Bat Out of Hell

Yesterday was my birthday and I was trying to remember various birthdays throughout my life. I suppose the first one I remember is when I was a wee lad enjoying being feted and I wondered, "What day will my birthday be next year?" I guess I hadn't quite grasped the concept yet.

One birthday I played golf, one of only a couple times I've ever played. I've had a few surprise parties, on my fortieth my sister flew up from Houston to surprise me. On my twenty-first birthday I was in a cast of Romeo and Juliet at college, and they gave me a cake. I used the leftover cake as my only food intake for a few days, due to a lack of funds.

It would be cool to be able to go back and see what each birthday was like. On one birthday, my 17th, my mom took me shopping to some department store in Paramus, NJ. If I recall correctly, I bought Meat Loaf's debut album, Bat Out of Hell (I also think I bought Let It Be by The Beatles). Meat Loaf himself was going to appear later at a signing. My mother graciously asked if I wanted to stay, but I replied in the negative--getting autographs has never been my thing (if I go to public appearances, it's by pretty girls). Thus my one chance to meet Meat Loaf went by the wayside.

Bat Out of Hell was a hugely popular record that year. It was released in September, 1977, but by spring of 1978 it was a big seller, and somewhat later I imagine Meat Loaf could do without signing gigs in New Jersey malls. It is now one of the best selling albums of all time, selling 43 million copies. I listened to it again last night for the first time in decades and it holds up quite well, and I found myself remembering most of the lyrics.

Bat Out of Hell is full of testosterone. There are love songs that might appeal to girls, but this was an album for pimply boys who wanted to have sex and ride motorcycles, perhaps at the same time. It was as subtle as slap in the face and deliriously over the top, as befits someone with Meat Loaf's leather lungs. Jim Steinman wrote the songs, and one of his influences is Wagner, who is a classical composer who probably would have gotten rock an roll. He was also influenced by Bruce Springsteen. Todd Rundgren, who produced the album, thought it was a parody of the Boss.The title song, also the opening track, can be seen as an amped up alternate of "Jungleland":

"The sirens are screamin'
And the fires are howlin'
Way down in the valley tonight
There's a man in the shadows
With a gun in his eye
And a blade shinin' oh so bright
There's evil in the air
And there's thunder in the sky
And a killer's on the bloodshot streets
Oh and down in the tunnel
Where the deadly are rising
Oh I swear I saw a young boy
Down in the gutter
He was starting to foam in the heat"

Even two members of the E Street Band, Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg, played on the record! Then, the last verse, which is repeated, has the singer dying after a motorcycle crash, and Meat Loaf sings it as if it were Handel's "Messiah":

"Then I'm dying at the bottom of a pit In the blazin' sun
 Torn and twisted
 At the foot of a burnin' bike
And I think somebody somewhere
Must be tolling a bell
And the last thing I see
Is my heart, still beatin'
Breakin' out of my body
And flyin' away
Like a bat out of Hell"

I love this song, almost ten minutes of pure adrenaline, with guitars sounding like motorcycles and emotions worn on sleeves. The intro, featuring mostly Bittan on piano, sets the stage for what is about to come.

The album is basically divided between high-energy rock and slow, intense love ballads. The rockers "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth" and "All Revved Up With No Place to Go" are first-rate (with Edgar Winter on sax). The other rock song is the indelible "Paradise By the Dashboard Light," another number of epic length (I once bought a dance from a stripper and it turned out to be this song, which meant I got more than twice what a usual song bought). The ageless tale of two teenagers about to lose their virginity in a parked car, it has become an anthem for youthful rebellion, as well as a new way to fame for Yankee great Phil Rizzuto, who calls the game as the boy is about to hit paydirt.

But my favorite part is what comes next, when the girl demands eternal love (this may be sexist, but I don't think any boy would stop proceedings at that moment for such hysterics). The boy asks to "sleep on it," but she presses on  and he snaps:

"I couldn't take it any longer
Lord I was crazed
And when the feeling came upon me
Like a tidal wave
I started swearing to my god and on my mother's grave
That I would love you to the end of time
I swore that I would love you to the end of time!
So now I'm praying for the end of time
To hurry up and arrive
'Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you
I don't think that I can really survive
I'll never break my promise or forget my vow
But God only knows what I can do right now
I'm praying for the end of time
It's all that I can do
Praying for the end of time,
So I can end my time with you!"

Meat Loaf, who was an actor and went on to continue acting, has had some hits since then, but nothing like this. There have been two Bat Out of Hell sequels, but I've never listened to them because it doesn't feel right. Steinman has written other hits, notably "Total Eclipse of the Heart," which didn't go to Meat Loaf but instead to Bonnie Tyler. He now has a musical based on Bat Out of Hell playing in London, and a friend saw it and liked it quite a bit. It's due for an American tour soon, and I'd love to see it.

So as I recall birthdays, Bat Out of Hell is a prominent memory.