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"Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries" is a song by Meat Loaf and John Parr, which was released in 1986 as the lead single from Meat Loaf's fifth studio album Blind Before I Stop. The song was written by Al Hodge and Michael Dan Ehmig, and produced by Frank Farian.

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"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)"
Released	August 1986 (UK) [1]
Genre	Rock
Length	4:58
Label	Arista
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] Chris Roberts of Sounds commented, "What a pair of paunches. Loser meets loser. Result: dead loss."[4] In a review of its single release in the US, Billboard described the song as a "hard rock indictment".[5]

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

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