In the sidebar to the right of this page, there is a link called “Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman lyrics“, and it offers just that: an almost complete archive of lyrics to the songs of Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman and some related artists.
One of those related artists is Ellen Foley. Her debut Night Out (her best album with her most well-known song, “We Belong to the Night”) has been available on CD for a couple of years now, but the other two, Spirit of St. Louis and Another Breath were just reissued (with several bonus tracks) last week.
Spirit of St. Louis might as well have been a The Clash album. It is produced by her then-boyfriend Mick Jones, featuring him and the other three members of The Clash, six of the twelve songs were written by Jones and Clash frontman Joe Strummer, and three others were written by some-times Clash-affiliate Tymon Dogg. The musical styles are all over the place, ranging from punky rockers to French chanson like songs. It’s an odd album. But judge for yourself. Via this blog you can go over here, and download the whole thing. The bonus tracks on the reissue are not exactly essential stuff.
As I just picked up my copy of Another Breath earlier today, I can’t really trust my judgment just yet. My first impression is that, overall, it is a better album than Spirit, although it doesn’t have any real standout tracks. The bonus tracks are three versions of “Nightline” (the single edit, and two versions of the dance mix), the b-side “Beat of a Broken Heart” [mp3 download] and the previously unreleased track “Ghost of a Chance” [mp3 download]. And for the love of all that’s bright and shiny, I can’t understand why they have left that track of the album.
While putting the Ellen-pages for the archive together, I found that there is almost no information on Ellen available online. Except for one incomplete and outdated site, there nothing worth mentioning. Finding lyrics online is also a crime. Only Another Breath includes the lyrics, and apart from the various covers on the albums, only the lyrics to “What’s a Matter Baby?” and “We Belong to the Night” can be found. And that is why I need your help. I think I have made a decent transcription of the Night Out lyrics, but I could really need help on Spirit and the verses of “Beat of a Broken Heart”. So if you have some time to spare, grab the files, and see what you can make of it. Post your suggestions and corrections in comments or mail then to evilnickname [curly thing above the ‘2’ on your keyboard] gmail.com. Any help is greatly appreciated.