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Brittany Clark

Professor Freeland

English 1201-505

20 February 2022

Lost Lovers

Celine Dion’s version of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” and Meat Loaf’s

featuring Marion Raven are similar songs of lovers mourning the loss of a lover to the

tides of time. In the version sung by Meat Loaf and Marion Raven, Meat Loaf seems

more distraught almost angry over the loss of his lover in comparison to Celine’s soft

yearning.

In the version of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” by Celine Dion, the story is

about a lover’s heartache over the loss of her love. At the beginning of the video, Celine

Dion’s lover gets onto his motorcycle and drives off into a storm leaving her alone in a

mansion. He ends up driving into a tree that has fallen into the road, it is implied that he

dies at that moment. The main claim of this video is how fleeting love and life can be. It

makes the listener think of the advice so often imparted by older generations to their

younger counterparts, such as never going to bed angry because tomorrow isn’t

promised. In the song, Celine Dion sings “If you forgive me all this, If I forgive you all

that. We forgive and forget and it’s all coming back to me now” those lyrics bolster the

claims of how fleeting life and love can be. The listener can hear the immeasurable

yearning in Celine Dion’s voice. She is reminiscing over the love they shared and

wishing she could go back and forgive him. That they could have one more chance to
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forgive each other and fix it all, but since he is gone from this world there is no way for

this to become a reality. This song appeals to the listener’s pathos. It is meant to make

them feel that longing of a lost lover. With the soft melancholic piano notes in the

beginning, then Celine Dion’s voice comes in with her lament of being alone in the cold

setting of her empty home. During most of the video, Celine Dion wanders through her

clean but sparsely decorated mansion. In the moments that feel like the present, the

house is filled with debris and dried leaves making it seem as if no one has been in the

house for ages. She sings of banishing all memories of him because they are just too

painful to remember. Then it all comes back to her, and she seems to become

simultaneously sad and content in her memories.

In Meat Loaf and Marion Raven’s version of the song, there are many characters,

but they are the main characters. Parts of this video are set in a mansion that is hosting

a masquerade ball, other parts are just Meat Loaf in his empty dark mansion pining for

Marion Raven. In the parts where he reminisces over her memory, the house has a light

and welcoming nature. In the video, Marion Raven drives off crying with her mascara

running down her face and she ends up crashing her car due to what looks like a

person on the road. It is implied that she has also died like the male character in Celine

Dion’s version of the song. The way this video is set up it seems as if Meat Loaf and

Marion have had a fight over possible infidelity, due to all the women surrounding him

while he sits in an ornate chair. Much like Celine Dion’s character Meat Loaf seems to

be lamenting the loss of his lover. During parts of the song, the viewer can see the

anger and frustration that preceded the rift between the two lovers. That anger gives

way to an anguished lament. Meat Loaf has a voice meant for love ballads and it
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showcases the anguish of losing Marion Raven. Meat Loaf and Marion Raven’s version

appeals to the listener’s feelings in an appeal of pathos, by making the listener feel

sorry for Meat Loaf over losing his love.

The ways in which these two videos compare are numerous. They are both set in

large houses, both videos have a lover who has died in a tragic vehicle accident, and

both videos have a living lover mourning the loss of a lover. In each video, the lost

lovers seem to be apparitions haunting their living lovers. In contrast to each other

Celine Dion’s version is her alone, aside from the moments when she is either

remembering times with her lover, or his apparition is following her around her mansion.

In Meat Loaf’s version, there are parts of the video where he seems to be trying to fill

the absence of his lover with other women. A small difference is that the lover from

Celine Dion’s video rides a motorcycle while Marion Raven’s character drives a car.

The audience of both versions is the same despite being recorded 10 years

apart. “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” is a song that was made for people yearning for

a lover, whether that be someone that has simply chosen to leave their life or someone

who left unwillingly due to their time on this earth ending. Most people who have been in

love and had to give someone up for whatever reason can probably relate to these

lyrics in some capacity. This is why it has managed to stand the test of time.
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Works Cited

Dion, Celine. “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”. Celine Dion, Columbia, 1996,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=j8fHNdrZTSI&list=PLmwTnHCdS9YhRWlSM6K5XijYFR_xoBOgI&index=2

Loaf, Meat & Raven, Marion. “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”. Meat Loaf and Marion

Raven, Mercury, 2006, https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=xOGPHUFAxWQ&list=PLmwTnHCdS9YhRWlSM6K5XijYFR_xoBOgI&index=1