For more info, contact: Bruce Pilato (brucetune “AT” aol.com)

In 1967, Meat Loaf left Texas and moved to Los Angeles where he started working as a bouncer at a nightclub. It was in LA that Meat Loaf formed his first band, Meat Loaf Soul. It was during the recording of their first song that Meat Loaf hit a note so high that he managed to blow a fuse on the recording monitor which immediately led to an offer of three separate recording contracts – all of which he turned down.

After completing college, Meat Loaf enrolled at North Texas State University where he was called for an army physical. He was so determined not to pass the fitness test that he deliberately gained sixty-eight pounds in just over a month. Yet despite being colour blind and overweight, his draft notice arrived two weeks later
which he ignored.

After his new band split up Meat Loaf took on several low-key jobs, one of which would inadvertently lead to his breakthrough in the media. While working as a parking lot attendant he had a chance meeting with a man who asked what he did when he wasn’t on the lot. After mentioning that he was a singer in his spare time, the man suggested he should audition for the stage musical, Hair. The audition was a success and led to Meat Loaf starring in a six month run in Detroit.

With the publicity generated from Hair, Meat Loaf was invited to record with Motown. They suggested he do a duet with Stoney Murphy, who had performed with him in Hair, to which he agreed. The Motown production team in charge of the album wrote and selected the songs while Meat Loaf and Stoney came in only to lay down their vocals.

After he hired an agent, he auditioned for the Public Theater’s production of More Than You Deserve. It was during the audition that Meat Loaf first met his future collaborator Jim Steinman.

In 1977, he and lyricist Jim Steinman released an operatic rock album called “Bat Out Of Hell”, the record was huge and has sold 35,000,000 copies worldwide. However, the tour promoting the album took a toll on Meat’s voice and left him unable to sing on the follow-up record “Bad For Good”. With the increasing rise in Meat Loaf’s profile, a rift had started to emerge between Meat Loaf and Steinman and then during a show in Toronto, Meat Loaf fell off stage and broke his leg, causing the rest of the tour to be cancelled and his life to spiral out of control.

Things took a turn for the better in 1978 though when he went to Woodstock to work with Steinman again and met Leslie Edmonds at a recording studio. They fell in love with and married within a month.

Meat Loaf began to re-establish a following and his gigs grew to sell-out status by the late 1980s. The success of touring reunited Meat Loaf and Steinman who began work on Bat Out Of Hell II which was released in 1993, 16 years after the original. The album was a huge hit and considered the ultimate comeback in the music world. Bat Out Of Hell II sold over 15 million copies and the single I’d Do Anything For You reached the number one spot in 28 countries.

Meat Loaf continued to record albums throughout the ’90s and in May 2009 began work on the album Hang Cool Teddy Bear which was followed by a hugely successful tour in 2010 and 2011.

Best Lyrics

And I would do anything for love,
I’d run right into hell and back.
I would do anything for love,
I’ll never lie to you and that’s a fact.

But I’ll never forget the way you feel right now, oh no, no way.
And I would do anything for love,
But I won’t do that,
No I won’t do that.

Anything for love.
Oh I would do anything for love,
I would do anything for love,
But I won’t do that.
Ah No I won’t do that!

And some days it don’t come easy,
And some days it don’t come hard,
Some days it don’t come at all, and these are the days that never end.

And some nights you’re breathing fire.
And some nights you’re carved in ice.
Some nights you’re like nothing I’ve ever seen before or will again.

And maybe I’m crazy.
Oh it’s crazy and it’s true.
I know you can save me, no one else can save me now but you.

As long as the planets are turning.
As long as the stars are burning.
As long as your dreams are coming true, you’d better believe it!

That I would do anything for love,
And I’ll be there till the final act.
And I would do anything for love,
And I’ll take the vow and seal a pact.

But I’ll never forgive myself if we don’t go all the way, tonight.

And I would do anything for love,
Oh I would do anything for love,
Oh I would do anything for love,
But I won’t do that.
No, I won’t do that!

I would do anything for love,
Anything you’ve been dreaming of,
But I just won’t do that.
[x3]

[Solo]

And some days I pray for silence,
And some days I pray for soul,
Some days I just pray to the god of sex and drums and rock ‘n’ roll!

And some nights I lose the feeling.
And some nights I lose control.
Some nights I just lose it all when I’m watching you dance and the thunder rolls.

And maybe I’m lonely,
That’s all I’m qualified to be.
There’s just one and only, one and only promise I can keep.

As long as the wheels are turning.
As long as the fires are burning.
As long as your prayers are coming true, you’d better believe it!

That I would do anything for love,
And you know it’s true and that’s a fact.
I would do anything for love,
And there’ll never be no turning back.

But I’ll never do it better than I do it with you, so long, so long.
And I would do anything for love,
Oh, I would do anything for love,
I would do anything for love,
But I won’t do that.
No, no, no, I won’t do…..

I would do anything for love.
Anything you’ve been dreaming of.
But I just won’t do that!
[x7]

But I’ll never stop dreaming of you,
Every night of my life.
No way.

And I would do anything for love.
Oh I would do anything for love.
Oh I would do anything for love.
But I won’t do that.

[Girl]
Will you raise me up, will you help me down?
Will you get me right out of this godforsaken town?
Will you make it all a little less cold?

[Boy]
I can do that. Oh I can do that.

[Girl]
Will you hold me sacred?
Will you hold me tight?
Can you colorize my life I’m so sick of black and white!
Can you make it all a little less old?

[Boy]
I can do that.
Oh oh now I can do that!

[Girl]
Will you make me some magic with your own two hands?
Can you build an emerald city with these grains of sand?
Can you give me something I can take home?

[Boy]
I can do that!
Oh oh now I can do that!

[Girl]
Will you cater to every fantasy I’ve got?
Will you hose me down with holy water, if I get too hot? Hot!
Will you take me places I’ve never known?

[Boy]
Now I can do that! Oh oh now, I can do that!

[Girl]
After awhile you’ll forget everything.
It was a brief interlude
And a midsummer night’s fling,
And you’ll see that it’s time to move on.

[Boy]
I won’t do that. I won’t do that.

[Girl}

I know the territory, I've been around,
It'll all turn to dust and will all fall down,
Sooner or later, you'll be screwing around.

[Boy]
I won’t do that. No, I won’t do that.

Anything for love,
Oh, I would do anything for love,
I would do anything for love,
But I won’t do that.
No, I won’t do that.

Favourite Song

Bat out of Hell

Best known fact

Fell off the stage and broke his leg during a concert at Toronto in 1978 – he finished the tour in a wheelchair.

Least known fact

Was a vegetarian for 15 years but then decided to eat meat. His favorite meat is pork chops.

Links to other sites

http://www.meatloaf.net/

Discography

The Full Discover Package
2007
Bat Out Of Hell III
2006
Couldn’t Have Said It Better
2003
Fallen Angel
2003
Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell (Deluxe)
2002
Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad
2002
VH1 Storytellers
1999
The Very Best Of Meat Loaf
1998
Live Around the World
1996
Welcome To The Neighborhood
1995
Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell
1993
Live
1992
Blind Before I Stop
1986
Bad Attitude
1984
Hits Out Of Hell
1984
Bad Attitude (RCA)
1984
Midnight At The Lost And Found
1983
Dead Ringer
1981
Bat Out Of Hell
1977
Bat Out of Hell Live: with the Melbourne Symphony
1977

Singles

Discover More
2007
Discover Beyond
2007
Discover Further
2007
Testify
2006
It’s All Coming Back To Me Now
2006
The Monster Is Loose
2006
I’d Lie for You [#2]
1995

Compilations

Discover Meat Loaf
2007
Power Ballads Gold
2005
Almost There! A Collection of the Greatest Original Number 2 Hits [Box Set]
2004
Metal Ballads
2003
Mullets Rock!
2003
The Ultimate Hits of the 70’s
2001
70’s Pop Hits
2001
Classic Rock Hits
2001
Casey Kasem: America’s Top 10 Through Years – The 90’s
2001
Greatest Hits Of The 70’s
2001
Love Songs of the 70’s [Sony]
2001
Greatest Hits of the 70’s, Vol. 10
2000
Let It Rock 1994
2000
Heart Of Metal
2000
Rock Giants, Vol. 3
2000
Rock ‘N Rolls Hits, Vol. 2
2000
Rock on 1993
1999
Rock on 1995
1999
RNR Greatest Hits of the 70’s, Vol. 1
1999
Rock: The Train Kept A Rollin’
1999
Chef Aid: The South Park Album
1998
South Park: Chef Aid
1998
Love Bites: More Romantic Power Ballads
1998
Pavarotti & Friends Together For The Children Of Bosnia
1996
Forever Rock, Vol. 3
1996
Cleveland International Records, 1977-1983
1995
The Glory Of Gershwin
1994
Leap of Faith
1992
The Rocky Horror Picture Show – Original Soundtrack
1975
The Rocky Horror Show: Original Roxy Cast
1974

Guest

Celebration: Philadelphia Folk Festival 40th Festival
2002
World’s Hottest Bluegrass
2002
Nortenas del Pueblo No. 1
2002
If I Could Turn Back Time: Cher’s Greatest Hits [Interscope]
Cher
1999
Greatest Hits Live
MC5
1999
The Memphis Horns with Special Guests
Memphis Horns
1995
Disco 9000
Johnnie Taylor
1977
Free For All
Ted Nugent
1976

DOWNLOAD

For more info, contact: Bruce Pilato (brucetune “AT” aol.com)

For more info, contact: Bruce Pilato (brucetune “AT” aol.com)

Alice Cooper – Vincent Damon Furnier
Elvis Costello – Declan McManus

Bo Didley – Othas Elass Bates McDaniel
Bob Dylan – Robert Zimmerman
Davis Essex – David Cook
Daryl Hall – Daryl Franklyn Hohl

Jimi Hendrix – James Marshall Hendricks
Bily Idol – William Broad
Tom Jones – Thomas Jones Woodward
Dr John – Malcolm John Rebennack
B.B. King – Riley B King

Little Richard – Richard Wayne Penniman
Meatloaf – Marvin Lee Aday
Freddie Mercury – Farouk Bulsara
George Michael – Yorgos Pannayiotou
Gram Parsons – Ingram Cecil Conner II
Iggy Pop – James Jewell Osterberg Jnr
Leon Russell – Claude Russell Bridges

Cat Stevens – Steve Georgiou
Sting – Gordon Matthew Sumner
The Edge – David Howell Evans
Booker T – Alan Jones
Sid Vicious – John Simon Ritchie
Howlin’ Wolf – Cester Arthur Burnett

Ronnie Wood: June 1st 1947
Ronald David Wood was born in Hillingdon into a family of Water Gypsies or Bargees. His two elder brothers were into art and music and Ronnie followed their lead, first appearing on stage at the age of 9 playing washboard in a skiffle band – from there it was music all the way, leading eventually to The Faces and The Rolling Stones.

Prince: June 7th 1958
Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, like Ronnie Wood, into a musical family. Prince is first and foremost a star of the 1980s with songs like 1999, When Doves Cry and Kiss. His reputation for being a maverick genius was reinforced by his ability to play a multitude of instruments and his sexily flamboyant dress sense. He has appeared in several films about himself including Purple Rain. Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Paul McCartney: June 18th 1942
We don’t feel there’s much that needs to be said about Paul McCartney except maybe to emphasise that he is a fine bass player, perhaps the best left handed rock bass player around!

Brian Wilson: June 20th 1942
Born just 2 days after McCartney, Brian Wilson has much of the same lyric and melodic brilliance. And like McCartney, he’s still out there playing. Best song – Good Vibrations. Best Album – Pet Sounds, by a Country Mile.

Todd Rundgren: June 23rd 1948
With The Beach Boys and the Beatles among his influences, Todd Rundgren has not just has a great composing and playing career, but is a renowned producer with credits including Meatloaf’s Bat Out Of Hell.

Jeff Beck: June 24th 1944
Referred to by Brian May as “The Guvnor”, Jeff Beck is, in our view, the greatest and most innovative rock guitarist playing today. Anyone who disputes this should take a look at the DVD of his 2008 performance at Ronnie Scott’s and then write in with evidence of someone better – they will have to be very special indeed!

Born in East London, Marriott was a child actor who disappointed his parents when he turned to music as a career. With his East End friends, Ronnie Lane and Kenney Jones he formed the highly influential band Small Faces (they were all no taller than 5’ 6”). In another Led Zeppelin link, Jimmy Page was said to have admired Marriott’s voice and brought (Small Faces fan) Robert Plant into the band because of the similarity in their voices. Despite his undoubted genius as a white soul singer, bad management, and a drink and drugs fuelled lifestyle meant that he was constantly short of funds and hounded by the Inland Revenue. After forming and breaking Humble Pie with Peter Frampton and launching various new bands including the aptly (and jokingly) named Steve Marriott and the Official Receivers, he died in a fire at his Essex home. He was 44.

Mick Ronson – 26th May 1946 to 29th April 1993.

Born in Hull in what was then known as the East Riding of Yorkshire, Mick Ronson played several instruments and worked with local bands, the Mariners and The Crestas before trying his luck in London. He was not successful and had given up trying to break through when he was convinced by his old band mate, John Cambridge, to come to London again and play for a new band being put together by David Bowie. He went on not only to play on and co-produce the Ziggy Stardust album, but also produce Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and work, briefly, with Mott the Hoople and more extensively with Ian Hunter. Mick Ronson died of liver cancer at the age of 46.

Cozy Powell (Colin Flooks) – 29th December 1947 to 5th April 1998.

Born in the town of Cirencester, Gloucestershire, he began playing drums at school and went semi pro before completing his education. Probably his most famous connections are to Rainbow and Black Sabbath, but over the years he played with many bands including The Jeff Beck Group (1970 to 1972) and Whitesnake (1983 to 1984). Powell regularly toured and played with Brian May and is cited as an influence by many drummers. He died at the age of 50 in a car crash in his Saab on the M4 near Bristol whilst talking on his mobile. Cozy Powell had contributed to more than 66 albums.

These will be the band’s first live shows over here in four years. The dates are:

Sat.6: Manchester MEN Arena

Mon.8: London O2 Arena

Tue.9: London O2 Arena

Tickets go on sale from 9am this Friday (March 9).

Find out more at http://radiohead.com

ROGER DALTREY – 1ST MARCH 1944

To someone of My Generation, The Who were the band we grew up with. Crombie coats, mohair suits, Lambretta scooters and weekends on the beach in Brighton, for us The Who were the Mod band par excellence – the Faces before The Small Faces – and they went on to influence artistes from Led Zeppelin to The Clash. Bono of U2 said, “More than any other band, The Who are our role models.”

After expulsion from London’s Acton County Grammar School in 1963, Daltrey formed a band called The Detours and in the next two years the basis of The Who was formed – initially with Daltry on lead guitar and Townshend on rhythm guitar. By 1965, the extraordinary Keith Moon had joined and with Daltrey firmly on vocals and Townshend now on lead guitar The Who were ready to rock. After their first tour of America, the band presented the full-length rock opus Tommy, which shattered barriers and established The Who as a major artistic force in the world of music. Daltrey released his first solo album in 1973, and followed that with a number of solo chart successes. He also established a stage and (somewhat offbeat) film career after starring in the movie of Tommy (1975). He pursued films more steadily after the death of Keith Moon at the age of 32 in 1978, and turned to production with the drama McVicar (1980).

LOU REED – 2ND MARCH 1942

Born Lewis Allen Reed, Lou Reed co-founded and wrote many of the songs for the New York rock group The Velvet Underground (1965-70), the influential band which recorded such cult favorites as “Heroin,”, “Sweet Jane” and “Sister Ray.” The Velvet Underground, at first associated with Andy Warhol and the singer Nico, was never a huge popular success, but it has been credited with influencing a generation of punk and post-punk rockers in the 1970s and ’80s. Reed’s solo hits from the ’70s include “Walk On The Wild Side” and “Street Hassle,” as well as re-vamped versions of several of his Velvet Underground songs. By the end of the 1990s, Reed was an elder statesman of rock and roll, a mature songwriter with a reputation for thoughtful urban ballads. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

JOHN CALE – 9TH MARCH 1942

John Cale was born and grew up in Garnant, a mining village on the edge of the Brecon Beacons in South Wales. He spoke no English until he was seven and was, therefore, unable to communicate with his English father, a miner. His musical talent was immense and after Goldsmith’s College in London he gained a scholarship to the Tanglewood Music Centre in Massachusetts with famed American composer Aaron Copland. Unhappy with the restrictions on his work he moved to New York where he met not just Lou Reed (they shared a flat, food and needles), but Andy Warhol. Warhol taught Cale that “the tools of art are anything you can put your hand on”. And when he and Reed formed the Velvet Underground, Cale, nominally the band’s bassist, put his hands on assorted instruments to great effect. The iconic viola drone on “Venus in Furs” is his work, as is the distorted organ on the 17-minute “Sister Ray”.

ELTON JOHN – 25TH MARCH 1947

Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight he took on the name “Elton John”, in homage to saxophonist Elton Dean and blues singer, Long John Baldry. Most of his greatest hits – he had a top 40 single every year from 1970 to 1996 – were written with lyricist Bernie Taupin and although he is probably best known for the re-write of his “Candle in the Wind” for the funeral of Princess Diana, his 1969 “Your Song” was described as a near perfect pop song and between 1972-75 he had seven consecutive albums reach Number 1 in the charts. Of the six Elton John albums to make the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in Rolling Stone in 2003, all are from this period, with Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ranked highest at number 91; similarly, the three Elton John albums given five stars by Allmusic (Tumbleweed Connection, Honky Château, and Captain Fantastic) are all from this period too.

ERIC CLAPTON 30TH MARCH 1945

Born Eric Patrick Clapp in Surrey, he was raised by his grandparents Rose and Jack Clapp when his natural mother could not face bringing up an illegitimate child at the age of 16. He received a £14 acoustic guitar for his fourteenth birthday, then proceeded to copy the great blues guitarists note for note.

The rest is not history, but legend…
• There was Roosters, a local R&B group that included Tom McGuinness, a future member of Manfred Mann, and now part of the Blues Band.
• Clapton and McGuinness left to join Casey Jones And The Engineers.
• Then the beginning of the glory with the Yardbirds, an aspiring R&B band, who needed a replacement for their guitarist and the first of the nicknames from the crowd at the Crawdaddy club in Richmond – Slowhand.
• Then the perfect band – John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, one of Britain’s top blues bands and the second nickname – God!
• Next came the Powerhouse with Manfred Mann’s Paul Jones, Spencer Davies’ Steve Winwood and Pete York and Graham Bond’s Jack Bruce. They recorded three tracks – “Crossroads”, “I Want To Know” and “Steppin’ Out
• And this led directly to superstardom with the formation of Cream in 1966 where Graham Bond’s drummer Ginger Baker joined Clapton and Bruce.

And so on and on from strength to occasional weakness and yet more strength with Delaney and Bonney, Derek and the Dominoes and then again under his own name discovering his voice again and rediscovering his guitar. Clapton has already earned the title as the greatest white blues guitarist of our time, but at the present time he seems to be working on his voice and his songwriting.

He has contributed to numerous artists’ albums over many years, including John Martyn, Phil Collins, Duane Allman, Marc Benno, Gary Brooker, Joe Cocker, Roger Daltrey, Jesse Davis, Dr. John, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Rick Danko, Champion Jack Dupree, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Freddie King, Alexis Korner, Ronnie Laine, Jackie Lomax, Christine McVie, the Mothers Of Invention, the Plastic Ono Band, Otis Spann, Vivian Stanshall, Stephen Stills, Ringo Starr, Leon Russell, Doris Troy, Roger Waters and many, many more.