Love Don't Live Here (No More) Or When Meatloaf Meets Hurricane Katrina Head On!
Hello all,
I'd like us all to step into Mr Peabody's Wayback Machine for just a little while... What do you mean you don't know who Mr Peabody is? He is the man... dog who inspired the historian in me. Google it! As HoboSage would say.
Turn the dial back to 1977. Sydney Australia. Summer time. I was driving down the Great Western Highway toward Paramatta (Where the eels lay) and it's around 11am on a Sunday. (I hope you're getting all this detail! D-E-TAIL!) Three power chords just about burst my car radio speakers into shreds... I, I-V-IV I forget the key... I think it was A, A E D and then "It was a hot summer night and the..." I won't go into it. Meatloaf burst onto Australian Radio with the first of what would be four singles from the magnificent Bat Out Of Hell album. Steinman's reign on the world of rock had just been unleashed. I believe Meat gives credit for the initial success of this album to Australia, and as a tribute in his first tour played Heaven Can Wait live for the first time.
Fast forward 5 years, through Meat's dark days, Steinman recording Bad For Good because Meatloaf couldn't and into the light before Cher discovered Auto Tune and teamed up with the big man on Dead Ringer For Love. Kel was sitting in his little cubicle of a workstation wating for the telephone to ring when he started writing down... "Don't let me go, don't let me leave, do you wanna see me down on my knees, I'll do it if you say it'll work!"
To say I was inspired by Jim Steinman would be an understatement. I was in AWE of Jim Steinman! Those who care to listen to the song I'll post at the end of the story will hear the musical similarities to Paradise By The Dashboard Light and Hot Summer Night, and the total catastrophe of the situation as described in lyrics inspired by Bat Out Of Hell, and Hurricane Katrina. Quite a combination. Might I add, Steinman would have gone further with it!
Okay, step out of the Wayback Machine and into present times. My original lyrics have been long lost, and much like with Your Anything Is Everything, all I had was a snippet of the chorus, and no verses whatsoever. In fact the only thing that is true to the original song I started playing on my piano back in 1982 is the chorus melody and subsequent chord progression. The rest is all contemporary. I came up with the verse melody and all the lyrics bar a couple of lines just last year, 2012.
I sat at my computer (manuscript paper is long gone...) and stared at the blank screen of Microsoft Notepad and thought, what would Steinman do? I thought back to a television special I saw that was celebrating 25 years after the release of Bat Out Of Hell and he was describing how he took the story from Leader Of the Pack and upscaled it into Bat Out Of Hell. A light bulb went off in my head!
I can't answer what Steinman would do, but what I thought he would do is take an ordinary everyday situation, in this case a break up, and turn it into a four act musical production going way over the top in his imagery and metaphor. Hence, the catastrophic break up akin to love being torn apart by a cyclone, or as in North Atlantic terminology, a hurricane.
So without any further ado...
http://soundcloud.com/kelabbmusic/love-dont-live-here-no-more-2
Love Don't Live Here (No More)
Copyright 2012 Kel Abbott
There’s a cold wind blowin’ through our house tonight
And storm clouds close about the halls
Hailstones tearing all the curtains down
Love don’t live here no more
Just let me go,
Just turn me loose.
If I got a live a-noth-er min-ute with you
I cant think what it will do to my mind
Just let me go
What could be worse
That we stay here mak-in each oth-er hurt
'Cos love dont live here no more.
No, love don't live here no more.
There’s flood waters risin’ in the kitchen tonight
Ain’t no bridges to be found
Mud is clingin’ to the hallway floor
Love don’t live here no more
Just let me go,
Just turn me loose.
If I got a live a-noth-er min-ute with you
I cant think what it will do to my mind
Just let me go
What could be worse
That we stay here mak-in each oth-er hurt
'Cos love dont live here no more.
No, love don't live here no more.
[Lead]
Light-nin's strik-in in our room to-night
[Response]
[Love dont live here no more]
[Lead]
Fire balls climb-in' up the burn-in' walls
[Reponse]
[Love don't live here no more...]
[Lead]
Dark smoke risin' from the ash of the bed
[Reponse]
[Love don't live here no...]
[Lead]
Love don't live here...
[Reponse]
Love don't live here
[Lead]
Love don't live here...
[Reponse]
Love don't live here no...
[Lead]
Love don't live here...
[Reponse]
Love don't live here no
[Lead only]
Love don't live here...
Credits: Production and performance by Nigel Cuff Music http://www.nigelcuffmusic.com/demopage.htm (not associated, just a client!)
Notes, as this demo was produced for an amazing 50 Euros (AUD$78) the call and repsonse section is all done by Nigel, and it doesn't come off as I would have liked. Still, once doesn't complain about a $78 demo!
Till next time,
Kel
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