Meat Loaf came onto the music scene like a bat out of hell. And it is that, in 1977, in equal parts of beast and beauty, he broke into the guild with Bat out of hell, which with wild elegance and passionate theatricality, came to define his decades-long career, also succeeding in showing that music is not just something you listen to, but something you feel.
Source: Billboard
Born Marvin lee aday en Dallas, TexasOn September 27, 1947, as the son of a policeman and a gospel singer, the young Meat had a difficult childhood, marked by his overweight and the torment that this entails, alcoholism and the beatings of his father, however, Upon graduating from high school and later college, he found his calling on the stage.
Always a fan of music, it was not long before he moved to Los Angeles and form his first band, Meat Loaf Soul, a name inspired by a nickname given to him by his soccer coach due to his excessive weight.
Struggling to be taken seriously in the industry, during 1968 and in the following years, the young rocker played with his group on various stages without much success.
Through his efforts, he managed to be part of Hair, an opera beat about the hippie culture of the 1960s in the United States, and then from the label Motown, where he met the singer Shaun "Stoney" Murphy, with whom he would have his first tours and successes, ones that opened the door for him in 1973 to join the acclaimed Rocky Horror Showwhere he met Jim steinman, with whom he would begin to create his debut feature.
After years of work that included presence in the cinema, sporadic theater presentations and collaborations with other artists, after more than five years of work, in 1977 Bat out of hell he was finally released. His first concert was to open up to the band Cheap Trick en Chicago but the national exhibition finally arrived as a musical guest in Saturday Night Live on March 25, 1978, when the guest host, Christopher Lee, was in charge of presenting it to the public.
It was thus that the man once known as Marvin lee, wrapped in an irregular charm that would later be defined as rock opera, became a bat to create one of the most important characters in rock history.
With his song that bears the same name as the album, which has an impressive length of 9 minutes and 52 seconds and features epic guitar riffs, the sounds of a speeding motorcycle, the musician reaches a kind of loud volume that seems to be on the verge of exploit.
Steinman's goal was to make a song about the most extreme car accident of all time, and the result is just that.
After the triumphant arrival of Meat Loaf to the electrifying music scene of the time, what remained of the 1970s and 1980s would be a turbulent journey of gripping theatricality and a sound that not only became one of rock's purest, but also defined the narrative form that many bands they would adopt for years to come.
Although the early hits were controversial for their time, as critics believed they fed suburban teens a constant supply of death fantasies, their sound's seemingly light romantic sensibilities soon gave way to a form of rock music more considered and more and more controversial to the forms of Dylan, The Rolling Stones and others who ruled the time.
Richard corliss, who wrote for The New York Times In 1967, he described Meat's new selection of rock songs and his own as novel, high-end, and truly out of the question.
"Our music has fever, fantasy, violence, passion, rebellion and fun, other music does not have those things," Steinman told the British journalist simon kinnersley in 1978. "Punk misses romance and fantasy, and since it comes from a different class society, it cannot relate, but we are trying to get away from the synthesis of homogenized rock and roll."
Max weinberg, who played drums on the early albums, described the songs as "mini plays, mini operas," which in his words, "make you feel like you're watching a full recital when you listen to them."
In the end, maybe Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman and that group that arrived like a bat out of hell were musicians out of their time, although without a doubt their sound spans several decades without ever fully fitting into any of them.
In a way, the music of this overweight singer and his band serves as a testament to his unique style that didn't inspire a lot of copycats because they didn't really get it, and that's where his greatness lies as, although there are great pop ballads in nowadays, none has been able to bring together the romanticism and attitude of this band that has well earned its recognition.
As of today, the first installment of the trilogy Bat out of hell has become the fifth best-selling album of all time, according to Billboard, further inspiring an award-winning live show that has drawn new audiences for the band.