Meat Loaf Live (at Wembley) is being rereleased...

[Evil One]

...on 12th August 2013 according to: http://www.cherryred.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=4268

or it can be ordered from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-At-Wemb...t_mus_ep_dpi_1

No mention of any remastering, so I doubt there's any reason to get excited.

[Paul Richardson]

You do wonder why now ? Surely everyone who could possibly want this album already has it ? While the vocals are stellar, the production is woeful, and other than the BOOH tracks its full of Meat's less successful (and imo inferior) 80's work. A career retrospective live album would be cool, and could include tracks from both subsequent BOOHs and Dead Ringer, but this is definitely not it - a missed opportunity ...

[wolfy35]

Originally Posted by Paul Richardson

You do wonder why now ? Surely everyone who could possibly want this album already has it ? While the vocals are stellar, the production is woeful, and other than the BOOH tracks its full of Meat's less successful (and imo inferior) 80's work. A career retrospective live album would be cool, and could include tracks from both subsequent BOOHs and Dead Ringer, but this is definitely not it - a missed opportunity ...

Just because you may have it do not assume everyone who wants it has it.

When this was first released I went through many copies of it ( On original black plastic stuff that had grooves in no less ) and could not find a copy that played all the way through it always skipped in the same places every time to the point my local record store returned all their stock because they were all faulty. I did however keep the 12" single that came with it because that played flawlessly.

I have not yet found at either a reasonable price or distance a store that had a copy of this since it became in theory available on CD with the only local store that said they would try & get me a copy phoning me a few days later saying that although it was in theory available in practice no copies had ever been available via their supplier and it had since been delisted.

I do have a bootleg copy of this but it has always irked me that I had to resort to that so the chance to obtain a legitimate copy is welcome.

[Deena J]

I JUST bought this on cd and heard it for the 1st time in the last month. So I gotta agree, not everybody knew about it.

-shrug-

[Evil One]

Originally Posted by wolfy35

the chance to obtain a legitimate copy is welcome.

You can buy exactly the same CD from Amazon for £5.47:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Meat-Lo...meat+loaf+live

[Renegade Angel]

Contains the best live version of Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad. The guitar solo and meat vocals sound amazing.
It's actually not a bad album, not the best but still a good document of the meat loaf sound from that era. I had this on vinyl and played it so many times. I used to think that it was recorded at Wembley Stadium and used to imagine that it was an epic 'Wembley stadium type gig similar to Queen's gig there in 86 but was gutted to find out it was from the arena next door.

[Evil One]

Originally Posted by Renegade Angel

It's actually not a bad album

Meat and the band are amazing but the production is poor. I would happily pay more than £7.03 for an improved version. Unfortunately this isn't an improved version.

[Paul Richardson]

Originally Posted by Renegade Angel

I used to think that it was recorded at Wembley Stadium and used to imagine that it was an epic 'Wembley stadium type gig similar to Queen's gig there in 86 but was gutted to find out it was from the arena next door.

If memory serves me right then I think that was deliberately ambiguous - the album notes neither said Stadium or Arena - however it sounds like a big crowd (and outdoors to me) so very understandable !

[wolfy35]

Let us not forget that it has a live version of Masculine on.... That alone will keep Wario happy for months!

[Wario]

Originally Posted by wolfy35

Let us not forget that it has a live version of Masculine on.... That alone will keep Wario happy for months!

its not that great of a version.

[AndrewG]

Originally Posted by Wario

its not that great of a version.

[Evil One]

It's the best version. Or it would be if the production was better.

[Wario]

Originally Posted by Evil One

It's the best version. Or it would be if the production was better.

I hate how the riff is shortened in the second verse. Spoiled by the birmingham 1988 bootleg I guess...

YouTube Video

[chairboys]

Originally Posted by Renegade Angel

Contains the best live version of Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad. The guitar solo and meat vocals sound amazing.

Two correct sentences.

[Renegade Angel]

Originally Posted by Paul Richardson

If memory serves me right then I think that was deliberately ambiguous - the album notes neither said Stadium or Arena - however it sounds like a big crowd (and outdoors to me) so very understandable !

I'm sure the vinyl version says Wembley stadium' but it's definitely the arena. Could Meat have filled Wembley stadium during the late 80s? He was playing very small venues but the show would have been amazing in bigger venues.

[Paul Richardson]

Originally Posted by Renegade Angel

I'm sure the vinyl version says 'Wembley Stadium' but it's definitely the arena.

Just checking my CD version (which would've been bought in the mid nineties) it does say, "Recorded at Wembley Stadium, London, England, March 1 and 2 1987".

Looking at Adje's list of shows since 1977, those dates are listed as Wembley Arena.

Its a shame Meat never filled Wembley Stadium ... maybe there's still time for a one off final farewell show ?

[Wario]

Originally Posted by Paul Richardson

Just checking my CD version (which would've been bought in the mid nineties) it does say, "Recorded at Wembley Stadium, London, England, March 1 and 2 1987".

Looking at Adje's list of shows since 1977, those dates are listed as Wembley Arena.

Its a shame Meat never filled Wembley Stadium ... maybe there's still time for a one off final farewell show ?

He did perform there tho for the Nelson Mandella thing in 1988:

YouTube Video

[AndyK]

Originally Posted by Wario

He did perform there tho for the Nelson Mandella thing in 1988:

He only appeared on this one song and introduced another act, no real "Meat Loaf" performance as such.

[wolfy35]

Originally Posted by Evil One

Meat and the band are amazing but the production is poor.

I think to be fair before you pass judgement on this saying the production is poor maybe you should consider Meat's circumstances at the time.

This recording was made deep into the period that most of the US had shunned Meat due to his vocal & other problems he experienced after BOOH. This was a Meat simply trying to get himself back together & earn money to support his family & stay off the main record industry bosses who were firing off lawsuits against him.

For me the album is a winner, It is true that it has a raw edge to the production compared to newer recordings but if you compare it against other recordings of the same period the production values are "of the time" so I think it is unfair to demean the album as poor because of that.

Listen to it & accept it as what it is, an accurate recording that portrays Meat as he was then.

[Evil One]

I'm aware of Meat's circumstances at the time. In fact I believe this album was original conceived as a way to get Meat out of his contract with Arista. However that was 26 years ago. In those 26 years the album has been recycled over and over again and not once has anyone seen fit to tart up the audio.

[wolfy35]

Originally Posted by Evil One

In those 26 years the album has been recycled over and over again and not once has anyone seen fit to tart up the audio.

Have you ever considered that nobody has "tarted" up the audio because what was released may be the quality that the tracks were recorded in and Meat does not want to run the gauntlet of criticism he would be guaranteed to receive if someone played with the audio because it was not then a true representation of the concert(s) the tracks were from?

Would be nice to think that somewhere a better quality recording exists somewhere but I think if it did we would have had it by now.

I think Paul Crook's production thread gives a good insight into the way Meat likes his live recordings to appear & that is as true as possible to what was heard at the time.

[LucyK!]

"Tarting up the audio" doesn't mean it has to be less authentic than the original, just better quality sound - it's like originally buying films on VHS then buying the DVD, same great content just of a better quality.

I don't think anyone's suggesting changing the original material to make Meat sound any different, just improving the overall quality of the piece.

[Paul Richardson]

Originally Posted by Evil One

I'm aware of Meat's circumstances at the time. In fact I believe this album was original conceived as a way to get Meat out of his contract with Arista.

My understanding was that Meat and Jim were beginning to plan what would become Bat 2 and Arista weren't interested - they thought a Jim album would be too expensive - so this was a rushed album to fulfil Meat's contractual commitment for a three album deal.

[Evil One]

Originally Posted by LucyK!

"Tarting up the audio" doesn't mean it has to be less authentic than the original, just better quality sound - it's like originally buying films on VHS then buying the DVD, same great content just of a better quality.

I don't think anyone's suggesting changing the original material to make Meat sound any different, just improving the overall quality of the piece.

This is exactly what I mean.

Originally Posted by wolfy35

Have you ever considered that nobody has "tarted" up the audio because what was released may be the quality that the tracks were recorded in

No. Take a listen to this:

YouTube Video

That was recorded off the radio, onto a cassette and encoded into a 128kbps mp3 and it still sounds better than the official CD.

Originally Posted by wolfy35

I think Paul Crook's production thread gives a good insight into the way Meat likes his live recordings to appear & that is as true as possible to what was heard at the time.

Then you may be saddened to learn that there are studio vocal overdubs on these songs.

[Wario]

Originally Posted by Evil One

Then you may be saddened to learn that there are studio vocal overdubs on these songs.

Only backing vocals. All recordings from 1987 says that Meats vocals were untouched