Bat Out of Hell
Day 2 of Blogagaard's Meat Loaf Appreciation Week finds us at one of the greatest rock songs of all time, Bat Out of Hell.
Oh baby you’re the only thing in this whole world That’s pure and good and right And wherever you are and wherever you go There’s always gonna be some light
Who would not want to hear their lover say these words? I challenge even the most hardened soul not to be moved by this declaration not only of love, but of belief in the goodness that this lover has for their beloved. Not since Shakespeare's sonnets to we see such un-selfconscious, lyrical poetry. Meat Loaf here shows he is braver than a hundred Brittish hooligans in leathers jackets, whining about how much their meaningless lives suck. He does not care if you think he's sappy. He's trying to be sappy. He is the ultra-sappy reaction to a world afraid to love with its entire being. And yet, he rocks at the same time. He's no prissy Michael Bolton. He'd kick Michael Bolton's ass. He wears denim. He drinks cheap beer, and rides a harley. Hell, the guitars in Bat Out of Hell sound like Harleys. Meat Loaf is James Dean with an 15th Century Italian poet's heart.
Blogagaard Loves to Ponder
About Me
- David Oppegaard
- St. Paul, Minnesota
- I am the author of And the Hills Opened Up, The Suicide Collectors, and Wormwood, Nevada.
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13 comments:
Oppe, You took the words right out of my mouth!
I cannot agree with you more. There is high romance in Meat Loaf that is second to none, and contrasted with his Harley-riding, cheap-beer-drinking behavior/persona, I don't think you can get much more beautiful than that. It is Renaissance poetry sensibility set in a trailer park. Where Romeo and Juliet has West Side Story, Rimbaud has Meat Loaf.
I'm sorry. Not Rimbaud. I was trying to be smart. Rimbaud's more Beck than Meat Loaf.
A better equivalent would be Pierre de Ronsard: "His poetry is wonderfully musical, sensuous, pagan, romantic. Although a cleric in minor orders, he was constantly celebrating the beauties and sorrows of his various loves."
Finally, someone who understand Meat Loaf as do I!
Good work, Mrs. Ash!
Meatloaf tastes good, especially when yer with a chick and, you know, doing the nasty, or almost doing the nasty, then realize yer fuckin up yer whole life by impregnating this shitty human being who will pummel you and your kids for the rest of time. Right, Mrs. Ash... PURE ROMANCE.
I imagine Blogagaard and Mrs. Ash in a gold camaro driving through Iowa in December with the windows down and it is night and the moon is out and they have Mr. Loaf blasting from the stereo speakers that Blogagaard wired and placed in the back window especially for the trip.
I was told I looked like Meat Loaf once.
And Neil Young.
Eddie Vedder (on steroids ((WTF?)))
And Sean Connery. (the current one, not the Super Mr. Scotland of the Universe one. Makes me feel great considering the fifty year age difference and the fact that he could still kick my ass Zardoz-style.)
The comments on this post are extremely disturbing to me. Thanks, everyone.
Second greatest thing Meatloaf has ever done was be the retarded biker in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Hot patootie, bless my soul. The retarded Rocky Horror biker. Meat Loaf rocked that freezer. He believed in love, unlike Frankenfurter. And his beliefs could not be contained in a freezer! I equate him to a science-fiction, soft-porn Galileo. (That one's for you, Clurg!)
As far as the Captain...please don't bring your elitist bullshit to MY Wal-Mart. Take your organic yuppie butter over to the Co-op and leave my way of life alone. No one is hurting you, and yet, you hate so much....why? High school girlfriend wouldn't go on the pill? Take it up with the Catholics.
Nobody over here wants anything to do with your way of life, Mrs. Ash.
Someone pass the pepper mill. I'm going to try a little hot hot on my cucumber sandwich.
What the hell hath the Meat wrought?
Rimbaud
West Side Story
impregnating shitty human beings
Zardoz
cucumber sandwiches
retarded bikers
Good God, I don't feel any better than when I postede before.
Meatloaf makes me feel mean. I apologize to Mrs. Ash and everyone else who reads my angry comments.
Sincerely,
The Captain
I will not apologize here, Captain. My love of Meat Loaf is fierce and I will protect it like the Mother Hen I am. We will have to agree to disagree when it comes to Mr. Loaf.
No need to apologize. You were right about my high school girlfriend, Mrs. Ash. If not for my sexual frustration, the loaf would probably sound very different to me.
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