Everything Louder Than Everything Else

To me, this song (one of my faves ever and I'm not kidding) is about living life on your own terms and not being defined by someone else or someone else's rules.

I love the line- "If you don't worry bout' the future Sooner or later it's the past"

I don't think Meat's saying 'don't worry at all' but he's more saying 'live for the moment' and if you spend all your time worrying about the future, you will never enjoy the present. Basically you'll never enjoy life because you'll always be worried about something else.

The arguement that- "A wasted youth is better by far Than a wise and productive old age"

to me goes right along with the premise of the song. Live your entire life, even your youth when you likely have numerous adults (parents, teachers, counselors, etc.) trying to mold you into their version of who you should be, be your own. And if said molding adults think you're wasting your youth away by being you, so be it.

Awesome song to rock out to.

This song is a lot deeper than most people seem to give it credit for.

You will, at any point in time, find countless artists who promote things like some sort of greater understanding or rail against 'the machine' or try to promote some greater, revelatory idea. Likewise there will never be a shortage of people who will try and tell you to wise up and get serious. These are the sorts of people who tell you "put on that suit and tie and get a real job" or your parents when they insisted that instead of becoming a magician you become a doctor.

As these types of people sit on the bus, living the drudgery of their everyday lives, Meat Loaf screams by on his bike, standing up, pulling his pants down and mooning them, before laughing and screaming off into the night like a Bat out of Hell.

What this song promotes above all else is passion and living your life to the fullest. Some people will live their lives trying to gain some sort of greater understanding of the universe or looking for some sort of truth. Other people try and live their lives for no other reason than money or material possessions. Meat Loaf insists that the truth is right in front of us and that material possessions hold no value compared to just living life and living it well and being yourself.

It is like this from the opening lyrics. The rejection of political correctness and etiquette is a rejection of needless formalities imposed upon us by a society that does not care for us or understand us. The line about the world being flat is a rejection of needless facts or truths that do not apply to us. And perhaps the most important line... the one that is repeated... is that "If the thrill is gone then it's time to take it back."

The "thrill" in this case, is passion. Love for life. Enjoying yourself for being yourself and for what you do. Or, if you like, just good, old fashioned fun. We'll get back to this.

He goes on to further ridicule the concept of thinking too much and making mountains out of molehills in real life. "Who am I and why am I here?" Forget those questions because they are not worth concerning yourself with. We as a species are always too concerned with greater truths that we forget some of the great things we have in front of us.

"What's the meaning of life?" Meat loaf points at the ground and says "this."

This is Meat Loaf's take on life. The purpose of life is to be good to yourself and enjoy yourself and enjoy good company. Do what you like and do what you feel makes you truly happy. If that's living dangerously, or if that's just curling up next to the fire with that special somebody or if that's sharing a beer over a game of poker with your best friends it doesn't matter. Don't worry yourself too much with pointless questions that you deny yourself the passion and thrill that life has to offer you as a person.

Don't "crawl." Don't creep along life worrying yourself or screaming at a wall. Just get up and "dance"

And so, he suggests that people cast off the shackles of the society that suggests we engage in things like this. "Throw away your designer suits"

You know what you want. You know what makes you happy. Stop moping about with things that you hate and do it. Bring your friends. Be one, big happy family. "You've got your weapons cocked your target's in your sights. There's a party raging, etc."

And he also suggests that living this way isn't necessarily going to get you rich or that you will even necessarily live in the traditional sense of "comfort." When he says "I ain't in it for the power/health/glory/wealth" he suggests that the only reason you'd do it is because you know it's right for you. "You have to do it yourself, and he likes his music like he likes his life." I expect that Meat Loaf once had everybody everywhere telling him not to try and take a career in music but he took it. Why? Not because it would get him money, power, glory, or long life, but because he knew that was how he wanted to live and it was the only way he could live (he was just lucky enough that he DID end up getting these things. Even though it is now sung when he is older, it is likely a reflection to his early days).

Everything Louder than everything else. Wasted Youth.

These repeated lines are important. "Wasted Youth" is what people are going to repeat at you. That you are wasting your time on pointless frivolities. That you need to be smarter. That you need to buckle down, get a real job and make money.

"Everything Louder than Everything Else" is how you need to live. Your inner voice needs to be louder than the people shouting "Wasted Youth" at you. People won't understand. Society at large will likely scoff at you. But you need to live for yourself and make your life your own. You need to stand tall above them. You need to scream louder than everybody else.

The next section is him continuing his tirade against such people. "They have a file on him and it's a mile long and they say they have all of the proof, etc. etc."

This is those same people who will try to stop you. The suits and ties. The intellectuals. The people who will constantly tell you to conform. To bend to THEM. To bend to the way the world works. They'll tell you you're refusing to grow up. That you're acting like a child. That you're in need of discipline because you're going against the established order. And then they'll try to talk you out of these habits because "you're impressionable and you've had a difficult time, but you'll grow out of it."

But Meat Loaf looks at the world and its conformity, all the people stepping all over each other, all the things you're forced to do and not want to, all the rules and regulations, and he asks how he could NOT rebel? It seems to him, that living for the moment and enjoying your life and being yourself and carving your own path is miles better than living in the gray, ugly, conformist world that has been set up for you to live in.

"A wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age." Meat Loaf is not railing against being productive or wise or old SPECIFICALLY, but what he is railing against is the idea of living a passionless life of conformity simply because you are told to and because it's the "smart thing to do." He is against the idea of asking pointless questions because they are seen as "wise" when they ultimately have no bearing on your life.

He is for passion. He is for thrill. He is for love and feeling. These things that many people would have you drop for the sake of "being productive and smart"

One of the most telling things in this song, I find is the next part. "You want my views of history then there's something you should know: The three men I admire most are Curly, Larry, and Moe."

What would a "wise and productive member of society" say if they were asked who they admired most in History? Aristotle? Some fancy artist? Some businessman who made a lot of money?

Meat Loaf admires these three people who dedicated their lives to making people laugh. These weren't necessarily hog-riding, living on the edge, crack snorting bikers that lived anarchy. They were just comedians who lived their lives doing what they wanted and helping people to smile. That's an admirable goal. And it gives a deeper look into how this isn't just a "live fast, die hard, leave a beautiful corpse" song. The three stooges did not live this way. All they did was spread laughter. That was what made them happy. That is the sort of thing we should aspire to.

Of course, an intellectual or a suit-and-tie businessman would tell you that the three stooges were merely clowns and overlook them.

The next line continues to ridicule needless worry and questions and reasserts the idea that we should live for the moment and for ourselves, living passionately and being ourselves in the face of everything.

I love this song.

What can I say? It's the basic catch phrase of rock in every generation. Live fast and hard, die young and leave a beautiful corpse.

I think its alittle more than that. But thats the basic thing if you took this song by itself. However, in the context of this album and its prequel (B out of H 1, however deals more directly with the types of youthful love). Bat out of hell two takes on more general youthful emotions, even though the first cut and a couple other deal with the love again; as its always around, but Back into hell delves into the generalities and pressures of youth, trying to balance the romance around, with all of the immense emotions, and this song paired with its spoken word prelude "Wasted Youth" gives you the climax of teen anger and trying to put everything behind and go into adulthood like a bat out of hell.

ditos on that but its kinda hard to get into the song when you realize that an old fat man is singing it. That being said MEAT LOAF IS GREAT.

I fukkin love this song, and the old fat man singing it.

By far my fav Meat song. It's so beautifully Rock and Roll. Fight conformity, and societies lies, "a wasted youth..."

Its about living your own life and not falling into what society wants you to be

MEATLOAF RULES ||

He was 46 when this came out.

He's being ironic....

your typical teenage angst and confusion, hes all lookin back and saying he appreciated his youth way more then what he had know, even if it really didnt mean anything because "A wasted youth is better by far Than a wise and productive old age"