Weekly BlogScan: You Either Love or Hate Meat Loaf

In honor of the Meet Meat Loaf Contest on BlogCritics, this week's blogscan went looking for blogs that offer "Meat Loaf again!" We're not talking about the meat-and-meal comestible, that 50s forerunner of Hamburger Helper, but the rock musician who played Eddie in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

At BitsBlog, Eric Florack weighed in a few weeks ago in a blog-debate about Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell album being over-rated. (We saw some of that debate in the essays Michele Catalano cross-posted to BlogCritics). Florack had more reason than some to like BOOH, even though he

...tired of playing "Paradise" every time I played a wedding... I was playing it on the order of 100 times a year for a few years. It may have been just a seven minute record to you, but to me it was a coffee break...

Australian blog Chase me ladies's Harry Hutton (whose blog tagline is an intriguing "URGENT! Please send 300 kilos of white mice. No time to explain.") wrote an open letter to Meat Loaf in which he seems to be pleading with the musician to clarify his willingness to "do anything for love" when he won't do "that." Just to the right of this request is the link to Hutton's post "Non-Kinky Sex Is a Waste of Time." Sounds like Hutton will even do that. Another Australian, Mellipop finds it hard to tell a joke whose punchline is Meat Loaf. (Her aside about Michael Jackson is also a hoot.)

Last year, Knight of the Mind predicted the George W. Bush victory based on a comparison of Meat Loaf vs. Coldplay. Parachutes by Coldplay was the Kerry-analogue, "really smooth and [with] a very proficient feel to it... The album sounded good for one listen. The second time through the diskette it sounded formulaic and boring." In comparison, Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell was seen as the "jarring" and "chaotic" equivalent to Bush, "inelegant, but so true to life."

...it became apparent that for all the vocal malapropisms and musical clunkers being hit, these guys were giving it all to put a great album together. There was something of savage beauty in the struggle. Meatloaf was giving every ounce of effort he had in his body to that album and with Meatloaf, that's a very sizeable contribution.

Photo courtesy Royalty Free Photograph

Cathy of bent back tulips had a post-Valentine's Day meme going that substituted the word "lunch" for any occurrence of "love" in a song title. Some hilarity ensued, including the unavoidable "I Would Do Anything for Lunch," Meat Loaf—funny even if you don't know about the meme. For the definitive list of Meat Loaf lyrics, LyricsFreak has an alphabetical catalog. I was more intrigued by the list of artists "related to Meat Loaf," including Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Marley—plus the Monkees and Ozzy Osbourne. Wha?

And finally, Molly Burkhardt writes Letters to Charlie that include the paean to a Meat Loaf song on a lost CD, "Original Sin." Molly shares her hair-lifting experience of this song.

I've been looking for an original sin
One with a twist and a bit of a spin
And since I've...done all of the old ones
'Til they've all been done in
Now I'm just looking
Then I'm gone with the wind
Endlessly searching for an original sin

You can lose yourself in pleasure
'Til your body's going numb
But will it ever be enough?
You know that it'll never be enough

Yes, for some of us, it will never be enough. Good luck to the Meet Meat Loaf contestants.
B000002OMN,B00000DHR9,B00006D295,006205905X,0292781482,0671318284,0974707821,9625931546


Oh, and I'm not the only one doing blogscans. Thomas Dimoupoulis of The Saratogian wrote an essay about blogging "on condition of anonymity" that scanned local (Saratoga Springs) blogs for content, grammar and pure philosophy.

Please join us at BlogCritics to comment on this review.