Meat Loaf-Bat Out Of Hell (1977)


 

Artist: Meat Loaf

Title: Bat Out Of Hell

Label: Epic/Cleveland International

Format: LP

Cat #: PE 34974

Year of Release:1977

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1977 Terre Haute Pressing

Listed Condition: G+/VG with original inner sleeve

Sell Date: 1/21/22

Sell Price: $6.99

Discogs Last Sold: 1/24/22 $29.98 VG+/VG

Low: $2.00 G+/G+ 10/27/21 

Median: $12.66

Average: $15.78

High: $42.95 NM/NM 4/21/21

Current low price: $2.98 G+/no cover, $5.88 G+/G+, $15.00 VG/VG

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 25

Have/Want: 10951/845

Where Sold: Yukon, OK

Time it took to sell: 7 years

Where and When Bought: That's Entertainment Worcester dollar bin circa '81

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B

Sad To See It Go: No

The passing of Meat Loaf has made for a run on this dollar bin classic.  Personally I didn't know whether upon relistening to it whether I'd give it an A or an F.  I was leaning toward D- for the 5 emphatic Todd Rundgren notes after "I'm gonna ride a black phantom bike!" during the title track, before I gave my first real listen in 40 years.   

I took this out of the library relentlessly in '77-8.  Every single track is seared into my brain.  By the time I bought a dollar bin copy in the early 80's I was long burnt on the record and never played it after the initial purchase spin.  The radio hit "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad"  I never needed to hear again, but "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" always sucked in.  Will the fat man get to home? Not without a price.

Throwing on the headphones and giving this a cranked up start to finish, the first thought that came to my mind was this is a blue collar Born To Run.  Then looking at the liner notes I realized that Roy Bitten and Max Weinberg are representing E Street on the record.  Todd Rundgren's guitar is all over this album and he mixed it.  They are slumming it in Meat's neighborhood.  Yeah, the Boss was for elitist liberals like me and my dad.  Meat Loaf is for the American Populist.  The sort of guy that would never leave an unhappy marriage, or would die before submitting to a Covid shot.  He paid the cost to be a boss of his fantasy football league.

That said, I enjoyed Bat Out Of Hell start to finish, but Steinman piano ballads like "Heaven Can Wait" and the closer "For Cryin' Out Loud (You Know I Love You)" not to mention "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad" made me come to my senses.   I almost did it and gave the album a straight A for the combination of childhood nostalgia of "Paradise..." and the excellent Rundgren guitar throughout, as well as total track by track, childhood self-induced familiarity.  Disliking this is like disliking Billy Joel's The Stranger.  Try as I may to deny it, they were foundational records of my boyhood (we're talking age 7/8) and I cannot escape their wrath.  Jim Steinman be damned.  Damn thee to Hell!!!!

You know what it's like all revved up and no place to go.

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