It sucks !!!

[Garrett]

The damned waiting really sucks !!! The damned waiting really sucks !!! The damned waiting really sucks !!! The damned waiting really sucks !!! The damned waiting really sucks !!! The damned waiting really sucks !!! The damned waiting really sucks !!! The damned waiting really sucks !!! The damned waiting really sucks !!! The damned waiting really sucks !!! The damned waiting really sucks !!! The damned waiting really sucks !!! The damned waiting really sucks !!! The damned waiting really sucks !!!

[Garrett]

~~~~! ~~~~! ~~~~! ~~~~! ~~~~!

[Garrett]

I've never ever seen an album, that has taken so long to come out !!! Never !!! I'm so dissapointed !!! I cannot understand it !!! I think, it is over to be a fan of Meat, soon !!! I thought the album would come out in January/February next year. But now I've heard the rumor that the album would not come out before late 2003 !!! Now, it is really over !!! Over and out !!! I've had enough !!! Piss off !!!

[Tim]

Garret, how old are you?

Comon man. Ofcourse we're all disappointed in the late release of the album, but that's not Meat Loaf fault. I think it also has to do with the release of the album by Phil Collins!

We're all waiting. But maybe you must focus on something else, something possitive......like....euh........Well, you figure it out.

[Puritan]

Garret wrote back in June:

If the album won't be released until Christmas, so I will be
NO FAN ANYMORE!!!

I am surprised in view of the above that you are still around?

To be serious for a minute I too am very disappointed about the delays. Perhaps patience is something you acquire as you get older but I cannot turn off and on being a Meat Loaf fan over a delayed album. I just hope after all this time that when it does appear it is worth waiting for - we shall see or will we?

[Shane]

The latest I heard, which was a few days ago, was that promotion for the new album would start in March next year. Perhaps that gives a clue as to when it will be released. Also, Todd Rundgren has apparently been approached to sing background vocals on a song. This came from an online chat with Kasim Sulton and is NOT officially confirmed by Meat or his management.

[Anonymous]

It will be worth the wait bro's.

[Michel]

On a bootleg I have Meat tells the public that Bat II will be released on 24 januari 1991. And it came out half 1993. So it is normal that the album is delayed.

[Anonymous]

I think Meat and Phil Collins should have had a proper fight over the right for the title. My money would be on Meat, although Phil probably has a bit of a speed advantage, Meat would win through strength.

£10 on an April release, I have a feeling...

[The Flying Mouse]

Bet £10 that Testify will not be released in April or before?
Man,that is one bet I would be more than happy to lose .

[Cult Of Byron]

I dunno about april, springtime just doesnt seem a very 'Loafy' time of year. Autumn always does it for me, look at Bat 2 and WTTN, both autumn releases. Plus there's something about smashing windows, leaves and net curtains, oh and powerchords. I can wait.

[Meatles]

I heard that Testify was expected for an April release!!!???? This is a long wait ..... but it will be worth it!

Bat Out Of Hell - released in October 1977 (was no. 9)
Dead Ringer - no idea when it was released 1981 (was no. 1)
Blind Before I Stop - September 1986 (was no. 29)
Bat 2 - released in August 1993 (was no. 1)
Welcome To The Neighbourhood - released in November 1995 (was no. 2)
The Very Best Of - released in late November 1998 (was no. 14)

most of Meats albums have been released in the fall

[Anonymous]

According to an article I read a couple of days ago. The album is now called "I Couldn't Have Said It Better" and is scheduled to be released in April. Thanks

Janelle

[The Flying Mouse]

Fingers crossed.
Was the artical on the net?

[Cult Of Byron]

With all the delays, I'm half expecting them to call it Bat Out Of Hell 3 and reveal that the whole Testify thing was a smokescreen...

[Anonymous]

Here's the article..

Here are 25 Essential Things You Need To Know about Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman's album BAT OUT OF HELL, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer: (I would like to thank John W. Rutledge for sending me this article)
1. For Meat Loaf, "Bat Out of Hell" is heavenly in retrospect. But making it was, well, hellish. "If you look at it as a whole, it was fantastic," says the supersized entertainer formerly known as Marvin Lee Aday, born 55 years ago in Dallas. "But if you break it down minute by minute, it was not enjoyable. That's how life is. When you're doing it, it sucks. When you look back on it, it's kind of cool."
2. "Bat" was released in October 1977 by Cleveland International Records, a local production company run by music-industry veteran Steve Popovich, and distributed by CBS Records. The album has sold 14 million copies in the United States alone - and at least another 16 million copies abroad. "People love it," Popovich says. "It's a classic."
3. Meat Loaf's partner Jim Steinman single-handedly composed the album's mock-operatic rock 'n' roll rhapsodies (mostly in the 5- to 10-minute range) about fast sets of wheels and young lust. Among them were three Top 40 singles: "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad," the sex-crazed "Paradise by the Dashboard Lightand "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)."
4. Steinman wasn't always on the same page as producer Todd Rundgren. "Steinman had very clear ideas about how he wanted the songs rendered," Rundgren says. "I thought Bat Out of Hell' was supposed to be a Bruce Springsteen parody, essentially taking all of that overblown and somewhat trite rock imagery and making it so over the top that you brought out a whole other humorous aspect." He adds with a laugh: "That's what I thought. Jim didn't agree 100 percent with my assessment. But the first time I ever saw Bruce Springsteen live was at Steinman's behest, which is where I got the idea this was an influence." Two members of Springsteen's E Street Band - drummer Max Weinberg and pianist Roy Bittan - moonlighted on "Bat."
5. Before recording the album at Bearsville Sound Studio in upstate New York, Meat Loaf, Steinman, Rundgren and the other musicians spent three weeks fine-tuning the material in rehearsals. "Meat Loaf gives 200 percent every time he performs a song," says Kasim Sulton, who played bass on "Bat" and in Rundgren's band, Utopia. "It was the same in rehearsals. Meat sang like he was performing in front of 100,000 people. I remember having to hold back from laughing at this spectacle."
6. Meat Loaf swears he saw the ghost of a teenage girl outside the house where he and Steinman stayed when they were recording "Bat." One night, the covers mysteriously flew off Meat Loaf's bed. "I'm scared to death so I get Jim to sit in a rocking chair next to the bed. . . . I was so scared I actually considered asking him to get into bed with me," Meat Loaf wrote in his autobiography, "To Hell and Back."
7. The play-by-play double-entendres of "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" were provided by former New York Yankees shortstop and radio announcer Phil Rizzuto. To inspire him, Meat Loaf pantomimed a baseball game in the studio.
8. That motorcycle you hear roaring in the middle of the album's title track isn't really a Harley-Davidson. It's Rundgren doing an uncanny motorcycle imitation on his electric guitar. Steinman told VH1 the melodramatic tune was his attempt to write "the most extreme crash song of all time," a la "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las.
9. On "Bat," glorious excess was the name of the game. "I played more notes on there than on any other record since then," says Sulton, who recently released his third solo album, "Quid Pro Quo." He's back on the road with Meat Loaf, playing bass and serving as the tour's musical director. "For 'Bat,' I did what I thought worked - then I did a bit more," Sulton says. "No one ever said, 'You're playing too much.' "
10. Meat Loaf "had his work cut out for him, trying to get these ridiculously high notes in tune," Rundgren recalls. "He was apprehensive about hitting all those stratospheric notes Steinman had written."
11. Vocalist Karla DeVito was cast as Meat Loaf's female foil when he went on tour with "Bat." But she didn't sing on the album. Ellen Foley did.
12. Meat Loaf was suicidal during the "Bat" recording sessions. "Somebody was being really condescending to me," he says. He won't name names, but he says it wasn't Steinman or Rundgren. Meat Loaf had to have his stomach pumped after he took an overdose of sleeping pills. "I was in a huge mess for about 12 years after my mother died," he says. "I was really oversensitive. I wouldn't stand up for myself."
13. When Meat Loaf and Steinman were trying to land a record deal, they performed selections from "Bat" live in the offices of various record-company executives. For maximum dramatic effect, Meat Loaf and his then-girlfriend Foley would make out during "Paradise by the Dashboard Light."
14. Legendary music mogul Clive Davis, who was in charge of Arista Records at the time, wanted no part of "Bat." He compared Meat Loaf to Ethel Merman.
15. "Every major label passed on 'Bat Out of Hell' before Cleveland International picked it up," Popovich says. Upon hearing the album, he sensed "magic" where others had failed to detect any promise. "It was the day and age of the wimpy-looking, Peter Frampton-types," Popovich says. "Then here comes Meat Loaf, this huge guy with an amazing voice. And Steinman's songs were brilliant."
16. When "Bat" came out, Meat Loaf weighed 260 pounds. Today, he's a (relatively) svelte 240. "I just ate a salad," he says.
17. The iconic cover of "Bat" was illustrated by Richard Corben, a veteran comic-book artist whose work has graced the pages of Creepy, Eerie and Heavy Metal magazines.
18. Sulton, for one, was initially oblivious to the album's commercial potential. "I thought I'd never hear the record again," he admits. "Meat Loaf was the polar opposite of everything going on in music at the time. But the lyrical content was brilliant, the melodies were great and the delivery was perfect. He sang amazingly."
19. Rundgren is proud of "Bat," although he also had no inkling of the multiplatinum monster it would become. "We all just felt fortunate to complete the project," he says. "It was more difficult to make than most records because of the scale and scope of everything, with all the background vocals and sweetening. It was hard work. There were times when we may have gotten frustrated. But as I recall, we didn't have any real ugliness. . . . I doubt any of us was ever Rude to Meat Loaf. He's a big guy."
20. On the road to promote "Bat," Meat Loaf headlined the Cleveland Agora on Nov. 14, 1977. Tom Petty and the Heart- breakers were the opening act. Back then, Meat Loaf was "the best live performer on the street," Popovich says. "His show was an amazing workout, to the point where often he would totally collapse and they'd have to give him oxygen backstage."
21. Even after all these years, Meat Loaf isn't tired of belting out everybody's favorite "Bat" tunes. "People go, 'You must be really sick of 'em,' " he says. "I'm not, because they're never the same. I'm an actor, and acting is moment to moment . . . which is how I deal with the songs. Every song lives in its own world. Every time I sing one of those songs, I live in a different moment."
22. Meat Loaf and Steinman reunited for 1993's "Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell" album, which boasted the No. 1 hit "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)." The duo doesn't stay in touch these days. "I get phone calls from his people saying he wants to call me," Meat Loaf says. "I say, 'OK, here's my number.' Or they'll say, 'What's your e-mail address? He really wants to e-mail you.' And that's that. I can never get to him, no matter what I try."
23. Meat Loaf is putting the finishing touches on a new album, "Couldn't Have Said It Better," tentatively scheduled for an April release. Count on more of the same, musicwise. "I don't sound like U2," Meat Loaf says. "This is the first record since 'Bat Out of Hell' where nobody has pushed me. Nobody said, 'OK, you gotta get this done.' We've been working on it almost four years. The record is amazing."
24. Popovich has filed a fraud and breach of contract suit against Sony Music Entertainment for allegedly failing to include Cleveland International's logo on recent copies of "Bat" and other Meat Loaf releases. An October 2003 trial date has been set for U.S. District Court in Cleveland.
25. Ready for "Bat Out of Hell III"? It could happen. "If they call me up and say, 'OK. let's do "Bat III," yeah, there would be a 'Bat III,' " Meat Loaf says. "But I can't do it without Jimmy. And Jimmy legitimately can't do it without me. It's gotta be both of us together. I'd just like to do it before I'm 72."

Thanks..
Janelle

[The Flying Mouse]

Thanks Janelle for typing thay artical out for us.
It is exciting that Jim wants to get in touch with Meat,and that Meat is willing to go for Bat III.Let's hope they can get together soon and start work on the last part of the first Rock album trilogy.Godfather,eat your heart out.
Just one more question for Janelle.When did this artical come out?
Thanks again.

[SueW]

The article was posted on 29th November in The Cleveland Plain Dealer (http://www.cleveland.com/friday/plai...1714290761.xml) and Kasim Sulton was only interviewed for it about a week earlier so it is current.

Meat Loaf's new album "I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself" (formely Testify) will be released anytime from late February to 3rd April in UK and Europe depending on which article you believe! (He hasn't signed a US record contract yet.) Meat's new single "Did I Say That?" will be released in Germany first on Polydor Records (it is currently not known whether this is the song that features Todd Rundgren too). The single has a radio release date in Germany of 16th December and a sale release date of 20th January.

Sue
http://www.KasimInfo.com

[Anonymous]

DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHY THE NAME HAS BEEN CHANGED TO '(I) COULDNT HAVE SAID IT BETTER (MYSELF)'? AND WHAT ITS MENT TO MEAN?

[SueW]

Kasim Sulton said in his chat on Sunday that the title of the album is actually "Couldn't Have Said It Better" (without the "I" and "Myself"). He also said that Todd Rundgren sings background vocals on the title track (previously his comment was that it was going to be another Anything For Love)

Most people are assuming that the title of the CD has changed as Phil Collins just recently released an album called Testify.

Sue
http://www.KasimInfo.com