Irish Examiner view: Paradise by the Dashboard Light

Meat Loaf combined the prodigious range of an opera singer and the theatricality of a big-screen idol

Meat Loaf performing onstage at Live at the Marquee Cork in June 2008. Picture: Miki Barlok

Heaven will be a noisier place tonight after the death of the American monster of rock Meat Loaf, the king of the power ballad.

Michael Lee Aday from Dallas, Texas, made a legendary tour of Ireland in 1989 playing in some unlikely venues such as Conna Castle in North Cork, Neptune Stadium in Cork City, and in Castlebar, Mayo. Other Irish dates included Tipperary and Dublin. 

Throughout his career, he performed in venues throughout the world, frequently alongside other groups in heavy metal concerts and ensemble shows where his set could be guaranteed to bring people to their feet to dance along to the sweat-drenched tuxedo-wearing big man.

Collaboration that made a star

His collaboration with the songwriter Jim Steinman delivered a hugely impressive back catalogue of hits including ‘You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth’; ‘I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)’; ‘Heaven Can Wait’; ‘Dead Ringer For Love’; ‘It’s All Coming Back To Me Now’; and ‘Paradise By The Dashboard Light’.

But it was the eponymous track from Bat Out Of Hell, one of the biggest selling rock albums of all time, that elevated Meat Loaf into the superstar bracket. Like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (but longer, at nine minutes 52 seconds) critics said radio stations would not devote airtime to it. 

Mojo magazine’s critic described him as “the uncoolest man in the universe” to which Meat Loaf replied: “I got used to it quite easily when the album started selling in its millions". As a performer, he combined both the theatrical presentation (he appeared in more than 50 films and musicals) and the vocal range of an opera singer, even clenching a large handkerchief during his shows, the hallmark of Luciano Pavarotti, another huge stage presence of the era.

The actor Stephen Fry, who appeared on stage and TV with him, said: “He had the quality of being simultaneously frightening and cuddly, which is rare and rather wonderful.” 

He is a sad loss, but his music for all generations will be with us for as long as a karaoke machine or jukebox can be cranked up.