October 16, 2025 • 40 mins
In this episode of The Vinyl Curriculum, Jim and Logan switch things up with a full-album experience. Jim plays Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf from start to finish, guiding Logan through one of rock’s most iconic and theatrical records. From epic ballads to explosive anthems, the duo dives into the stories, sound, and legacy of this larger-than-life masterpiece. Tune in as they try something new—listening to and discussing an album in its entirety.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Every record tells a story. Independent labels.
I think a lot of interesting songs came out of that.
And every generation has a soundtrack.
The only hip you have in your body is made of titanium.
This is the final curriculum with Logan.
Apparently. I don't know very much about
anything. Somebody.
Calls her Tay Tay. Welcome back to another episode
(00:25):
of The Vinyl Curriculum. Logan and Jim here recording it
live in the podcast studio todayon this beautiful Monday
morning. Jim, how are we doing today?
Logan I'm super excited today. I'm not even nervous about this
one. Why is that?
Because this is, I know you're going to love every one of these
songs. Every one of them.
I feel like you shouldn't be nervous to record a podcast that
(00:47):
is, well, not. I don't like emotion you should
be feeling here. I don't like rejection and so
when you don't like songs it makes my heart hurt.
And so I I want you to like my songs.
Well, that's why I intentionallyreject that.
Just make you irritated. Well, it's working well, but no,
this is a fun. We're going to do something
different though. This is episode 17 and we what
(01:08):
you know we have never done an entire album from start to
finish. Like we were listening to an
actual vinyl. And we're doing this because you
keep saying how much you love vinyl, yet you don't listen to
entire album. So I don't know how that works.
So we're going to put it to the test.
This is one of my favorite songs, albums from the 70s.
(01:29):
We've talked about the first one, actually, when we did the
70s album Rock, we brought this one up, but we're going to see
the whole album now. Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell, I
think it was 1977. And the reason I want to do this
is in a couple of weeks I'm going to see Meatloaf's bat out
of Halloween in Joliet. It's also going to be in Aurora.
(01:52):
But his band members are touringwith a guy named Caleb Johnson,
who I don't know, but he won American Idol one year and
they're doing the entire album. And then they're also going to
do some songs from Rocky Horror Picture Show, which he was in.
So looking forward to it. My college friend Gina and her
bass playing son Ben from Nashville are coming up and
(02:15):
we're going to see it together. Yeah, that'll be fun.
That's a nice little venue therein Joliet, right at the Rialto.
The Rialto and it's touring other places too.
I think it was going to be in Aurora the night before, stuff
like that. So looking forward to it.
I love this album. It's interesting, it's dramatic,
it's theatric, theatrical, it's fast, it's slow, it's rocking,
(02:37):
it's guitars, it's a little bit of everything.
Yeah, I've I've listened to it over the past over this weekend
here this past weekend and it ithad a lot of different vibes to
it. I mean, we'll get into it as the
episode goes on, but I felt likeI told you this this morning
that we different songs gave me vibes from different groups.
I've I've a couple songs was TheBeatles.
(02:59):
There was an Elton John vibe in there for me.
So which may or may not be how you feel, but that's how I felt
when I listened to it for the first time.
So I'm excited to review it. And with that, I think we just
go right into the first song, which is called Bat Out of Hell
by Meatloaf. And I guess I don't have to
(03:21):
announce who the song is by now,because every song is by
Meatloaf. That's right, it is.
This is a 9 minute and 52nd song, so it's a long.
Song so be in store for a three hour podcast today.
There's only what, 7 songs? 6 songs.
Yeah, no. And the other ones aren't as
long, but 1-2. Yeah, it's not near as many
(03:45):
songs as a typical on album, butlet's let's start it off and see
what you think. All right, this is Ban Out of
Hell by Meatloaf on the album with the same name you listen
to. The vinyl curriculum went down
in the Valley tonight. That's pretty good song.
(04:14):
Yeah, I like it it. I should have looked up what
grade I gave it last time, but Ifeel like we got to start off
solid with an AI. Don't think it matters what you
did last time because your your tastes have.
Evolved. I don't know if that's accurate,
but. Yeah.
(04:35):
Yeah, that's that's the first song out of the album.
We're listening to the songs in the order no.
Yeah, no, you're right. That's what I'm saying.
Just imagine. I was, I think I was like 12
when this album came out. I don't know if I got it right
away. I was probably 12 or 13 when I
first heard it. And just imagine you're sitting
there and you put that on the record player and you, you
(04:55):
literally, you just go sit down and what you're doing is you're
looking at the album. Then you take the the album
shell or, and you're looking at the lighter notes inside and
you're reading the lyrics as they go.
And I was just blown away. Yeah, it's pretty impressive,
you know, as a grandiose type ofalbum, as I've said that I like
(05:16):
in the past as a big show. I imagine that's what the
because it's, I guess it's not acover band, it's the original
band. Imagine that's what the show is
like. Have you seen like what did you
see Meat Loaf when he was still touring?
No, I think no, because what what I read was he this was very
popular. It first of all, when they
(05:37):
released it, they had a hard time finding anybody who would
take it. They recorded it.
He recorded with this guy named Jim Steinman, who has this flair
for theatrics. He he had written a a Broadway
show called Neverland. It was going to be like Peter
Pan in dystopian, you know, utopian world, whatever.
And some of these songs were from that Meatloaf was an actor
(06:01):
who was also doing some Broadwaystuff with Rock carpet Show.
He Simon heard him got they justkind of hit it off.
So then he started manipulating some of these songs to be like
an album for Meatloaf. So they had it, they had it
recorded kind of for the most part, but they couldn't find
anybody who would any record company that would take it.
(06:24):
And they finally found a guy named Todd Rundgren who was
going to be the producer, and hekind of self funded it.
Tom Rudgren as in. The hello, hello, it's me.
Yeah, well, hello or the he doesthat one song right where I
don't want to work. Oh, is that him?
Bang on these drums all day. I know the one is.
Hello, it's me. I've been thinking about you for
(06:47):
a long, long time. Yeah.
Anyway. No, it is.
I've been on that drum all day. That is, that is the same
person. But yeah, good, good start.
I didn't know all that. I didn't know that Meat Loaf was
an actor. Yes.
So you haven't seen Rock Hard Picture Show?
I have not, no. I just looked him up though and
and I got some high quality recipes for Meat Loaf so I think
(07:07):
I'll know what I'll be having for dinner today.
But he he reminds me of Chris Farley.
Kind of like this image right here.
I know this is a audio only media but this image right here
is is him. Is that in Rocky Horror Picture
Show? No.
That's him on stage. Oh.
That's just how he dressed. And he, he always had like the
yeah, and he always had a, a kerchief, A handkerchief,
(07:29):
because he was sweating like a you know what?
But. One interesting thing was they
did find someone who was going to produce them and then when
they saw what he looked like, he's like, no, he doesn't like a
rock star, so we're not going todo it.
So that was kind of a but So what I was getting to was so
they did, they would go out and they would do this tour and they
had a lady named Karla Vanoff. She, Ellen Foley, was the one
(07:51):
who sings with him in some of that songs.
She couldn't go on tour. So this lady named Karla Vanoff
did. All the videos are of her lip
synching to, you know, but in concerts she sang.
But I guess he toured so much that he kind of screwed his
voice over for years. It took him a while and then
eventually he did bat out of hell too and he did other stuff
(08:14):
years later but he finally got his voice back but I guess he
just damaged it. Yeah.
Because he did toured so much, so I'm sure it was a great
concert. The voice is a powerful tool,
Jim. We had that was like me last
year, we had the I called a couple hockey games over the
course of a weekend and then couldn't talk for six months.
So I can't imagine touring. Oh, you know I.
(08:35):
Wish I knew you back then. This was just, I mean, it
wasn't, maybe it wasn't six months, but it was like 2 solid
months of like not being at fullgusto, but.
I remember you used to complain about.
Yeah, behind the Yeah, so. I think you sounded kind of
normal back then. Yeah.
But yeah, it's a great opening. Wow.
And there's an I think I talked about this in the last episode.
(08:58):
There's a section where he, it'slike a guy's in this terrible
crash is what this song's about.He's on a motorcycle and he has
he's flying down the road where he has this terrible crash.
Anyway, Todd Rundgren, the producer, did the guitar part
where it sounds like the enginesare revving and it's just so
(09:20):
fun. I just love it.
OK. All right.
Bat out of hell. Hey, OK.
That's a solid start. Solid, solid start.
The next one slows down a littlebit.
It's not 9 minutes, it's only 5 minutes.
And it's called You took the right words right out of my
mouth. Parentheses.
Hot summer night in parentheses.You with the parentheses again?
(09:41):
Yeah. And it starts off with some
talking, which I want to hear, but we won't listen to the whole
thing. And then it's just a nice, fun
song. So let's see what you think
about this song. All right, let's take a listen.
(10:06):
That's an interesting part of the song here.
Yeah, no, that's different for sure from the first song.
Good variety on this album, for sure.
I don't think I liked it as muchas the first one, but, you know,
I think solid B still. I was trying to think this
(10:27):
wasn't the one. So well, throughout this album,
there was a couple like songs that reminded me of other
groups. There's one in particular that
was for, there was a Queen one, there was Elton John, there was
The Beatles. Like different songs through
that we're going to listen to today kind of reminded me of
(10:51):
those groups and and granted, I've only heard these songs the
one time, so I can't and I listened to all of them.
So it's hard to recall which oneis which without hearing them
all. But that one gave me a little
bit of queen vibes, just a little bit.
Not that was like kind of older queen, you know, kind of thing
(11:12):
like killer queen ish area era. But I don't know, I may be
totally. That's just how I when the first
time I heard it, I was like, wow, this almost sounds like
Queen. It's much more of a pop song and
I didn't, although they didn't release it here in America, but
it did well. They re released it, it said the
(11:32):
next year and it came out as 39.So I think it was this.
From what I read, this album waskind of a slow boil, you know,
It started off not much, and then more and more probably as
he was touring, and then it became like huge.
It's actually the number one selling album in Australia.
Still, isn't that random? That is, what the heck?
But at the beginning it starts off with him talking.
(11:55):
He's like, would you offer your wolf to the your throat to the
wolf with the red roses? She's like, I will.
And then and that's not meatloaftalking.
That's that Jim Steinman and then an actress named Marsha
McClain, and that's from his theatrical work Neverland that
he had done. Wow, so.
It's like this, like this mergerof something he wanted to do by
(12:18):
himself, this Jim Steinman, and then something he did with Meat
Loaf. So and then they eventually made
a Broadway show called Bat Out of Hell that went in Europe for
a while and it was only here fora very short while.
OK, anyway, interesting. Yeah, you took the words out of
my mouth to be OK. Heaven Can Wait is another slow
one and this is one of the songsthat was from that Neverland,
(12:41):
OK? Stuff I.
Don't know, I like it. Let's do what you think.
All right, Let's jump right in. Yeah, Heaven Can Wait here by
Meatloaf on the vinyl curriculum.
Heaven Can Wait and a band of angels wrapped up in My heart.
(13:09):
Heaven can wait. Heaven can wait.
I can. I can definitely wait for you to
give a score for this one because I know it's going to be
low. I can't wait for the end of
this. Song.
I think you'd have to have an emotion for this one, and I know
you don't. I don't.
Yeah. My heart of stone is not, you
know, I found out recently too, that I just think in the pool.
I think that's because of my cast iron heart.
(13:30):
It's not necessarily. A No, it's because you have no
body fat. I float like a inner tube.
No, I do, I, I, it's getting there, trust me.
And. You're not even married yet.
Just wait. I wouldn't get away by meatloaf.
Yeah, kind of rough. B minus.
(13:53):
You know, Logan, I don't I, you know.
What? I feel like I've owned repeat.
We should just record this and then I can just hit play every
week because it's the same dadgum thing.
Because you. Pick the same dadgum, no songs.
I'm better just bad an entire album.
(14:15):
If you you know how when you're doing a video for your because
he's a video guy, you know when you're doing a video, you got to
have you got to have a storyline.
It can't all be craziness. It can't all be flashy graphics.
You have to slow things down. You have to slow it down so that
(14:37):
you can have some text that people can read and then you can
do some flashy stuff. It's the same thing with the
album. You got to bring people up.
If you've ever been to a dance club, which you haven't, they
will bring the audience up and the DJ will bring them up and
down and up and down, and they're manipulating them by the
songs that they're playing. But it's not all just the same
beat, because you can't. You have to have contrast.
You have to have contrast in graphic design.
(14:58):
You have to contrast in music and you have to have contrast in
photography. It's contrast.
Yeah. So you've got to have some slow
songs and you, you meet, you're 27. 7 now, yeah.
You're old enough to have an emotion.
We can let go of this. Whatever you have that's keeping
you from feeling. You've obviously never watched a
(15:19):
Mr. Beast video, so you don't know how that is the time and
space now if people need high energy all the time or they're
turning it off, so that is. Don't call yourself a vinyl
person. Then don't call yourself a vinyl
person. I have not.
I said I enjoy vinyl. I, I, as you said last week,
then you made a, you made actually a good point for once.
Well, where's the clapping? Here we go.
(15:42):
Oh no, wrong one. Sorry, but.
It's not that one either. So the you said I'm, I like the
idea of vinyl. Let's turn that off now.
You only get 4 claps. But yeah, I like the idea of
vinyl. I like the way that it looks in
the corner. I like the the rotation of the
(16:04):
record. It's hypnotizing.
Rotate. And I would tell you that I
would guess that the majority ofthe people now whose love vinyl
aren't really listening to it. I think you're right.
They like the covers, which I always liked.
I think they like the liner notes inside.
They like the idea of it. But when it comes to sitting
(16:25):
down and listen to it, it's a lot easier just to hit it on
your digital, you know, thing. So anyway, I know you don't like
vinyl because you can't listen to an album.
And even though we're trying to get going here now, this one's
going to be more upbeat. All.
Revved up. All revved up but no place to go
but the end of it. It really Revs up.
(16:46):
You're all like you're seeing Talladega nights.
This, yeah. He's all jacked up by Mountain
Dew. Yeah, you ever see that?
I don't remember that part of it, but anyway, this is another
song that came from that Neverland and it was called
Formation of the Pack back then.But now anyway, and then
remember Edgar Winter when we did the and he did Frankenstein
(17:11):
and he was the albino. Oh yeah.
He's on here playing. He plays the sax on here, OK.
And then a couple people from the East St.
Band, Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, played on his this
as well, so. All right.
Little collaboration. Yeah, you, you know, we love a
good collaboration here. That's what we're doing right
now. We're collaborating.
Well, yeah, let's take a. Listen.
(17:33):
All wrapped up with no place to go.
(18:00):
All wrapped up, no place to go. That's high energy.
Very high energy. I like it, I think I I still
don't know if I like it as much as been Out of Hell the first
song, but I know that's irrelevant.
I'm not saying rank these in order of the songs that you
(18:20):
like, I'm just saying what do you?
Give the grade. I know, but you have to set the
tone. It's not like the grades are on
a curve. But an A is you don't give a
pluses unless it's Vanilla Ice. an A is 93 to 100.
So if it's a 94, that's an A. If it's 98, it's an A.
So if you think Matt out of Hellis a 98, that's an A and you can
still get something in 94. Yeah, you're rightly.
(18:41):
I didn't know we had to do a math class here.
I think we'll go A, we'll go another A.
That's I'm glad, I'm glad, I'm glad I strong armed you great.
You bullied me into an A there. Now this next one, everybody
who's over 35 years old will know this one.
(19:02):
Two out of three ain't bad. I'm curious, did you know it?
Yes. It was a single, yeah #11 I had
the 45 first. I think this is what I this is
what got me into it, I think. Into the whole album, yeah.
Because that's what had happened.
You could like. So they wait.
So wait a second. So they'd come out as a single?
(19:22):
Yeah. And then they'd be compiled into
an album. No, they were albums and you
would release a single and then you'd release another single and
you'd release another single. And so after a while, if you
really liked it, you'd say, oh, I want to go get the whole
album. Or some people would just buy
every dadgum single and they could have just bought the
album, but that's different play.
Time back then I guess. And if it's weird because
(19:45):
something like I remember when Born the USA came out with Bruce
Springsteen, I'd have to look atit, It was probably 2 years of
singles being released. Yeah, Thriller with Michael
Jackson, it was like. And so by the time it was the
last singles released, you were sick of it.
Because if you had the album a year and a half ago.
You didn't like, why are they still releasing?
(20:07):
But that's the way they did it. It's.
Different. So yeah, you would have an album
and then they would say, OK, this is the first thing we're
going to release. And then the the interesting
thing about it would be the flipside of that single would have
AB side, so it'd be another songon the album.
So anyway, two out of three ain't bad, is what this one's
called. All right, let's take another
listen here on the final curriculum.
(20:28):
Maybe we can talk all night. This has a couple different
(20:52):
parts as well. Has anybody said that to you?
I want you, I need you, but there ain't no way I'm going to
ever going to love you. No, no.
That's good. I was going to make a tacky
joke, but. I was too, when I thought myself
so. I yeah, I was familiar with this
(21:14):
one. I think it's just played, I
don't know, I mean, played more than some of the other ones.
I mean, I wasn't even familiar with that of the hell the first
time we heard it. So I was interested.
I was intrigued that I knew thisone, you know, and I would think
out of which one is the most popular out of the album,
(21:36):
probably that one. I.
Think this one because this you think about it, I think they did
release Bat out of Hell the song, but I guess they would
have to have a smaller, shorter version because they can't do a
9 minute song. But I don't want to be sexist.
I don't want to be sexist. But like the girls would have
liked this one and the guys would have liked it because it
(21:57):
was Meatloaf singing, you know, and it's almost like Journey.
Journey has some really good albums, but those seems like the
ones that were the big hits werethe ones that my sister would
listen to because she didn't want some of the rocking stuff,
but or Styx, she didn't want therocking stuff, but she wanted
the ballads, you know. So you got twice as many people
enjoying it. That's very, I mean
(22:19):
stereotypical, I know. So forgive me for that all.
Right. Did I give a grand?
You didn't. I'm just trying to see was it a
minus or an A? I think it's AB Plus.
I think it's almost, you know, it's a little bit slower, but
still pretty good. You know, not something that I
(22:41):
would like add to a playlist, but I think something that I
enjoyed, you know, something that I wouldn't necessarily turn
off if I heard it on the radio. Not that I listen to the radio
ever anymore, but. And this, this is a skippable
one. This is a skippable 1, skippable
one for me. I've just heard it so much that
I don't need to hear it again. I mean, I when I was doing this,
(23:02):
I did listen to the whole thing again because I wanted to
experience it, but I'm not goingto.
I hear that on the radio way toomuch.
So I don't even need to hear that again.
Next one though, Paradise by thedashboard lights.
I think you've talked about thisone before.
This one was crazy and I I don'tremember it did make 39 on the
charts. I don't remember it, maybe it
(23:24):
was on the radio. I guess it was.
But the video 39 on the charts Iwould think it.
Was, but it's so long so I don'tknow how they did that.
But the video I remember and I don't even know why I remember
because there was no MTV at the time.
But some people must have been playing the video because it was
him in concert, sweating like a pig, long greasy hair.
(23:46):
This really beautiful the lady beside you know and he's and I'm
thinking why is she even interested in him type thing but
such high energy. You'd have to just watch the
video anyway. It's called paradise by the
dashboard lights. Again, the video has a different
person. The one singing is her name is
Ellen Foley. OK, not to get fused with Matt
(24:10):
Foley, motivational speaker, although.
I think Meatloaf does kind of look like him so.
There is. It.
Comes full circle. It does.
It does. So this is Paradise Behind the
Dashboard Lights by Meatloaf andEllen Foley.
And I want to play a bunch of different little clips of this.
OK, so you'll we'll do a bunch of scratches on this one because
it's so many different. Parts.
(24:31):
All right, all right. Well, let's start with the first
part here in the vinyl curriculum.
Here he comes. Here's the throw.
(24:52):
Here's the play at the place. Holy cow, I think.
He's going to make him. Yeah.
I actually like that one. I like that one a lot, yeah.
(25:14):
It's. Different.
It's a lot of different sectionsto it, and I think this is the
one that reminded me of Queen just because of like, I think
that like that little, the harmony in the background.
Yep, I can see that. You know so.
(25:38):
I think what's interesting aboutit was, you know, it's kind of
like this couple is they're in the back seat and she's like
saying, Are you sure that this is if we're going to do this,
you know, you got to let me rest.
And he's like, I don't know, letme think about it.
And she's like, well, finally he's like, yes.
And then now he can't. He's he swore to lover to the
(25:59):
end of time and now he's prayingfor the end of time.
But it's got that that radio announcer in there.
Yeah, then. And I got to find out.
I think it was the Yankees guy. The baseball announcer.
Why everybody? Talk like this and the
microphones were more picking upthe higher frequencies.
(26:20):
Phil Rizzuto, and he was the theYankees shortstop, and then he
became an announcer and I was reading and he was very
Catholic. And so the whole point of this
was they were doing what they were going to be doing.
And he he played like he didn't understand, but he did like he
(26:42):
just kind of played dumb, like, oh, I didn't know.
I just thought I was doing. But if you think about what you
hear, what he's saying and he. He knows, but it was.
Hilarious. I don't know we is a is a 13
year old. I just thought this was the Best
Song Ever. Yeah, that's fun though.
Yeah, I think I'd give that an Aminus.
OK, for crying out loud, Logan. For crying out loud, yeah, this
(27:03):
is this is less songs than we normally have.
So I'm I'm thrown off by this but.
They're so long though. They are so long.
This would have been like, yeah.And there's a limit on how many
minutes you can put on the side of an album.
So that's. Yeah, yeah.
So how did that work? You would you would do a double
album if you had more songs. Or more time because I would
(27:27):
imagine you can't cut off a songin the middle, be like hold on
halfway through the song it willflip the record over.
They used to do that on 8 tracks, yeah, quite often, which
was a nightmare. But yeah, I hate.
That I hate that so much, yeah. And like I said, the Bruce
Springsteen had a candy's room was on his 18 track twice.
Like they just put it twice to fill spots and it made no sense
(27:49):
to me. All right, well, one more song
here for crying out loud. That's right.
Now this is dramatic. 8 minutes.No, that that last one was 8
minutes long. This one is only.
It was 8 1/2 minutes. It says 845.
Yeah, this is long. Too, so this is longer.
So you got to listen to it like he's it's it's very soft, it's
(28:12):
very emotional. Then he get it builds up and it
comes back down. So I'm sure you're going to hate
it, but I think everyone. Else is going to it's an
emotional roller coaster yes of a song yes, for sure here we go
I think you. Can do it.
I think you can do it, Logan. Focus.
Focus on your emotions. Try to grow that heart just a
little. Bit all right, well, the Grinch,
(28:36):
I don't know where I was going with that reference, didn't his
heart didn't grow 3 sizes. It did that day.
Well, that was after Christmas. Once he let go well of his
childhood trauma, he let go and it.
Grew, well, you. Have to know it's OK to have
emotions. We'll see, I hit play for crying
out loud. Let's take a listen.
(29:09):
For crying out loud, that's a good song.
You like that? You like how I worked that into?
How long did it take you to think that one up?
I was listening that I was trying to think of it the whole
time. And this spot is still like, we
got 3 more minutes to go, it gets way down, just the piano
again and then he builds you right back up.
He This is the one that remindedme of Elton John.
(29:31):
I don't know why, if that's justthe piano and just how he sounds
gave me Elton John vibes. Like the first time I was like,
wow, that's he, you know, so that this album kind of showed
his, you know, range of sounds that he can make with his mouth
hole. What?
(29:54):
Why did you say that word? Well I was I was trying to
figure out the best but that like.
Voice maybe instead of mouth. Hole, that's how how is that
offensive? No, I the wide range of, you
know, noises that come out of him are is impressive.
(30:17):
And I can see why, if he's doingthis night after night, his
voice would give out. Yeah.
This is not just like, slow, whatever this is.
He's yeah. Well, this is, I mean, Taylor
Swift would sing for four. How long was it?
3-4 hours of just continual singing and.
Yeah, but. She wouldn't talk well, right?
(30:38):
But I mean, that's a lot of songs.
Yeah, but I guess you work yourself up.
But yeah, you're right. But there's a Jim Steinman
sound. And So what you'd have to do is
you'd have to go back and listen.
I want to tell you some of the songs that he's done for other
people. Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of
the Heart. Total eclipse of the heart.
(30:58):
Yeah, I know that one. Celine Dion's it's all coming
back to me now and the the way you know, it's the Jim Simon
song at the end. Everybody and their mother is
singing. It's very orchestrated.
It's always start, you know, it gets really slow and then it
just builds and builds. That's a good song, by the way,
that Céline Dion song. And then Holding Out for Hero by
(31:21):
Bonnie Tyler. He did that one, obviously.
Paradise by the dashboard, lights, air supplies, making
love out of nothing at all. You might think that doesn't,
but when you listen to it, the end of it, he's doing the same
thing. He builds it up.
And for them, you know, Barry Manilow did read Them and Weep,
(31:42):
which was on another one of Meetthose albums that had Cher on
it. Oh.
She just sang a song with him called Dead Ringer For Love is
pretty good. Anyway, Jim Simon just has this
sound and you know, he was the writer a lot of the songs and
stuff. So he has that sound and when
it's almost like you would, if you go see him, you know it's
(32:04):
going to have these choruses andall that kind of stuff.
Right. It's going to be it's going to
be a show. Yeah.
I think for for crying out loud,for for crying out loud, I think
we're go B plus for that one. Yeah, I like Elton John.
Not that that had anything to dowith it, but I felt like that
was a a very good ending to the album, listening to it as a
(32:28):
whole. Yeah, kind of summed up very
well the the variety of genres and noises out of the mouth Hole
from Meatloaf. You know, that was kind of on
the album. It was only one genre.
Well, the genre is not the rightword, but like I I can't think
(32:50):
of the word like. Variety of of sounds.
Sounds tempo like the sounds right variety of sounds I guess.
Yeah, upbeat, slow, dramatic, emotional, Something that you
didn't connect with? Well, the low, What do we see?
The lowest we got was AB minus. And of course, it was the
ballad. Yeah, no.
Shocker there, surprise face. So what's your total grade for
(33:13):
Bat Out of Hell? I think overall I liked it.
I think we'll go a minus. I think we'll go a minus you.
Think about this is 1977. I can't do the math right now.
How many years is that? Well, 23 + 25 is 58.
You know, that's crazy to think that this is 58 years ago.
(33:35):
You're old. That's what that I know, but it
holds up well. No 48. 77, yeah, or 78 right.
So 2 + 78 is 80 that then plus 20 is 22 to 2000, then plus 25
this 2025. Oh yeah, 40.
(33:55):
Eight. I'm 60 and I was born in 60. 5
so. It can't be older.
I was I was off by 10. Don't look at me like that.
Solving math equations. I told him, you know when I told
him he was wrong, he looked at me like I had lost my mind and
I'm thinking I'm 60 and I was 12when this came out so can't be.
Can I just mute your microphone?No.
(34:18):
You cannot, Logan Anyway, OK, that's not bad, but I think this
was a test and I think it just proved the fact that you are not
an album listener. But you've already admitted that
and I would just question othersnow.
I ran into a lady at church a couple weeks ago and I think you
were there. She has a record store and she
(34:41):
took offense when I told her I didn't care for.
No, that was that was a week before I was there.
But OK, I do remember you telling me that.
Yeah, because she does love it. And and also we were talking
about how you used to have to stack 40 fives and the 40 fives
had to have a little insert you had to put in the middle.
Why would you stack? Them so that you could listen to
(35:02):
more than one song at a time. It would play it and it would
draw the drop the next one. Think about it.
You want to get up every time toplay a song and you got to go.
So you would stack like 3 or 4 of them on this thing and then
it would drop them down one at atime and then play the next one
and drop it down. And you could do it with albums
too. Not as many.
And it had this arm that came around and she was like, oh, you
(35:24):
would never stack albums like because and I'm like, I did, but
because it would scratch and whatever and do.
All that it. Was just too much work.
But I love the idea of it and I'd love if if I could.
I mean, all my albums have been given away or they've been given
away. But I would love to have gone
back and look at the liner notesinside that.
(35:46):
I'm sure I would remember it. I'm sure I drew all over them.
I'm sure I did. But you did.
You have to give me a grade now that's how this works.
Done it 16 times. You think you'd figure it out?
Well, I want to get, I won't saya minus because I don't think
you went above and beyond by anymeans and I think you probably
(36:07):
half assed listen to it. That's not accurate.
I think you. Did I listened to it?
Was your fiance in the car? No.
I was also very tired though, somaybe that wasn't fully engaged
in listening. That's what I'm saying.
I think we need to have, we needto have to do a listening party
or something. So I can, I have like a water
gun and if I don't feel like you're paying attention, I just
(36:27):
squirt you in the face to make sure you're paying attention.
That could be our first vinyl curriculum live event where we
have listening with Logan and every time Logan is driving off,
he gets shot with We'll pass outwater guns.
I'd love that idea actually. Let's do that with the work on
(36:48):
that. All right, so yeah, 717 is down
in out of the in the books now. Yeah. 20 just did we announce
this yet? I think so. 20 is going to be
the last of the season and it's going to be another Logan picks.
Logan's version #2. And let's just, I just pray you
do a better. Job No.
If you haven't heard the first Logan's version, it's episode
(37:11):
#10 of the Vinyl Curriculum, andit is the best episode thus far.
But. That.
Is what we'll have to do one of these days, one of before then
is get some better guidelines because I was given no
guidelines at all on what I should do.
And the the hate that you projected onto me was just
(37:32):
absolutely out of control because because you're like, Oh
well, it wasn't. It wasn't if there was no theme,
there wasn't this, there wasn't that there wasn't required.
That was not in the instructions.
That is not the fault of the student.
That is the teacher for writing poor instructions.
WLRAI radio station here. We don't just randomly play any
(37:53):
song. There's a theme.
It's either we're going to play rock songs, we're going to play
whatever, so. It's called a format I.
Would think you would understoodunderstood that, but you didn't.
I do want to say a little personal.
I got a notification from someone, a friend of mine who
had went through some medical issues and she says she listens
to this podcast when she's doingher cardiac rehab and it makes
(38:16):
her laugh. Oh, that's.
Good. So that was very good to hear.
You know, she's going through a tough time with that and it
gives her some joy. And she also said she has a hard
time believing that you are someof the things you say and how.
I don't know if she used the word ignorant.
That's the one I'm going to throw in there, how ignorant you
are. She probably didn't say that
(38:37):
word, but I think it fits better.
Well, so anyway. Well, I appreciate you to her.
Yeah, hopefully we. That's why we're here.
We're here to provide joy. And you know, I look and laugh
at myself too. That's all right.
I know. I don't.
I know. I don't know everything.
And that's why, you know, I'm trying to learn.
I'm here trying to better myselfand I just immediately brought
(39:00):
terrible feedback from Jim. I sometimes give you I've given
you higher grades and you've given the playlist.
This is true. When you put forth the effort.
Well, we tied today a minus for both of us.
Today is not, and a minus is nota bad grade.
Absolutely not. It doesn't hold up my 4 point O
grade point average, but yeah. All right, Logan.
Well, thank you Jim for another great episode.
Looking forward to episode #20 mark it on the calendar.
(39:24):
That's coming up really soon. We've got a whole bunch of new
episodes out all the time. Every Thursday is when the new
episode of The Vinyl Curriculum comes out.
It's available on Spotify, ApplePodcast, iHeartRadio and just
about every other platform that you can think of Amazon Music
and they. Probably know it because they're
listening to a podcast now. This is true.
(39:46):
What's more important though, iswe have the playlist available
and the the point of this is I'mhoping that you will say, oh, I
like that song. Let me hear more.
So listen to the playlist if youhave time in the car.
We have it on Spotify and we have it on Apple Music and
hopefully you will become a fan of some of this music.
You'll have a detailed listeningparty.
(40:06):
You need to focus on the songs according to Jim while while
we're playing it. So thanks for another great
episode. Thanks for listening and we'll
catch you on the next one. Bye.
Every record tells a story. Independent labels.
I think a lot of interesting songs came out of that.
And every generation has a soundtrack.
The only hip you have in your body is made of titanium.
This is the final curriculum with Logan.
Apparently. I don't know very much about
anything. Somebody.
Calls her Tay Tay. Welcome back to another episode
(00:25):
of The Vinyl Curriculum. Logan and Jim here recording it
live in the podcast studio todayon this beautiful Monday
morning. Jim, how are we doing today?
Logan I'm super excited today. I'm not even nervous about this
one. Why is that?
Because this is, I know you're going to love every one of these
songs. Every one of them.
I feel like you shouldn't be nervous to record a podcast that
(00:47):
is, well, not. I don't like emotion you should
be feeling here. I don't like rejection and so
when you don't like songs it makes my heart hurt.
And so I I want you to like my songs.
Well, that's why I intentionallyreject that.
Just make you irritated. Well, it's working well, but no,
this is a fun. We're going to do something
different though. This is episode 17 and we what
(01:08):
you know we have never done an entire album from start to
finish. Like we were listening to an
actual vinyl. And we're doing this because you
keep saying how much you love vinyl, yet you don't listen to
entire album. So I don't know how that works.
So we're going to put it to the test.
This is one of my favorite songs, albums from the 70s.
(01:29):
We've talked about the first one, actually, when we did the
70s album Rock, we brought this one up, but we're going to see
the whole album now. Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell, I
think it was 1977. And the reason I want to do this
is in a couple of weeks I'm going to see Meatloaf's bat out
of Halloween in Joliet. It's also going to be in Aurora.
(01:52):
But his band members are touringwith a guy named Caleb Johnson,
who I don't know, but he won American Idol one year and
they're doing the entire album. And then they're also going to
do some songs from Rocky Horror Picture Show, which he was in.
So looking forward to it. My college friend Gina and her
bass playing son Ben from Nashville are coming up and
(02:15):
we're going to see it together. Yeah, that'll be fun.
That's a nice little venue therein Joliet, right at the Rialto.
The Rialto and it's touring other places too.
I think it was going to be in Aurora the night before, stuff
like that. So looking forward to it.
I love this album. It's interesting, it's dramatic,
it's theatric, theatrical, it's fast, it's slow, it's rocking,
(02:37):
it's guitars, it's a little bit of everything.
Yeah, I've I've listened to it over the past over this weekend
here this past weekend and it ithad a lot of different vibes to
it. I mean, we'll get into it as the
episode goes on, but I felt likeI told you this this morning
that we different songs gave me vibes from different groups.
I've I've a couple songs was TheBeatles.
(02:59):
There was an Elton John vibe in there for me.
So which may or may not be how you feel, but that's how I felt
when I listened to it for the first time.
So I'm excited to review it. And with that, I think we just
go right into the first song, which is called Bat Out of Hell
by Meatloaf. And I guess I don't have to
(03:21):
announce who the song is by now,because every song is by
Meatloaf. That's right, it is.
This is a 9 minute and 52nd song, so it's a long.
Song so be in store for a three hour podcast today.
There's only what, 7 songs? 6 songs.
Yeah, no. And the other ones aren't as
long, but 1-2. Yeah, it's not near as many
(03:45):
songs as a typical on album, butlet's let's start it off and see
what you think. All right, this is Ban Out of
Hell by Meatloaf on the album with the same name you listen
to. The vinyl curriculum went down
in the Valley tonight. That's pretty good song.
(04:14):
Yeah, I like it it. I should have looked up what
grade I gave it last time, but Ifeel like we got to start off
solid with an AI. Don't think it matters what you
did last time because your your tastes have.
Evolved. I don't know if that's accurate,
but. Yeah.
(04:35):
Yeah, that's that's the first song out of the album.
We're listening to the songs in the order no.
Yeah, no, you're right. That's what I'm saying.
Just imagine. I was, I think I was like 12
when this album came out. I don't know if I got it right
away. I was probably 12 or 13 when I
first heard it. And just imagine you're sitting
there and you put that on the record player and you, you
(04:55):
literally, you just go sit down and what you're doing is you're
looking at the album. Then you take the the album
shell or, and you're looking at the lighter notes inside and
you're reading the lyrics as they go.
And I was just blown away. Yeah, it's pretty impressive,
you know, as a grandiose type ofalbum, as I've said that I like
(05:16):
in the past as a big show. I imagine that's what the
because it's, I guess it's not acover band, it's the original
band. Imagine that's what the show is
like. Have you seen like what did you
see Meat Loaf when he was still touring?
No, I think no, because what what I read was he this was very
popular. It first of all, when they
(05:37):
released it, they had a hard time finding anybody who would
take it. They recorded it.
He recorded with this guy named Jim Steinman, who has this flair
for theatrics. He he had written a a Broadway
show called Neverland. It was going to be like Peter
Pan in dystopian, you know, utopian world, whatever.
And some of these songs were from that Meatloaf was an actor
(06:01):
who was also doing some Broadwaystuff with Rock carpet Show.
He Simon heard him got they justkind of hit it off.
So then he started manipulating some of these songs to be like
an album for Meatloaf. So they had it, they had it
recorded kind of for the most part, but they couldn't find
anybody who would any record company that would take it.
(06:24):
And they finally found a guy named Todd Rundgren who was
going to be the producer, and hekind of self funded it.
Tom Rudgren as in. The hello, hello, it's me.
Yeah, well, hello or the he doesthat one song right where I
don't want to work. Oh, is that him?
Bang on these drums all day. I know the one is.
Hello, it's me. I've been thinking about you for
(06:47):
a long, long time. Yeah.
Anyway. No, it is.
I've been on that drum all day. That is, that is the same
person. But yeah, good, good start.
I didn't know all that. I didn't know that Meat Loaf was
an actor. Yes.
So you haven't seen Rock Hard Picture Show?
I have not, no. I just looked him up though and
and I got some high quality recipes for Meat Loaf so I think
(07:07):
I'll know what I'll be having for dinner today.
But he he reminds me of Chris Farley.
Kind of like this image right here.
I know this is a audio only media but this image right here
is is him. Is that in Rocky Horror Picture
Show? No.
That's him on stage. Oh.
That's just how he dressed. And he, he always had like the
yeah, and he always had a, a kerchief, A handkerchief,
(07:29):
because he was sweating like a you know what?
But. One interesting thing was they
did find someone who was going to produce them and then when
they saw what he looked like, he's like, no, he doesn't like a
rock star, so we're not going todo it.
So that was kind of a but So what I was getting to was so
they did, they would go out and they would do this tour and they
had a lady named Karla Vanoff. She, Ellen Foley, was the one
(07:51):
who sings with him in some of that songs.
She couldn't go on tour. So this lady named Karla Vanoff
did. All the videos are of her lip
synching to, you know, but in concerts she sang.
But I guess he toured so much that he kind of screwed his
voice over for years. It took him a while and then
eventually he did bat out of hell too and he did other stuff
(08:14):
years later but he finally got his voice back but I guess he
just damaged it. Yeah.
Because he did toured so much, so I'm sure it was a great
concert. The voice is a powerful tool,
Jim. We had that was like me last
year, we had the I called a couple hockey games over the
course of a weekend and then couldn't talk for six months.
So I can't imagine touring. Oh, you know I.
(08:35):
Wish I knew you back then. This was just, I mean, it
wasn't, maybe it wasn't six months, but it was like 2 solid
months of like not being at fullgusto, but.
I remember you used to complain about.
Yeah, behind the Yeah, so. I think you sounded kind of
normal back then. Yeah.
But yeah, it's a great opening. Wow.
And there's an I think I talked about this in the last episode.
(08:58):
There's a section where he, it'slike a guy's in this terrible
crash is what this song's about.He's on a motorcycle and he has
he's flying down the road where he has this terrible crash.
Anyway, Todd Rundgren, the producer, did the guitar part
where it sounds like the enginesare revving and it's just so
(09:20):
fun. I just love it.
OK. All right.
Bat out of hell. Hey, OK.
That's a solid start. Solid, solid start.
The next one slows down a littlebit.
It's not 9 minutes, it's only 5 minutes.
And it's called You took the right words right out of my
mouth. Parentheses.
Hot summer night in parentheses.You with the parentheses again?
(09:41):
Yeah. And it starts off with some
talking, which I want to hear, but we won't listen to the whole
thing. And then it's just a nice, fun
song. So let's see what you think
about this song. All right, let's take a listen.
(10:06):
That's an interesting part of the song here.
Yeah, no, that's different for sure from the first song.
Good variety on this album, for sure.
I don't think I liked it as muchas the first one, but, you know,
I think solid B still. I was trying to think this
(10:27):
wasn't the one. So well, throughout this album,
there was a couple like songs that reminded me of other
groups. There's one in particular that
was for, there was a Queen one, there was Elton John, there was
The Beatles. Like different songs through
that we're going to listen to today kind of reminded me of
(10:51):
those groups and and granted, I've only heard these songs the
one time, so I can't and I listened to all of them.
So it's hard to recall which oneis which without hearing them
all. But that one gave me a little
bit of queen vibes, just a little bit.
Not that was like kind of older queen, you know, kind of thing
(11:12):
like killer queen ish area era. But I don't know, I may be
totally. That's just how I when the first
time I heard it, I was like, wow, this almost sounds like
Queen. It's much more of a pop song and
I didn't, although they didn't release it here in America, but
it did well. They re released it, it said the
(11:32):
next year and it came out as 39.So I think it was this.
From what I read, this album waskind of a slow boil, you know,
It started off not much, and then more and more probably as
he was touring, and then it became like huge.
It's actually the number one selling album in Australia.
Still, isn't that random? That is, what the heck?
But at the beginning it starts off with him talking.
(11:55):
He's like, would you offer your wolf to the your throat to the
wolf with the red roses? She's like, I will.
And then and that's not meatloaftalking.
That's that Jim Steinman and then an actress named Marsha
McClain, and that's from his theatrical work Neverland that
he had done. Wow, so.
It's like this, like this mergerof something he wanted to do by
(12:18):
himself, this Jim Steinman, and then something he did with Meat
Loaf. So and then they eventually made
a Broadway show called Bat Out of Hell that went in Europe for
a while and it was only here fora very short while.
OK, anyway, interesting. Yeah, you took the words out of
my mouth to be OK. Heaven Can Wait is another slow
one and this is one of the songsthat was from that Neverland,
(12:41):
OK? Stuff I.
Don't know, I like it. Let's do what you think.
All right, Let's jump right in. Yeah, Heaven Can Wait here by
Meatloaf on the vinyl curriculum.
Heaven Can Wait and a band of angels wrapped up in My heart.
(13:09):
Heaven can wait. Heaven can wait.
I can. I can definitely wait for you to
give a score for this one because I know it's going to be
low. I can't wait for the end of
this. Song.
I think you'd have to have an emotion for this one, and I know
you don't. I don't.
Yeah. My heart of stone is not, you
know, I found out recently too, that I just think in the pool.
I think that's because of my cast iron heart.
(13:30):
It's not necessarily. A No, it's because you have no
body fat. I float like a inner tube.
No, I do, I, I, it's getting there, trust me.
And. You're not even married yet.
Just wait. I wouldn't get away by meatloaf.
Yeah, kind of rough. B minus.
(13:53):
You know, Logan, I don't I, you know.
What? I feel like I've owned repeat.
We should just record this and then I can just hit play every
week because it's the same dadgum thing.
Because you. Pick the same dadgum, no songs.
I'm better just bad an entire album.
(14:15):
If you you know how when you're doing a video for your because
he's a video guy, you know when you're doing a video, you got to
have you got to have a storyline.
It can't all be craziness. It can't all be flashy graphics.
You have to slow things down. You have to slow it down so that
(14:37):
you can have some text that people can read and then you can
do some flashy stuff. It's the same thing with the
album. You got to bring people up.
If you've ever been to a dance club, which you haven't, they
will bring the audience up and the DJ will bring them up and
down and up and down, and they're manipulating them by the
songs that they're playing. But it's not all just the same
beat, because you can't. You have to have contrast.
You have to have contrast in graphic design.
(14:58):
You have to contrast in music and you have to have contrast in
photography. It's contrast.
Yeah. So you've got to have some slow
songs and you, you meet, you're 27. 7 now, yeah.
You're old enough to have an emotion.
We can let go of this. Whatever you have that's keeping
you from feeling. You've obviously never watched a
(15:19):
Mr. Beast video, so you don't know how that is the time and
space now if people need high energy all the time or they're
turning it off, so that is. Don't call yourself a vinyl
person. Then don't call yourself a vinyl
person. I have not.
I said I enjoy vinyl. I, I, as you said last week,
then you made a, you made actually a good point for once.
Well, where's the clapping? Here we go.
(15:42):
Oh no, wrong one. Sorry, but.
It's not that one either. So the you said I'm, I like the
idea of vinyl. Let's turn that off now.
You only get 4 claps. But yeah, I like the idea of
vinyl. I like the way that it looks in
the corner. I like the the rotation of the
(16:04):
record. It's hypnotizing.
Rotate. And I would tell you that I
would guess that the majority ofthe people now whose love vinyl
aren't really listening to it. I think you're right.
They like the covers, which I always liked.
I think they like the liner notes inside.
They like the idea of it. But when it comes to sitting
(16:25):
down and listen to it, it's a lot easier just to hit it on
your digital, you know, thing. So anyway, I know you don't like
vinyl because you can't listen to an album.
And even though we're trying to get going here now, this one's
going to be more upbeat. All.
Revved up. All revved up but no place to go
but the end of it. It really Revs up.
(16:46):
You're all like you're seeing Talladega nights.
This, yeah. He's all jacked up by Mountain
Dew. Yeah, you ever see that?
I don't remember that part of it, but anyway, this is another
song that came from that Neverland and it was called
Formation of the Pack back then.But now anyway, and then
remember Edgar Winter when we did the and he did Frankenstein
(17:11):
and he was the albino. Oh yeah.
He's on here playing. He plays the sax on here, OK.
And then a couple people from the East St.
Band, Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, played on his this
as well, so. All right.
Little collaboration. Yeah, you, you know, we love a
good collaboration here. That's what we're doing right
now. We're collaborating.
Well, yeah, let's take a. Listen.
(17:33):
All wrapped up with no place to go.
(18:00):
All wrapped up, no place to go. That's high energy.
Very high energy. I like it, I think I I still
don't know if I like it as much as been Out of Hell the first
song, but I know that's irrelevant.
I'm not saying rank these in order of the songs that you
(18:20):
like, I'm just saying what do you?
Give the grade. I know, but you have to set the
tone. It's not like the grades are on
a curve. But an A is you don't give a
pluses unless it's Vanilla Ice. an A is 93 to 100.
So if it's a 94, that's an A. If it's 98, it's an A.
So if you think Matt out of Hellis a 98, that's an A and you can
still get something in 94. Yeah, you're rightly.
(18:41):
I didn't know we had to do a math class here.
I think we'll go A, we'll go another A.
That's I'm glad, I'm glad, I'm glad I strong armed you great.
You bullied me into an A there. Now this next one, everybody
who's over 35 years old will know this one.
(19:02):
Two out of three ain't bad. I'm curious, did you know it?
Yes. It was a single, yeah #11 I had
the 45 first. I think this is what I this is
what got me into it, I think. Into the whole album, yeah.
Because that's what had happened.
You could like. So they wait.
So wait a second. So they'd come out as a single?
(19:22):
Yeah. And then they'd be compiled into
an album. No, they were albums and you
would release a single and then you'd release another single and
you'd release another single. And so after a while, if you
really liked it, you'd say, oh, I want to go get the whole
album. Or some people would just buy
every dadgum single and they could have just bought the
album, but that's different play.
Time back then I guess. And if it's weird because
(19:45):
something like I remember when Born the USA came out with Bruce
Springsteen, I'd have to look atit, It was probably 2 years of
singles being released. Yeah, Thriller with Michael
Jackson, it was like. And so by the time it was the
last singles released, you were sick of it.
Because if you had the album a year and a half ago.
You didn't like, why are they still releasing?
(20:07):
But that's the way they did it. It's.
Different. So yeah, you would have an album
and then they would say, OK, this is the first thing we're
going to release. And then the the interesting
thing about it would be the flipside of that single would have
AB side, so it'd be another songon the album.
So anyway, two out of three ain't bad, is what this one's
called. All right, let's take another
listen here on the final curriculum.
(20:28):
Maybe we can talk all night. This has a couple different
(20:52):
parts as well. Has anybody said that to you?
I want you, I need you, but there ain't no way I'm going to
ever going to love you. No, no.
That's good. I was going to make a tacky
joke, but. I was too, when I thought myself
so. I yeah, I was familiar with this
(21:14):
one. I think it's just played, I
don't know, I mean, played more than some of the other ones.
I mean, I wasn't even familiar with that of the hell the first
time we heard it. So I was interested.
I was intrigued that I knew thisone, you know, and I would think
out of which one is the most popular out of the album,
(21:36):
probably that one. I.
Think this one because this you think about it, I think they did
release Bat out of Hell the song, but I guess they would
have to have a smaller, shorter version because they can't do a
9 minute song. But I don't want to be sexist.
I don't want to be sexist. But like the girls would have
liked this one and the guys would have liked it because it
(21:57):
was Meatloaf singing, you know, and it's almost like Journey.
Journey has some really good albums, but those seems like the
ones that were the big hits werethe ones that my sister would
listen to because she didn't want some of the rocking stuff,
but or Styx, she didn't want therocking stuff, but she wanted
the ballads, you know. So you got twice as many people
enjoying it. That's very, I mean
(22:19):
stereotypical, I know. So forgive me for that all.
Right. Did I give a grand?
You didn't. I'm just trying to see was it a
minus or an A? I think it's AB Plus.
I think it's almost, you know, it's a little bit slower, but
still pretty good. You know, not something that I
(22:41):
would like add to a playlist, but I think something that I
enjoyed, you know, something that I wouldn't necessarily turn
off if I heard it on the radio. Not that I listen to the radio
ever anymore, but. And this, this is a skippable
one. This is a skippable 1, skippable
one for me. I've just heard it so much that
I don't need to hear it again. I mean, I when I was doing this,
(23:02):
I did listen to the whole thing again because I wanted to
experience it, but I'm not goingto.
I hear that on the radio way toomuch.
So I don't even need to hear that again.
Next one though, Paradise by thedashboard lights.
I think you've talked about thisone before.
This one was crazy and I I don'tremember it did make 39 on the
charts. I don't remember it, maybe it
(23:24):
was on the radio. I guess it was.
But the video 39 on the charts Iwould think it.
Was, but it's so long so I don'tknow how they did that.
But the video I remember and I don't even know why I remember
because there was no MTV at the time.
But some people must have been playing the video because it was
him in concert, sweating like a pig, long greasy hair.
(23:46):
This really beautiful the lady beside you know and he's and I'm
thinking why is she even interested in him type thing but
such high energy. You'd have to just watch the
video anyway. It's called paradise by the
dashboard lights. Again, the video has a different
person. The one singing is her name is
Ellen Foley. OK, not to get fused with Matt
(24:10):
Foley, motivational speaker, although.
I think Meatloaf does kind of look like him so.
There is. It.
Comes full circle. It does.
It does. So this is Paradise Behind the
Dashboard Lights by Meatloaf andEllen Foley.
And I want to play a bunch of different little clips of this.
OK, so you'll we'll do a bunch of scratches on this one because
it's so many different. Parts.
(24:31):
All right, all right. Well, let's start with the first
part here in the vinyl curriculum.
Here he comes. Here's the throw.
(24:52):
Here's the play at the place. Holy cow, I think.
He's going to make him. Yeah.
I actually like that one. I like that one a lot, yeah.
(25:14):
It's. Different.
It's a lot of different sectionsto it, and I think this is the
one that reminded me of Queen just because of like, I think
that like that little, the harmony in the background.
Yep, I can see that. You know so.
(25:38):
I think what's interesting aboutit was, you know, it's kind of
like this couple is they're in the back seat and she's like
saying, Are you sure that this is if we're going to do this,
you know, you got to let me rest.
And he's like, I don't know, letme think about it.
And she's like, well, finally he's like, yes.
And then now he can't. He's he swore to lover to the
(25:59):
end of time and now he's prayingfor the end of time.
But it's got that that radio announcer in there.
Yeah, then. And I got to find out.
I think it was the Yankees guy. The baseball announcer.
Why everybody? Talk like this and the
microphones were more picking upthe higher frequencies.
(26:20):
Phil Rizzuto, and he was the theYankees shortstop, and then he
became an announcer and I was reading and he was very
Catholic. And so the whole point of this
was they were doing what they were going to be doing.
And he he played like he didn't understand, but he did like he
(26:42):
just kind of played dumb, like, oh, I didn't know.
I just thought I was doing. But if you think about what you
hear, what he's saying and he. He knows, but it was.
Hilarious. I don't know we is a is a 13
year old. I just thought this was the Best
Song Ever. Yeah, that's fun though.
Yeah, I think I'd give that an Aminus.
OK, for crying out loud, Logan. For crying out loud, yeah, this
(27:03):
is this is less songs than we normally have.
So I'm I'm thrown off by this but.
They're so long though. They are so long.
This would have been like, yeah.And there's a limit on how many
minutes you can put on the side of an album.
So that's. Yeah, yeah.
So how did that work? You would you would do a double
album if you had more songs. Or more time because I would
(27:27):
imagine you can't cut off a songin the middle, be like hold on
halfway through the song it willflip the record over.
They used to do that on 8 tracks, yeah, quite often, which
was a nightmare. But yeah, I hate.
That I hate that so much, yeah. And like I said, the Bruce
Springsteen had a candy's room was on his 18 track twice.
Like they just put it twice to fill spots and it made no sense
(27:49):
to me. All right, well, one more song
here for crying out loud. That's right.
Now this is dramatic. 8 minutes.No, that that last one was 8
minutes long. This one is only.
It was 8 1/2 minutes. It says 845.
Yeah, this is long. Too, so this is longer.
So you got to listen to it like he's it's it's very soft, it's
(28:12):
very emotional. Then he get it builds up and it
comes back down. So I'm sure you're going to hate
it, but I think everyone. Else is going to it's an
emotional roller coaster yes of a song yes, for sure here we go
I think you. Can do it.
I think you can do it, Logan. Focus.
Focus on your emotions. Try to grow that heart just a
little. Bit all right, well, the Grinch,
(28:36):
I don't know where I was going with that reference, didn't his
heart didn't grow 3 sizes. It did that day.
Well, that was after Christmas. Once he let go well of his
childhood trauma, he let go and it.
Grew, well, you. Have to know it's OK to have
emotions. We'll see, I hit play for crying
out loud. Let's take a listen.
(29:09):
For crying out loud, that's a good song.
You like that? You like how I worked that into?
How long did it take you to think that one up?
I was listening that I was trying to think of it the whole
time. And this spot is still like, we
got 3 more minutes to go, it gets way down, just the piano
again and then he builds you right back up.
He This is the one that remindedme of Elton John.
(29:31):
I don't know why, if that's justthe piano and just how he sounds
gave me Elton John vibes. Like the first time I was like,
wow, that's he, you know, so that this album kind of showed
his, you know, range of sounds that he can make with his mouth
hole. What?
(29:54):
Why did you say that word? Well I was I was trying to
figure out the best but that like.
Voice maybe instead of mouth. Hole, that's how how is that
offensive? No, I the wide range of, you
know, noises that come out of him are is impressive.
(30:17):
And I can see why, if he's doingthis night after night, his
voice would give out. Yeah.
This is not just like, slow, whatever this is.
He's yeah. Well, this is, I mean, Taylor
Swift would sing for four. How long was it?
3-4 hours of just continual singing and.
Yeah, but. She wouldn't talk well, right?
(30:38):
But I mean, that's a lot of songs.
Yeah, but I guess you work yourself up.
But yeah, you're right. But there's a Jim Steinman
sound. And So what you'd have to do is
you'd have to go back and listen.
I want to tell you some of the songs that he's done for other
people. Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of
the Heart. Total eclipse of the heart.
(30:58):
Yeah, I know that one. Celine Dion's it's all coming
back to me now and the the way you know, it's the Jim Simon
song at the end. Everybody and their mother is
singing. It's very orchestrated.
It's always start, you know, it gets really slow and then it
just builds and builds. That's a good song, by the way,
that Céline Dion song. And then Holding Out for Hero by
(31:21):
Bonnie Tyler. He did that one, obviously.
Paradise by the dashboard, lights, air supplies, making
love out of nothing at all. You might think that doesn't,
but when you listen to it, the end of it, he's doing the same
thing. He builds it up.
And for them, you know, Barry Manilow did read Them and Weep,
(31:42):
which was on another one of Meetthose albums that had Cher on
it. Oh.
She just sang a song with him called Dead Ringer For Love is
pretty good. Anyway, Jim Simon just has this
sound and you know, he was the writer a lot of the songs and
stuff. So he has that sound and when
it's almost like you would, if you go see him, you know it's
(32:04):
going to have these choruses andall that kind of stuff.
Right. It's going to be it's going to
be a show. Yeah.
I think for for crying out loud,for for crying out loud, I think
we're go B plus for that one. Yeah, I like Elton John.
Not that that had anything to dowith it, but I felt like that
was a a very good ending to the album, listening to it as a
(32:28):
whole. Yeah, kind of summed up very
well the the variety of genres and noises out of the mouth Hole
from Meatloaf. You know, that was kind of on
the album. It was only one genre.
Well, the genre is not the rightword, but like I I can't think
(32:50):
of the word like. Variety of of sounds.
Sounds tempo like the sounds right variety of sounds I guess.
Yeah, upbeat, slow, dramatic, emotional, Something that you
didn't connect with? Well, the low, What do we see?
The lowest we got was AB minus. And of course, it was the
ballad. Yeah, no.
Shocker there, surprise face. So what's your total grade for
(33:13):
Bat Out of Hell? I think overall I liked it.
I think we'll go a minus. I think we'll go a minus you.
Think about this is 1977. I can't do the math right now.
How many years is that? Well, 23 + 25 is 58.
You know, that's crazy to think that this is 58 years ago.
(33:35):
You're old. That's what that I know, but it
holds up well. No 48. 77, yeah, or 78 right.
So 2 + 78 is 80 that then plus 20 is 22 to 2000, then plus 25
this 2025. Oh yeah, 40.
(33:55):
Eight. I'm 60 and I was born in 60. 5
so. It can't be older.
I was I was off by 10. Don't look at me like that.
Solving math equations. I told him, you know when I told
him he was wrong, he looked at me like I had lost my mind and
I'm thinking I'm 60 and I was 12when this came out so can't be.
Can I just mute your microphone?No.
(34:18):
You cannot, Logan Anyway, OK, that's not bad, but I think this
was a test and I think it just proved the fact that you are not
an album listener. But you've already admitted that
and I would just question othersnow.
I ran into a lady at church a couple weeks ago and I think you
were there. She has a record store and she
(34:41):
took offense when I told her I didn't care for.
No, that was that was a week before I was there.
But OK, I do remember you telling me that.
Yeah, because she does love it. And and also we were talking
about how you used to have to stack 40 fives and the 40 fives
had to have a little insert you had to put in the middle.
Why would you stack? Them so that you could listen to
(35:02):
more than one song at a time. It would play it and it would
draw the drop the next one. Think about it.
You want to get up every time toplay a song and you got to go.
So you would stack like 3 or 4 of them on this thing and then
it would drop them down one at atime and then play the next one
and drop it down. And you could do it with albums
too. Not as many.
And it had this arm that came around and she was like, oh, you
(35:24):
would never stack albums like because and I'm like, I did, but
because it would scratch and whatever and do.
All that it. Was just too much work.
But I love the idea of it and I'd love if if I could.
I mean, all my albums have been given away or they've been given
away. But I would love to have gone
back and look at the liner notesinside that.
(35:46):
I'm sure I would remember it. I'm sure I drew all over them.
I'm sure I did. But you did.
You have to give me a grade now that's how this works.
Done it 16 times. You think you'd figure it out?
Well, I want to get, I won't saya minus because I don't think
you went above and beyond by anymeans and I think you probably
(36:07):
half assed listen to it. That's not accurate.
I think you. Did I listened to it?
Was your fiance in the car? No.
I was also very tired though, somaybe that wasn't fully engaged
in listening. That's what I'm saying.
I think we need to have, we needto have to do a listening party
or something. So I can, I have like a water
gun and if I don't feel like you're paying attention, I just
(36:27):
squirt you in the face to make sure you're paying attention.
That could be our first vinyl curriculum live event where we
have listening with Logan and every time Logan is driving off,
he gets shot with We'll pass outwater guns.
I'd love that idea actually. Let's do that with the work on
(36:48):
that. All right, so yeah, 717 is down
in out of the in the books now. Yeah. 20 just did we announce
this yet? I think so. 20 is going to be
the last of the season and it's going to be another Logan picks.
Logan's version #2. And let's just, I just pray you
do a better. Job No.
If you haven't heard the first Logan's version, it's episode
(37:11):
#10 of the Vinyl Curriculum, andit is the best episode thus far.
But. That.
Is what we'll have to do one of these days, one of before then
is get some better guidelines because I was given no
guidelines at all on what I should do.
And the the hate that you projected onto me was just
(37:32):
absolutely out of control because because you're like, Oh
well, it wasn't. It wasn't if there was no theme,
there wasn't this, there wasn't that there wasn't required.
That was not in the instructions.
That is not the fault of the student.
That is the teacher for writing poor instructions.
WLRAI radio station here. We don't just randomly play any
(37:53):
song. There's a theme.
It's either we're going to play rock songs, we're going to play
whatever, so. It's called a format I.
Would think you would understoodunderstood that, but you didn't.
I do want to say a little personal.
I got a notification from someone, a friend of mine who
had went through some medical issues and she says she listens
to this podcast when she's doingher cardiac rehab and it makes
(38:16):
her laugh. Oh, that's.
Good. So that was very good to hear.
You know, she's going through a tough time with that and it
gives her some joy. And she also said she has a hard
time believing that you are someof the things you say and how.
I don't know if she used the word ignorant.
That's the one I'm going to throw in there, how ignorant you
are. She probably didn't say that
(38:37):
word, but I think it fits better.
Well, so anyway. Well, I appreciate you to her.
Yeah, hopefully we. That's why we're here.
We're here to provide joy. And you know, I look and laugh
at myself too. That's all right.
I know. I don't.
I know. I don't know everything.
And that's why, you know, I'm trying to learn.
I'm here trying to better myselfand I just immediately brought
(39:00):
terrible feedback from Jim. I sometimes give you I've given
you higher grades and you've given the playlist.
This is true. When you put forth the effort.
Well, we tied today a minus for both of us.
Today is not, and a minus is nota bad grade.
Absolutely not. It doesn't hold up my 4 point O
grade point average, but yeah. All right, Logan.
Well, thank you Jim for another great episode.
Looking forward to episode #20 mark it on the calendar.
(39:24):
That's coming up really soon. We've got a whole bunch of new
episodes out all the time. Every Thursday is when the new
episode of The Vinyl Curriculum comes out.
It's available on Spotify, ApplePodcast, iHeartRadio and just
about every other platform that you can think of Amazon Music
and they. Probably know it because they're
listening to a podcast now. This is true.
(39:46):
What's more important though, iswe have the playlist available
and the the point of this is I'mhoping that you will say, oh, I
like that song. Let me hear more.
So listen to the playlist if youhave time in the car.
We have it on Spotify and we have it on Apple Music and
hopefully you will become a fan of some of this music.
You'll have a detailed listeningparty.
(40:06):
You need to focus on the songs according to Jim while while
we're playing it. So thanks for another great
episode. Thanks for listening and we'll
catch you on the next one. Bye.
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