VH1 Storytellers

1	All Revved up With No Place to Go 1:05
2	Life Is A Lemon And I Want My Money Back 6:05
3	(Story) / Bill Flanagan 1:46
4	You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Nights) 4:50
5	(Story) / Bill Flanagan 1:26
6	I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) 6:22
7	Lawyers, Guns and Money 4:57
8	(Story) / Bill Flanagan 1:56
9	More Than You Deserve 3:49
10	(Story) / Bill Flanagan 0:47
11	Heaven Can Wait 5:00
12	(Story) / Bill Flanagan 3:05
13	Paradise by the Dashboard Light 9:30
14	(Story) / Bill Flanagan 0:34
15	Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad 4:47
16	(Story) 0:21
17	Bat Out Of Hell 11:25
18	Is Nothing Sacred Bonus Track / New Single Version 4:43

Barnes & Noble

America's favorite one-man rock opera is filled with more bluster than Eddie Vedder and the Big Bad Wolf put together -- which allows him to huff and puff enough to blow just about any house down. The artist formerly known as Marvin Lee Aday has been doing just that for more than two decades now, ever since ditching his musical theater career (surely you remember that ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW role) for the world of spectacle-rock. On this collection, taped for VH-1's "Storytellers" series, the Loaf is a bit more reserved than usual, given the constraints of the small stage. Nevertheless, his renditions of radio staples such as "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad," "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," and "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth" pack all the power and pathos of the originals. Mr. Loaf's theatrical background comes in mighty handy when he's called upon to -- as the series title indicates he must -- tell the tales behind the music, a task he performs with aplomb. So what if Jim Steinman was actually the one who wrote the songs -- like "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" -- that made the whole world flick their Bics. As Mick Jagger once yowled, sometimes what matters is the singer, not the song. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Bill Flanagan, executive producer of the VH1 Storytellers TV series, notes that Meat Loaf was a planned subject for the show from the beginning, despite one little problem: the idea is to have singer/songwriters talk about their songs, then sing them, only Meat Loaf doesn't write his own songs; they are written for him by Jim Steinman. So, the plan was to have Steinman tell the stories and Meat Loaf sing the songs, but when the time for the taping came, Steinman was sick and Meat Loaf went on alone. The result is that the performance doesn't give much information about the composition of the songs. Meat Loaf, who is intimately acquainted with them, of course, provides some insight, noting, for instance, that Steinman long worked on a musical version of Peter Pan to be called Neverland, and that many of the songs that wound up on the first Meat Loaf album, Bat out of Hell, were intended for that musical. He also cites the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho as an inspiration for the song "Bat out of Hell." And he vividly describes the days when he and Steinman went door to door in the music industry in New York trying to get people interested in Bat out of Hell. So, stories are told, if not quite the stories one might expect from a songwriter. And all of this really just serves as a different frame to put around many of the same songs Meat Loaf has been singing for more than 20 years, songs he sings again here with his usual fervor. (There is also a studio recording of a good new Steinman song, "Is Nothing Sacred.") William Ruhlmann