Friday morning stunner ... rest in peace Meat
Describing his meeting with Mr. Steinman to the British music magazine Mojo in 2017, Meat Loaf said he auditioned with a song called “(I’d Love to Be as) Heavy as Jesus.” Mr. Steinman, impressed, told him, “By the way, you’re as heavy as two Jesuses.”
“It was my kind of humor,” Meat Loaf recalled.
Later, Mr. Steinman was trying to write a post-apocalyptic musical based on “Peter Pan,” but, unable to secure the rights for the tale, he turned the work into “Bat Out of Hell,” bringing in Meat Loaf to give the songs the style and energy that made them hits.
The album, elaborately produced by Todd Rundgren, mingled hard-rock power chords, 1950s-style bubble gum and flashes of disco beats in songs that unfolded in multipart suites; the title track stretches nearly 10 minutes. In some ways the album resembled rock-style Broadway musicals like “Hair,” in which Meat Loaf had performed early in his career.
Its roster of backup musicians was stellar, including players from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band like the drummer Max Weinberg and the keyboardist Roy Bittan. Members of the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra contributed; the eight-and-a-half-minute “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” even includes the Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto giving a baseball play-by-play that doubled as the description of a seduction.
Born Marvin Lee Aday, he sold millions of albums, won a Grammy and acted in films including “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Fight Club.”
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... rest in peace Estelle Harris