RIP Meat Loaf

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Wezzo
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RIP Meat Loaf

Post by Wezzo »

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60080934

Meat Loaf has died at 74. No cause of death has been revealed.

Bat Out of Hell is in the all-time top 1000 acclaimed albums on AM and ranks as one the 10 best-sellers of all-time too.

I enjoyed his music a lot, particularly his collaborations with Jim Steinman, who died last year. I have 15 of his songs in my top 1000, which I think makes me his "biggest fan" of those who voted in the all-time songs poll. He had a magnificent voice, particularly pre-2000, though he still put on a great show when I saw him live a decade or so ago.

He was also an actor, with memorable performances in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Fight Club.
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StevieFan13
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Re: RIP Meat Loaf

Post by StevieFan13 »

I was just listening to Paradise by the Dashboard Light the other day and remembering how good a song it was. He may not have always been the most lovable human being, but the man could sing his ass off. He will be missed.
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Harold
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Re: RIP Meat Loaf

Post by Harold »

Wezzo wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 10:26 am He was also an actor, with memorable performances in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Fight Club.
In death, a member of Project Mayhem has a name ... His name is Marvin Lee Aday!

Sorry. Someone had to do it. R.I.P., big man. You will be missed.
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StevieFan13
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Re: RIP Meat Loaf

Post by StevieFan13 »

Harold wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:53 pm
Wezzo wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 10:26 am He was also an actor, with memorable performances in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Fight Club.
In death, a member of Project Mayhem has a name ... His name is Marvin Lee Aday!

Sorry. Someone had to do it. R.I.P., big man. You will be missed.
I personally think his most memorable performance is as Jack Black's dad in Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, but that's just me (jeez, now both him AND Ronnie James Dio are dead...).
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand - Sir Duke (1976)
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Live in Phoenix
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Re: RIP Meat Loaf

Post by Live in Phoenix »

He played the AZ State Fair in 2015. Concert admission there is free, but for some reason, my wife and I did not have our act together to go see it. I'm not exactly a big fan, but usually there's one act there every year where I think, Yeah, we'll go see them if we end up seeing anybody. (Covid has completely ruined this. The Fair hasn't even had concert acts lately.)

Admittedly, some of why I wanted to go was to see him potentially blow a gasket. I'd sort of seen him do this on the Rosie O'Donnell show, and I definitely saw him lose his shit with Gary Busey on some reality show. I was clued into the latter from a Cracked article, back when I used to read them. They were like, We get that reality shows should be taken with a grain of salt, but it really looks like a bout of molten blackout rage. (Maybe this was due to his odd feast-or-famine career, at least in America. Maybe he'd been screwed over in his time, too.)

I remember being offended that Meat Loaf was topping the charts when grunge was at its peak. Teenagers can be territorial about what music is supposed to be good, what people should be listening to, all that. It was even worse when he said something at the time like you shouldn't look on stage like you just came off the street, which seemed like a swipe at the current scene. (It's war, now, Meat Loaf!) Now I find it amusing that he could have had a blockbuster hit in that environment, after being in the wilderness for so long. Ironically, in the Heavier Than Heaven book, it's mentioned that many years ago, Kurt Cobain was profiled in the school newspaper, and his favorite rock group was Meat Loaf. I doubt Cobain was still a Meat Loaf fan in 1993, but he must have found something amusing about In Utero having to compete with his rock idol from an early age. (If you have the time, you could try to find or imagine a vestige of musical influence. Both acts, if nothing else, had a pretty high sense of musical drama.)
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Rob
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Re: RIP Meat Loaf

Post by Rob »

Bat out of Hell must be my father's most played album, so I heard it a lot growing up. Besides that, Paradise By the Dashboard was the first song I danced to in public (meaning with other people than family or friends present). I was so embarrassed afterwards that I couldn't hear the song for a couple of years without experiencing deep shame. Thanks, Meat Loaf.

I do like Bat Out of Hell though, especially the title track. The album is a good example of how over-the-top should be done. Everything about it is larger than life, albeit with a sense of humor, but the music is also really well done. It's one of the best-selling albums of all time and always feels like a weird one on that list. I feel that the hit status of the record also makes it being despised by the people you'd think like it. A shame, because if you like cartoonish rock opera you can hardly find better.

Rest in peace, big man.
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Schüttelbirne
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Re: RIP Meat Loaf

Post by Schüttelbirne »

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the one movie I have seen the most times in my life (over 50 for sure). "Hot Patootie" is not one of my absolute favorites, but in just one scene he was able to give his very limited character a number of mannerisms that make him very memorable.

I also agree about Bat Out of Hell being a great album. He had this ability to make over-the-top grandeur seem awesome (which is harder than it sounds). There's this epic 12 minute version of "I'd Do Anything for Love" which is very much like that.
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