Meat Loaf and the album ‘Bat Out of Hell’

It saddened me to learn yesterday of the passing of musician and actor Marvin Lee Aday, better known by his stage name Meat Loaf. It was 1977 that the debut album for Meat Loaf, Bat Out of Hell, was released. We look today into the music of the 45-year-old album. Check out our review of the David Fincher movie Fight Club (1999), which starred Meat Loaf in a supporting role.

(This is the cover art for the album Bat Out of Hell by performer Meat Loaf).

The album Bat Out of Hell opens with a song title Bat Out of Hell, a loud and proud cacophony of sound that hits you with a declaration of rootedness of hard rock and arena rock in the pop/rock fusion that is Meat Loaf‘s signature sound. The album declares a performance physicality that also matches the style of Meat Loaf, with a focus on youthful relationships and discovery in love.

(You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night) backs up the album opener as a power ballad for the album Bat Out of Hell).

You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night) as a power ballad picks up from the album opener with spoken words by Marcia McClain and songwriter Jim Steinman. The unique quality of this song’s introduction stands out for me as much as the catchy quality of the tune itself, which discusses how youthful passion can interfere with declaring love.

(From left, Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf (Marvin Lee Aday). Steinman wrote all the songs for the album Bat Out of Hell).

The third song for Bat Out of Hell is Heaven Can Wait, a legitimate ballad focusing on piano and singing. While focusing on the experience of true love, the composition itself is less up-tempo than the rest of the album. The song deserves more recognition, in my estimation, for offering a quality statement of feeling in a manner appropriate for the message.

(Meat Loaf (Marvin Lee Aday) is the lead male singer for all the songs on his album Bat Out of Hell).

As the song that follows Heaven Can Wait, All Revved Up with No Place to Go offers a horn-based tempo somewhere between the song that precedes it and You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night). The song is a clear expression of teenage loneliness with a desire to act upon the nudge offered by the feelings presented by Mother Nature.

(Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad opens the second side of the Bat Out of Hell album by Meat Loaf).

Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad serves as the opening track of the second side of the Bat Out of Hell album as originally released on vinyl. The song serves as a ballad about the elusive nature of love, getting into the notions of want and need while falling short on the goal of true love.

(From left, Karla DeVito and Meat Loaf (Marvin Lee Aday) perform the song Paradise by the Dashboard Light).

Paradise by the Dashboard Light is a song in three major parts sung for the album by Ellen Foley and Meat Loaf. Karla DeVito performed the song on tour with Meat Loaf. ‘Paradise’ as the opening movement of the song is the notion of sex in a car for a teenage boy trying to convince a girl to have sex, with ‘Let Me Sleep on It’ representing a negotiation for love in exchange for paradise, and finally ‘Praying for the End of Time’ representing the kids honor as he stays in a relationship with the woman after receiving paradise, yet finds that he has not accomplished love. Former New York Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto narrated the baseball sequence in the song.

(Paradise by the Dashboard Light serves as a long single where the mixture of having sex in a car ends badly).

For Crying Out Loud is the final of seven songs envisioned for the original album, with arrangement support for much of the music offered by Todd Rundgren. The piano play for the first three-minutes of the song is fantastic, with what I presume includes Rundgren‘s fingerprints present. The song lyrically offering the note of metaphorical “out loud crying” coupled with lyrics that suggest Meat Loaf’s love for a lady coming from her verbal expressiveness also work.

(From left, Meat Loaf (Marvin Lee Aday) and Todd Rundgren performing on stage in support of Meat Loaf music).

There you have my look into what is an album that stands well within the rock & roll canon of youthful feelings of love. I am saddened at the passing of Marvin Lee Aday; yet I appreciate the music he left behind with Bat Out of Hell as Meat Loaf.

Matt – Saturday, January 22, 2022

George Vecsey and the book ‘Stan Musial: An American Life’

Engaging in sports themed subject matter while additionally getting into seasonally specific baseball themed biography makes me happy. Landing on the George Vecsey biography Stan Musial: An American Life from May, 2011 brings me to an enjoyable summer read.

(Stan Musial grew up in Donora, Pennsylvania, about an hour’s drive south Pittsburgh. Musial played professional baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals.)

National Baseball Hall of Famer Stan Musial grew up in Donora, Pennsylvania. Donora is roughly an hour’s drive south of Pittsburgh. Besides being famous for being Musial‘s childhood home, the Deadly Donora Smog of 1948 also put this town on the map in environmental circles. Musial would make his Major League Baseball debut with the St. Louis Cardinals of St. Louis, Missouri on September 14, 1941, roughly two-months short of his twenty-first birthday.

(George Vecsey wrote Stan Musial: An American Life, which was published in May of 2011).

Stan Musial: An American Life was written from a perspective of reverence, memory and with a native New Yorker’s perspective and personality. George Vecsey grew up in Queens, a borough of New York City in New York. Born in July of 1939, there was a generational awareness for Vecsey that came with knowing that Musial had a reputation for not being a gambler or drinker while also being a good hitter and ballplayer. Musial‘s smoking, attitude about supporting the effort during World War Two, and integration of Major League Baseball in a city like St. Louis, Missouri were raised.

(From left, Stan Musial and Albert Pujols. The two are possibly the most revered St. Louis Cardinals to play the game of baseball).

The book Stan Musial: An American Life doesn’t follow the traditional narrative structure some look for in a biography. That is, the book doesn’t follow a chronological approach in seeking to fill in factual information that gives you a sense of the man and his struggle. The storytelling follows a more topical approach, with arguably a bit more of the author’s personal reasons of time, place and the prevailing culture of the age being reasons for revering Stan Musial. Judging Musial as a man by the prevailing norms of the period, with some of Musial‘s military service record coming up in something less than the most flattering light in those terms, being as hard hitting as the author gets.

(Barack Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Stan Musial in 2011).

Vecsey going into the respect between Albert Pujols and Musial. Making arguments of relative reputations and respect among Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees, Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, and Stan Musial of the Cardinals came up, as did the Presidental Medal of Freedom awarded to Musial by United States President Barack Obama in 2011. The biography that is Stan Musial: An American Life by George Vecsey earns 3.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, July 10, 2021

Kevin Costner, Kelly Preston and the film ‘For Love of the Game’

First there was Bull Durham (1988). Second there was Field of Dreams (1989). Third there was For Love of the Game (1999). At the time of this review, Kevin Costner has since narrated a baseball piece and played a former baseball player in another film. The movies Bull Durham, Field of Dreams and For Love of the Game reflect the stellar stable of baseball movies starring Kevin Costner.

(John C. Reilly as Gus Sinski, left, and Kevin Costner as Billy Chapel in For Love of the Game).

Michael Shaara wrote the book For Love of the Game, which became the 1999 film of the same name. In the film, we are introduced to battery mates Gus Sinski and Billy Chapel of the Detroit Tigers heading to New York City to play the New York Yankees. John C. Reilly and Kevin Costner play Sinski and Chapel, respectively. The audience learns early that the Tigers have had a losing season, are getting sold, and Chapel as the star of the Tigers is likely to be traded following the season. Add to this that the Yankees need a win to make the playoffs.

 

(J.K. Simmons as Detroit Tigers manager Frank Perry in For Love of the Game).

Chapel is called onto pitch. Being loyal to his friend, Chapel makes the demand to Tigers manager Frank Perry that Gus Sinski, who hasn’t hit well all season, will continue to catch him that day if Perry wants Chapel to start. As an ending to the season and possibly a career, Perry was not going to deny the demand. J.K. Simmons portrayed manager Frank Perry.

(Kevin Costner as Billy Chapel, left, and Kelly Preston as Jane Aubrey in For Love of the Game).

It is among all this that Billy Chapel’s love interest, Jane Aubrey, has declared to the veteran pitcher that she, Jane, has accepted a job in London and would be leaving the same day Chapel is due to pitch. Being poised in the face of the adversity of losing a loyal owner, his team, his career, and his love interest, we see this story roll out into the telling of a pitcher putting everything on the line in pitching the game of a career as he, Billy Chapel, copes with his feelings of loss through the recollections of a relationship with Jane Aubrey, and as we learn her daughter Heather, between innings and batters. Kelly Preston plays Jane Aubrey as Jena Malone plays Heather Aubrey.

(Kevin Costner as Billy Chapel, left, and Jena Malone as Heather Aubrey in For Love of the Game).

In being a game about baseball and an ethos portrayed in a single game, the central question of the movie really centers on something different. The question becomes what love can Billy Chapel and Jane Aubrey believe in and make after Chapel’s career. The movie spent effort to show the romance and passion between the two as well as that between Chapel and the game of baseball. The mystery of this, combined with the hook of a baseball story, gives the viewer a sports romance film. The movie works at that level, and makes for decent date movie material. I grade the experience at 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, March 28, 2020

Bobby Richardson, David Thomas and the book ‘Impact Player’

Bobby Richardson of a small town in South Carolina played second base for the New York Yankees. Richardson was the World Series Most Valuable Player in 1960, despite the Pittsburgh Pirates winning the series in a last at bat, game winning home run by Bill Mazeroski. With David Thomas, Bobby Richardson wrote the book Impact Player: Leaving a Lasting Legacy On and Off The Field.

(Bobby Richardson of the New York Yankees).

Impact Player: Leaving a Lasting Legacy On and Off The Field serves as a biography for Bobby Richardson that gets into his story as an impact player in baseball as well as in his religious experience as a Christian. Much of the story told here focuses a bit on the players, a bit on the sport and life of a ballplayer, and a bit on the time in which Richardson came up and played in the game.

(Mickey Mantle, Bobby Richardson and Whitey Ford of the New York Yankees).

Much of the story told includes the life and faith journey of Richardson, as well as the story that teammate Mickey Mantle experienced in having a different path along that road. Also expressed were Richardson‘s thoughts on Whitey Ford as a fantastic pitcher, and the experiences shared by each of those three during their shared playing years. The story of the chase for 61 home runs for Mantle and Roger Maris also was told. Of particular interest toward the end of the story was Mantle‘s path to faith towards the end of Mantle‘s life.

(Bobby Richardson and Betsy Richardson).

Richardson was forthcoming, as much as a man of his era and upbringing permitted, to be open about the relationship he shared with his wife, Betsy. The book gets into the story of how they met, dated during baseball, and the way things occurred with their kids before, during and after baseball season. The story of communication differences and eventually getting to a place where Bobby and Betsy were able to speak the languages they needed for expressing love in a relationship were shared. That they came to share this was a revelation I expect was hard for Bobby Richardson to share. Much of the full biography is told from Richardson‘s perspective, thus making the book a bit more autobiography than straight biography.

(Gino Cimoli of the Pittsburgh Pirates, sliding, and Bobby Richardson of the New York Yankees, fielding, in the 1960 World Series).

The book was an entertaining and quick read. The larger messages of truth to your path, acceptance by others and surrounding yourself with people that will support you, and to offer testimony aimed at offering his experience in faith. That latter truth will not be for all readers, though the fact that Richardson spoke on this isn’t a barrier for me that it might be for others. Those looking for salacious details, or a tell all experience, would do better with Ball Four by Jim Bouton. My grade for Impact Player: Leaving a Lasting Legacy On and Off The Field is 3.50-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, December 18, 2019