The Early Years:
Marvin Lee Aday got called 'Meat loaf'
after stepping on the foot of his high school football coach, and the name
stuck. Even the, Meat Loaf (born 27 Sep. '48) was weighty.
He was from a gospel-singing family in Dallas, Texas, so it wasn't surprising
that he should opt for a career as a vocalist. He was certainly built
for it, and in '67 moved to LA where he formed 
Meat Loaf Soul, who became Popcorn Blizzard, who were quite successful.
They opened local concerts who such acts as the Who, the Winter Brothers,
Iggy Pop and Ted Nungent, and it was while living in a commune that Meat
met an actor who suggested he audition for a part in the musical "Hair",
playing at the nearby (appropriately named) Aquarian Theater.
Meat Loaf got the job - he was cast as
Ulysses S. Grant - and so his second career, which would run parallel with
his singing career, began. The production toured, and while in Detroit
Meat Loaf and singer-actress Stoney (who played Sheila) cut an album for
Motown's Rare Earth label, toured on the back of it with Alice Cooper and
Rare Earth, and even notched up a minor American hit:
"What You See Is What You Get" by Stoney
and Meat Loaf hit US:71 in 1971. Stoney soon quit, later to join
Bob Seger's band as a backing singer, and Meat returned to "Hair", now
playing Cleveland Ohio.
That particular touring production folded
at the end of '71 in New York, and Meat Loaf 
was
then cast as Buddha in the musical "Rainbow" which ran from 1972-4.
He then switched roles to appear in the off-Broadway musical "More Than
You Deserve", written by Jim Steinman, a precocious and inventive New Yorker
(who'd been brought up in California) but who'd re-relocated to get back
to the Great White Way. Steinman also sang, but at the time he was
auditioning for his play, his nose was broken by a female biker and he
couldn't utter a decent note. When Meat Loaf appeared for the audition,
Steinman was overwhelmed by Meat's voice and presence and declared, "This
guy is my voice! He should be singing Wagnerian rock opera!"
Meat and Steinman became friends and colleagues
and in 1975 Meat Loaf opened at the Belasco Theater on Broadway playing
Eddie and Dr Scott in Richard O'Brien's "Rocky Horror Show"; later he would
be in the movie. Subsequent adventures over the next couple of years
included touring the States with the National Lampoon Road Show, playing
the priest in "Rockabye Hamlet" (yes, a rock version of Hamlet), singing
Ted Nungent's album "Free For All", and, in 1977, rehearsing with Steinman
at the Ansonia Hotel, NY, on Steinman's songs for "Neverland" (yes, a futuristic
rock version of Peter Pan).
There "Bat Out Of Hell" was conceived,
Steinman's 'Wagnerian rock opera' vision of Meat Loaf. Rarely has
this kind of craziness been pulled off so well, and against such 
massive
odds. The project was originally intended for RCA records, but they
refuse to let Todd Rundgren produce, so Steinman pulled out. The
actual recording was financed through Albert Grossman's Bearsville Records
(Todd Rundgren's Label), who were distributed by Warner Brothers Records,
but WB wouldn't spend enough on promotion, so Steinman backed off again.
Eventually manager david Sonenberg persuaded the fledgling Cleveland International
to play the tapes to Epic.
Epic saw the light. What Meat Loaf,
Steinman and Rundgren had actually done was take the pomp / metal /hard
rock excesses of the early-mid '70s, (all of which were 
getting
a bit sluggish) and inject them with the New Wave energy of the late '70s,
resulting in one of the most dynamic rock albums of all time (it
stayed on the UK charts for an astonishing 400 weeks). When Epic
parent company CBS held its 1977 convention in New Orleans, Meat Loaf performed
live to the assembled executives and his impact was so great that the promotional
films were immediately commissioned for no less than three of the tracks
on the forth coming "Bat Out Of Hell" album.
"Bat Out Of Hell" hit US:14 (and stayed on the US album chart for 88 weeks) and UK:9. It was a slow-burning success but became one of the all time biggest selling rock albums. It also propelled Meat Loaf into the rock star stratosphere and he embraced this with his usual gigantic enthusiasm. But at the end of '78 he fell off stage in Toronto and wound up in a wheel chair for a month.
Constant touring temporarily ruined his
voice, and so the follow-up album to "Bat", with all with all tracks except
vocals laid down and ready, sat in the studio for months until 
Steinman,
tired of waiting for Meat Loaf's voice to recover, put on the vocals himself.
In 1981 Steinman's solo album "Bad For Good" , originally intended for
Meat Loaf, became a big hit in Britain and a modest hit in the States.
Later that year the real Meat Loaf follow-up appeared, "Dead Ringer", again
a close collaboration between Steinman and Meat Loaf, whose career now
also included three movie roles: "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", "Roadie"
(with Debbie Harry) and "Americathon".
Non-stop touring with worldwide hit albums and singles ("Dead Ringer For Love". a duet with slinkily dressed Cher, was a global smash hit), Meat Loaf could do little wrong. His third album "Midnight At The Lost And Found" hit UK:1, though in the States his popularity was on the slide. Steinman wasn't on it (he was busy with Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse Of The Heart"), and it was produced by ex-Atlantic engineer Tom Dowd. At the end of 1983 Meat Loaf quit Epic and joined Arista.
"Bad Attitude" in 1984 (with Roger Daltrey
guesting) hit No.8 on the UK album chart and contained the hit "Modern
Girl" In 1986 Meat Loaf played Gil in the movie "Out Of Bounds" and
that September scored another hit single with "Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries",
a duet with John Parr. That track came from Meat's next album "Blind
Before I Stop", 
recorded
in Rosbach, Germany, and produced by Boney M mentor Frank Farian.
Meat Loaf's career - a singer who acts, an actor who sings - his intense charisma and personal performing power, his huge capacity for work and for play have earned him the not-uncommon epithet 'larger than life'. Nevertheless, Meat Loaf really is. And for all his successes he has faced equivalent downturns. He was declared bankrupt in the mid '80s; his act was shattered by the death of his drummer Wells Kelly, Meat himself was clinically dead for 40 seconds after collapsing on stage, in Australia he insisted on finishing his tour despite breaking his leg halfway through.
Unfortunately the author of this write up did not publish his name. I just copied it from the sleeve of the ROCK 'N' ROLL HERO album.
I just discovered another Meatloaf lp last week. It is simply called Meat Loaf featuring Stoney and Meat Loaf it was released in 1978 and I'll add it to the discogrphy soon. With more details, I hope.
