Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries

"Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries" is a single by Meat Loaf and John Parr, released in 1986. It is from the Frank Farian produced album Blind Before I Stop.

"Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries"
Single by Meat Loaf and John Parr
from the album Blind Before I Stop
A-side"Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries (Exploded Version)"
B-side"R.P.M. (written by John Golden & Meat Loaf)"
ReleasedAugust 1986 (UK) [1]
GenreRock
Length4:58
LabelArista
Songwriter(s)Al Hodge, Michael Dan Ehmig
Producer(s)Frank Farian
Meat Loaf singles chronology
"Piece of the Action"
(1985)		 "Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries"
(1986)		 "Blind Before I Stop"
(1987)
John Parr singles chronology
"Don't Leave Your Mark on Me"
(1985)		 "Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries"
(1986)		 "Blame It on the Radio"
(1986)
Audio on YouTube

Background

In a 1986 interview with Record Mirror, Meat Loaf said of the song's message, "It's about the music business. It's about people who do it, but they aren't true to themselves. The perfect example is Deep Purple, last year. That's the perfect example of a rock 'n' roll mercenary. 'Let's take the money and run'."[2]

Critical reception

On its release, Lucy O'Brien of New Musical Express considered "Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries" to be "a run-of-the-mill guitar-befuddled manifestation of the American dream".[3] In a review of its single release in the US, Billboard described the song as a "hard rock indictment".[4]

Personnel
  • Meat Loaf — lead vocals, backing vocals, additional guitars
  • John Parr — guest vocals
  • Mats Björklynd — guitars, keys, programming
  • Johan Daansen — guitars
  • Peter Weihe — guitars
  • Dieter Petereit — bass
  • John Golden — bass
  • Harry Baierl — keyboards, programming
  • Pit Löw — keyboards and programming
  • Curt Cress — drums
  • Amy Goff — backing vocals
  • Frank Farian — additional vocals
  • Peter Bischof — vocals
  • Bert Gebhard — vocals
  • Bimey Oberreit — vocals
  • Elaine Goff — vocals

Track listing
  1. "Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries" (Exploded Version)
  2. "R.P.M."

Charts
Chart Position
UK Singles Chart 31

References
  1. "Meat Loaf singles".
  2. Morton, Roger (16 August 1986). "Meat Loaf". Record Mirror. p. 41.
  3. O'Brien, Lucy (30 August 1986). "45". New Musical Express. p. 14.
  4. "Reviews: Singles" (PDF). Billboard. March 21, 1987. p. 75. Retrieved August 4, 2021 – via World Radio History.
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