Meat Loaf passed away yesterday at the age of 74. His family wrote on Facebook, “Our hearts are broken to announce that the incomparable Meat Loaf passed away tonight surrounded by his wife Deborah, daughters Pearl and Amanda and close friends.”
Meat Loaf started his career on the stage in musicals like Hair and The Rocky Horror Show (and its the movie), and then he met Jim Steinman. It was a match made in Rock’n’Roll heaven that created one of the greatest selling albums of all time, Bat Out of Hell.
That album created such Rock Operatic songs like Bat Out of Hell, Paradise in the Dashboard Light, Two of out Three Ain’t Bad, and You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth. It went on to sell over 40 million copies worldwide since its release in 1977.
Meat toured the world with that album, but he was plagued with health issues throughout his career. However, in 1993, Meat and Steinman teamed up for a sequel to the top-selling album and produced hits like I’d Do Anything for Love, Rock’n’Roll Dreams Come True, and Wasted Youth.
Along with recording music and touring, he continued to act in movies and TV shows like Wayne’s Worl, Spice World, Fight Club, and Celebrity Apprentice, to name a few.
I can still remember the first time I heard Paradise when I was 12, and it felt like a rite of passage. So much so I ran out and bought the album, and I became a fan who followed him throughout his career. I met him a few times at fan and press events and tried to be cool around a man whose music I admired so much. However, when I saw him in concert, I went wild during Wasted Youth, and he looked at me like I was crazy. A few songs later, he told the audience, after two young girls tried to give him roses, that when he is singing, he can’t see or hear anything. That made me feel special. I know, but it did. And that concert remains one of my all-time favorites because he put on a show. I wish I saw him perform live again, but it was not meant to be.
We lost Steinman last April and losing Meat now takes a big chunk out of my formative years. Steinman’s lyrics with Meat’s voice is what the Gds of Rock’n’Roll dreamt of. And I assume that Steinman wrote Bat Out of Hell IV, so Gd needed Meat up in heaven to record it. And that is why we lost him.
Today, let’s remember Meat and belt out one of his tunes because that is the only way to sing time. Even his ballads were full of power! I can’t stop screaming (my poor neighbors) Modern Girl. It was one of his smaller hits that was not written by Steinman, but it speaks to me the loudest.
