Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell
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On this episode, we discuss one of rock’s most unusual success stories: 1977’s Bat Out of Hell, the result of a collaboration between Meat Loaf, a 350-pound Texan possessing an operatic voice, both powerful and agile, and Jim Steinman, a leather-clad composer from New York with a taste for musical theater and a sense of humor few in rock had.
Find out how the two found each other and created one of the best selling albums of all time (despite of meeting a whole bunch of resistance along the way). Produced by Todd Rundgren, who recognized almost immediately that the material was not only exceptional, but unbelievably funny. He also saw it as an answer to the overwrought sentimentality and nostalgia for a by-gone era (particularly the 1950s) that he felt was pervading the entertainment industry at this time, especially by people like Bruce Springsteen. In the process, Rundgren assembled a team of some of the best side musicians in rock and created an over-the-top, gorgeous, and unbelievably fun, Broadway-esque album that has stood the test of time, selling over 50 million copies worldwide.
THINGS WE DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE
Listen to a Bette Midler perform “Heaven Can Wait” for a demo tape that Jim Steinman was using to to get people interested in his Peter Pan musical Neverland. Meat Loaf says this was the first version of the song he ever heard.
Meat Loaf worked as an understudy for John Belushi on the the National Lampoons stage show Lemmings. Jim Steinamn was hired to play piano on the show as well.
It was while working on Lemmings that Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman met Ellen Foley who sang with Meat Loaf on “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.”
Prior to recording Bat out of Hell, Meat Loaf played Eddie in the film version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a roll he had previously played on Broadway. Watch Meat Loaf steal the how in the clip below.
As mentioned on this episode, Meat Loaf received $30,000 to film videos for three of the songs off of Bat Out of Hell, one of which was for “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” Taking advantage of the cult success of the movie version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Meat Loaf distributed this film to movie theaters around the county, where it was played before the movie.
Bad for Good is the only studio album recorded by Jim Steinman. The songs on the album were originally intended for the follow up Bat Out of Hell but Meat Loaf damaged his voice taking Bat Out of Hell on the road and was unable to sing at the time Bad for Good was recorded.
