Tony Horne returns with episode three of The Dead Good Podcast, with a look back on the life of Meat Loaf, who has died at the age of 74.
Meat Loaf was a larger-than-life character who had a rare ability to condense a range of different emotions into a single song. He was wild, he was unpredictable, and he pushed boundaries.
Yet for all his on-stage antics, there was another side to him. In interviews he came across as good-humoured, self-deprecating and family-orientated, and he didn’t like to hear himself referred to as a ‘legend’. As far as he was concerned, he was a man doing a job, just like a plumber or a brickie does his job.
But Meat Loaf’s music managed to transcend generations, and he was a consistent chart presence from the 1970s to the 1990s, with hits ranging from Bat Out of Hell to I Would Do Anything for Love.
Tony argues that Meat Loaf was, perhaps, underrated, and that his music focussed on quality rather than quantity. Much of his success was down to the writing and production values of Jim Steinman, whose death last year greatly saddened Meat Loaf.
His vocal range was extraordinary, and his music videos were superb. On stage, he had a gravitas and a presence few could match.
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