Thursday, April 15, 2010

Day 27: It's Paradise, Rocky

Bat Out of Hell took a while to make -- not so much for Steinman to write most of the songs or for Meat Loaf to perform them. It was about the all too familiar artistic struggle with "I have this fantastic piece of genius, I just need a label/publisher/distributor so I can share it with the world...oh, yeah, and get paid for it." During the years, yes, years, of getting Bat I from concept to vinyl, Meat Loaf continued to work at various fascinating gigs, some of which I will share in future posts, but there's one more tale to tell before leaving the story of how Eddie changed Meat's life.

Meat Loaf has something of an obsession with music videos, specifically, of being in them and of using them as promotion vehicles for his music. Makes complete sense for a guy who is an actor and a singer, for a guy who makes more money ($287/wk) to be on the musical stage. Alas, he was a music video champion a decade before MTV. Back in the Motown days, he tried to convince the label to make these short TV promos of Stoney and him singing. Motown wasn't a fan of the idea, matter of fact, Motown initially tried to hide the fact they had two white artists on their label, so TV promos of a big sweaty white guy weren't gonna happen.

Rocky Horror Picture Show yet again delivered on this artist's sweet spot. Meat convinced Lou Adler to add "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" as a trailer to RHS. When the movie premiered in 1975 it tanked. When it hit the midnight showings, it gave birth to its cult following...a following that was introduced to Meat Loaf and Ellen Foley singing "Paradise" via movie trailers.

So, I gotta know right NOW, before we go any further, do you love Meat? Will you love Meat forever?


3 comments:

  1. So, I had to tell my brother about your Meat Loaf-ganza...and he was like 'AWESOME!'. Then we got to discussing what we like about Meat Loaf. This is one of those songs I truly enjoy by him. Didn't realize it played before RHPS though. I salute you, ma'am!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes! Another Meat fan! The mid 70s seem to be "the" years for Meat's "exactly how many balls can I throw in the air and hope someone catches them."

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm just praying for the end of time to hurry up and arrive...

    ReplyDelete