BAT OUT OF HELL: RIP Meat Loaf

January 24, 2022 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Michael Lee Aday, better known to the world as Meat Loaf, passed away last week. In The Wall Street Journal, Dominic Green discusses Meat Loaf’s career, writing:

Meat Loaf met his Wagner in 1973, in the form of the composer, lyricist, producer and playwright Jim Steinman, when Meat Loaf auditioned for a Steinman musical, “More Than You Deserve.” It took them four years to get “Bat Out of Hell” into the studio, onto a major label, and into the shops.

Their passion and persistence was of a piece with their music: obsessive, grandiose, perverse. The critics always hated it. “If this isn’t adolescent angst in its death throes, then Buddy Holly lived his sweet, unselfconscious life in vain,” wrote Robert Christgau, the eminence of serious rock critics, in 1978. But the public got the joke and the honest enthusiasm that powered Meat Loaf’s high-camp rock.

Rock fans also got the quality of the songs and the performances. Tracks like “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” “All Revved Up With No Place to Go” and “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” became radio perennials, and are now seen as classics from the golden age of rock.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.

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