MetaChat - Jonmc Defends The Indefensible, Hevayweight Division.

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20 February 2008

Jonmc Defends The Indefensible, Hevayweight Division. →[More:] Today I bring you a rotund lad from Texas born Marvin Aday. Dubbed 'Meat Loaf,' by his abusive father and blessed with a powerhouse set of pipes, Mr. Loaf first burst into the public consciousness as the ill-fated greaser Eddie in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Then, teaming up songwriter Jim Steinman, he eventually cut an album that gets next to zero respect from critics and cognoscenti, but somehow managed to sell roughly 80 bazillion copies. An album called Bat Out Of Hell.

Fusing Steinman's teen-fantasy-gone-overboard lyrics to Meat's bellow was compelling enough, but they didn't stop there. The arragements and performances took Springsteen's overamping of Phil Spector's Wall Of Sound and then proceeded to push everything even further into the red zone, throwing in everything up to an including the kitchen sink. Yes, the album is cliche-packed to the point of bursting, but if you're a rock and roll fan, these are all the cliches you love. And Meat throws himself into it with such full-bore theatricality and energy that I can't help but dig the guy. And along with Leslie West from Mountain, he So here's a YouTube selection:

All Revved Up & No Place To Go. Teenage frustration on a meth-steroidal cocktail. The triple time end-portion never fails to get me spazzing around the room like an epileptic chimpanzee.

Paradise By The Dashboard Light. Hormonal frustration elevated to epic proportions, mainly due to Meat's slambang vocal interplay with Karla DeVito and Phil Rizzuto's best non-baseball contribution to culture.

Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad.. The kid can croon. Get yer hankies out. (Seriously, this is probably his best straightfaced vocal).

And, of course, Bat Out Of Hell. If, like me, you're a sucker for full-bore excessive drama (and rock and roll is about emotions, and emotions are pretty damned excessive), this is Meat's masterpiece, the song where every stop in the universe is pulled out from the femal chorus, to multiple tempo changes, strategic power chords, the anthemic chorus, and a teenage death-lyric right out of the Shagri-La's playbook.

(and yeah, I realize these tunes are all overplayed, but they still have a place in my personal rock and roll pantheon)

post by: jonmc at: 20:09 | 28 comments

...And along with Leslie West from Mountain, he proved that fat guys can be rock stars, too. Good for him. Dammit.

posted by jonmc 20 February | 20:16

Paradise by the Dashboard Lights is awesome, and awesomely under-appreciated.

posted by drezdn 20 February | 21:17

Meatloaf, indefensible? Say it ain't so! jonmc, the question isn't whether Meatloaf is awesome, the question is whether he's awesome as camp only, or on his own straightforward artistic merits. My answer? Why, both, of course!

≡ Click to see image ≡

Also, other examples of the incomparable songwriting of Steinman:
All Coming Back to Me Now
Total Eclipse of Heart (especially appropriate tonight!) (and with bonus Hurra Torpedo version)

posted by Joe Invisible 20 February | 21:57

I <3

≡ Click to see image ≡

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by Doohickie 20 February | 22:26

When I was a kid, my teenaged uncle owned this album, and played it at full blast over and over again.

posted by evilcolonel 20 February | 22:33

This is why I love you jonmc, you bring back all the great music of my youth, with commentary and fun. If I had a big fortune and owned a radio station I would hope you would be my music director and we would play all kinds of great music, make a lot of money, and make everybody so happy with the great music, at least I would like to think so. Anyway, great post.

posted by caddis 20 February | 22:47

jonmc, the question isn't whether Meatloaf is awesome, the question is whether he's awesome as camp only, or on his own straightforward artistic merits

His own merits. I don't believe in camp. (and when I say 'indefensible,' I mean 'despised by critics and 'highbrows.')

posted by jonmc 20 February | 22:47

I believe in camp, but Meatloaf is kitsch.

posted by Astro Zombie 4 20 February | 23:24

I was thinking of "Paradise. . ." today, wondering where I could find an MP3, to play for Daughter.

I loved that album when it came out, even though it was the conscious antithesis of the LA music scene that I was steeped in.

posted by danf 20 February | 23:26

".....Meatloaf....again????...."

posted by bunnyfire 20 February | 23:52

Meatloaf is kitsch

Give that zombie a cigar!

posted by bmarkey 20 February | 23:55

Meatloaf is kitsch

I don't believe in kitsch, either. While I may be aware (at Meatloaf himself may be aware as well, nad his sense of humor is a blessing) of his over the topness, my appreciation of him is not in based in ironic detachment. When I hear his songs, I get genuinely charged up. He makes me wanna jump around. His ballads make me kind of sentimental. I genuinely like him.

posted by jonmc 21 February | 00:04

I believe in kitsch, but Meatloaf rises above that - great pipes, some good songs and heart.

posted by caddis 21 February | 00:09

jon, Meatloaf just jangles my nerves much like the Brothers Gibb. I know you like them too. But damn! It just hurts me to listen to them.

posted by arse_hat 21 February | 00:38

I grew up listening to the vinyl version of Bat out of Hell. I had no idea what any of it meant at the time, but I knew I liked it.

When I was on some drunken college summer fellowship many years later, a couple there totally sang along with Paradise by the Dashboard Lights, and the memory still makes me chuckle to myself to this day.

And also, I watched Fight Club just last night.
His name is Robert Paulson.

posted by lilywing13 21 February | 01:45

There is nothing self-aware about kitsch. It is low art dressing up as high art. Meatloaf's operatic power ballads about the topics that would previously have been found in the music of bubblegum pop stars certainly qualifies. There's a lot to love about kitsch, but it is what it is.

posted by Astro Zombie 4 21 February | 02:28

My wife hates that I love him as much as I do. Though the sequel album? Not so much.

posted by middleclasstool 21 February | 09:46

Kitch is usually an object, and camp is usually a style of execution. Kitch is unironic and not self aware; camp is. Is Meatloaf more yard art for yard art's sake or Bette Midler? I'd say Bette Midler, and so, Camp. I'm in the pro-camp camp. Either kitch or camp can genuinely move a listener/viewer/audience -that's not mutually exclusive, jonmc.

But Meatloaf had that wierd plastic surgery lateley, right? What's up with that?

posted by rainbaby 21 February | 09:52

Thanks for that breakdown, rainbaby- I'd never been clear on the difference between the two.

posted by BoringPostcards 21 February | 10:14

"Meatloaf, meatloaf, double beatloaf. I HATE meatloaf!"

When I was a kid, my mom's favorite movie was Scavenger Hunt, which featured Meatloaf in a small role as Scum, leader of a Hell's Angels-esque biker gang called The Peace Corps. At one point, his character threatens to "beat to death" a weaselly lawyer played by Richard Benjamin. This scared the crap out of me, so I always assumed Meatloaf was what his character was -- a vicious, badass, evil mofo. (The fact that his album was called "Bat Out of Hell" only seemed to support my theory.)

Then one day I actually heard his music.

OK, so maybe not such a badass. (Great pipes, though.)

posted by Atom Eyes 21 February | 11:18

Any list of fat rock stars should include D. Boon (Minutemen) and Tom "Pig Champion" Roberts (Poison Idea).

That is all.

posted by BitterOldPunk 21 February | 12:01

Anyone who got a name check by Gil Gerard in the Buck Rogers TV series is someone to be reckoned with.

posted by King of Prontopia 21 February | 14:37

Meat Loaf is beyond the realm of the indefensible, giovanni

posted by matteo 21 February | 15:12

My mother loves Meatloaf. Loves him.
Make of that what you will.

posted by jrossi4r 21 February | 15:16

(Although he did play Eddie in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, so I can't hate on him too much.)

posted by jrossi4r 21 February | 15:18

YouTube clip of the Loaf in Rocky Horror.

posted by jrossi4r 21 February | 15:23

Christ. It's RIGHT THERE at the top of the post. Reading posts while balancing a wiggly baby is a bad idea. Sorry 'bout that.

posted by jrossi4r 21 February | 15:24

I once had an entire relationship based on a drunken New Year's Eve hookup and "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights." I can say from personal experience that it's not the best foundation for a relationship.

posted by kirkaracha 22 February | 18:53

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