Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 29, 1993 TAG: 9309300052
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROGER CATLIN THE HARTFORD COURANT
DATELINE: NEW HAVEN, CONN. LENGTH: Medium
Yet he's talking a mile a minute about the new sequel to his 25 million-selling "Bat Out of Hell" album; his worldwide tour, expected to stretch until 1995; and his life as a girls' softball coach in his hometown of Redding, Conn.
Although it reached only No. 16 on the U.S. charts, his 1977 "Bat Out of Hell" has quietly become one of the best-selling albums in rock history. It continues to sell 15,000 copies a week and sold 1.3 million copies last year alone.
The new album, "Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell," was released in the United States this month, but it's already a hit in other parts of the world, as is the first single, "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)."
"The single's No. 1 for the third week in a row in Australia, and it's only the fourth single in history in Australia to ever go on the charts at No. 1," Meat Loaf said in an interview here.
He doesn't have to be reminded that the original "Bat Out of Hell" started slowly in America and was an international smash before it started crawling up the U.S. charts for an 82-week stay. It continues to be near the top of the Billboard Top Catalog Albums chart since the chart's inception 2 1/2 years ago.
The original "Bat" was an album of teen-age Angst and epic songs, an overheated concoction of passion and melodrama played out over rock 'n' roll bombast. The collaboration with writer Jim Steinman produced three Top 40 singles, "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad," "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" (featuring the only Top 40 appearance by baseball's Phil Rizzuto) and "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth." Along with long titles, each had an involved story line in an era that predated MTV.
In the 16 years since "Bat," Meat Loaf has released five albums, but "Bat II" is his first full collaboration with Steinman.
It's a project he's been talking about over the past five years, and the result, with its gothic graphics that combine Harley Davidson and horror, seems even more bombastic than the original album, with long titles and more than one 12-minute track.
It flies in the face of modern rock fashion, of course, but Meat Loaf claims he's never been good with that.
"Anything that's hip, I didn't know about it," says the former Marvin Lee Aday, 46. "Like when I was a kid, I had a Hula Hoop, and when everybody else got a Hula Hoop, I didn't want to play it any more. That's how it goes. If it's hip, I don't want it any more."
Still, there's more than one way to look at his productions.
Like that formidable showman of conservative political circles, Rush Limbaugh, Meat Loaf is a solid leader to true believers, but entertaining enough in his bombast and excess to also amuse otherwise potential detractors.
Certainly Spinal Tap never came up with lyrical and musical turns as funny as those on "Bat II."
But according to Meat Loaf, it's all in how you hear it.
"People go up to me and say, `You know that story "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad?" Well that's the story of my life.' And the key word here is my.
"You hold up `Bat Out of Hell' and it's like looking into a mirror. It's your image that you see. It's not my image you see. You're only taking from yourself."
by CNB