finest of songs to Jim Fineman for the finest of songs in a different way of using the word fine for Yeah. For the all rightest of And Jim Declineman for those ones, which are well dodgy and also shit. Emma, what is This This This is Jim Steinman. Let's all go to the Delta House. Uh, yeah, just to clarify, Delta House theme. Jim Steinman. Jim Fineman or Jim Declineman. What's all to the Delta House. Let's all go to the Delta House. Good. So that was Dead Ringer for Love. Emma, what song have you brought for our listeners' delectation?

Emma:

I have brought Running For the Red Light, I Got a Life from, Welcome to the Neighbourhood. So go away and give that a listen on whatever platform you choose. and we'll be back after this clip.

Soundtrack:

Have a good from the tequila,

Emma:

so you've just listened to running for the Red Light, I Got a Life. It was the third single from Welcome to the Neighbourhood, which came out in April, 1996. There's no video for this one, presumably because they'd spaffed all the budget on the previous two singles, which were I'd Lie for You and That's the Truth. and Not a Dry Eye in the House. The I'd Lie for You budget must have been quite a big

Sam:

that That was the Indiana Jones

Emma:

loss. Yes. Yeah. Not a Dry Eye was the one where he is in the theatre. In the theatre,

Sam:

so following that graph line down. The budget for a song about driving very, very fast seems unlikely. it's

Emma:

Not even about driving very, very fast. Oh. It's about driving fast to get to Mexico. To go and do drinking and shagging. and I can't imagine the video would terribly PG for that. this was written by Harry Vander, George Young, Patti Russo Meat Loaf, and Sarah Durkey, who also wrote Modern Girl that we covered a while back.

Sam:

It's that five people I've just counted.

Emma:

quite a lot of people. But two of those people have no other, links to any Meat Loaf stuff.

Sam:

And that's okay. that's

Emma:

Harry Vander and George Young. And they had to be credited on the song because the chorus is pretty much lifted straight from something

Sam:

else. Oh.

Emma:

I've sent you a link.

Sam:

Before I go into the link, I do just wanna comment one of my thoughts about this song, is that"gonna have a good time tonight" is such a dross lyric. Is this, is that the lyric that they've ripped off ric that they've ripped. Amazing. Is that the Easybeats one? quite like the Cripes. So

Emma:

think it was done deliberately.

Sam:

Okay, so this isn't a case of they did it and then they got

Emma:

no. I guess it's an homage to, the Easybeats, which is a deep cut, isn't it?

Sam:

Friday on my Mind is a decent song but I wouldn't say they're particularly homage worthy. I

Emma:

familiar with them prior to this. I quite like it. it's fun. Some people have said that they were the Australian Beatles.

Sam:

Easybeats often come up on sixties compilation CDs.

Emma:

Yeah.

Sam:

the compiler is too cheap to pay for the the Beatles or the Stones or people like that.

Emma:

but, you know, quite good fun. they're the originators of that little riff and you can feel where the rest of it very different themes to the songs lyrically.

Sam:

There's

Emma:

other crossover. But they are credited as, writing, this, so I have sent you another link, Sam. which is another version of the Easy Beats song. this is by

Sam:

INXS

Emma:

and this was used on the Lost Boys soundtrack.

Sam:

Oh, okay. Jim Steinman would've loved this

Emma:

You get the idea. That's, where it all came from,

Sam:

but it's. Such a nothing song to decide to take a snippet of and put in. It's

Emma:

weird, isn't it?

Sam:

Yeah. It's, nothing wrong with it, but,

Emma:

Welcome to the Neighbourhood has some really dodgy parts. Where the Rubber Meets the Road is an unpleasant song. as An album I quite enjoy it, but I think that's because it came out at a time when, I was listening to a lot of, as a kid. and I, loved this song. but the. subject matter is a little bit ropey, so it talks about, he's gonna take a little trip and find a Tijuana stray. So he is going down to Mexico for cheap booze and sex. I'm not entirely sure if we're talking, hiring sex workers here or just trying to pick up easy girls. a really dumb song as well. Just need some understanding. A girl who ain't demanding, who ain't afraid to fake it."

Sam:

reading though, Emma,"south border. don't drink the water. I'M not surprised Sarah Durkey's fingerprint on this because she also wrote, Where the Rubber Meets the Road Yeah. Which has a similarly problematic approach

Emma:

to women. to women.

Sam:

to women and sex.

Emma:

What's wrong with Sarah?

Sam:

The patriarchy be insidious.

Emma:

So weird. There's, there's not a lot to say about the song. it's an upbeat rocky.

Sam:

Yeah. It's a It's fun number. It's a fun dancing number. if you don't listen to the lyrics, yeah, it's fine. if you do listen to the lyrics, they are alternately creepy or. Well, not even stupid, but if I was gonna write a parody of a rock song, I would include the

Emma:

I Divine

Sam:

Gonna have a good time tonight. And I know that's not Meat Loaf's fault in this instance, but it is his fault for going, God, that was so good when The Easybeats did it. I have to take it. we're gonna have a jolly nice time today.

Emma:

I found some reviews. From Chart Watch UK the third single from, this says Waking Up the Neighbourhood. This time Meat Loaf turns away from the power ballads and rocks out, big time. Running for the Red Light is more a tribute track, than anything else with a chorus that is lifted almost wholesale from the classic Good Times, best known these days in the version release by INXS as part of the soundtrack to the film, the Lost Boys, a blatant bit of borrowing Harry Vander and George Young of the Easybeats were given songwriting credits. The lift was entirely a deliberate homage. it doesn't really harm the track. It turns into one of the more immediate party hits Mr. Loaf has ever released. It will struggle to match the top 10 peak of the last two hits, Not a Dry Eye in the House. And I'd Lie For You, even if the title is of comparable length. but I've got a review from Smash Hits. Oh, somebody's, I

Sam:

think we've been troubled by Smash Hits yet, have

Emma:

But now I've got a review from Smash Hits

Sam:

the, uh, the pop magazine of our

Emma:

Yep. So singles reviewed by Alex Needham. Running for the Red Light, I Got a Life, gets three out of five."Meat Loaf opts for a dramatic change of direction on a single that is A fast and B four minutes long. It's got a nonsense title though, so that's okay then. Though most people would rather be burned at the stake than admit a penchant for Meat Loaf. This record might have, um, secretly humming along. It's less over the top than usual and still hardly understated and maybe quite invigorating with its guitar spag out and furious chorus, just don't tell your trendy mates."

Sam:

I wish I paid by the

Emma:

In the same edition of this little review section in, Smash Hits, reviewed by Alex Needham. There's also a review of a Alanis Morissette Ironic. Oh. Which must have come out at the same time. She's talented, she's good looking, but she doesn't do much for me". So already Alex is in trouble

Sam:

Jesus,

Emma:

this arms aloft rumination on the irony of life, will no doubt be acclaimed by the squillions who lapped up her last hits. But to moi, it sounds like the kind of quirky adult bracket, ah, rock which Americans go bats over, but which us Brits wisely tend to ignore. Then again, it could grow on me, become a top three hit and convert me to the charms of Mademoiselle Mozza. Wouldn't that be ironic?" two stars.

Sam:

I feel queasy.

Emma:

I'm not very happy with that.

Sam:

Alex Needham. If you are listening, go fuck yourself. Uh, if you know Alex Needham of formerly of Smash Hits Magazine fame, do let us know chatoutofhell@gmail.com.

Emma:

There's some in the same section.

Sam:

well, no, Emma, the

Emma:

Cranberries, Salvation,

Sam:

hang on Before you go on. Is it quite good? Except for the fact that a woman is in it? Is

Emma:

one star

Sam:

salvation

Emma:

Millions love her but Dolores O'Riordan reminds me of a school teacher who'd put you in detention if you dare question her dodgy band's integrity." This was a time when reviewing was particularly brutal. Mm. In the nineties. That sort of swagger. Thing. I remember Catlin Moran talking about when she demolished bands. In her reviews. unnecessarily.

Sam:

Oh dear.

Emma:

There's also a review of Ash, Goldfinger. Which gets four stars. And I always found Ash be a little bit bland.

Sam:

are there any women in Ash? There you go.

Emma:

Single of the week, which gets five stars is the Manic Street Preachers A Design For Life. I have no problem

Sam:

No, I have no problem

Emma:

quite the Manics,

Sam:

of all of the songs that we've just listed, I'm putting that at the bottom.

Emma:

It's the least interesting.

Sam:

Yeah. but then again, there's no girls in it

Emma:

music

Sam:

music for

Emma:

but to counter that.

Sam:

Oh no. Uh,

Emma:

he's given five stars to Everything but the Girl Walking Wounded, there's definitely a girl in that.

Sam:

There is, well maybe he misunderstood the name,

Emma:

but that was an interesting little find a

Sam:

that was quite a nice little, dip

Emma:

Splash hit

Sam:

the history of music reviewing.

Emma:

Yeah, let's never go there again.

Sam:

Yeah. horrible. I'm just thinking back to when I used to review

Emma:

Oh, I used to review music as well. What did you review music

Sam:

reviewed for a publication called Disorder. I think I was only ever on their website.

Emma:

was that around the same time as Drowned in Sound was a thing? 2, 3, 4, 5.

Sam:

3, 4,

Emma:

Oh. Drowned in Sound was around possibly a bit earlier than I did some reviews for my university

Sam:

Mm-hmm.

Emma:

I did some reviews and some interviews of just whatever junk they sent us through. and a lot of it was like stuff you'd never heard of.

Sam:

Yeah. A real mix of stuff I'd never heard of and genres I had no interest in.

Emma:

Yeah. There was a lot of that. But, as a result of doing that, I did get to interview Snow Patrol. Oh yeah. Outside a pub in Middlesbrough.

Sam:

did you feel that though when you were writing music reviews?'cause I've just been thinking about this. Did you still feel the cool thing to do here is to find a really, snarky, funny way to say this music is not to my tastes. Haha.

Emma:

pretty sure I did. Yeah, I

Sam:

as well. Yeah. Awful,

Emma:

it? Yeah. I hope that if I was to ever do it again, which I never will,

Sam:

although if you do wanna send us, one of those samplers, I'm not, I'm not taking links. I'm not taking MP3 links like they do now. I'm only

Emma:

sample CDs?

Sam:

If I get one of those CDs with a photocopied bit of stuff in the plastic wallets, I happily

Emma:

accept a link. I don't need more stuff in my life. yeah. I would like to think that if I did it now, I'd be less of a wanker.

Sam:

Um, a different wanker maybe.

Emma:

Yeah. But I think with age comes

Sam:

less of a prick.

Emma:

Yeah. Just a bit more mellow. Yeah. A bit more accepting

Sam:

Different Yeah.

Emma:

and also, you know, I've had my own heart broken with reviews, so

Sam:

it's time to rate this on our trusty Meat Loaf song rating scale, which has served us for a whole year so far. Emma, our Meat Loaf song rating scale goes from Marvin Lee Aday for his very finest non Jim Steinman works Marvin Lee Okay for his okayest of songs and Marvin Lee. No way for all the ones that we hear and go. So, which side of the, Okay no Way border does this song sit

Emma:

It does sort of surf that. Okay No Way border

Sam:

it's on the edge isn't it?

Emma:

I

Sam:

I think it's Is it,

Emma:

I think, I think just about, oh. Oh, shit. I used to really like the song, but now I've looked at it and listened to the words properly. It's a bit skeevy, isn't it?

Sam:

It is a bit skeevy. Do you want me read out what's made it onto the No Way list so far? Yeah, And that might help us. we have Where the Rubber Meets the Road. It's not as bad as that. No, it's not. It is not great. But it's not, bad as that. It's not as bad as, oh boy. Uh, Los Angeloser.

Emma:

Oh, I fucking hate

Sam:

And 45 Seconds of Ecstasy. Oh, and Rock and Roll Mercenaries,

Emma:

obviously. I think it might be an Okay.

Sam:

Do you think it's better than Rock and Roll Mercenaries?

Emma:

Musically. Yeah,

Sam:

I think you're right actually. Rock and Roll Mercenaries is great fun to sing along to safe in the knowledge that it's fucking garbage. It Rubish. So, yeah, I think you're right, Emma. Let's declare this a Marvin Lee Okay. Yes, it's all right. It's fine.

Emma:

Good.

Sam:

Okay, that was our songs this episode. Did you like them? Did you think we were wrong? Did you think they were rubbish? Do you have opinions on Cher's hair in that video? chatoutofhell@gmail.com where some of these people have sent messages in recent weeks? Yeah. We've had a quite a few messages from various people adding stuff into the Mm-hmm. Bins. So thank you to, quite a few people. David Gillespie's been in touch. All right. Fellow young people all. You're cool. Cool dude. Sup. you mentioned on a recent episode that you're intending to do some more research on Paul Crook. So Paul Crook was the producer of Braver Than We Are the last album. There's an interesting angle that I've never seen explicitly mentioned before regarding how I think he ended up with Meat Loaf. Crook was a member of eighties thrash metal titans Anthrax during the late nineties. Not a key figure by any stretch of the imagination. Very much a hired hand. But the main guitarist in Anthrax, Scott Ian, is married to one Pearl Aday, Loaf's daughter. Probably not a coincidence that Crook made his way to Meat Loaf after leaving Anthrax. I like that. I don't really know anything about Anthrax, do you?

Emma:

All I know is when I was at school, one of my friends started buying Anthrax CDs.

Sam:

Okay.

Emma:

from the local flea market.

Sam:

Okay. Anthrax are one of those, cool metal bands whose logo is like in a cool fonts and it's ah, Anthrax

Emma:

They do seem very raw.

Sam:

Yeah. Yeah. we might have to learn a bit more about them then. since they've got

Emma:

oh God. Am I

Sam:

have possibly. Okay. Thank you David for that. RL Gray's been in yay. Hi rl. rl. I'm not gonna read all your email. I do apologize. RL basically agrees with us about everything.

Emma:

lovely stuff.

Sam:

but we were talking about our famous doppelgangers. Oh, yes.

Emma:

Ah, yes.

Sam:

Yeah. RL's doppelgangers that other people have suggested include Bruce Willis and Paul Bettany. Yeah, I, I can, stop see that? I can see that. and also RL, I wanted to read this bit out because you might not be aware of this, there is a video on YouTube you need to find called Moby.

Emma:

Yep.

Sam:

Moby Song by, Adam Buxton. He's a British comedian comparing various famous bald white men. So you might see yourself over and over and over again in that video. comments on the Dream Engine. RL has listened to bits of the same recording as us, though not the whole thing, because the quality makes it rough going even if you are into the material. As you know, it's ridiculously self-indulgent and self-important in the way that, well, not only student theatre, but often student theatre can be But it is interesting to see the genesis of so many of these finally, Chris Matts, So Chris emailed to ask us what songs we thought Meat Loaf should have covered. Thanks for reading out my question again a few months ago and giving it way more attention than it deserved wrong. It was a great question. I don't know if you guys have heard of Steve Steinman, I'm sure he started as a Meat Loaf tribute and he's gone on to do many stage shows based around vampires, et cetera, but all are heavily Meat Loaf influenced. One of his original songs Something of the Night may be the best song that Jim didn't get to write. So I have heard a bit about Steve Steinman. he pops up on my Facebook adverts quite a bit. Yeah. I didn't realize he was now striving ahead of us in the writing a Jim Steinman style song I think we might need to dig a bit deeper into Steve Steinman at some point. Emma. Yeah. And maybe, go see one of his shows next time he's near us. Yeah. Um, if possible, could I get a shout out for 10 are if's best Meat Loaf Tribute Act, David Frame, or as we call him, Davey

Emma:

picture.

Sam:

Enclo. Yeah. Shout out to Davey Loaf. That's our messages from listeners that, Emma, I've got something for you. Have you? Yeah, you gave me a, an anniversary present.

Emma:

Oh, yes, I did. I gave you some. A one

Sam:

yes You gave me some, A one sauce. I've got a little anniversary present for you Here you go. Take a look at this.

Emma:

Still Beating Songs for Jim Steinman Napier. And

Sam:

Friend. This is something that, a couple of people on social media alerted me to. this is a fanzine, that was published, on the fourth anniversary of Jim's death. By Claire Napier, who's a comics editor and various other people have contributed to it. It's really good. It is full of kind of little essays and artworks and

Emma:

oh my god, this is amazing,

Sam:

articles and personal essays on Jim his work. it's a really fun thing. I wanna recommend it to our also, I'm not sure if Claire or someone involved is a listener, because I did a. Uh, they're not tweets. Whatever it is on Blue sky, A bleet about how I was gonna pick up some copies for the podcast. I ordered one copy, I received two. So either, we have listeners who gave us a free copy, in Claire and friends, or we have an administrative error that gave us a free copy. But either way, Thank you Claire and everybody so much. this is a really cool piece. Fantastic. It's really good. there's a great essay by, Yeah. The artwork's. Brilliant. We were talking earlier today about the British experience of America. Yeah. and how stuff. Leached across, there's a piece by, T Trewhela and apologies if I've pronounced your name wrong, about growing up in the northeast of England. Oh. Having these US imports coming over in the, in the nineties, and how incredible the USOA looked to us Yeah. Across the Atlantic. So a lot of stuff that we've been talking about expressed in other ways. So yeah,

Emma:

just briefly flicking through this, I've already stumbled onto something that is truly wonderful, and that is an illustration of Jim and Hulk Hogan and a

Sam:

mention

Emma:

of Hulk Hogan's theme. this is awesome.

Sam:

It's a really cool piece. Yeah, no, thank you to Claire Napier and everybody else who's pulled it together. This I'm pretty sure you can order it digitally. I guess they've got a publishing thing in the UK and they've recently just been able to send printed copies to people in the US as well. So if you are interested, it is called Still Beating Songs for Jim Steinman. and you can buy it from itch.io, which I never know how to pronounce. Is it pronounced Itch? Eo Is it pronounced Itch io. It, you know the thing I mean. Ichi It's a me Ichi.

Emma:

Oh, that's a very different video

Sam:

game,

Emma:

isn't it?

Sam:

Emma, what songs are we doing next time?

Emma:

next time I'm gonna delve into an album that we've not touched on yet, which is two thousand and eleven's Hell in a Hand Basket. And I'm gonna go for the first single from that, which is called Stand In the Storm.

Sam:

Ooh, that sounds like it might be good.

Emma:

Here's hoping,

Sam:

and I'm gonna dip into our requests box. Two people have requested this one, RL, Gray and Max. Heavy as Jesus from Meat Loaf and s Stoney's album. So this is Meat Loaf's album from before he'd even met Jim. Aw. Imagine. So listeners, do a little bit of homework on those if you like. Keep your general Meat Loaf thoughts, anecdotes, and opinions flying in. Did you see Meat Loaf skiing down the slopes of Aspen? Let us know. Chat out of hell@gmail.com. Well go away. Do your homework. We're gonna go do ours and we'll see you again in two more weeks time for another Chat out of Hell. Bye. Bow now. Now

Emma:

bing.