Marvin Lee Aday, Meat Loaf (1947 - 2022)

With the death of Meat Loaf, the Meat Loaf tandem Aday - Jim Steinman is no more. Steinman died last year. That leaves Ellen Foley as the only pivotal person left in the creation of that grand illusion called 'Paradise By The Dashboard Light'.

I have never been a fan of Meat Loaf. Looking back in hindsight, I take it to be for the same reason that I never became a Bruce Springsteen, perhaps even a Billy Joel fan. That part of U.S. rock just never appealed to me.

Paradise By The Dashboard Light became a hit in the winter of 1978 in The Netherlands. The huge, fat man in the video made for an extremely unlikely pop star, especially in contrast with the woman he was wooing, Karla DeVito. We did not know about Ellen Foley yet. The bombast, the sweating huge man, the song as a whole, give me 'Denis', 'Wuthering Heights', 'We Are The Champions' or Lust for Life' any time said the 1978 version of me.

Did that change over the years? Oh, yeah. What made me change my mind were the parties on the 7th floor of an ugly, detonating flat in Leiden, where we sang and danced to the song, splitting up the boy girl roles. The best fun was when the girl new the lyrics well enough and had the timing right. The enormous power of the song hit home and still does in 2022. Decades older we can still do it when we meet and the song comes by in the here and now.

This is the kind of impact that a song can have on a person, strong enough to last a lifetime. Do I play the song at home? No, never. Did it make me curious to learn more? No, it did not. There's no need. I know I do not like Meat Loaf's music over all. Paradise By The Dashboard Light though has the ability to make me feel good instantly. Playing music myself now, I hear far better what happens musically, the strong shuffle worked in there, all the elements that make it such a strong song. And, yes, the drama and bombast worked in there are a huge part of it.

Meat Loaf has scored far more hits, even another number 1 hit over here. I've been told that six of the seven songs on 'Bat Out Of Hell' have found their way into the Top 2000. That is a statement of how popular the band and album still are 45 years after its release. This does imply that one of the great rockers has left this planet. Meat Loaf was just not my kind of rocker.

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