An Interview With Meat Loaf — An Instant Classic (just add airplay)

1 Meat Loaf — An Introduction* 7:42
2 Interview / Not a Dry Eye in the House — Single Edit+ 6:04 Diane Warren
3 Not a Dry Eye in the House — Album Version+ 5:52 Diane Warren
4 Where The Rubber Meets The Road — Live# 5:41 Paul Jacobs / Sarah Durkee

* Producted by Kevin Barry; Lynnsey Guerrero, Associate Producer
Engineered by Steve Nelson.

+ Produced by Roy Nevison
Mixed by Mike Shipley
Written by D. Warren / Realsongs (ASCAP)

# Recorded live at The Beacon Theatre, New York, N.Y. October 1995
Produced by Meat Loaf & The Neverland Express
Engineered and Mixed by Ben Fowler
Written by Paul Jacobs and Sarah Durkee / King Dog Music — Jive Durkee (ASCAP)

Original versions of “Not a Dry Eye in the House” and “Where the Rubber Meets the Road” appear on the MCA CD/Cassette “Welcome to the Neighborhood” MCAD/C-11341

Management — Left Bank

Promotional Only — Not For Sale

  1. 1972 Meat Loaf meets Jim Steinman at Audition for Joe Papp’s Public Theater.
  2. 1975 Begins writing “Bat Out Of Hell” with Jim Steinman. Meat Loaf and Steinman begin live musical performances in New York with Ellen Foley and Beverly D’Angelo — They sell out Carnegie Hall.
  3. 1976 Begin recording “Bat Out of Hell” with Todd Rundgren at Bearsville Studios, Woodstock, NY.
  4. 1977 “Bat Out Of Hell” is released October 30, 1977 and the World Tour Begins on October 31, 1977. Meat Loaf breaks his leg while performing. Performs three shows in wheelchair, ten shows on crutches.
  5. 1978 Tour ends Octobver 1978 due to mental and physical exhaustion. “Bat Out Of Hell” has sold over 30 million units worldwide to date.
  6. 1986 Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman, while working at the Power Station, re-group and decide to create “Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell.”
  7. 1991 Recording sessions for "Bat Out Of Hell II" begin.
  8. 1993 “Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell” is released. World tour begins immediately and continues through Spring 1995. “Bat Out Of Hell II” has sold over 12 million units to date.
  9. 1995 “Welcome To The Neighborhood” is completed in record time during summer of 1995 and released worldwide in November.
  10. 1996 Word Tour starts, encompassing 25 countries in 11 months.
Label Cat.No. F. Y. C. Notes
1 MCA MCA3P 3663 CDM 1995 USA

Meat Loaf — An Introduction

My thing is always performance. My thing is not… I don’t care about the beat, and I don’t care about the melody. I only care that that very thin line and that performance comes through and breaks through. And I will sit and work on that forever. And I will redo vocals that people go, “Why are you redoing this vocal? It’s, it’s, it sounds great!” and I go “Well, yeah, but sound isn’t everything.”

[excerpt of “Where the Rubber Meets the Road”]

Most singers, always … If they’re singing a song with a “I” or a “me” in it, they really emphasize “I” and “me”. I throw them away. Because it’s not about “I” or “me”. It’s like, ehm, take for exacmple the single, “I’d Lie for You (And That’s The Truth)”, right? The very first line is, “I never tell you one lie” and most singers go “I’d never tell you one lie” — I don’t. I throw it away: “I never tell you one lie”. And I do that on purpose. I do it all across the board. Becase “I” and “me” represents me as opposed to you and it makes the meaning of the song just twist ever so much. And so what I try to do with everything is put this little thread through the whole thing, which I said enables the listener to become the person who is in the song.

[excerpt of “I’d Lie for You (And That’s The Truth)”]

The entire album is a period piece, and it’s set in the thirties and forties, and it all revolves around these True Detective magazines and True Detective novels. So every, all of these people that exist inside this world live in the nineteen-thirties, nineteen-fourties. This is where they all exist.

[excerpt of “Runnin’ for the Red Light (I Gotta Life)”]

I wanna go out on this tour, and the last tour was fairly succesful — I don’t wanna be what that last tour was. I really want to improve, and that’s the motivation. I want this tour to be like, I want to go back and in every venue that we played, I mean, I just want those people turned upside down. I would like to carry in the theme of the True Detective, the pulp fiction, the period movies — I would love to show pieces of movies on stage. The end of each song, you see, like, you know, a 20 second scene from Cassablanca or something, you know. And it’s kinda like you’re getting to go to both things. The only thing I’m missing is the popcorn.

[excerpt of “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)”]

Sammy Hagar wrote this song that he said Van Halen could never do. Because it’s this very dramatic, kind of emotional ballad, heh. And he sends it, and he says, “Well, I thought of Meat Loaf, because Meat Loaf does these very dramatic, emotional ballads.” So then Little Steven came along, and I played it for Little Steven and Little Steven went away with it and came back, because he was going to produce the track with Sammy, and Little Steve came back to do the demo. It’s no longer this emotional ballad, it was now this, kind of, emotional 90s rock song.

[excerpt of “Amnesty is Granted”]

What I do when I sing a song is I create a whole world. I create … If there’s, if there’s a, one person in the song, that person is in the room with me. And I swear that I’ve met some people out on the street, that have been, that I’ve gone “Do I know you?” and they go “No.” and then I’ll think for a second, and I go “Then I created someone just like you in this song.” But I don’t say that to them, ‘cause they would think that I was absolutely out of my mind.

When I make a record — I’m looking for that real fine little thread—and it’s a very fine little thread—which enables me to tell you the story and tell you what’s going on inside that song but at the same time, it’s a certain technique, which then enables me to also at the same time be removed from the song, and enables someone else to take my place. And I’ve always said, every record I’ve ever done, you can take my name off of it and put the person to listening to it, their name on it.

[excerpt of “Not a Dry Eye in the House”]

Interview / Not a Dry Eye in the House — Single Edit

Interview

What I do when I sing a song is I create a whole world. I create … If there’s, if there’s a, one person in the song, that person is in the room with me. And I swear that I’ve met some people out on the street, that have been, that I’ve gone “Do I know you?” and they go “No.” and then I’ll think for a second, and I go “Then I created someone just like you in this song.” But I don’t say that to them, ‘cause they would think that I was absolutely out of my mind.

And so what I’m always doing whenever I sing a song is that I’m looking for that real fine little thread—and it’s a very fine little thread—which enables me to tell you the story and tell you what’s going on inside that song but at the same time, it’s a certain technique, which then enables me to also at the same time be removed from the song, and enables someone else to take my place. And I’ve always said, every record I’ve ever done, you can take my name off of it and put the person to listening to it, their name on it.

Not a Dry Eye in the House — Single Edit

Not a dry eye in the house
After loves curtain comes down
Listen and you’ll hear the sound
Hear the sound of a heart breaking…

I can still see you standin’ there
Midnight wind blowin’ through your hair
Remember kisses sweet in the salty air
When love was forever

Turn the page and we fade to blue
The scene has changed, now I’m without you
Well, you just walked away when the act was through
And the dream was over

It was almost like a movie, the way you said goodbye
You must have spend a lot of time rehearsing each and every line

Now there’s not a dry eye in the house
After loves curtain comes down
Listen and you’ll hear the sound
Hear the sound of a heart breaking—breaking

Not a smile left on my face
The ending is just too sad to take
And there is not a dry eye
Not a dry eye in the house

The greatest story was you and me
We had it all; we had everything
But now the story’s done, it’s just history
The last act is over

It was almost like a movie, those nights we touched the stars
Time stood still for you and I—now it’s sad enough to make you cry

And there’s not a dry eye in the house
After loves curtain comes down
Listen and you’ll hear the sound
Hear the sound of a heart breaking—breaking

Not a smile left on my face
The ending is just too sad to take
And there is not a dry eye—not a dry eye in the house....

Act one: the story’s just begun
Act two: I fell in love with you
Act three: knew it was meant to be
Act four: you don’t love me no more

Not a dry eye in the house
After loves curtain comes down
Listen and you’ll hear the sound
Hear the sound of a heart breaking—breaking

Not a smile left on my face
The ending is just too sad to take
And there is not a dry eye—not a dry eye—

Not a dry eye in the house
After loves curtain comes down
Listen and you’ll hear the sound
Hear the sound of a heart breaking—breaking

Not a dry eye in the house
Not a dry eye in the house
Not a dry eye in the house.....

Music and Lyrics by Diane Warren
© 1995 Realsongs (ASCAP)