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I'm not even sure I am a metal fan anymore. Been listening to nothin but various types of folk and country for weeks. I tried Blind Guardian today just to see and I was nearly sick. Although I am prone to phases so I'm sure I will be back but my card should certainly be temporarily revoked.

I know that feeling very well. I also have these very strong listening phases and these are quite unpredictable (so sometimes I stock up songs from certain genre in my Spotify and then wake up in the morning wishing to be listening to something completely different).

And I definitely am not a "metal fan". I still listen to metal from time to time and there are metal bands I return to with quite some frequency (Opeth, Symphony X, Dream Theater, Kamelot, Alestorm) but I get as much joy, if not more, from regular rock, blues, country, prog, folk, shanties, pre-war and wartime music (Bing, his brother Bob and the Andrews Sisters for example excite me more than almost any metal band, really). Creedence and the Allmen (and even Lynyrd) have a sound I crave for so much more.

And although I realize I might be a punchline to Foxworthy's "You might be a redneck if...", I can't help but find 16 Horsepower, early Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, heck, even friggin Leonard Cohen much edgier than pretty much any given metal band. There's just something shallow and puerile in being "hard" in the metal way.


That said,

I must clarify, I am not listening to Tammy Wynette.

I do listen to Tammy Wynette as well. What a fine chick (well, maybe not personally, with four divorces and whatnot, but you get my drift and besides - how would I know what she was like in real life? Do we know that with anyone? Citizen Kane, La Vérité (1960), Ace in the Hole, Network, you know...).
 
Usually what happens to me is I’ll just get deep into an artist for a few weeks and then move to the next one. Lately it’s mostly been Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf, Nightwish, and Iced Earth, but with some Maiden sprinkled in as well.
 
Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf

Back when I discovered them, it was really cool and I listened to Bat Out of Hell on repeat for what seemed like ages. But I really didn't get into any other albums bar that one, Dead Ringer and the second installment. I guess there could be a good album made from some of the stuff off Midnight -> Attitude -> Blind Before I Stop, but as a whole those albums bored me and that Steinman solo album could have been cool if somebody else sang it.

But I admit that Steinman is a very recognizable and unique songwriter. You know, with the Meat Loaf tracks and of course those two hits for Bonnie Tyler and Air Supply, nobody talks about this one


When my wife played it to me, I immediately knew it was Steinman.

(also, the piano and the production here is also Roy Bittan, who was a common collaborator/pianist/arranger for both, he plays the keys on both Bats for example)
 
Usually what happens to me is I’ll just get deep into an artist for a few weeks and then move to the next one.
I had that with Prince. Rediscovered his music, bought Purple Rain, listened to it for 10 times in a row and bought 7 other of his albums a week later. Right now I´m having a McCartney phase.
 
Back when I discovered them, it was really cool and I listened to Bat Out of Hell on repeat for what seemed like ages. But I really didn't get into any other albums bar that one, Dead Ringer and the second installment. I guess there could be a good album made from some of the stuff off Midnight -> Attitude -> Blind Before I Stop, but as a whole those albums bored me and that Steinman solo album could have been cool if somebody else sang it.
When I say Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf, I mostly mean Jim Steinman, lol. Currently that’s what my obsessions are over. I definitely agree with you that Bats I and II are the high points and that Dead Ringer is up there too (although Meat’s voice was shot, but most of the songs kick ass so it’s one of those “I can look past it” kinda things). I will say that Bat III and Bad For Good are both good for what they are, and the former is a very solid slab of Meat Loaf material but it’s just nothing like the first two.

I mean the music I love is typically bombastic — Nightwish of course, and even Maiden have a lot of moments that fall under the category, although they never throw in any kitchen sinks. Steinman’s songwriting is brilliant in how completely he both regards and disregards conventions. His entire catalogue is just sex and love and rock ‘n’ roll but he always manages to flip things on its head. His lyrics are typically cheesy as hell but so much more interesting and intricate than anyone else, attempting the same topic, would dare to make them. And coupled with the music, which is just so over the top and immaculate, it just makes what would for any other writer become a heaping mound of cheese whizz instead become an exquisite white stilton.

A really good example of what sets him apart is Bonnie Tyler’s Secret Dreams And Forbidden Fire, which he produced. He wrote four songs for that record and they’re all class acts. “Ravishing”, the opener, sounds exactly like you’d expect based on the title, particularly the sweep into the chorus where Bonnie and the choir and the backing music all combines to really just sound ravishing. “Loving You’s A Dirty Job (But Somebody’s Gotta Do It)” meanwhile has a lot of lines that are similar but not quite to sell parallelism without just repeating the same thing, and it’s got both a refrain and a chorus and both will get stuck in your head. “Rebel Without A Clue”, an eight and a half minute song and the longest on the record, feels like Jim wanted to write a rock song for a pop artist but with his typical over the top style, and man does it work. There’s guitar and there’s bass and there’s keys all present in the music, the verses are like slick ‘50s kids cruising down the street, it employs the Steinman-trademarked “here’s the pre-chorus, no here’s the pre-chorus, no here’s the pre-chorus and here’s the chorus” and goes all out, with soft, lush moments and then bigger ones and then it all gets nailed down with a beautiful chorus that you can sing along to. And of course there’s also “Holding Out For A Hero”, a great number he co-wrote with Dean Pritchard that really calls back a lot of cowboy films and features a gorgeous intro refrain that he stole from a previous song called “Stark Raving Love”.

Now with those four amazing songs acting as pillars for the record, it works solidly well, but the other five songs are nowhere close to them. With all respect to Desmond Child, “If You Were A Woman (And I Was A Man)” just feels commercial. It’s got its moments but there’s not enough substance to it. Jim wanted something “hermaphroditic”, but if he had written it himself it would have been all sorts of wild and fun. This one’s just catchy. “Before This Night Is Through” has a nice melody, but it feels more like a filler track than anything else. “Band Of Gold” is the best non-Steinman song on the album and even it doesn’t feel like a complete vision like the mini-operas Jim throws together.

Anyway, yeah, Jim is a genius at things no one should ever be a genius at, lol. “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” is excellent, certainly one of his most defining songs, at least in the Dramatic Emotional Ballads (alongside “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)”). In the Teenage Rock N Roll Thrills category I think “Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young” (by Fire Inc.) is the best example of Steinman-isms. It’s got a lot of theatrical stuff and a lot of song-along moments and is just overall 100% Steinman through and through. Long live Wagnerian rock.
 
I had that with Prince. Rediscovered his music, bought Purple Rain, listened to it for 10 times in a row and bought 7 other of his albums a week later. Right now I´m having a McCartney phase.

Yeah, I'm having a boomer phase - Jim Croce, Glen Campbell, Cat Stevens, Gordon Lightfoot, Carole King, Steely Dan, Lynyrd...

Before that it was the Czech barroque vocal phase (Michna etc.). Before that it was the Great Generation phase (Bing, Bob, Kay Kyser, Helen Forrest, the Andrews sis, Billie Holiday, the Mills bros etc.) Before that it was the black phase (Otis, Sam etc.)
 
I was getting ready to dive into the Megadeth and Bruce Dickinson discographies, but here I am, listening to Queen and Testament.
 
When I say Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf, I mostly mean Jim Steinman, lol. Currently that’s what my obsessions are over. I definitely agree with you that Bats I and II are the high points and that Dead Ringer is up there too (although Meat’s voice was shot, but most of the songs kick ass so it’s one of those “I can look past it” kinda things). I will say that Bat III and Bad For Good are both good for what they are, and the former is a very solid slab of Meat Loaf material but it’s just nothing like the first two.

I mean the music I love is typically bombastic — Nightwish of course, and even Maiden have a lot of moments that fall under the category, although they never throw in any kitchen sinks. Steinman’s songwriting is brilliant in how completely he both regards and disregards conventions. His entire catalogue is just sex and love and rock ‘n’ roll but he always manages to flip things on its head. His lyrics are typically cheesy as hell but so much more interesting and intricate than anyone else, attempting the same topic, would dare to make them. And coupled with the music, which is just so over the top and immaculate, it just makes what would for any other writer become a heaping mound of cheese whizz instead become an exquisite white stilton.

A really good example of what sets him apart is Bonnie Tyler’s Secret Dreams And Forbidden Fire, which he produced. He wrote four songs for that record and they’re all class acts. “Ravishing”, the opener, sounds exactly like you’d expect based on the title, particularly the sweep into the chorus where Bonnie and the choir and the backing music all combines to really just sound ravishing. “Loving You’s A Dirty Job (But Somebody’s Gotta Do It)” meanwhile has a lot of lines that are similar but not quite to sell parallelism without just repeating the same thing, and it’s got both a refrain and a chorus and both will get stuck in your head. “Rebel Without A Clue”, an eight and a half minute song and the longest on the record, feels like Jim wanted to write a rock song for a pop artist but with his typical over the top style, and man does it work. There’s guitar and there’s bass and there’s keys all present in the music, the verses are like slick ‘50s kids cruising down the street, it employs the Steinman-trademarked “here’s the pre-chorus, no here’s the pre-chorus, no here’s the pre-chorus and here’s the chorus” and goes all out, with soft, lush moments and then bigger ones and then it all gets nailed down with a beautiful chorus that you can sing along to. And of course there’s also “Holding Out For A Hero”, a great number he co-wrote with Dean Pritchard that really calls back a lot of cowboy films and features a gorgeous intro refrain that he stole from a previous song called “Stark Raving Love”.

Now with those four amazing songs acting as pillars for the record, it works solidly well, but the other five songs are nowhere close to them. With all respect to Desmond Child, “If You Were A Woman (And I Was A Man)” just feels commercial. It’s got its moments but there’s not enough substance to it. Jim wanted something “hermaphroditic”, but if he had written it himself it would have been all sorts of wild and fun. This one’s just catchy. “Before This Night Is Through” has a nice melody, but it feels more like a filler track than anything else. “Band Of Gold” is the best non-Steinman song on the album and even it doesn’t feel like a complete vision like the mini-operas Jim throws together.

Anyway, yeah, Jim is a genius at things no one should ever be a genius at, lol. “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” is excellent, certainly one of his most defining songs, at least in the Dramatic Emotional Ballads (alongside “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)”). In the Teenage Rock N Roll Thrills category I think “Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young” (by Fire Inc.) is the best example of Steinman-isms. It’s got a lot of theatrical stuff and a lot of song-along moments and is just overall 100% Steinman through and through. Long live Wagnerian rock.
You might like Avantasia too.
 
Congratulations on your bravery. How did you do it?
We were taking part in a circle of death meet the new boss exercise and you had to say whether you'd prefer 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s when it came to music. I said 80s but not for the pop. It was met with a sort of "Er, okay, that's nice...anyway, back to talking about Northern Soul."
 
Extra hour in bed tonight! It would normally be celebrated as 'extra hour in the pub/club' night, but seeing as there are restrictions....
 
Extra hour in bed tonight! It would normally be celebrated as 'extra hour in the pub/club' night, but seeing as there are restrictions....
For me it will mean the kid will wake up at 5 AM and not 6 AM and we're going to spend a few days adjusting him to winter time. :nana:

As for me, I picked the long straw since I got up with him today which means I can stay in bed tomorrow while the wife goes up and plays with him.
 
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