MEAT LOAF (ENG)
BAT OUT OF HELL
Marvin Lee Aday embodies like few others the Rock ’n’ Roll type of the battered outsider who, against all expectations, rises into the Olymp.
From early childhood Marvin suffers from being overweight. His violent, alcoholic father calls him “Meat.” His sports teacher, whose foot Marvin steps on by accident at age thirteen, extends it to “Meat Loaf.” On the stage of the school theater he can escape into another world and develop his passion for acting and music.
In 1966, at the age of 19, shortly after the death of his beloved mother from cancer, it comes to one last violent confrontation with his father, this time a fight of life and death. When his father attacks him with a knife, Marvin breaks his nose. He himself gets away with broken ribs. Hitchhiking, he escapes to Los Angeles, works as a parking lot attendant, and founds several unsuccessful rock bands. At least he manages to land gigs opening for The Who, Joe Cocker, and Iggy Pop.
In 1968 he gets a role in the ensemble of „Hair“, a musical that brings Rock ’n’ Roll onto the theater stage. In 1971, of all things, the famous soul label Motown takes notice of his talent and produces, with his duet partner Stoney from Hair, the album Stoney and Meat Loaf. He tours with Stoney to promote the record, but without success. In 1973 he is back in Hair, this time on Broadway in New York.
In the same year Meat Loaf is cast for the musical The Rocky Horror Show. Also in the film adaptation, the Frankenstein parody The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which comes to theaters in 1975, Meat Loaf takes over the mini-role of “Eddie,” a zombie-like Elvis caricature:
During the birthday party for Frank-N-Furter’s creature Rocky, Eddie suddenly rides a Harley Davidson straight through the freezer wall, shakes off the ice, and belts out the Rock ’n’ Roll song „Hot Patootie-Bless My Soul“!
The bizarre party guests go wild with excitement, except for the chief transvestite Frank-N-Furter. Eddie steals the show from his freshly created lover Rocky - even worse, the simple-minded Rocky bounces along enthusiastically. Furious with jealousy, Frank-N-Furter drives Eddie back into the freezer and kills him with an ice pick! Eddie only reappears in the dinner scene at the end of the film. When the guests exchange questioning looks at the carelessly served lumps of meat, Frank-N-Furter whips the tablecloth off the glass table. What comes to light is Eddie’s gutted corpse!
With his hilarious yet tragic cameo as Eddie, Meat Loaf quickly gaines cult status among the film’s still-small fan base — and the movie is still running in arthouse cinemas fifty years later!
In 1973 Meat Loaf meets musical composer Jim Steinman at an audition for his musical More Than You Deserve. Steinman is deeply impressed by Meat Loaf’s bulk and his four-octave soul voice. He sees in him the perfect performer for his theater-rock ideas.
In 1975 the two work on the album „Bat Out of Hell“. Steinman writes the songs, Meat Loaf sings them. As an avowed admirer of Richard Wagner, the greatest German composer of the Romantic era, Steinman combines German-Romantic Drama with Gospel, Rock ’n’ Roll and Soul. His leitmotifs for Bat Out of Hell are sticky, heart-bleeding teenage feelings, cars, and biker dreams. Inspired also by Bruce Springsteen’s successful album Born to Run, he exaggerates its pathos and packs everything into a pumped-up wall of sound à la Phil Spector on steroids.
Then it takes two years to find a record company. The baroque musical actor Meat Loaf, in a ruffled shirt with a red silk scarf in his hand, looks far too theatrical. To the music industry, he doesn’t pass as a rock star. Producer Todd Rundgren considers Steinman’s arrangements and his sultry lyrics a funny Springsteen parody. Only for that reason does he produce the album. Humor is important to him. He doesn’t really believe in success. In fact, the deliberate exaggerations, the pomp, the double-edged lyrics and melodramatic clichés are meant as a humorous play in a musical context.
Finally, the album comes out in October 1977 - the year punk takes off - without making any impact. A long world tour follows. Ellen Foley, who recorded the duet „Paradise by the Dashboard Light“ with Meat Loaf in the studio, is replaced for the 1978 tour by Carla DeVito. Foley is otherwise engaged - and perhaps the sexually charged live performance with Meat Loaf is not entirely her thing: “You sing background, then you go up front and he sticks his tongue down your throat for twelve minutes …”
Ignoring all trends (punk, disco, new wave), sales figures explode in England 1978 after a live clip on the BBC – and it soon becomes the most successful rock album worldwide! To date, Bat Out of Hell has sold over 43 million copies and ranks among the ten best-selling rock and pop albums in history!
—
Steinman conceives “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” as an eight-minute musical drama in three acts. He wants to write the ultimate „car/sex song that goes terribly wrong“:
I – Paradise
He remembers a unique rendezvous in the car by the lake. She is the most beautiful girl in high school. Every boy at school wished he were him. „Barely seventeen and barely dressed“ they experience in his memory the “paradise in the glow of the dashboard light.” He tries to persuade her to go further:
“We’re gonna go all the way tonight.”
A funky interlude underscores the boy’s efforts. Yankees legend Phil Rizzuto cuts in—way off from sports—with bursts of live commentary: “This boy can really fly… rounding first… safe at second… it’s gonna be close… holy cow, he’s gonna make it…”, syncing perfectly with the classic American baseball sex metaphor: 1st base – French kissing, 2nd base – petting above the belt, 3rd base – sliding below (later: Bill Clinton sex), and finally home plate: lovemaking.
And then, just inches before home plate, she slams on the brakes:
“Stop right there!!”
II – Let Me Sleep on It
Before she goes any further, she wants certainty:
“Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life? Will you take me away and will you make me your wife? I gotta know right now!!”
He tries to buy some time:
“Let me sleep on it, I’ll give you an answer in the morning.”
But overwhelmed by his feelings, he gives in:
“And when the feeling came upon me like a tidal wave,
I started swearing to my God and on my mother’s grave,
that I would love you to the end of time …”
III – Praying for the End of Time
The memory of the hottest night of his life flips into his bitter present. He can no longer bear her. Bound by his vow, there is only one way out: Praying for the end of times.
“I swore that I would love you to the end of time!
So now I’m praying for the end of time, to hurry up and arrive
Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you
I don’t think that I can really survive.
I’ll never break my promise or forget my vow,
But God only knows what I can do right now.
I’m praying for the end of time,
It’s all that I can do.
Praying for the end of time,
So I can end my time with you!”
( holy shit ! )