Album Title: Bad Attitude
Artist: Meat Loaf
Year: 1984
Genre: Hard Rock
Position in Discography: 5 of 13 (ATOW)
Ask anyone, even those who hate him, to name a Meat Loaf album and I'll bet you my salary, which I don't get, that they'll say
Bat Out Of Hell. Why not? It's his most iconic and famous and indeed successful album, and for many, the only time they've ever encountered the man. The album will be in the collection of a lot of people who don't collect his music, or even rock music, in the same way as you'll find
Hotel California, Dark Side of the Moon and
Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits: it's regarded, rightly, as a classic. But what is the magic formula that created that classic? The combination of Meat Loaf's powerful, at times heart-wrenching singing, and the superb songwriting talent of his partner-in-crime, Jim Steinman. Together, the two were unstoppable.
But legal hassles drove this team apart, and for his last album Meat had been flying solo. Hadn't done too well either, crashing in flames with an album nobody liked, remembered or which sold in any significant numbers. This one, too, is written without the Big J, but he did gift Meat two songs he had previously written (one of which he had already released himself on his first solo album) while Meat, admitting he's a **** songwriter, farmed out the rest of the album to other writers, mostly Sarah Durkee and her husband Paul Jacobs, who are both veterans of Sesame Street (?) resulting in what could have been something of a disaster, but isn't.
It is, however, a very different Meat Loaf album. Gone are the epic eight or nine-minute songs, absent are the choirs and orchestras, and without Steinman aboard, say farewell to those heavy, seventy-words-to-a-bar lyrics focussing on the human condition. Much more a pop album (despite how Wiki characterises it) and one actually I would think more likely to have yielded hit singles, it did in fact return Meat to the charts with one of the songs, a shock for many people who probably thought he had long ago had one Big Mac too many and was now riding that famous motorbike down there with Satan on the back. To some extent, and strictly from a musical point of view, this was a leaner, meaner Meat Loaf, with shorter, snappier songs, whose lyrics were more rooted in the ordinary world, without any input from the singer himself, which was just as well given the fiasco of the previous album. You could almost – almost – describe this as a Meat Loaf album for people who don't like Meat Loaf. Were you to hear these tracks on the radio, other than Meat's voice being instantly recognisable by itself, you might be tempted not to believe it was him.
One thing that was, is and probably always will be synonymous with Meat Loaf though is motorbikes. And women. And there are both on the cover, cropping up in the lyrics too along the way, assuring you that though Steinman is not on board, this is still going to be one hell of a wild ride. And it is.
Bad Attitude
It's an explosive start as we launch into the title track, with an interesting duet provided by The Who's Roger Daltrey, and some superb guitar work from Bruce Kulick. Reminiscent, in my view, of “Dead Ringer For Love”, it's a typical Meat Loaf song about rebelling against authority, giving society the finger while you pop a wheelie down the freeway with your girl on the pillion, and in ways it's kind of hard to believe it's not a Steinman song, but it isn't. A good beginning, very positive and while I won't say the Big J is not missed, it's nowhere near the disappointment it could have been.
10/10
Modern Girl
Remember Clare Torry? No? Let me jog your memory: she's the one doing that amazing
vocalise on Pink Floyd's “The Great Gig in the Sky”. Yeah, her. Well she's the next one to duet with the Meat on the hit single from this album, which envisions the changes in attitudes (!) and morals of the current world compared to the older times. Great hook in the chorus, another storming, stomping rocker and must have gone down really well on stage. Some Steinmanesque lyrics - “A broken down machine/Rusty with the guilty tears/Of fallen kings and queens.” Perhaps a bit laughable for someone so long in the business as Meat to be crying “Gimme the future!” but there you go.
10/10
Nowhere Fast
This one
is a Steinman song, and you can really tell. Or can you? It's not as epic or as – some might say – overblown and bombastic as we've come to expect from His Steinmanship, in fact it flies along at a great rocky pace with a total absence of choirs or orchestras, and the lyric is relatively pedestrian for the man. Some fine almost new-wave drumming and synth leads the song into a kind of hybrid of AOR and new-wave/pop, with some fine orchestral hits on the synth that really drive the song. The first one on which Meat sings solo (and it's maybe odd cos it's the kind of song that lends itself to a duet, but I guess he can't share vocal duties all the time) though there are some fine backing vocals, though not from the usual suspects – no Katie Kissoon, Ellen Foley
et al.
10/10
Surf's Up
And the next one is also a Steinman song, and this time it does show, even if you haven't heard his own version on
Bad For Good, his first solo album. The energy and power in this passionate ballad, orchestra pounding while the piano keeps the motif and the guitar wails away shows that Meat can sometimes even out-Steinman Steinman. I mean, the original is good but it's nothing as good as this. You almost feel drained after trying to sing along with it, the way Steinman forces, as I've said before, so many words into every sentence, and yet makes it feel oh so right. ****ing fantastic, I think is the only possible comment here.
10/10
Piece of the Action
A deceptively slow start to what becomes a real hard-hitting rocker as Meat Loaf ponders “Is there any way in Hell to light/ A comet from a single spark?” Of course there is: rock and roll and true love, and the song pounds up into real life with bouncy orchestral hits again punching out the beat before it fades back to the slow tempo for the verse. Great song.
10/10
Jumpin' the Gun
Another duet, this time with Zee Carling. I have no idea who that is. The only Carling I know make lager. Anyway, it's boppy rock from the beginning, as Meat cries “No crime in havin' some fun!” Indeed. Great work from Kulick again, and the sound of a gun firing, while a little cliche, works more than it doesn't.
9/10
Cheatin' in Your Dreams
One of two songs written or co-written by John Parr. Remember “St. Elmo's Fire”? No? Sorry, John; I tried. A good mid-paced rocker which again tries to fool you into believing it's a ballad, with a gentle if bitter piano line leading the song in and a quiet vocal from Meat, till the chorus kicks in and he explodes (not literally, thankfully: imagine the mess!) into full fury as he accuses his lady of, well, cheating in her dreams. Hardly seems fair, does it? What happens in dreams and all that. Great hook in the chorus, almost bluesy with an infectious line going on, though it's kind of (kind of) ruined by the payoff line I feel. Still, great song. Nice sort of gospelly backing vocals take the song out.
10/10
The other Parr song, co-authored by someone called Julia Downes. Seems she has a lot of credits, including Yes, Roger Daltrey and Sheena Easton, but I don't know her. The song opens on what sounds very much like the atmospheric intro/outro to The Doors' “Riders on the Storm” and then bops along at a nice mid-pace. Great chorus again, and the melody kind of reminds me of Chris De Burgh's “The Ecstasy of Flight (I Love the Night)”. Shut up.
10/10
My favourite song on the album, and he keeps it till the end. The orchestral hits really come into their own here, the echoing voices certainly conjuring up the sound of those mythical monster women who lured mariners to their deaths in Greek tales. A good powerful rocker, it finds Meat in fine voice, ready to deal with the dilemma of knowing a woman is bad for him but having no power to resist her. Wonderful solo from Kulick, thundering percussion, great end to the album. Would rate it higher if it wasn't a mathematical impossibility.
10/10
Album Rating: 10/10