Is FCOL really the best song ever written?

Wario · 21 Aug 2015, 18:47

Is it?

I actually would beg to differ.

FCOL is amazing but IJWQ surpasses it imo both lyrically and artistically without ever saying the word love once.

Evil Ernie · 21 Aug 2015, 18:55

Best is subjective.

AndrewG · 21 Aug 2015, 18:58

Best is Masculine.
"Grab her by the hair
Drag her back to your cave
It's what makes a man a man
People always stay the same"

Genius.

anotherday · 21 Aug 2015, 19:07

Its the best love song ever written, YES.

Adje · 21 Aug 2015, 20:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wario

Is it?

I actually would beg to differ.

FCOL is amazing but IJWQ surpasses it imo both lyrically and artistically without ever saying the word love once.

The best song ever written? Impossible to say. But personally I do find FCOL a better song than IJWQ. And I find Objects a better song than IJWQ.

Is it the best love song ever written? No.

loaferman61 · 21 Aug 2015, 20:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndrewG

Best is Masculine.
"Grab her by the hair
Drag her back to your cave
It's what makes a man a man
People always stay the same"

Genius.

Hey it took 3 writers to come up with that brilliance. I have no idea why it was not a #1 single, LOL. Meat was really in bad need of songs back then.

nikox1 · 21 Aug 2015, 23:08

I think it could well be

ChloeLee88 · 22 Aug 2015, 01:42

If I was told that I had to pick just one song to listen to for the rest of my days, I would not hesitate to pick FCOL!

IN MY OPINION, yes it is! Not only is it both musically and lyrically my all time favourite, it is the way it is delivered by Meat too that makes it so appealing, its raw and emotional!

There are plenty of songs out there, from Meat and other artists that I consider to be great masterpieces, but for me, this is just the song that grabs me the most emotionally. The fact that it is relatively unknown, in the world outside of Meat fans, makes it all the more better somehow! Most people I have brushed shoulders with have not known this song....though they do now!

So yeah.....just incase you didn't quite get, FCOL is MY favourite song....EVER!!

AndrewG · 22 Aug 2015, 03:00

My humble opinion on the Greatest Love Song:

First you'd have to define what a love song is. I hate boxing things in but I guess you would say it needs to be a song about devotion to someone. And probably not necessarily a man and woman thing but could be anyone and anything surely. Maybe even a place? Earth? Life? Yourself? What you are? etc. And does it have to be a slow song? This is hard in the case of considering Jim Steinman / theatre esque music where we are talking about different tempos and styles within the same song.

There is not much that can top "I will always love you" as sung by Whitney Houston I think. FCOL is remarkable. Other songs from the 90s especially are memorable even Bryan Adams' "Everything I do (I do it for you)" I think. In my opinion "Anything For Love" is probably the greatest love song of all time as it just sums everything up so well without being too specific about a time and place (which I think is a tiny problem in FCOL "California sand... faded Levi's " etc...) Sure AFL mentions "Sex and drums and rock n roll" but I just think it is just a bit more timeless or at least place specific-less when it comes to lyrics than FCOL. And who says a love song can't have a thunderous rock part?!

To me it fits perfectly with the theatrical hecticness of searching, chaos, destruction and eventually finding and cherishing that one true love.
For me it probably will never be topped. And how Meat sang it live in the 90s especially. Wow. Not much more powerful than that.
Still FCOL gets 2nd or 3rd place for me. Along with Whitney Houston's cover.

Other worth while mentions I can think of right now are (in no particular order):

Shooting Star / Make you feel my love / Lay Lady Lay all by Bob Dylan.
Always on my Mind - Elvis Presley / Willie Nelson
Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers
It Must Have Been Love by Roxette
It's All Coming Back To Me now - Pandora's Box
The Power of Love - Jennifer Rush
Alone / What about Love? - Heart
I just Called to Say I love You - Stevie Wonder
Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston
Can't Help Falling in Love with you - Elvis Presley / Bruce Springsteen
My Girl - The Temptations
Stand by me - Ben E King
He Lives in You - Lion King Musical
Let it Go from Frozen (loving / accepting what you are or capable of)
Think of Me and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again from Phantom
You must love me from Evita
Suddenly Seymour - Little Shop of Horros
You're the one that I want - Grease
From Les Mes: On my own, A little fall of rain, I Dreamed a dream, Stars (Loving / justifying what you do)
Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Conner
Never Gonna Give you up - Barry White / Lisa Stansfield
No-one / Fallin' - Alicia Keys
Endless Love - Lionel Richie / Diana Ross
several Michael Jackson songs surely
Is this Love? - Whitesnake
Your Song - Elton John
Wild Horses - Rolling Stones
The Winner Takes it all - Abba
Always a Woman to me - Billy Joel
I need love - LL Cool J
You'll be in my heart - Phil Collins
Up Where we belong - Jennifer Warnes & Joe Cocker
Defying Gravitiy (loving yourself or accepting what you really are etc) - From Wicked
When the Rain begins to fall - Jermaine Jackson & Pia Zadora
Love the way you lie - Rihanna & Eminem
Thougher Than The Rest - Bruce Springsteen
If I should fall behind, My City of Ruins (loving a specific place I guess) - Bruce Springsteen
Purple Rain - Prince
Tunnel of Love / Brothers in arms - Dire Straits
Lovesong 100.001 - De Dijk

- Countless love songs I'm not listing as I cannot understand beyond a few languages.

etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.....

rockfenris2005 · 22 Aug 2015, 10:42

The best love song maybe... To me, also, "For crying out loud" is like the musical version of the Richard Matheson novel "What Dreams May Come" (which the Robin Williams movie was based on. I have never and probably will never forget my experience reading this. It was just incredible.) The best song... "You'll never walk alone" has to be ONE of the best songs for me.

"It just won't quit" needs to be recognized for the classic that it is.

Meat Loaf_fan · 22 Aug 2015, 12:47

FCOL is beautiful song, but ... to me:
- the best song from Jim Steinman is: "Out Of The Frying Pan";
- the best ballad from Jim Steinman is: "Objects";
- the best song from Meat's catalogue is: "Did I Say That".

But if I think about the best love song, then FCOL is on first place (in my private list).

Adje · 22 Aug 2015, 13:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndrewG

etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.....

I gave it some thought. What are the love songs that ' touched me' and just 2 stuck in my mind.

You Are from Dolly Parton.

The song is as sweet and simpel as love. For me that song just sums it up in all it 's simplicity.

Then there is the song

You Needed Me from Anne Murray (or any artist that sings it)

That said, FCOL is my favorite Meat Loaf song and in my all time list I'm sure it scores high

Evil One · 22 Aug 2015, 14:46

For Crying Out Load is the only song that has ever made me cry. Yes, it is the best song ever written. It Just Won't Quit probably has the cleverest lyrics ever written.

rockfenris2005 · 22 Aug 2015, 15:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evil One

For Crying Out Load is the only song that has ever made me cry. Yes, it is the best song ever written. It Just Won't Quit probably has the cleverest lyrics ever written.

I just don't understand why it wasn't played live. And I get some pretty cool images thinking about what it might have been like too. Picture Meat onstage, dim lighting at the start, singing "And I never really sleep anymore... And I always get those dangerous dreams..." Is it because they just couldn't work out the right arrangement? Not sure if I remember someone saying that or I'm getting it mixed up with Pink Floyd ("Summer '68" wasn't played live for this reason?) How awesome if Meat/Neverland Express suddenly played it now. Or someone covered it again and it just took off.

AndrewG · 22 Aug 2015, 15:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockfenris2005

I just don't understand why it wasn't played live. And I get some pretty cool images thinking about what it might have been like too. Picture Meat onstage, dim lighting at the start, singing "And I never really sleep anymore... And I always get those dangerous dreams..." Is it because they just couldn't work out the right arrangement? Not sure if I remember someone saying that or I'm getting it mixed up with Pink Floyd ("Summer '68" wasn't played live for this reason?) How awesome if Meat/Neverland Express suddenly played it now. Or someone covered it again and it just took off.

Imagine if Last at Bat tour meant playing Bat 1, 2 and 3 in full in rotation across shows.

Julie in the rv mirror · 22 Aug 2015, 17:21

It's impossible to say what the best song ever written is; best love song almost as tough, but IMO, this one is pretty hard to beat:

YouTube Video

Another one that comes immediately to mind is "Always On My Mind" by Elvis (or Willie Nelson); also "I Could Not Ask For More" by Edwin McCain.

Other Contenders (no particular order):

"The First Cut is the Deepest"- Cat Stevens
"Wind Beneath My Wings"- Bete Midler
"Faithfully"- Journey
"Then"- Brad Paisley
"If I Should Fall Behind"- Bruce Springsteen
"Happy"- Bruce Springsteen
"Janey, Don't You Lose Heart"- Bruce Springsteen
"The One"- Elton John
"Annie's Song"- John Denver
"For You" (solo on piano)- Bruce Springsteen

Lots of others.

Deeko · 23 Aug 2015, 10:19

Calling FCOL the greatest love song or best song ever written depends on a persons own criteria of what makes a song that.
For instance I think that

Total Eclipse is Jim Steinmans best written song,
Out Of The Frying Pan is the best Steinman song Meat performs live and I could never tire of hearing any concert version of
I love the sublime imagery of IJWQ

But back to the topic and I'll leave it with the best review of the song I read, from a fellow JimSteinFan who showed me the connection between Meat and Jim opening me up to a world of different artists.

"It's a song that rips your heart from your rib cage, lobs it about a bit then places it gently back"

chansadres · 23 Aug 2015, 11:25

Probably a lot of people will dislike, but I never thought FCOL is such a great song. I think it's even one of my least favorite on the album. I think his best song is R&RDCT. Best ballad Objects. Best lyrics IJWQ. I like Bat II more than Bat I. I respect what Bat 1 did for Meat but his best work is on Bat II.

Wario · 24 Aug 2015, 14:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by chansadres

Probably a lot of people will dislike, but I never thought FCOL is such a great song. I think it's even one of my least favorite on the album. I think his best song is R&RDCT. Best ballad Objects. Best lyrics IJWQ. I like Bat II more than Bat I. I respect what Bat 1 did for Meat but his best work is on Bat II.

This is best love song not song overall. FCOL doesnt make my top 10

22 Aug 2015, 03:00	#9
AndrewG I hope your salmon sucks! Join Date: 18.01.2004 Location: Northamptonshire Posts: 7,077	My humble opinion on the Greatest Love Song: First you'd have to define what a love song is. I hate boxing things in but I guess you would say it needs to be a song about devotion to someone. And probably not necessarily a man and woman thing but could be anyone and anything surely. Maybe even a place? Earth? Life? Yourself? What you are? etc. And does it have to be a slow song? This is hard in the case of considering Jim Steinman / theatre esque music where we are talking about different tempos and styles within the same song. There is not much that can top "I will always love you" as sung by Whitney Houston I think. FCOL is remarkable. Other songs from the 90s especially are memorable even Bryan Adams' "Everything I do (I do it for you)" I think. In my opinion "Anything For Love" is probably the greatest love song of all time as it just sums everything up so well without being too specific about a time and place (which I think is a tiny problem in FCOL "California sand... faded Levi's " etc...) Sure AFL mentions "Sex and drums and rock n roll" but I just think it is just a bit more timeless or at least place specific-less when it comes to lyrics than FCOL. And who says a love song can't have a thunderous rock part?! To me it fits perfectly with the theatrical hecticness of searching, chaos, destruction and eventually finding and cherishing that one true love. For me it probably will never be topped. And how Meat sang it live in the 90s especially. Wow. Not much more powerful than that. Still FCOL gets 2nd or 3rd place for me. Along with Whitney Houston's cover. Other worth while mentions I can think of right now are (in no particular order): Shooting Star / Make you feel my love / Lay Lady Lay all by Bob Dylan. Always on my Mind - Elvis Presley / Willie Nelson Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers It Must Have Been Love by Roxette It's All Coming Back To Me now - Pandora's Box The Power of Love - Jennifer Rush Alone / What about Love? - Heart I just Called to Say I love You - Stevie Wonder Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston Can't Help Falling in Love with you - Elvis Presley / Bruce Springsteen My Girl - The Temptations Stand by me - Ben E King He Lives in You - Lion King Musical Let it Go from Frozen (loving / accepting what you are or capable of) Think of Me and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again from Phantom You must love me from Evita Suddenly Seymour - Little Shop of Horros You're the one that I want - Grease From Les Mes: On my own, A little fall of rain, I Dreamed a dream, Stars (Loving / justifying what you do) Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Conner Never Gonna Give you up - Barry White / Lisa Stansfield No-one / Fallin' - Alicia Keys Endless Love - Lionel Richie / Diana Ross several Michael Jackson songs surely Is this Love? - Whitesnake Your Song - Elton John Wild Horses - Rolling Stones The Winner Takes it all - Abba Always a Woman to me - Billy Joel I need love - LL Cool J You'll be in my heart - Phil Collins Up Where we belong - Jennifer Warnes & Joe Cocker Defying Gravitiy (loving yourself or accepting what you really are etc) - From Wicked When the Rain begins to fall - Jermaine Jackson & Pia Zadora Love the way you lie - Rihanna & Eminem Thougher Than The Rest - Bruce Springsteen If I should fall behind, My City of Ruins (loving a specific place I guess) - Bruce Springsteen Purple Rain - Prince Tunnel of Love / Brothers in arms - Dire Straits Lovesong 100.001 - De Dijk - Countless love songs I'm not listing as I cannot understand beyond a few languages. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc..... Last edited by AndrewG; 22 Aug 2015 at 03:57.

21 Aug 2015, 18:47	#1
Wario Monstro helps me spell things... Join Date: 05.01.2007 Location: Masculine, Pennsylvania Posts: 9,105	Is FCOL really the best song ever written? Is it? I actually would beg to differ. FCOL is amazing but IJWQ surpasses it imo both lyrically and artistically without ever saying the word love once.

21 Aug 2015, 18:55	#2
Evil Ernie Super Loafer Join Date: 03.06.2011 Posts: 667	Best is subjective.

21 Aug 2015, 18:58	#3
AndrewG I hope your salmon sucks! Join Date: 18.01.2004 Location: Northamptonshire Posts: 7,077	Best is Masculine. "Grab her by the hair Drag her back to your cave It's what makes a man a man People always stay the same" Genius.

21 Aug 2015, 19:07	#4
anotherday Super Loafer Join Date: 12.10.2012 Posts: 801	Its the best love song ever written, YES.

21 Aug 2015, 23:08	#7
nikox1 Mega Loafer Join Date: 06.07.2007 Location: Front line of the battle Posts: 2,657	I think it could well be

22 Aug 2015, 01:42	#8
ChloeLee88 Super Loafer Join Date: 27.07.2005 Location: Bolton, Greater Manchester Posts: 666	If I was told that I had to pick just one song to listen to for the rest of my days, I would not hesitate to pick FCOL! IN MY OPINION, yes it is! Not only is it both musically and lyrically my all time favourite, it is the way it is delivered by Meat too that makes it so appealing, its raw and emotional! There are plenty of songs out there, from Meat and other artists that I consider to be great masterpieces, but for me, this is just the song that grabs me the most emotionally. The fact that it is relatively unknown, in the world outside of Meat fans, makes it all the more better somehow! Most people I have brushed shoulders with have not known this song....though they do now! So yeah.....just incase you didn't quite get, FCOL is MY favourite song....EVER!!

22 Aug 2015, 10:42	#10
rockfenris2005 Mega Loafer Join Date: 16.02.2003 Location: Posts: 2,217	The best love song maybe... To me, also, "For crying out loud" is like the musical version of the Richard Matheson novel "What Dreams May Come" (which the Robin Williams movie was based on. I have never and probably will never forget my experience reading this. It was just incredible.) The best song... "You'll never walk alone" has to be ONE of the best songs for me. "It just won't quit" needs to be recognized for the classic that it is.

22 Aug 2015, 12:47	#11
Meat Loaf_fan Super Loafer Join Date: 01.03.2008 Location: Gdańsk (Poland) Posts: 311	FCOL is beautiful song, but ... to me: - the best song from Jim Steinman is: "Out Of The Frying Pan"; - the best ballad from Jim Steinman is: "Objects"; - the best song from Meat's catalogue is: "Did I Say That". But if I think about the best love song, then FCOL is on first place (in my private list).

22 Aug 2015, 14:46	#13
Evil One Mega Loafer Join Date: 15.01.2007 Posts: 5,192	For Crying Out Load is the only song that has ever made me cry. Yes, it is the best song ever written. It Just Won't Quit probably has the cleverest lyrics ever written.

23 Aug 2015, 10:19	#17
Deeko Loafer Join Date: 21.05.2006 Posts: 78	Calling FCOL the greatest love song or best song ever written depends on a persons own criteria of what makes a song that. For instance I think that Total Eclipse is Jim Steinmans best written song, Out Of The Frying Pan is the best Steinman song Meat performs live and I could never tire of hearing any concert version of I love the sublime imagery of IJWQ But back to the topic and I'll leave it with the best review of the song I read, from a fellow JimSteinFan who showed me the connection between Meat and Jim opening me up to a world of different artists. "It's a song that rips your heart from your rib cage, lobs it about a bit then places it gently back"

23 Aug 2015, 11:25	#18
chansadres Senior Loafer Join Date: 18.10.2007 Posts: 120	Probably a lot of people will dislike, but I never thought FCOL is such a great song. I think it's even one of my least favorite on the album. I think his best song is R&RDCT. Best ballad Objects. Best lyrics IJWQ. I like Bat II more than Bat I. I respect what Bat 1 did for Meat but his best work is on Bat II.