Until this week, I'd never really paid much attention to Meat Loaf (i.e. the singer, not the poor excuse for a dinner that feeds the multitude). I picked up Bat Out Of Hell, and I have to say, it's fucking hilarious, but in the best possible way. The songwriting, of course, rips off Springsteen completely (compare the title track with Springsteen's Thunder Road and laugh yourself through the entire nine minutes). Heck, he's even got Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg from the E Street Band playing piano and drums, respectively. But, all credit to Jim Steinman, he's really made Thunder Road work for him: he's got an entire, awesome, album out of one song. Of course, at the end of the day, Springsteen's sprawled genius, displayed over dozens of albums over the last 3 decades, shines much more than Meat Loaf's/Steinman's artistry. But credit where credit is due: Bat Out Of Hell is amazing in the same way that The Beatles albums were amazing. The influences are worn earnestly on the sleeve, and they've stolen very successfully: they've made it their own. And today, a band like The Killers has clearly benefited from this blatant swipe: their grandiose musical and lyrical language is straight out of the same Hell that the Bat came from. (Of course, they want to be played on radio, so the songs are about a third the length of Meat Loaf's, but that's just pragmatism.)
A lot of music fans (read: snobs) hate Meat Loaf. I don't really understand why - most of them love Queen, and both acts obviously share this melodramatic, and very melodic, sensibility (not to mention the MASSIVE voices). Maybe it's because Meat Loaf steals more blatantly than Queen? But then so did Dylan, The Beatles, Springsteen (in the first place!), et al. Everyone steals. Meat Loaf made squillions of dollars from his theft - maybe this is the reason for the dismissal? But so did all of the above people. I think Meat Loaf's been made into a scapegoat for the more 'pure' artistes to scorn.
Fuck 'em. Seriously.
4 comments:
I can't recall the last time I heard anybody laying scorn on meatloaf (or talking about him at all). Straw man arguments, Rob, they get you nowhere.
On the other hand, maybe people dismiss him because of the insane song length. My reason is purely aesthetic: I can watch Freddy Mercury dance around in drag singing "I Want to Break Free" all day, but I'd rather not watch Meatloaf do anything at all.
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