Meat Loaf: Live At Wembley (1987)

This blog started with a Meat Loaf review, specifically his first album which was… not the legendary "Bat out of Hell", but "Stoney and Meatloaf"  released in 1971. Here I am about a year later and the world has since mourned the passing of both Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman, that extraordinary combination of performer and writer who created some of the most memorable, stirring, haunting music I've ever heard.

How do you express your feelings writing? Let's look at moments from some of the output in chronological order. "Bat" contains "For Crying Out Loud" and I'm not even going to attempt to describe that right now. You just have to go off and listen to it (again) and then see how you feel. With "Bad for Good", Jim's album, there was "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through". To me, both the original and the remake from "Bat out of Hell II" are equally inspiring and brilliant, sort of like the two versions of the movie "Cape Fear" (which may be an odd comparison to make.) "Dead Ringer" contains "Everything Is Permitted". I don't know what it is about that song but "it just won't quit".

Onward! "Total Eclipse of the Heart" from Bonnie Tyler and Rory Dodd, "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" from Australia's Air Supply that same year, "Holding out for a Hero", "Nowhere Fast" and "Tonight is What it Means to be Young" from the arse-kicking soundtrack for "Streets of Fire". Meat puts out a very strong album the same year, called "Bad Attitude", which you must give a spin as soon as you can. Bonnie Tyler and Todd Rundgren record one of the coolest songs Jim ever did with "Loving You's a Dirty Job But Somebody's Gotta do it", which Meat recorded himself with Stacy Michelle thirty years later. Pandora's Box contains the original version of "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", and God bless Celine Dion because as much as I love her and her version, Elaine and all of the artists here just take it that extra mile. It is majestic.

Remember the first time you heard "I'd Do Anything for Love" from "Bat 2"? If you've never heard it, listen to the album after you watch the video clip on YouTube. "Bat 2" also gives us "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer than They Are" (must have been fun trying to fit that into a singles jukebox), and really so much more. I could probably go on but I think (I hope) I've made my point already.

After I heard the news of Meat Loaf's passing, I went back and listened to all of the albums again. While I may have done that multiple times before, this was actually the first time *ever* that I'd heard all of them. That is to say, the live stuff included, because I didn't own most of them before.

This post is about the 1987 Meat Loaf live album, "Live at Wembley" which I'm fortunate enough to own on second hand vinyl and CD, as part of a box set which has (brilliantly) made five of the 80s albums more accessible to the public, at least in Oz. Side note: I waited fourteen weeks for a US import of "Bad Attitude".

When "Live at Wembley" was released, which according to the liner notes was recorded on 1 and 2 March 1987 at Wembley Arena, England, Meat had just released two albums on the Arista label: the aforementioned "BBIS" and "Bad Attitude", which followed on from his Epic/Cleveland years with: "Dead Ringer", "Midnight at the Lost and Found" and (of course) "Bat out of Hell". This is the catalogue of singles and deep cuts Meat and the band have to draw from. As someone who is always curious about the lesser known albums, I was looking forward to playing this one. I'd heard it about once before this review and that was about it.

Let's have a look what it has to offer. Prefacing this with a note just to underline how much I'm intrigued that this includes: "Blind Before I Stop", "Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries", "Modern Girl" and "Masculine", not to mention the little "Rock 'n' Roll Medley" salute at the end, because this is material from those lesser known albums, material that wasn't always played after the 1980s. Well, certainly not to the extent of, say, "Took the Words" or "Paradise by the Dashboard Light", both very much present here because... I don't think I can imagine it otherwise.

Prefacing this with another note to thank the co-producers Tom Edmonds and Meat Loaf, along with then members of the Neverland Express (Meat's live band): Chuck Burgi on Drums, Steve Buslowe on Bass Guitar and Vocals, Frank Doyle playing Keyboards, Amy and Elaine Goff on Backing Vocals and the duets, Paul Jacobs (who wrote the bulk of 1984's "Bad Attitude" with his wife Sarah Durkee) on Piano, Bob Kulick on Lead Guitar and Alan Merrill on Guitars and Vocals. Trivia: Alan actually co-wrote the classic song "I Love Rock and Roll". Let's begin!

"Blind before I Stop"---the album begins. I am actually listening to a live version of this song and I think I like it even more than the album.

"Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries"---again, wow, I am actually hearing this. Steve Buslowe provides the duet vocal here instead of John Parr from the album. He's doing a mean job! Meat is sounding great as ever.

"Took the Words"---I originally heard this and other "Bat" songs from "Live at Wembley" on 90s compilation albums, and yeah it's great to hear them in their original context. I love the fact that I'm hearing this being sung by Meat in "BBIS" era, and vocally this and the following tour from anything that I've heard is extraordinary to me. The "Hot Summer Night" spoken section is taken directly from the album.

"Midnight at the Lost and Found"---this is a song you will hear on a few Meat Loaf live discs, and videos like "Bad Attitude Live". As neat as it is on the original album, I love hearing it come to life this way as well.

"Modern Girl"---Meat is sounding great. The band is sounding great. It's just great to hear this song live, although I'm more familiar with this one thanks to the "Bad Attitude Live" video which captured one of the shows from the Brixton Academy on the B.A. tour.

"Paradise by the Dashboard Light"---every live version I've heard of this song has something different to offer. Listen to the dialogue at the end for example. That actually kind of scared me the first time I saw the "B.A. Live" video. It was so convincing, I didn't realize it was acting. I really thought Meat and his singing partner (Kati Mac on that video) were having a row onstage. This live version is a solid addition to the bank of memories.

"Two out of Three ain't bad"---I have to emphasize here how much I love the instrumental! Poor Meat, because he isn't really singing in that bit, is he? But that's not what I meant. Meat, the band, they're all spectacular here.

"Bat out of Hell"---we've come to that part of the evening, when the band would wrap things up with *this* song. I have written about this song before, but I absolutely am going to write about it again, if only because the way Meat sings it and the band plays it is like they're only performing it for the first time. You have never heard this song before. This is your introduction. Forget about everything else.

"Masculine"---this is a song from "Blind" that even shows up as a live track on one of the singles from "Bat II". I'm not sure if that version comes from a rehearsal or not, but they were obviously still playing it at some point. It's neat to hear it in any version, really. I like this one too. This song is mental.

"Rock 'n' Roll Medley"---we have come to that part of the evening, originally a bonus disc on the vinyl I believe, where Meat and the band pay tribute to their forebears, with some kick-ass versions of "Johnny B. Goode" from Chuck Berry, "Slow Down", "Jailhouse Rock", and "Blue Suede Shoes". That's right. Meat and the band are singing "Blue Suede Shoes". This didn't have to be on here, but damn am I glad that it is.

I'll wrap it up there, folks, with more to come on 1996's magnum Meat Loaf live opus "Live around the World", "VH-1 Storytellers", and more. Meat, Jim, no matter what happens, I feel so lucky to have your music part of my life, and that will outlive me and every one of us.

Ryan.