I’ve always hated meatloaf. Ground beef chopped up with ketchup and carrots and who knows what else, with a mysteriously gelatinous consistency… I shudder just thinking about it. So when I got a CD from the library by a musician with the name of Meat Loaf, I was already predisposed to be suspicious.

I’d never heard of Meat Loaf the musician until a friend suggested that I listen to the first album a few weeks ago. So I looked in vain at our local library and instead came home with the mega-hit album Bat Out of Hell, which was originally released in 1977 and was re-released in 2002. According to the CD jacket:

Nearly 25 years after it was unleashed in 1977, Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell screams with all the fury and intensity that accompanied its 19-month stand on the Billboard LP chart, and resulted in more than 13 million copies sold in U.S. alone (twice that worldwide).

Hmmm…. unleashing fury and intensity, 19 months on the chart. That sounds promising.

The first song, Bat Out of Hell, tells the story of guy who has a one night stand and then drives away on his motorcycle “like a bat out of hell” and then ends up in an accident “dying at the bottom of a pit in the blazing sun.” The second song, You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night), begins with the following poem, recited breathlessly and dramatically:

Man: On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
Woman: Will he offer me his mouth?
Man: Yes!
Woman: Will he offer me his teeth?
Man: Yes!
Woman: Will he offer me his jaws?
Man: (whispers) Yes!
Woman: Will he offer me his hunger?
Man: (whispers) Yes!
Woman: Again! Will he offer me his hunger?
Man: (loudly) Yes!
Woman: And will he starve without me?
Man: (loudly) Yes!
Woman: And does he love me?
Man: (whispers) Yes.
Woman: (whispers) Yes.
Man: On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
Woman: (whispers) Yes.
Man: I bet you say that to all the boys.

Wow. I think that is absolutely one of the worst things that I have ever heard. The album continues to spiral downwards from there with sappy ballads, saxophone solos, and the interminable rock opera Paradise by the Dashboard Light.

Maybe if I had listened to Meat Loaf in the context of the 1970s I would have fond memories and a greater appreciation for the music. I don’t know. All I know is that I am shuddering at the thought of listening to Meat Loaf ever again.

Memorable Meat Loaf Lyrics

• And then you took the words right out of my mouth / Oh - it must have been while you were kissing me
• Oh I know you belong inside my aching heart / And can’t you see my faded Levis bursting apart
• But you’ve been cold to me so long / I’m crying icicles instead of tears
• I was a varsity tackle and a hell of a block / When I played my guitar / I made the canyons rock

Tags Meat Loaf . Bat out of Hell

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