Two out of three ain't bad (Meat Loaf) (LP 3197 - 3200)

Meat Loaf  Bat Out Of Hell (CD and Vinyl, Epic Records, 1977) *****  

Meat Loaf  Dead Ringer (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1981) *****  

Meat Loaf  Bat Out Of Hell II (CD, Virgin Records, 1993) *****  

Meat Loaf  Welcome To The Neighbourhood (CD, Virgin Records, 1995) *** 

Genre: Pop 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records (Vinyl), The Warehouse for the CDs

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Dead Ringer For Love

Gear costume: I'll Kill You If You Don't Come Back (Dead Ringer), I'd Lie For You And That's The Truth (Welcome...), I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) (BOOH II). 

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: My introduction to Meaf Loaf came in 1976 and Ted Nugent's Free For All album. Meat Loaf was the vocalist on the majority of songs and I made note of his abilities, plus his name was hard to forget. Then he does Bat Out Of Hell and the world went nuts! Now I became aware of another name - Jim Steinman. 1977 maan! Star Wars AND Bat Out Of Hell. What a year!!

Jim Steinman is a genius at creating big mythic rock songs with bizarre, self-deprecating lyrics. These guys are having fun with words and music and it's infectious as all get out.

Not much to say about Bat Out Of Hell except it went off in 1977 and just grew and grew. His next album took a few more years to come out because of health issues but it was still dwarfed by Bat. Dead Ringer is a second album with Jim Steinman providing the songs, and an underappreciated classic. I love it!

Bat Out Of Hell II emerged after a few albums didn't have the x factor of the Steinman/Meat Loaf factor and, whaddyaknow - huge success again. That's because it stays true to the original bombastic approach.

Welcome To The Neighbourhood (interesting non-American spelling) has its moments (a few Steinman songs) but has some misses as well. Why does he attempt Tom Wait's Martha?? It just doesn't fit IMHO.

Where do they all belong? Beware the Meat Loaf catalogue - he can be out of this world great (those three albums above), okay in parts (Welcome To The Neighbourhood) or else it can be not so good. 

Jim Steinman's Bad For Good, and Ted's Free For All to come.