R.I.P Meat Loaf

 1.21.22 

    2022 really had to go and take my man Meat Loaf, fucking Robert Paulson, like that? The dad in Tenacious D's The Pick of Destiny?!?!


Damn... 

    I'll be honest for a moment. This death really brought me down a notch or two. I really admired him and his work from his albums to his film work. Really fantastic artist in my eyes and a real influence on me being a heavy set guy. Article #2 for 2022 was me going to be gushing over the Moon Knight trailer and my connection with that character, but Meat Loaf takes higher importance. 

    I was once a young hungry pre-teen who dug around everywhere for rock music to discover and digest. I have no idea if it was my Mom or Dad's but I came across a burned CD for "Bat Out of Hell." I wasn't immediately pulled into it with it being a little intimidating with having seven songs with a forty-six minute runtime. Damn those are some hefty songs. This was a point before I sunk my teeth into, yet was intrigued by, progressive music that expanded beyond the verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus/chorus structure. So I put that album away for the time being. 

    I was a curious little kid who basically absorbed music, particularly rock and metal, history like a sponge. So I would watch stuff on music channels like VH1's Top 100 Songs of [insert decade/genre here], Pop-Up Video, Behind the Music, and especially this show Classic Albums that would break down terrific albums track by track and just what made them so great. God did I love that show and all the music I wouldn't have been exposed to! Then there was this guy that just kept popping back up: Meat Loaf. Then I remembered that album I had put away months before and decided to try it out. 

    Bat Out of Hell is one hell of a record. I can describe it as a rock opera crossed with a Broadway musical. It's just such a nutty record that is practically has everything going against it yet turned into one of rock's greatest selling albums. 

    One of these days I outta break down that record and just gush over its theatrical lyrics, the dynamic performances, the near connective thread all the songs have with one another. Alas, I simply don't have the time and would rather keep this article short and to the point. The idea of gushing over my favorite albums is a super tempting idea. Maybe I'll humor that idea one of these days, wink wink. 

    Meat's death was after his collaborative partner's, Jim Steinman, death in April, 2021. It's poetic in a way that these two creatives that made some of music's best work would go out not long after the other passes. It's just one thing to be grateful for that they had one more album together after years of not being on good terms. 2016's Braver Than We Are. Good stuff in there, man - you should check it out. 

    R.I.P Meat Loaf. 2022 is off with huge deaths but with some great, great songs left behind. 

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