Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Day 15: Midnight at the Lost and Found

Meat Loaf was in the studio attempting to write his own songs and was fortunately rescued by Steve Buslowe.  Still, Meat was in a funk about his life and his new album. He'd presented the next batch of songs to the PtB at Epic and they picked a few of his and handed him a few others and sent him off to record. His heart wasn't in it. The characters didn't appear. He didn't  stick around to see what was in store for the final production, he was too worried about his new family.

His family was under constant attack by the public who had once embraced him...and not in a lovey fan-obsessed way. He, Leslie and their daughters moved out of NYC to a bedroom borough. It didn't take long for the media to release not only pictures of their house, but their address. Problems showed up at their door. Being flat broke and hounded didn't give them choice of running away. They stayed. They coped. Meat dealt with the stress through softball, he even coached Little League and encouraged girls to do the unthinkable and join the team.

May 1, 1983, Epic released Midnight at the Lost and Found sans Steinman and sans the Richard Corben art on the cover. There are those who would like to forget this album ever existed. That would be unfortunate. While the songs aren't the ten minute Steinman rock-sagas, there are some definite keepers. However, the album tanked commercially. Keep in mind 1983 was the year of "Every Breath You Take" by the Police, "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, and "What a Feeling (Flashdance)" by Irene Cara...oh, and yes, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler and written by Steinman.

The title track pretty much proves that Meat could make it without Steinman. 
It was all about the character of the song.

3 comments:

  1. It really bothers me how people get caught up in the lives of the famous, you know? They're people, unbelievably rich and talented people, but they're still just people. Crazy. Just crazy. Good for Meat though. He pushed through all that. That's good stuff.

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  2. He did a recent interview down under, and the reporter asked him how he felt about all this craziness at the beginning of his career. He said (liberally paraphrased), "Look, I'm 62, I've learned you can either blame other people for your problems or you can learn from them and move on. Move on, people. Move on."

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  3. Awesome! That's the kind of stuff I like to hear celebrities say (and actually follow through with).

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