Meatloaf
May 10, 2010
Rocker Meat Loaf's upcoming album, Hang Cool Teddy Bear, will be released on May 11th. The singer's well-known voice has been iconic since the release of the 1977 smash album Bat Out of Hell. With over 40 million albums sold, it would seem that he would have nothing left to prove. However, the driven vocalist gloriously bats it out of the park on his upcoming album Hang Cool Teddy Bear, which features special guests including guitarists Brian May of Queen fame and guitar great Stevie Vai. "This is the most important recording of my Life," said Meat Loaf on Monday night at The Village Recorders studio in Santa Monica, California, the hit factory that has helped spawn a voluminous number of hit albums including The Rolling Stones' Goats Head Soup, Lady Gaga's The Fame, Frank Zappa's classic Joe's Garage and Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album.
American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi co-wrote and plays Meat Loaf's foil on the album's track "If I Can't Have You."
Meat Loaf said that he asked some of his "friends" to be on the album, including actor and comedian Jack Black, and Hugh Laurie of the award-winning television series House M.D., who plays piano. Laurie's character, the Vicodin-addicted Dr. Gregory House, has played piano on the show, as well as guitar and piano. Octave defying vocalist Justin Hawkins of the UK band The Darkness, Randy Flowers and Paul Crook also guest on the album, as do Chris Chaney, and Kasim Sulton. Adding to the party are keyboardists John Micelli and Jamie Mulhoberac. Meat Loaf (nee Michael Lee Aday) laughed as he said of Black's appearance on the album, "I had run into Jack, and he said, 'When are we going to jam, man?"
Produced by record exec Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls, Adam Lambert), the album was recorded at Cavallo's Calabasas, California recording studio. Meat Loaf, who also works as an actor, has appeared in more than fifty films. He praised Cavallo as "simply the best record producer." Meat Loaf added that sometimes when it comes to record producers' "Their ego somehow gets involved. He didn't have that. You wouldn't know if it did in this case. He made it feel like the album was what I wanted." Meat Loaf joked, "Cavallo called me an actor, who acts like he can sing."
On this album, Vai, who showed the devil a thing or two with his guitar work in the 1986 film Crossroads, again comes to the crossroads. Says Meat Loaf, "The album is a story about a soldier that is wounded an dying. He can't get up. Instead of his life flashing backwards, his life flashes forward. His life does flash back at the end." The concept album has Meat Loaf singing songs that are sung from the perspective of "a twenty-four year old soldier named Patrick," he explains. On the album, "Every girl is the same girl, with a different part of her personality. All the scenarios are keeping this guy alive."
Meat Loaf concedes, "It's so bizarre." In one song, he says, "He wakes up having a fight with a girlfriend, and he doesn't know who she is." While it might sound strange, it makes perfect sense when listening to the album. "Did you ever love somebody you didn't know?" he croons in the song "Did You Ever Love Somebody." He makes a brilliant point about people finding out that they didn't really know someone like they thought they did, and with whom they had been in love.
The concept of the album was inspired and developed with one of Meat Loaf's friends, Santa Monica, California based screenwriter Kilian Kerwin. The album's title, Hang Cool Teddy Bear is a line from the 1967 film Beyond The Valley of the Dolls. The exuberant Meat Loaf joked, "I used my National Lampoon dark sense of humor," as well as "the drama inside me" to color the album.
Meat Loaf said that Hugh Laurie used his native English accent when working with him. Meat Loaf, who describes himself by saying, "Never Shut Up' is my Indian name," said Laurie was "very nervous" when it came to playing on the album. Meat Loaf became friends with Laurie after appearing on House M.D. on the 2009 episode "Simple Explanation."
Meat Loaf, who penned the 2000 book, To Hell and Back, brings listeners some heavenly rock and roll with this album. With its potent guitar solos, Meat Loaf's dramatic voice makes this album a rock opera in the tradition of The Who's Tommy meets Queen's Night At The Opera. This album is much as a rocker in as much as anything that bands like Aerosmith have ever recorder. Filled with big sound and assaultive guitars, the album opens with the track "Peace on Earth." With a lot of guitar solos and percussive rhythm and rock intensive keyboards, the album's protagonist soldier is armed with massive musical artillery, as Meat Loaf sings, "You gotta get back up again." If Patrick were to sing, "Carry me to my grave," he would only be hit with an onslaught of guitar solos ripping through metal power chords. There is plenty of angst on the album, as Meat Loaf delivers the line, "I just want to home."
Witty lyrics permeate the album. We hear Meat Loaf sing, "I hang out with a bunch of losers I call my friends" and "You're so cute, I'd like to smash your face." With its high drama, Hang Cool Teddy Bear has every right to be this generation's Bat Out of Hell.
It is often said that people mellow with age, but in Meat Loaf's case, his music has gotten harder and heavier, akin to Patrick going forward in time, rather than backwards. It's a bigger and louder album than Bat Out of Hell, and just as much fun. This is a rock and roll album in every sense of the word.
Meat Loaf joked about the album, saying, "There is a "Wal-Mart" version of the album," as a censored version will also be sold, because of lyrics on the track "California Isn't Big Enough (Hey There Girl)" on which Meat Loaf sings about a handful. The censored version also tames down lyrics heard on "Like A Rose," a song about Patrick's girlfriend, who "goes backstage when the band stops playing," and of whom he sings, "The bitch is like a rose, smoking like a gun."
Meat Loaf left room for his grand epic ballad work, and there are plenty of well-woven tales heard on the album, including "I saw Elvis in Las Vegas."
Hang Cool Teddy Bear will be released by Roadrunner/Loud and Proud Records.
Upcoming Tour Dates:
July
- 3 - Gilford, NH - Meadowbrook U. S. Cellular Pavilion
- 8 - Boston, MA - Bank of America Pavilion
- 10 - Atlantic City, NJ - Atlantic City Hilton
- 12 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena
- 14 - Wantagh, NY - Nikon at Jones Beach Theater
- 16 - Holmdel, NJ - PNC Bank Arts Center
- 18 - Hershey, PA - Giant Center
- 22 - Detroit, MI - MotorCity Casino Hotel
- 24 - Sault Sainte Marie, MI - Kewadin Casino 25th Anniversary Festival