Meat Loaf - Not Just Another Dinner Entree

Over three decades have passed since the debut of Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell album. Several albums, movies, and tumultuous lifetimes later and Meat Loaf not only endures, but has left a permanent imprint on the rock genre.

Born Marvin Lee Aday (and it is said he has since changed his legal name to Michael Lee Aday) in Dallas, Texas, Meat Loaf began his career playing in local bands. His debut album, Bat Out of Hell, (1977) was the result of the infamous collaboration between he and songwriter/lyricist Jim Steinman (and that's a story in itself). What made this album a standout? For starters, every song not only tells a story, but does so in full-blown rock opera fashion. But notably different than say Britain's Queen who actually started a few years earlier. Bat Out Of Hell - at the time -was sort of a blue-collar, down and gritty collection of coming-of-age songs.

As many of you already know, there are some interesting historical tidbits about this album: Todd Rundgren produced this album and was lead guitarist. If you look at your liner notes, you'll see other recognizable names: Edgar Winter, drummer, Max Weinberg, and singer/actress Ellen Foley.

Meat Loaf's life story reads much like his songs - with all the extreme highs and lows. It might be best to read the details directly - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_Loaf. And for a Meat Loaf video, click here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOAo43KzMIs.

In the meantime, we feature Paradise By the Dashboard Light as our song pic of the week.

Next time - Bobby Darin!