The almost complete
Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman lyric archive

This summer I was sitting behind a computer with my leg up, and that wasn't good for my credit card. It was good for the collection, however.

Meat Loaf: the US 7″ singles of I'm Gonna Love Her for Both of Us, I'd Do Anything for Love and Rock and Roll Dreams were just slightly different enough to be interesting to me. The UK 7″ of Special Girl was the last missing version and the most interesting addition surely is the Australian Hits out of Hell, including "Lost Love".

Of both Jim and Ellen, I found one promo each, Sad Song and Dance In My Pants with Karla DeVito.

Speaking of Karla, I added two pages for those two songs I 'found' some mp3s of: first there's We Are Not Alone from the "The Breakfast Club" soundtrack, and secondly, there's this song called Gimme the Word, a duet with Paul Anka from his 1983 album 'Walk a Fine Line'. The only regular single I found is Money Can't Buy Love, the only single released from her second album. Finally, I obtained three promos from the "Is This a Cool World or What" era. The first is Just Like You, the second Midnight Confession and finally I got the Karla DeVito sampler.

On the Still The Children page, I made a Elaine Caswell section. After I obtained a copy of the Happy Ending single, I had some sort of dilemma, as I couldn't put that on Ellen's page, as she isn't featured on that track.

And then there's Patti. She performed her song Bring Me a Bible and a Beer on Meat Loaf's 'Casa de Carne tour' (of which I will speak no more). Rumours had it that she'd release an album in October, but it looks like it might take a while longer. So, in the mean time, the only way to legally obtain some of her songs are either through iTunes or some (US-only) store called SnoCap which seems to be tied to MySpace. I don't do iTunes, but after some poking around, I was able to get through that SnoCap business. So now I have a Legal Downloads page.

On a final note, I've also tweaked the website a fair bit.

One you get a pretty complete collection, things tend to slow down. You might have noticed.

Now, this update. It's a minor one. Both Ellen Foley and Elaine Caswell can be heard on Joe Jackson's 1984 album Body and Soul. While Ellen only does background vocals on three tracks, Elaine can also be heard as featured vocalist on the song "Happy Ending". But as I don't have a section for Elaine, I stuck the album in Ellen's.

Also, as you might have heard, Meat Loaf is on tour again, and Patti Russo is back in the band. Which gives me the perfect opportunity to pimp her section. (And no, I don't know how I got all that stuff either. Don't ask.)

While, once again, a shipment mysteriously disappeared in mid air, another two items found their way here:

• In 1989, a 'all star' girl group called Desolation Angels released one album called Anthem. Karla was one of the Angels, and sung two covers on the album.
• In 1993, Bat II was released as a double LP in Zimbabwe. I got a copy (my eighth), and it sounds much, much better than the UK vinyl.

Also, I'm testing out some changes for IE. If anyone experiences any weirdness, drop me a line.

Back in 2003, Meat Loaf promised that he would play "For Crying Out Loud" during his next concert in The Netherlands. Two concerts later, he still hasn't. Time for action.

The companion release to Meat Loaf's latest DVD, a one disc live album imaginatively dubbed 3 Bats Live is out now. Also, on a record fair I came across two singles I didn't have yet: the unremixed version of Razor's Edge and The Sisters of Mercy's Dominion, which is co-produced by Jim.

My collection is complete again: 3 Bats Live. If one of those other two copies that "got lost" above the North Sea eventually turn up — not that I'm holding my breath — I'll be overcomplete.

Rumor has it that a (single) CD version will be released late March.

Today, a package from London did find my mailbox. So, I have now updated my Vámpírok Bálja page with the details of the CD. If someone who does know Hungarian traces any errors in my translation, drop me a line.

In other news, I have on good authority that the hole in my Meat Loaf collection due to some shipment that went AWOL somewhere over the North Sea should be filled soon.

Karla's second album, Wake 'Em Up In Tokyo, still hasn't been re-issued on CD. It's a shame.

Today I received a copy of Karla DeVito's 1982 Christmas single, Santa Claus is Coming to my House. If all goes well, I should have some info on her second album soonish.

In other news, my copy of the new Loaf DVD still has not arrived, and I am considering an international conspiracy. Also, the download page now has a news-feed.

In the quest to make this website even better, I'm trying out something new with the updates feed. Instead of maintaining a separate rss-feed, I am now marking up the news page with the hAtom-microformat. If all goes well, you should notice little or no change.

And after receiving Westlife's Home singe — which did not include the promised Jim Steinman remix of "Total Eclipse" and will be returned to sender shortly — I have now enough information to create a page for the mp3.

Last week, the two Ellen Foley reissues became available. See the Spirit of St. Louis and Another Breath pages for details.

I still haven't received my copy of Meat Loaf's Three Bats — Live from London… Ontario DVD, but I did add another version of the Anything for Love single to my collection, as well as a 1995 album sampler and the last missing version of Pandora's Box All Coming Back single.

And what might warrant a repeat notice: I do have some downloads every now and then. Keep an eye on my weblog or the download page. I'm working on implementing something of a rss-feed for the downloads, but if people don't even seem to use the rss-feed for this page, well, their loss. I won't keep mentioning downloads forever.

A couple of weeks ago, I obtained a copy of Ellen Foley's Spirit of St. Louis album. It looks like that both this album and Another Breath will be reissued on Wounded Bird Records late this month or early next month.

On the Meat Loaf front I got what I believe to be the final missing major piece: the Live at El Mocambo promo LP. Also I found the SACD version of Couldn't Have Said It Better for a bargain, as well as the regular 12" version of the Modern Girl single. The upcoming Three Bats — Live from London… Ontario DVD should be out mid October.

Some slight changes in the Steinman section. Moved some things around, and I added a page for the new and fantastic 10 Jahre Tanz der Vampire — Das Jubiläumskonzert album. Great stuff. What's even better is that was in the audience on one of the days it was recorded.

On a final note, every now and then I might have some downloads up. Keep an eye on my weblog or the download page.

Yes, I have moved, and yes, I have a working internet connection. So here's the notification of the long overdue update. I haven't kept a list of changes, so you'll have to find them yourself. Mostly minor stuff.

I am about to move to a new apartment and with that, I am leaving my old ISP behind. Since my website used to be on one of their servers, I had to move that too. A move like this was going to happen anyway, so I just set the whole thing up, and moved it. A redesign and all that will follow eventually.

So forget the old website, ignore the bugs, and bookmark mljs.evilnickname.org. For those three people watching the RSS-feed, it should be redirecting to the new site.

As inaugural update, there are two new Meat Loaf additions: a one-track promo single of Blind as a Bat and the whole Cry Over Me collection.