I’m at the age when so many of my childhood and teenage years music heroes are succumbing to time. I don’t usually write about them, there are just too many. But I will write about Meat Loaf (born Marvin Lee Aday, from Dallas, Texas), who died last night at age 74.
Meat Loaf, who was born Marvin Lee Aday and took his stage name from a childhood nickname, had a career that few could match. He was a trained Broadway belter and a multiplatinum-selling megastar whose biggest hits, like “Bat Out of Hell” and “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” were radio staples — and barroom singalongs — for decades….
Meat Loaf also appeared in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Fight Club” and other films.
His death came just a year after that of Jim Steinman, the songwriter who wrote “Bat Out of Hell,” a record that brought Broadway-style, operatic rock to audiences at a time when, in the face of disco and punk, it couldn’t have been more unfashionable….
His first major film role came in 1975 in the cult classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” in which he played Eddie, a delivery boy murdered for his brain by the cross-dressing Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Meat Loaf also appeared in “Wayne’s World” (1992), “Spice World” (1997) and “Fight Club” (1999). More recently, he had a role in several episodes of the TV series “Ghost Wars” in 2017 and 2018….In recent months, Meat Loaf had been in the news complaining about Covid-19 restrictions. In August, he told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “If I die, I die, but I’m not going to be controlled.”
Why “Meat Loaf”?
Meat Loaf played a big role in the coming of age of me and so many others who graduated high school in 1977, the year Meat Loaf released his massive hit album, Bat Out of Hell, which remains one of the top 10 best selling albums of all time.
The album, according to internet searches, was released in October 1977, at which point I was in college. Almost every song on the album was memorable, but I remember two in particular.
Well, what can I say. Freshman in college. It was a ballad of a guy who would say anything to get some action. I’m not saying that was me, but I’m also not saying it wasn’t. It’s a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
In the song, that guy was willing to promise love until the end of time, if that’s what it took:
[Boy:]Well I remember every little thingAs if it happened only yesterdayParking by the lakeAnd there was not another car in sightAnd I never had a girlLooking any better than you didAnd all the kids at schoolThey were wishing they were me that nightAnd now our bodies are, oh, so close and tightIt never felt so good, it never felt so rightAnd we’re glowing like the metal on the edge of a knifeGlowing like the metal on the edge of a knifeC’mon, hold on tightWell, c’mon, hold on tightThough it’s cold and lonely in the deep dark nightI can see paradise by the dashboard light* * *[Boy:]’Cause we were barely seventeenAnd we were barely dressed…
Just say it. Say ANYTHING. Whatever she wants to hear. Whatever it takes. Even though you know you’ll regret it.
[Girl:]I gotta know right nowDo you love meWill you love me foreverDo you need meWill you never leave meWill you make me so happyFor the rest of my lifeWill you take me awayWill you make me your wifeI gotta know right nowBefore we go any furtherDo you love meWill you love me forever***[Boy:]I couldn’t take it any longerLord, I was crazedAnd when the feeling came upon meLike a tidal waveI started swearing to my godAnd on my mother’s graveThat I would love you to the end of timeI swore I’d love you to the end of time[Both:]So now I’m praying for the end of timeTo hurry up and arrive’Cause if I gotta spend another minute with youI don’t think that I can really surviveI’ll never break my promise or forget my vowBut God only knows what I can do right nowI’m praying for the end of timeIt’s all that I can do (ooh, ooh)Praying for the end of timeSo I can end my time with you
Oh, to be seventeen again. The anthem of a generation of teenage males. My generation.
Another Meat Loaf song that seems to portray a callousness towards the opposite sex, someone who can give some things, but not love.
Baby we can talk all nightBut that ain’t getting us nowhereI told you everything I possibly canThere’s nothing left inside of hereAnd maybe you can cry all nightBut that’ll never change the way that I feel…* * *And all I can do is keep on telling youI want youI need youBut there ain’t no wayI’m ever gonna love youNow don’t be sad’Cause two out of three ain’t badNow don’t be sad’Cause two out of three ain’t bad
But that’s not what the song is about. It’s about someone who lacked an ability to love because of his own experience being on the wrong end of a ‘two out of three ain’t bad’ story:
There’s only one girl that I will ever loveAnd that was so many years agoAnd though I know I’ll never get her out of my heartShe never loved me back, ooh I knowWell I remember how she left me on a stormy nightOh she kissed me and got out of our bedAnd though I pleaded and I begged herNot to walk out that doorShe packed her bags and turned right awayAnd she kept on telling meShe kept on telling meShe kept on telling meI want youI need youBut there ain’t no wayI’m ever gonna love youNow don’t be sad’Cause two out of three ain’t bad
Gulp. The flip side of the anthem of a generation.
There are other songs, of course, and appearances in other media.
But for me, when I think of Meat Loaf, I’ll always think of these two songs, and the lost innocence of those late teenage years.
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