bat out of hell (1977) – meat loaf: epic records, pe-34974

In many ways, Bat Out Of Hell is the quintessential Rock Opera because the hyper-exaggerated melodrama upon which the art of opera is built extends well beyond the actual tracks on the record. The arias started before the recording began and the fat lady’s singing continued long after the album hit the stores and started getting airplay. From concept through creation, from marketing and into legacy, Bat Out Of Hell isn’t just the ultimate Rock Opera, it’s also the ultimate Rock Meta-Opera.

Bat Out Of Hell's story is so incredibly bizarre that it really ought to have been sung by Caruso. Briefly: Jim Steinman fancied himself a bit of an auteur, having been involved in annoyingly “artistic” experimental musical theater since the 60’s. You know, the sort where one sees a man in a white suit playing a piano engulfed in flame, whilst a dancer covered in blood convulses in a grotesque charade of sexual innuendo around a cabbage. Yeah, that sort of thing.

Anyway, Steinman got it into his head that he wanted to write a rock opera about some motorcycle dude who ends up a grease-spot on the road. The entire story happens during those very brief moments between crash and death, wherein our intrepid motorcycle dude hero relives key moments in his relationship with his main squeeze, only to eventually die and wind up in hell.

Or something like that.

Now, fate had it that Steinman had met Meat Loaf during a National Lampoon travelling show (yes, this is true), and Steinman immediately realized that this long-haired, over-fed ogre would be the ideal front man for his motorcycle dude hero. Meat liked the idea very much, and eventually the two of them ended up trying to pitch the album to record companies by going in person and auditioning some songs live. Imagine that for a moment … you’re a record exec and you get an insufferable “artist” and a very large man in your office screaming pretentious rock arias at you. Needless to say, it didn’t work.

Until they met Todd Rundgren, that is. Rundgren saw the absurdity and the creativity in the two, and ultimately shepherded the album through the recording process.

But the drama doesn’t stop there. Once recorded there was a question of ego. The label felt that Meat Loaf should be the name on the album – it was catchy, short, and very memorable. Steinman, however, felt slighted because the album really was his creation. The spat eventually had an unsatisfactory resolution with the addition of a lesser credit,  “Songs by Jim Steinman” printed in very fine, light, and small font along the bottom.  Trust me, it's there.  Look very closely and you can see it.

And with that, Bat Out Of Hell was finally released.

Side 1: Bat Out Of Hell Your Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night) Heaven Can Wait All Revved Up With No Place To Go
Side 2: Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad Paradise By The Dashboard Light Paradise Let Me Sleep On It Praying For The End Of Time For Crying Out Loud

My introduction to Bat Out Of Hell came unexpectedly while I was settled in to watch Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert late one Friday night.

(Side note for the kids out there: Back in the 70’s we didn’t have MTV, but instead had these shows like Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, which were anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes long and featured either filmed or mock-live performances by bands.)

To continue: I was watching Rock Concert when the video for Paradise started. My first reaction was excitement, because I recognized Meat Loaf from his role as Eddy on Rocky Horror Picture Show. And then the song started, and I was blown away. For a 14 year old kid, Paradise was deep, man. It combined Springsteen-like music with clever lyrics and told the story of a dude who would do just about anything to get laid, only to have some serious regrets about it later. Plus, the video had Karla DeVito in a skin-tight white leotard lip-synching to Ellen Foley’s singing, and I thought Karla was smoking hot.

Let’s recap: there’s a video with Eddy from RHPS and an incredible sexy Karla DeVito singing a long, complicated song about teenage lust. So I ask you, what choice did I have? How could I not get the album?

And so I did, back in 1978. And I’ve listened to it many times since then. And did it again just last night. And it’s still good for all the wrong reasons. By any objective measure, Bat Out Of Hell is a horrible album.  The lyrics are the kind of self-absorbed bad poetry found in leather-bound journals of surly teenagers suffering from suburban angst and are often too clever by half. I mean, get a load of this back-and-forth opening from You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth:

[Boy:] On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
[Girl:] Will he offer me his mouth?
[Boy:] Yes.
[Girl:] Will he offer me his teeth?
[Boy:] Yes.
[Girl:] Will he offer me his jaws?
[Boy:] Yes.
[Girl:] Will he offer me his hunger?
[Boy:] Yes.
[Girl:] Again, will he offer me his hunger?
[Boy:] Yes!
[Girl:]And will he starve without me?
[Boy:] Yes!
[Girl:] And does he love me?
[Boy:] Yes.
[Girl:] Yes.
[Boy:] On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
[Girl:] Yes.
[Boy:] I bet you say that to all the boys!

Okay, now imagine this done by two kids in a Sophomore seminar in enhanced emoting during recitation, and you’ll just begin to get an idea of how agonizing the lyrics can be.

Meanwhile, the music tends to follow a formula of multiple false-endings, in-song time-signature shifts, and soaring grandiosity typical of stuff where the sheer volume and weight of the pomposity is intended to hide a lack of real quality.  Now, some have compared Steinman's work on Bat Out of Hell with Springsteen's work on his first three albums.  Now, while there are similarities in the structure and arrangements, Springsteen was in love with the Big Rock Band sound, while Steinman seems is more in love with theatrics that is so far over-the-top that it’s actually bumping up against the bottom.

In short, Bat Out of Hell (and, by extension, Jim Steinman) takes itself way too seriously.  And normally that would be a fatal flaw. But here’s the thing: despite the juvenile emotional catharsis of it all and the nauseating posing, Bat Out Of Hell is saved by the fact that at its heart it’s genuine, and not just pretense. In short, Bat Out Of Hell works because it really is ars gratia artis – art for art’s sake. And that forgives the sins of laughably smug lyrics and indulgent music.

So yes, during this listen I found that even though Bat Out Of Hell is a complete clusterfuck, at the same time it’s simply sublime. And album that is unintentionally comical, but also genuine in its depth. Something so godawfully bad it is a masterpiece.

Well done, Mr. Steinman. Well done.

Up Next: Power-Pop Grrrls!

an evening wasted with tom lehrer (1959) – tom lehrer: reprise records 1966 reissue, r-6199

Political satire has a tradition going back to the times of the court jester pointing out the foibles of the ruling class through the guise of jokes. Writers like Chaucer and Boccacio in the 14th century, Cervantes in the 16th century, Swift, Voltaire, and Fielding in the 17th and 18th centuries established an institution of telling the truth using oblique means.

America also has a very rich history of satirists holding up a magnifying glass to speak to the hypocrisy of government leaders. In the 19th and 20th centuries men like Mark Twain and Will Rogers were adept at laying bare the absurdity of government through the surgical use of humor and story-telling.

Now a truism of political satire is that it is a reaction to the current powers that be. During the Eisenhower years (when this was recorded) America was at the height of the Cold War, and reactionary anti-communist sentiment in the form of McCarthyism, as well as a conservative resistance to things like civil rights were rampant, so satirists at that time tended to be liberal. Makes sense. After all, context is everything.

And it also makes it the perfect environment and time for a young, pointy-headed, New York, Jewish, left-wing, liberal, intellectual, Central Park West, socialist summer camps, father with the Ben Shahn drawings, strike-oriented, red-diaper type* to make his mark.

You know, someone like Tom Lehrer and his debut album An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer.

Side 1: Poisoning Pigeons In The Park Bright College Days A Christmas Carol The Elements Oedipus Rex In Old Mexico
Side 2: Clementine It Makes A Fellow Proud To Be A Soldier She’s My Girl The Masochism Tango We Will All Go Together When We Go

A bit of personal background is probably in order at this point. In the 3rd grade my best friend’s mom was the perfect result of the social revolution of the 60’s. She was young, single (widowed), intelligent, independent, liberal in her attitude, and was bringing up two boys with the help of her mother, who lived with them. All of this made her very dangerous for a suburban mom simply because she was not the same as every other suburban mom. In short, she was exactly the sort of person who would own an album like this. And we would listen to this repeatedly whenever we were over there.

We loved Tom Lehrer songs. They were funny, clever, catchy, and even as a kid I could tell there was a definite layer of something dangerous and seditious lurking somewhere beneath them. I mean, leaving aside the clearly impolite aspects of Poisoning Pigeons In The Park or the geek-tasticness of The Elements that even an 8-year old could grasp, the subversive nature of songs like Oedipus Rex and It Makes A Fellow Proud To Be A Soldier filtered through. And even if I didn’t quite entirely get it, I still “got” it. If you know what I mean.

While the very nature of listening to all of my albums is nostalgic, this listen was special because it reached back to the very beginning of my musical awareness. It really is one of the first actual albums to which I would listen all the way through. In fact, probably the only album that I can recall preceding this one is Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron featuring such kid songs as On Top Of Spaghetti. But this one was different. Tom Lehrer was adult music, not kid music, and it tackled some heady stuff. In many ways I think that this may well have helped shape my current frame of mind and social values.

I suppose the unanswered (and likely unanswerable) question is whether I grew up to be a liberal atheistic tree-hugging pacifist because I liked Tom Lehrer as a kid, or if I liked Tom Lehrer because even as a kid I was a liberal atheistic tree-hugging pacifist.

Up Next: What if Rocky Horror wasn’t a musical comedy?

*Yes, I know it’s wonderful reducing someone to a base cultural stereotype. I admit I am a bigot, but I’m a bigot for the left, so it’s okay.

all the young dudes (1972) – mott the hoople: columbia records, kc 31750

Let’s raise a glass to Glam Rock. That weird, almost unwanted sub-genre of rock that wasn’t quite metal, wasn’t quite folk, wasn’t quite pop, and wasn’t quite prog, but was a bit of all of those wrapped in an emphasis about image and attitude.

One of the bands that best embraced that undefined quality was Mott the Hoople, even though their glamminess wasn’t nearly as extreme or on visual display in the same way it was for acts like Slade or Gary Glitter or Sweet or the New York Dolls or David Bowie.

In fact, if it weren’t for David Bowie being a MtH fanboy, not only would Mott maybe not have been part of the glam scene, but the album All The Young Dudes ccertainly wouldn’t exist (even though the song would), and that would really suck because it is a great album. In fact, Dudes was the album that kept Mott going for a few years longer than they might otherwise have done, and allowed the boys to record the two best (and most glamtastic) MtH albums, Mott and The Hoople.

But more on those in later posts. This one’s all about how Bowie saved Mott by turning them glam and giving us one of rock’s most underrated and underappreciated albums at the same time.

Side 1: Sweet Jane Momma’s Little Jewel All The Young Dudes Sucker Jerkin’ Crocus
Side 2: One Of The Boys Soft Ground Ready For Love / After Lights Sea Diver

So, where to start. First off, Dudes isn’t nearly as heavy as any of MtH’s first four albums (the track Ready for Love, notwithstanding).  In fact, this sounds far more like something from the David Bowie catalog of the early 70s, fitting quite well alongside Hunky Dory, Man Who Sold The World, and Ziggy Stardust. That’s not a surprise when one realizes that along with the members of MtH, Dudes features musicians like Mick Ronson and Mick Bolton (both of whom appear on Ziggy), and that Bowie also worked on the production of the album (which explains the Starman-like guitar flourishes in the background of the otherwise completely un-Bowie Ready for Love).

Oh, and there’s that little bit about songwriting, too. See, although seven of the nine songs were written by some combination of MtH band members, two were not. Sweet Jane is a cover of a Lou Reed song, while the title track is 100% Bowie. Now, we can argue about which song is the strongest on the album, with a case to be made for Jerkin’ Crocus, but conventional wisdom and the hivemind mentality gives Crocus the bronze, Jane the silver, and crowns All The Young Dudes as the Caesar, around which the rest of this record spins (apologies for the violently mixed metaphors there).

It also goes a long way to explaining how MtH went from a basic Rock Band to one of the torchbearers of glam - despite the fact that none of the guys really looked the part at the time. This album sold better than any of the four previous MtH records, and became a UK hit (charting at #21) on the strength of the three songs glammiest songs.  In fact, the single of Dudes peaked at 3 in the UK and 37 here in the USA.  Clearly fans liked the new sound, and were starting to associate Mott the Hoople with the glam scene, and vice versa.  More than that, it resurrected MtH as a band, as Bowie actually intervened to prevent the break-up, even offering them Suffragette City to help their success.

So the transition of Mott the Hoople from rock to glam does make sense.  And the new sound really did suit them better, as well.

Okay, so what did I get out of this most recent listen? Well, it’s hard to say, exactly, because I include a lot of MtH and Ian Hunter in my regular, everyday music (such as at work or on the road or just in the background at home), so I can’t say that it’s been a while since I’ve heard these songs or that this is a way to re-acquaint myself with the band. However, this listening project does provide a different context from the norm, in that I intentionally make time to actually sit and focus on the music and try to remove any potential distractions. With that in mind, I think what I gained from this listen is really a renewed appreciation for both this record and the band. I really do like Mott the Hoople, and it dawned on me that I never really fully acknowledged just how much I like them. When asked about my musical preference I would easily blurt out bands like Genesis or the Clash or Elvis Costello or David Bowie or X, but Mott the Hoople really belongs right up there on my personal Rushmore.

Which means, I suppose, that after this listen, I have finally openly admitted just how much a Mott the Hoople fan I really am. So that’s nice.

Up next: Can a fun evening still be considered a waste?

… all the rage (1984) – general public: irs records, sp-70046

One of the more interesting genres of music to have come from the post-stadium rock Big Bang was the new wave-ska hybrid known as 2 Tone. The music owed its roots to artists from the 50’s and 60’s like Desmond Dekker, Delroy Wilson, and the Skatellites and which found a new audience during the 70’s among a sub-culture of white and black kids who grew up within the influence of the Caribbean diaspora of Great Britain.

2 Tone took ska and added a new wave element of an increased tempo and broader musical influences, while retaining the signature downbeat and skank rhythm of ska/rocksteady. The result was a catchy, playful, danceable, fun type of music brought to the world by bands like The Specials, The Selecter, Bad Manners, and Madness.

Another major 2 Tone band was The Beat, who had massive success with songs like Mirror In The Bathroom, Bigshot, Twist and Crawl, I Confess, Jeanette, and Save It For Later. Unfortunately, The Beat burned themselves out as a band and ended after only three albums. Fortunately, the founding members, Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger still had some music in them, and they gathered with some of their friends (including Mick Jones of The Clash), and in 1984 they formed the band General Public, and released … All The Rage.

Side 1: Hot You’re Cool Tenderness Anxious Never You Done That Burning Bright
Side 2: As A Matter Of Fact Are You Leading Me On Day-To-Day Where’s The Line? General Public

Now, I haven’t listened to this album in decades – probably not since the early 90’s to be honest. In fact, when I started sorting through my vinyl to alphabetize the listening list I was actually surprised to see it sitting there. So, when I put this on the platter I was pretty stoked to sit back and go back to being in my 20’s again, because I do have some fond memories of this album. As I listened I definitely felt the nostalgia, but I also started to notice that the songs are less fun than I remembered them.

And the “fun” aspect was an important part of what made 2 Tone so great. Ska, even when dealing with incredibly morbid themes (like poverty or injustice) was always danceable and happy. Want proof? Sure. Listen to Israelites and try to tell me that even though the song is about a destitute guy who lost his wife & family, has no money or food, and has to resort to petty thievery to avoid starving to death it still isn’t among the most happy sounding songs you’ve ever heard.

You can’t do it, can you?

Well 2 Tone had that same quality. Even though some of the songs were about racism, oppressive society, drugs, or poverty and injustice, they were always fun because of the “ska stroke”, the 4/4 timing with the emphasis on the downbeat. Well, that isn’t the case with the songs on … All The Rage. It’s not that they are depressing, but they simply don’t have the same pop. And as I got through Tenderness I realized why. Where bands like The Beat took ska and added the frenetic energy of punk to create a fast, happy sound, when they founded General Public, Dave & Roger took 2 Tone and watered it down with a Motown R&B groove – dropping the tempo and washing out the downbeat emphasis that gave ska & 2 Tone that skankability.

So, even though this album has many really good songs (Hot You’re Cool, Never You Done That, As A Matter Of Fact, and General Public), for me it hasn’t really aged well.

I guess I was a lot easier to please when I was in my 20’s.

Up next: Who needs TV when they've got T.Rex?

absolutely free (1967) – the mothers of invention: verve records, v6-5103

A mere 10 months after having the audacity to release a double LP as a debut album, Frank Zappa put out his follow-up, Absolutley Free.

That’s kind of impressive if you think about it. Six sides of music released in just a bit more time than it takes for two kids to suffer the red, wet, naked, and screaming consequences of a bit of unprotected slap-and-tickle in the back seat of a car (come to think of it, naked, red, wet, and screaming could be an apt general description of a lot of Zappa’s music, too).

The word “prolific” seems quite appropriate.

In any case, Absolutely Free brought more of the singularly distinct sound and socially critical lyrics for which Frank Zappa would become famous.

Side 1: Plastic People Duke of Prunes Amnesia Vivace The Duke Regains His Chops Call Any Vegetable Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin Soft-Sell Conclusion
Side 2: America Drinks Status Backs Baby Uncle Bernie’s Farm Son of Susie Creamcheese Brown Shoes Don’t Make It America Drinks & Goes Home

Taking a listen to Absolutely Free makes it quite clear that this album bears more than a passing resemblance to Freak Out!. So much so that one would be forgiven for simply considering this the third disc of Freak Out! rather than a stand-alone album.

All of the elements of Freak Out! are present here, from the distinct tempo changes, occasionally jarring instrumentation, sardonic social commentary, wry political observations, discordant background singing, and conserved musical theme.

But here’s the really cool thing: this album doesn’t suffer from the perception that these are left-over
songs not good enough to have been included in the previous album and only now released as a cynical attempt to cash in on some initial success. Quite the contrary, the songs on this album, from the bizarre and ridiculous Call Any Vegetable, to the cutting America Drinks & Goes Home all have the same high level of creativity and craftsmanship of any song on Freak Out!, and the delightfully perverse and caustic Brown Shoes Don't Make It is just a spear through the liver of the squares in Pleasant Valley.

Now, it’s been a while since I’ve listened to Absolutely Free. For some reason this album tends to get lost among the more frequently listened Zappa offerings, like Hot Rats or Roxy & Elsewhere, but hearing it now reminded me that this definitely does kick some ass. But, like pretty much every other Zappa album, this isn’t something one just puts on the platter for background sounds. It’s an album that demands attention, and if one isn’t really craving the Zappa groove, it will fall flat. But if that monkey on your back needs some seriously intense jamming, then settling on this and letting Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin is exactly what the doctor prescribed.

Up next: You got your new wave in my ska!