Maverick really let himself go
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Itās a belter. Written, played, sung and produced brilliantly and fucking hilarious to boot. Play it loads (usually when drunk but not always)
Donāt really need to talk about the title track but Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth is all time as well.
Itās a pretty unique album and has that Rocky Horror feel somehow also. Itās best (for me) if not listened to for 5 years then give it a listen and itās epic.
I also went to see the musical last year - took my mum for her birthday - and it was very good (taking her again for her birthday this year). Saw him live a couple of years ago (also for my mumās birthday - seeing a theme here?) and it wasnāt great, his voice was shot and he seemed a bit confused to be performing live at Newbury race course.
Most of the music from my parentās (very limited) music collection that they played when I was a child I canāt stand now - the Beatles make my skin crawl, neil diamondās voice is like fingernails on a blackboard - but still have a lot of affection for bat out of hell. shame he didnāt do anything anywhere near as good afterwards (second best steinman album is his solo album, bad for good, that meat should have - but didnāt - sing on).
Anyway, I never pass up the opportunity to post this up, one of my favourite ever live performances:
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What I like about Steinman is that he is totally unironic and genuinely believes in the 17 forever Marlon Brando rockānāroll biker rebel lifestyle.
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I absolutely love Meat Loaf, great days of listening to Bat Out Of Hell 1 and 2 whilst playing Mario Kart and Goldeneye and not bothering to revise for my 6th form exams 
Universally loved by all my mates as well, brilliant songs, proper dramatic and over the top. Everything Louder Than Everything Else is incredible.
Great stuff, isnāt it?
Title track and Paradise are classics. Always irks me when BOOH is on the radio and they cut the ace piano intro off (see also: November Rain without the guitar solo outro - absolutely pointless).
Absolutely this.
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My mate taped it off his step-dad and then I taped it off my mateās tape. I carefully drew the cover in coloured pencil on a bit of paper and put it over the TDK sleeve. Was probably 12 or 13.
Not listened to it in absolutely years. Itāll be weird hearing it in decent sound quality.
Someone put it on a pub jukebox at very close to kicking out time when I was about 21. Iād not heard it for years and the place, which was quite alternative of a bar - was going mental. I think itās a guilty pleasure for many and mixes particularly well with alcohol.
Two out of three aināt bad
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YESSSSSS
Bet Bruce Springsteen song is proper jealous that bat out of hell exists. Basically the song he spent his entire career trying to write
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I saw the musical too, it really was great.
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My heart is genuinely warmed that DiS seems united in an appreciation for Meat Loaf.
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Absolutely love the nuggets from his autobiography in ruth and Martinās album club:
Just in case you donāt believe me, Iāve collected here for the first time, my Top 7 moments from Meat Loafās childhood.
1) He absolutely LOVED a 7-Eleven.
In an effort to stop him visiting the store, his mum tied him to the clothesline in the garden with a massive rope.
Meat Loaf would always manage to untie the knot though and his parents would eventually find him in the 7-Eleven, covered in Dr Pepper and Hot Dogs.
Eventually, and this isnāt a joke, the family thought it was easier to move to somewhere without a 7-Eleven nearby.
I know, right. What a great start. Thereās another 6 of these.
2) He had a terrible imaginary friend called Bad Bob.
Bad Bob convinced him to pull a waspās nest out of a tree. As he held the nest, he started to hear it buzz (no shit), and lost his balance. He fell to the ground, with the waspās nest on top of him, and was stung multiple times.
He had to be wrapped up in bandages and looked a bit like an overweight Invisible Man.
All Iām saying here is that Bad Bob is the worst imaginary friend Iāve ever heard of, even worse than that one out of The Shining.
3) His real name was Marvin Aday and he changed it because of a Leviās ad.
Even as a child, he was always big and struggled to find clothes that could fit him. Then a Leviās ad came along with the tag line - āPoor fat Marvin canāt wear Leviāsā.
He was devastated - as if the advert was deliberately mocking him and he was the punchline to everyone elseās joke.
So he started going by the name Meat Loaf instead because, er, the last thing he wanted was a name thatās going to draw attention to his size.
Heās still never forgiven Leviās either and, in a fantastic exchange, writes -
āIāll buy Wrangler. Iāll buy Guess. Iāll buy anything, but I refuse to this day to wear Leviās"
If someone could put that to music I reckon heād have another number one.
4) Other parents didnāt want him playing with their kids.
He tried to play with this kid once and his mother came out of her house and yelled - "You canāt play with my son, youāre too fat!ā
He picked up a broom and smashed her window.
Reflecting on the incident, he writes -
āBeing too fat to play with the other children probably has a lot to do with the way I am today. Iām usually alone in my hotel room from right after the show until the next dayās sound check. And Iām never bored; I donāt get bored. Probably because mothers wouldnāt let their kids play with me.ā
I mean, Iāve read as much Camus as the next guy but that is some proper existential shit from Meat Loaf.
5) He didnāt really like music as a kid.
In fact, he only liked 4 songs.
3 of them are really good - Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford and Running Bear and Teen Angel by Johnny Preston. But the fourth one was Life in the Fast Lane by The Eagles and that massively disappointed me.
It reminded me of when Michael Owen admitted to only seeing 5 films and one of them was Cool Runnings .
6) He kept getting knocked out.
In the course of his childhood, Meat Loaf gets knocked out 17 times in a variety of comic accidents - the best one being when he got hit on the head by a shot put at an athletics meeting.
I know itās one of the best ones because heās helpfully included a chapter entitled My Favourite Concussions - a first in all the rock star biographies Iāve read.
7) Meat Loaf and the JFK Assassination.
I know, thatās a sentence I never thought Iād write either.
On the 22nd of November 1963, Meat Loaf and his mates went to greet JFK when he arrived at Love Field Airport in Dallas - managing to sneak through a gap in the fence and get up close to the President and his wife.
An hour later, theyāre driving along when a secret service man stops their car in the middle of the road and makes them drive him to Parkland Hospital. He tells them the President has been shot.
They get to the hospital and see all the chaos first hand - Jackie covered in blood, a wounded Governor Connolly, and loads of people in hysterical grief. Apparently thereās a photo somewhere of a group of African American women crying their eyes out next to a confused Meat Loaf - the would be singer, not the meal.
Again, reflecting on the incident Meat Loaf indulges in wondrous speculation about what happened that day and even considers whether the secret service man that stopped him was part of the conspiracy. He ends by saying that Oswald definitely didnāt do it before adding his own helpful conclusion -
āNot that I know who did it. I donātā
Thanks Meat.
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He also coached girls softball. COACH MEAT!
I considered doing him for the unfairly derided bands playlist thread but then realised that I hadnāt seen much dissing of him here. (And it would pretty much have just been the bat out of hell album anyway).
hope heās a nice guy and not a pathological liar.
nah, bat out of hell is definitely a poor manās Thunder Road