Meat Loaf: Dead Ringer CD Track Listing

A list by checkmate

Meat Loaf Dead Ringer (1981)
Originaly Released 1981\nCD Edition Released January 26, 1993\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Although it took Meat Loaf and composer Jim Steinman another 12 years to come up with the marketing gimmick of positioning an album as a deliberate follow-up to the multi-platinum Bat Out of Hell, Dead Ringer was the REAL Bat Out of Hell II. Once again, Steinman wrote extended, operatic songs with hyperbolic lyrics ("I'll Kill You If You Don't Come Back" was one title) and organized a backup band anchored by E Street Band members Max Weinberg (drums) and Roy Bittan (keyboards), while Meat Loaf sang with a passion all the more compelling for its hint of the ridiculous. In the U.S., with four years separating Bat and Dead Ringer, nobody cared much. But in the U.K., where Bat was still going strong, Dead Ringer topped the charts, and the title track, featuring a perfectly cast Cher as duet singer, went Top Ten. In retrospect, the missing ingredient in the album is Todd Rundgren's pop sensibility as producer; he was the one who knew how long the compositions could go for maximum dramatic impact without becoming exhausting. It was Rundgren who made Bat Out of Hell a fiery listening experience -- producing himself, Meat Loaf often sounded only warmed over. -- William Ruhlmann\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nFeh, July 28, 2005\nReviewer: M. Ledwith\nThis album is written for people that are emotionally 16 years old and insane. Every song is from the point of a disenfranchised boy moaning at the world. The end of 'I'm gonna love her for both of us', when he keeps saying the title with different inflections...don't you just picture Rainman rocking in a corner somewhere? And if she doesn't love him back, he'll kill her! Unless she's in bed with a group of his best friends?? No wonder 'Everything is Permitted.' \n\nThis is bad. The production is bad, the tone of the guitar is godawful, Meat's voice sounds worse on this cd than any of his others by far (I know he lost his voice and was doing weird things to try to get it back. I don't hold it against him, but I'm the one that has to listen to it.) The band is fine, and I like some of the actual music. It's the song titles and lyrics that are awful.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nHow did this get such a bad review?, June 22, 2005\nReviewer: Music_Mastermind "Mosaic" (Northampton, England)\nI had never heard this album until recently. I'd heard "Dead ringer for love" and loved it. But all I'd heard of the album was that it was not half as good at "Bat out of Hell". Well what I say to that is that this album is a brilliant follow up to the album. What were they expecting? An album better than Bat out of hell? Thats impossible. But anyway, the album starts off with the brilliant "Peel out", which will be banging in your head for hours. The next few songs are the ones that get the chorus' stuck in your head. Even though "Read em and weep" is slightly too ballady, it will still get stuck on your brain! "Everything is permitted" is perhaps not the best way to end the album. "Dead ringer for love" would've been quite a finish! Though Meat Loaf's voice is recognisably more high pitched, you would still associate this album to the artist who made an album that stayed in the UK charts for 472 weeks! This is a must have album.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nDead Ringer, February 7, 2005\nReviewer: Braeden P. Jeffery (Melbourne, VIC Australia)\nJim Steinman's a pretty odd bloke. Let us not forget that this man - ne, genius - created a rock opera based on Peter Pan. Certainly plausible (the roots of many mythical tales are damn freaky), but clearly insane, Jim Steinman is a songwriter like no other. Certainly one of the best songwriters of our age, arguably of all time. \n\n"Dead Ringer" was one of two albums Jim Steinman assembled in 1981, the other being the definitive "Bad For Good". Both were intended for Meat Loaf, but he stormed out of the "BFG" recordings, thus leaving him with "Dead Ringer". And though "BFG" clearly got more than it's fair share of the better material, the fact of the matter is that there's not a bad track on "Dead Ringer". This is one-hundred percent musical matery. \n\nJim Steinman seperates himself from most musical minds by being truly diverse. You don't normally get this much variety in songs from an album full of different songwriters, much less all on the one. "Dead Ringer" is a roller-coaster ride taking you from heavy rock through to beautiful love-drenched ballads and back again (often doing this across the course of each song) - seven stunning tracks that have to be heard to be believed. \n\nLet's take, for example, the album's centrepiece (and original title-track) "I'll Kill You If You Don't Come Back". This track kicks off with a guitar riff of which most axe-gods would be proud (stunning considering it's written by a pianist), launching into a heavy-rock spectacular that could easily be the stage-standout of any rock act on the planet. But then, about halfway through, the song slides from being an angst-rock song into being a powerful piano-driven ballad. It's two songs - the same tagline, the same title, but two completely different tracks. And it works. This is an example of Steinman's mastery, completely unlike anything seen on "Bat Out Of Hell", but definitive in it's own, special way. \n\nNot all the songs are so varied within themselves, however. "Read 'em and Weep" is one of the finest ballads that Steinman ever wrote, for example. Smacking a bit of "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad", to be blatantly honest, but doing it in it's own special way, "Read 'em and Weep" is as much of a classic as anything else that Meat has ever sung, including the stuff on the "Bat" albums. It's not a ballad in the most typical sense - not like "Heaven Can Wait" or "For Crying Out Loud" from the 1977 LP - it's got guitars and drums and the works, but it's still emotionally driven and quite touching. \n\nThe only other track that really qualifies as a ballad on this record is the closer, "Everything Is Permitted". This dark, sinister track, is sometimes not immediately obvious. It's not immediately brilliant, either, but give it time and it'll grow on you. This is probably the worst of Meat Loaf's closers (his albums are known for finishing on highs - "For Crying", "Where Angels Sing" being the most obvious standouts), but that said, it's still a pretty impressive song. "More Than You Deserve" is, of course, a part of Meat Loaf lore. The version found here was actually recorded (or so the liner notes suggest) in 1974, but I'm not so sure about that. At any rate, it's not a song that I ever really appreciated, and I remain with mixed feelings about it today. The version found on "Storytellers" is far superior. \n\nFor all these ballads and slower tracks, the album has it's share of explosive rock, as well. "Peel Out", the album opener, rips along at a rate of knots. People often confuse this song with having illusions of "Bat Out Of Hell", but it's nothing of the sort. They're two completely different songs, and there's no comparison between them. "Peel Out" never got much in the way of recognition, but that doesn't mean it's a bad song. The other, obvious, rock track on the album is, of course, "Dead Ringer For Love" itself. This track is a duet with Cher, and, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you that there's a reason that this was one of Meat Loaf's most successful singles until "I'd Do Anything...". The band gallop along at one hell of a pace as Meat and Cher exchange barbs and upleasantries in one of Steinman's better short efforts. \n\nWhich leaves just one song. A song that is...well, more or less indescribable. A song that has a bit of everything. A song that (and I better whisper this) is perhaps one of the three best songs that Meat Loaf ever sang. From it's dark and moody piano and bass opening, through to it's explosive heavy-guitar climax, "I'm Gonna Love Her" is not only musically diverse, but also lyrically stunning, as Meat pleads with his best friend to stop mistreating the woman they mutually love. He's "gonna love her for both of" them. And it's a good thing, too. Because if he wasn't so assertive, then we wouldn't have this song. It's got a bit of everything. It's epic, but it doesn't feel like it. A true Steinman masterwork. \n\nSo, where's the inevitable "Bat" comparison? It's not so inevitable after all. Sure, "Bat Out Of Hell" and "Dead Ringer" are both albums written by Jim Steinman, and sung by Meat Loaf, but in so many ways they're each their own, independent entities that it's unfair to compare them. "Dead Ringer" is every bit as good an album as "Bat". Enjoy it for what it is - don't criticise it for what it isn't. \n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nThe very FIRST Meat comeback, and a great way to come back., March 8, 2003\nReviewer: Justin Dillihay "darkpowrjd" (Ohio)\nDead Ringer, the follow up to the ever-so-successful Bat Out Of Hell, took 4 years for Meat to get out, but it was well worth the wait. Although it's not the most underrated Meat work ever (that title belongs to the follow up to this one, Midnight At The Lost And Found). This one was made out as a failure, but you tell me how selling 5 million copies is still a failure. Maybe by the standards Bat made, it was, but Dead Ringer as a standalone effort is a great CD.\nPeel Out is EASILY my favorite energy-lead Meat song of all time, although this didn't get a good run as a single (I would love to see what a video for Peel Out would look like today). It is by far the best song on the CD with that guitar riff and powerful lyrics and background vocals. Plus, and I don't think anyone caught this, but one line is used again in "A Kiss Is A Terrible Thing To Waste." ("Tire tracks and broken hearts./It's all that we're leaving behind.")\n\nThen Meat mellows out for I'm Gonna Love Her For The Both Of Us, in which the only minor flaw is the length of it. 7 minutes, and it's easily the longest one on this CD (I'll Kill You If You Don't Come Back is close, but not close enough to top Both Of Us). Don't get me wrong, it's an excellent song, but the length kind of barrs the overall enjoyment of this song to me.\n\nMore Than You Deserve is the very first song Meat ever sang of Jim Steinmen's, and Meat delivers this on this one and on I'll Kill You If You Don't Come Back with theatrical-style lyrics. Read Em And Weep, later remade by Barry Manilow, is an excellent ballad, and it is surprising that Meat and Barry didn't do a duet for this song. Here's hoping that the idea hasn't totally escaped either of them.\n\nDead Ringer For Love is the centerpiece of this CD. Meat and Cher both get some great voices and lyrics for this one, and this song would later be done with I believe Patti Russo of his Neverland Express band.\n\nEverything Is Permitted is jarred by weird lyrics without any point to them, but a interesting rock ballad and closing to Ringer, although you'll be quite lost as to what the hell Meat is talking about here.\n\nWith all of this, it's hard to believe Ringer didn't do as well as Bat did. However, it's now that it's FINALLY getting the reconigion it deserves. Maybe this is what you should be listening to while waiting for Meat's upcoming work, Couldn't Have Said It Better (due out in August on US shores). Get Ringer if you haven't already. Don't compare to Bat, and you'll be alright. Oh, and get Midnight while you're at it to find Meat's TRUE "most underrated album ever."\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nA Worthy Follow-up, June 25, 2002\nReviewer: Brett Simpson (Auckland, New Zealand)\nDespite stopping at #45 in the US during a very brief chart run, this album went straight to #1 in the UK and had a top 5 hit single in the form of "Dead Ringer For Love". It also did very well in most European countries and Australasia.\nIs it as good as "Bat Out Of Hell"? Of course not...but, in my opinion, it is vastly superior to Bat II, where Steinman got just a little out of hand with those song lengths...\n\nThe fact that Steinman co-produced the backing tracks with Jimmy Iovine, but the albums production credits go to Mr. Loaf himself, with Stephan Gralphas in a supporting role demonstrates the friction that nearly prevented the album from ever being finished. Thankfully all parties have done a great job, and an album that could have become a complete shambles is anything but. \n\nThe backing band (including Billy Joel's long-time drummer Liberty DeVitto on a couple of tracks) is superb, and Steinman delivers a wide range of lyrical content, which is at it's best when it is either poignant ("Read 'Em And Weep - and, although I've haven't heard it I cannot believe the common consensus that Manilow's version is superior) or tongue-in-cheek ("Dead Ringer For Love", which amongst other great lines faetures this verbal exchange: Mr. Loaf: "You've got the kind of lips that do more than drink" Cher: "You've got the kind of mind that does less than think" - it sounds better with music, honest)The other absolute highlight is "I'm Gonna Love Her For Both Of Us".\n\nAll in all a very solid CD, and probably the only post-Bat album you really need.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nMeatloaf At His Classic Best, February 8, 2002\nReviewer: jayenjr (Malaysia)\nRight - so this may not be a Bat Out Of Hell. But then, Bat is a classic in every sense of the word, and there are not many artists out there who can re-create another classic in their recording lifetime. As far as I am concerned, the song Bat out of Hell is the second greatest rock song of all, after Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (yes! To me, it's better than the cliched 's chord progression of Led Zep's Stairway Song)\nIn Peel Out, Meat Loaf lets his operatic vocals leap to hit the usual peaks, but its the simple yet effective guitar motif that really propels this song. It is soooo spine chilling. That's the one good thing about Jimbo Steiman - when he is in his element, he is the best damn song writer in town. He knows just how to mix lyris, music and the performance together - just think of Tonight Is What It means To be Young, for e.g.\n\nAnd WOW! What a COOOL album cover. MEat/Jim - do another "Peel Out" guys. And what more can I say of "Dead Ringer" (one hell of a energy spewing song), Read Em & Weep (Barry Manillow scored with this one) & ....\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nBetter Than Most People Know, November 21, 2000\nReviewer: John Popa "thepopa" (Canton, OH United States)\nThis record had impossible shoes to fill. Nothing would have successfully 'followed up' "Bat Out of Hell." That record is a once in a lifetime achievement. "Dead Ringer," in the end, is just a record. A good one (at moments a great one) but nothing more. A gem like "I'll Kill You If You Don't Come Back," is laid in there with rock solid numbers like "Peel Out" but whereas "Bat" is as much an entity as a gathering of independent songs, "Ringer" is nothing more than a collection of its songs.\nAt times it seems to be trying too hard from a sloppy title track to an anti-climactic finale called "Everything is Permitted." There are moments where Jim Steinman is TRYING to be Jim Steinman, instead of just letting it happen.\n\nBut "Dead Ringer" is worth re-evaluation and appreciation. It's a good record. It just isn't another "Bat Out of Hell." But what is?\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nGreat Rock Album, September 28, 2000\nReviewer: Rick Douglas Janssen (Lake Zurich, IL USA)\nYears ago someone told me this album wasn't worth buying. Recently, I decided to try my luck and was very pleased that I did.\nDEAD RINGER is a wonderful rock album and has a hint of BAT OUT OF HELL's character. "Peel Out" and "I'm Gonna Love Her For Both Of Us" are very memorable and have been floating through my head for days.\n\nThe song "More Than You Deserve" is especailly interesting. It's from a musical that Jim Steiman wrote about the Vietnam War. One of the characters gets a letter from his mother. In it she tells him that his wife has run off and left him. This is the song he sings after reading the letter.\n\n"I'll Kill You If You Don't Come Back" first hit me in a way I didn't like. I guess it was the lyrics that the title was derived from. It seemed very morbid by today's standards. Perhaps when the song was written it would have been more symbolic and accepted. However, the song is very touching and is easily one of my favorites on the album. It begins with a very hard rock beat and later transforms into a ballad style. ...\n\nThe only song I really don't care for on this album is "Everything is Permitted." It just doesn't hit me as being very meaningful.\n\nOverall, I suggest giving this album a try. I really enjoy it and listen to it often.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nSo you want a little Loaf in your life . . ., August 14, 2000\nReviewer: "mightybjorn" (Los Angeles, CA United States)\nOkay, so you bought Bat out of Hell II and loved it, so you bought Bat out of Hell and loved it, and now you wonder if the in-betweens are as good. Short answer: no.\nThere are some good songs here -- "More than you deserve," "I'll kill you if you don't come back," "I'm gonna love her for both of us" -- but they're not as good as the Bats, and Meat's voice is sub-par on this one.\n\nOn the Bats, he roars and growls and moans with unrestrained energy. Here his voice takes on an odd, strangled/stuffed-up tone, like he's singing with bad sinusitis.\n\nNeither Steinman or Loaf is up to caliber with this one, so I recommend it only to completists.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nA "Respectable" Follow-up to "Bat", April 27, 2000\nReviewer: Alan L Seals (Eugene, OR USA)\nIf you know the story of the next few years of Meatloaf's career after "Bat" in 1977, you know that these years were difficult. The 1979 attempt at a follow-up album was never made.\nSo when I bought this CD, I didn't expect much. But, it is actually a very good CD. It isn't Steinman's best work (his worst is better than most composer's best!), but it is still fine material delivered in an excellent fashion by Meatloaf.\n\nOne of my favorite moments on the CD comes at the begininning, when "Peel Out" start with the sound of the revving of a motorcycle's engine. Does anything else better stand as a symbol of Meatloaf and Jim Steinman!\n\nThis was one of the most underrated albums of the early 1980's, and if you buy it, I think you will agree. The one negative thing I will point out is the song "Read 'Em and Weep". I much prefer Barry Manilow's 1983 version of it, which was also produced and directed by Steinman.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\n'Difficult Second Album' doesn't even begin to describe it.., July 26, 1999\nReviewer: A music fan\nWhen you take 4 years to follow up the biggest selling debut album of all time (forget Jagged Little Pill, Alanis had about 5 albums before that, Bat out of Hell REALLY holds that title) you're bound to experience a 'slight' sales drop-off. If selling 5 million albums is considered a dissapointment, then this is a dissapointment. Dead Ringer is a great album, worth 5 stars much like the two Bat albums... but 5 stars is too general. On a 10 star scale this album would be a 9 or an 8. The songwriting by Jim Steinman is top notch, amazing considering he did it in a month and a half. The production, however, is hit-or-miss. The music is great but the album sounds poor, thanks to Steinman's studio absence. Meat Loaf's voice didn't help any, either, he gives it his all but that isn't much considering his horrible vocal problems that almost left him without a voice at all (the very reason he didn't record Steinman's solo effort and the REAL Bat out of Hell II, Bad for Good). He records this album just as he is recovering from his problem and it shows in his inferior delivery (compared to his other work). Vocals aside, Dead Ringer contains some great songs like I'll Kill You if You Don't Come Back (album highlight) and I'm Gonna Love Her for Both of Us (which was actually a minor hit). Dead Ringer for Love is sex-inflected duet in the Paradise by the Dashboard Light style (featuring Cher as a lonley barfly, perectly cast). Peel Out kicks the album off almost as good as Bat out of Hell did, Everything Is Permitted has meaningful lyrics and crappy vocals. Read em and Weep is a great ballad, which was VERY suprisingly improved upon greatly by none other than (drum roll please...) BARRY MANILOW!... this shows what Steinman's production can do. Meat Loaf overshadowed by Manilow. Weaknessess aside (and there are only few) Dead Ringer is possibly the Loaf's most underrated work (next to Bad Attitude). It's definitley worth a pickup, even though it's not in the league of overall quality as the Bat albums. But then again, what is?\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nIt's good, even great, but not legendary..., June 17, 1999\nReviewer: A music fan\nOkay, so Dead Ringer is no Bat Out of Hell. But what is? In 1981, Meat Loaf had been throug ha lot of physical and psychological problems and still managed to pull off an album that is moving and funny and loud and beautiful all at once. So it's not Bat... it's still a lot better than most other recordings, IMO!\nThere are some really good numbers here, and a lot of interesting ties to later works by Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman--a lot of lyric material was used in Steinman's collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber, Whistle Down the Wind. The best song in my opinion is "I'll Kill You if You Don't come Back"--the song's better than the title, I promise!\n\nIf you listen to Dead Rigner not expecting another Bat Out of Hell, you will most likely enjoy it for what it is--an all-around good and unique album which was unfortunately horribly overshadowed by it's predecessor.\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nMeat Loaf and Jim Steinman, but no Bat., August 11, 1998\nReviewer: A music fan\nThis is the second of three albums (thus far; please let there be more someday!) penned by Jim Steinman and performed by Meat Loaf -- the others being Bat Out of Hell (1977) and Bat Out Of Hell II (1993), both of which are justifiably far more famous and successful than is Dead Ringer. Steinman's thunderous Wagnerian music here is memorable as always -- Steinman is never less than operatically impressive, whether howling in Peel Out or sobbing in Read Em And Weep -- but the lyrics seem sloppy, sometimes crude, and less inventive than in his other works. There is nothing remotely in the poetic class of Two Out of Three Ain't Bad or Objects In The Rear View Mirror, nor anything with the audacity of Bat Out Of Hell or I'd Do Anything For Love. \nHowever, there's a fun duet with Cher (Dead Ringer For Love), a touching ballad later covered by -- believe it or not -- Barry Manilow (Read Em And Weep), and, for the music-theory inclined, some lyric and melodic forbears to a! few of the most successful songs on Bat II (in Peel Out). While there are obvious reasons it was never a big hit, the album is worthwhile for the Steinman or Meat Loaf fan.\n\nHalf.com Details \nContributing artists: Cher, Mick Ronson, Nicky Hopkins \n\nAlbum Notes\nPersonnel: Meat Loaf, Cher (vocals); Joe DeAngelis (acoustic guitar); Davey Johnstone, Mick Ronson (guitar); Alan Rubin, Lou Marani, Lou Delgatto, Tom Malone (horns); Roy Bittan (piano, keyboards); Nicky Hopkins (piano); Larry Fast (synthesizer); Steve Buslowe (bass); Max Weinberg, Liberty DeVitto (drums); Neleam Ymmij (African logs); Jimmy Maelen (percussion); Rory Dodd, Ted Neeley, Allan Nicholls, Eric Troyer, Rhonda Coullet, Leslie Loaf (background vocals).\n\nProducers: Meat Loaf, Stephan Galfas, Jimmy Iovine, Jim Steinman.\n\nRecorded at Cherokee Studios, Los Angeles, California; The Record Plant and The Power Station, New York; House Of Music, West Orange, New Jersey.\n\nWhen Meat Loaf burst on the rock scene in 1978 with BAT OUT OF HELL, he seemed rather sui generis. Few bands of the era had let theatrics seep into their music as thoroughly as Meat Loaf did (though credit also goes to chief songwriter Jim Steinman and producer Todd Rundgren), and the singer hit commercial paydirt with BAT's mixture of theatricality, rock, and ballads. But the multi-platinum success of his debut put an incredible strain on Meat Loaf to produce a worthy follow-up, as he and Steinman battled over what direction the sophomore effort should take, resulting in numerous release postponements. Three long years later, DEAD RINGER finally emerged in 1981. Though it had a few strikes against it--Rundgren was no longer aboard, and the emergence of punk/new wave had taken the public's love for bombastic rock down a few notches--DEAD RINGER contains more than a few gems. Keepers include a fun duet with Cher, "Dead Ringer for Love," as well as "Peel Out" and "I'll Kill You if You Don't Come Back."
This country cd contains 8 tracks and runs 42min 12sec.
Freedb: 6609e208

Categories

Latest lists

Meat Loaf: Dead Ringer CD Track Listing

Category

Tags

cyList

Legal