Ser Supremo (o no Ser, esa es la cuestión): Music: Meat Loaf & Marion Raven

jueves, 17 de septiembre de 2009

Music: Meat Loaf & Marion Raven - It's All Coming Back To Me Now

"It's All Coming Back to Me Now" is a power ballad, written by Jim Steinman.According to Steinman the song was inspired by Wuthering Heights, and was an attempt to write "the most passionate, romantic song" he could ever create. Meat Loaf has said the song was intended for Bat out of Hell II and given to the singer in 1986, but that they both decided to use "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" for Bat II, and save this song for Bat III.
The song has had three major releases, all roughly belonging to the soft rock genre. The first version appeared on the concept album Original Sin, recorded by Pandora's Box. It was then recorded by Céline Dion for her album Falling into You, and her version was a commercial hit, reaching No. 2 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart. Meat Loaf recorded it as a duet with Norwegian singer Marion Raven for Bat III and released it as a single in 2006.
A music video was produced for each of the three versions; death is a recurring theme in all of these videos, fitting in with the suggestion in Virgin's press release for Original Sin that "in Steinman's songs, the dead come to life and the living are doomed to die." This is particularly evident when the dead characters seem to be resurrected in the memories of the main vocalist. Although in the case of Celine Dion's video, the theme is less about the living being doomed and more about a lost love.

"Meat Loaf and Marion Raven" In interviews, Meat Loaf has said that, in his mind, the song was always meant to be a duet.^[4]^[43]
It was recorded as a duet by Meat Loaf and Marion Raven for the album Bat out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose, produced by Desmond Child. Raven had been working on her solo album with Child, and was chosen because the timbre of her voice starkly contrasts to Meat Loaf's.^[44] In promotional interviews, Meat Loaf said that "I believe that the version that Marion Raven and myself did on this album is the definitive version."^[4]
Meat Loaf cried when he first heard the song, which "is the only time that's happened."^[45] He has also said that the song could refer to Steinman and himself, with an array of emotions coming back every time they work together. Referring to lines like 'when I kiss you like that', he said that although "I love Jim Steinman', he wouldn't French kiss him!"^[46]

To me it wasn't a song about romance, it was about me and Jim Steinman. We'd had a load of problems with managers in the early '80s and all of a sudden after five years we started to communicate. After I'd been to his house, he sent me the song, and it was "It's All Coming Back To Me Now". Not the line 'When you kiss me like that', but the emotional connection. It doesn't have to be literal.^[45]

P. R. Brown directed this video,^[47] which premiered on VH1 Classic on August 8, 2006.^[48] There are similarities between the video for Meat Loaf's version of the song, and that the video for that of Céline Dion, with Meat Loaf being haunted by the memory of his lover. It is structured differently, however, with the story being told through flashback. Shots when Raven's character is alive have a distinct yellow tint, with a darker, blue tint for those after her death. Whereas the motorcyclist dies before the first verse in the Dion version, Raven's crash and resulting death is not shown until the final chorus. Meat Loaf becomes angry with Raven because the ghost of Raven’s former lover, played by Rob Neiman, appears at a masquerade ball they are attending (some reviewers have compared this to the Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut.^[49]) At one point, this ghost taunts Meat Loaf by kissing Raven on the cheek. A fight ensues, and she flees from the ball in a car, which she crashes while swerving to avoid the ghost of her former lover who stands in the road purposely to run her off the road so that she will die and join him in the afterlife.

This version of the song replaces the word 'nights' with 'lights', in the line 'There were nights of endless pleasure'. The ending of the single version is different, concluding with an additional 'We forgive and forget and it's all coming back to me now'. The album version, following those recorded by Pandora's Box and Céline Dion, ends with the female voice whispering 'And if we...', followed by four piano notes.
The track was available to download from iTunes in the UK in August 2006, two months before its UK release on October 16. The CD single includes the song "Black Betty", with the limited edition 7" featuring "Whore", a rock duet with Patti Russo; it was also released as a DVD single.^[50] The album version was made available on Meat Loaf and Marion Raven's respective MySpace sites in August,^[51] with the single version being played during some of their promotional interviews, such as that on BBC Radio 2.^[3] The cover art is by Julie Bell, who is also the artist for the album Bat out Of Hell III.^[52]
The single entered the UK charts at No. 6 on October 22, 2006, giving Meat Loaf his highest position in the UK charts since "I'd Lie For You (And That's The Truth)" reached No. 2 in 1995. Critical reaction was generally positive, with The Guardian saying that the song is "ostensibly a reflection on love, but imbued with the delicacy of aircraft carriers colliding at sea."^[53]
Marion Raven joined Meat Loaf for his 2007 tour of Europe. She was the supporting act, promoting her Set Me Free album. Meat Loaf introduced her again on stage at the latter stages of the concerts to duet on "It's All Coming Back to Me Now".^[54] A performance was recorded and released on DVD as 3 Bats Live.