Meatloaf...my idols are passing way too quickly.

Slowly my youth idols are passing.....another singing in heaven.

(Lost my Monkee idols earlier...another talented Texan, Mr. Michael Nesmith, gone as well. Hours of my teenage years watching reruns of The Monkees and learning all their songs and absorbing the slapstick of the show.)

https://youtu.be/aKspGNCkSAc

 https://deadline.com/2022/01/meat-loaf-dead-bat-out-of-hell-rocky-horror-picture-show-1234917056/?fbclid=IwAR39U5_K1tgkjEMb4erv7SJgfXsegaqL8AInmk4vZkpChfkzFAI6DtrKR4M

A boy from Texas had gone to the big city - NYC - and made it...on his own terms. His music was emotional, expressive, and full of life. You felt what he felt, you cried when he cried. His music was recorded by others trying to add their style and emotions...but you could not top the original. (Though Barbara Streisand really rivals him on her version of Left in the Dark Again.) He understood the dramatics of the song and how to put himself in the various positions of the moment. HIs collaboration with Jim Steinman was pure magic. Jim wrote the words and Meatloaf emoted them to music.

A movie made about his life appeared in 2000: Meat Loaf: To Hell and Back. He survived being the hefty kid made fun of at school, he survived his home life, he fell and rose several times in his life. He tried everything: singing, acting, directing, editing, etc. He dealt with his demons and rose above them. If I remember the movie correctly, he performs at the Emerald Room in Dallas. I have stood on that stage...closest that I ever was to actually meeting him.

He sang rock opera....and I listened. I wanted to be him. I wanted to be singing with him. I wanted to power ballad my way into performing on stage.

Did I? Perhaps at times. But not to his successful ends.

I played his albums over and over until they were unplayable. Now we have the luxury of technology to find, store, and enjoy his work again.

I guess Steinman had some ideas and needed Meatloaf to collaborate while Nesmith listened. Safe journey Marvin-Eddie-Meatloaf.

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Side note to loving Meatloaf-singer not the dinner-I won a religious game show in NYC by answering a question about the album Bat Out Of Hell.

Advanced to the next round and evidentially came in second place overall. (Listened and learned when I was in Catholic school-and retained.)

Won a nice set of luggage. First prize was a trip to Jerusalem. Easy to see where the prize budget went.

Somewhere on VHS, I have a copy of the show. Aired locally only.

I think that I finally wore the last piece of that luggage out last year. Good luggage really.