History Music / MeatLoaf

* LargeHam: His acting roles. His vocal delivery also qualifies. Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} categorizes his vocal range as "''Dramatic'' tenor".

!!Meat Loaf's music provides examples of;

->''Well I would trope anything for love, but I won't trope that.''

----

* IncrediblyLongNote: On several tracks, most notably the end of ''Bat Out of Hell''. In concerts he'd go for ''[[UpToEleven even longer.]]''

* RashPromise: Meat Loaf's lengthy single "Music/ParadiseByTheDashboardLight" details how excited teens start a make-out session, until the girl suddenly exploits a LysistrataGambit: "Will you love me forever?" Unable to think clearly with raging lust, the singer makes a poor choice, and ultimately laments, "Praying for the end of time, so I can end my time with you."

* ''Film/{{Wishcraft}}'' (202) - Detective Sparky Shaw

* His answer to whether he was a singer or actor was actor. "I play a guy who thinks he can sing."

* LiteralGenie: In "Paradise By the Dashboard Light", the singer swears to love his girl until the end of time. He then prays for the end of time so he can be released from his obligation.
** His promise comes off as a ButThouMust, because his girl presses him ''really'' hard for that promise by refusing to have sex unless he makes that promise. Despite his repeated refrain of "Let me sleep on it/Baby, baby, let me sleep on it", she insists that she can wait all night for an answer, and finally, he makes his promise out of insanity following the pressure she applied.

* BeastAndBeauty: The theme of the music video for "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)". In the video, Meat Loaf plays some kind of creature with a deformed face and hands who has supernatural powers and is hunted by the police. One day he spots a beautiful woman and falls in love with her from afar, but she notices him watching her and he flees. She tracks him to his castle, and he hides from her while contemplating approaching her. She finds him when he starts smashing mirrors in shame of his appearance. As the police arrive at the castle, the woman caresses his face and accepts him for who he is, ThePowerOfLove causing him to return to his human form. The two of them then escape and ride off into the sunset.

* BeastAndBeauty: The theme of the music video for "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)". In the video, Meat Loaf plays some kind of creature with a deformed face and hands who has supernatural powers and is hunted by the police. One day he spots a beautiful woman and falls in love with her from afar, but she notices him watching her and he flees. She tracks him to his castle, and he hides from her while contemplating approaching her. She finds him when he starts smashing mirrors in shame of his appearance. As the police arrive at the castle, the woman caresses his face and accepts him for who he is, causing him to return to his human form. The two of them then escape and ride off into the sunset.

* ConceptAlbum: ''Hang Cool Teddy Bear'', in which every song represents a possible future scenario in the life of a wounded soldier. Meat Loaf has also stated that every song Jim Steinman has ever written is treated as if it is part of the aforementioned, unproduced ''Neverland'' RockOpera.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Often comes across as an eccentric character when he gives interviews. However, Meat also said that this was his first impression of Jim Steinman, whom he describes as, "One weird dude."

Michael (''né'' Marvin) Lee Aday (September 27, 1947 – January 20, 2022), a.k.a. Meat Loaf, was an American singer and actor best known for his hit 1977 album ''Bat Out of Hell'' and its two "sequels". With the assistance of songwriter and producer Music/JimSteinman, Meat Loaf's bombastic, Wagnerian style made a huge splash in the ArenaRock genre and paved the way for many acts to follow.

Michael (''né'' Marvin) Lee Aday (September 27, 1947 – January 20, 2022), a.k.a. Meat Loaf, was an American singer and actor best known for his hit 1977 album ''Bat Out of Hell'' and its two "sequels". With the assistance of songwriter and producer Music/JimSteinman, Meat Loaf's bombastic, Wagnerian style made a huge splash on the ArenaRock genre and paved the way for many acts to follow.

Born in Texas, Meat Loaf dabbled in musical theatre from an early age. When he received a draft notice in 1967, he tore it up, stole his father's credit card, and moved to UsefulNotes/{{California}} to break into the music industry. During the early '70s he made several forays into stardom -- he performed in several small-time bands, released a duets album with Stoney Murphy which largely went under the radar, sang lead on Music/TedNugent's ''Free-For-All'' album, and performed in touring productions of ''Theatre/{{Hair}}'' and ''[[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow The Rocky Horror Show]]'', landing a role in the film version of the latter. His big break was to come while performing in an off-Broadway show called ''More Than You Deserve'', when he befriended its writer Jim Steinman. Steinman had been toying with a sci-fi RockOpera adaptation of ''Literature/PeterPan'' and saw Meat Loaf as ideal for the lead role in it. Though the project, called ''Neverland'', didn't come to fruition until forty years later (in a much altered form, as ''Bat Out of Hell: The Musical''), the songs Steinman wrote for it became the genesis of ''Bat Out of Hell''.

Michael (''né'' Marvin) Lee Aday (September 27, 1947 – January 20, 2022), a.k.a. Meat Loaf, was an American singer and actor best known for his hit 1977 album ''Bat Out of Hell'' and its two "sequels". With the assistance of songwriter and producer Music/JimSteinman, Meat Loaf's bombastic, Wagnerian style made a huge splash on the genre and paved the way for many ArenaRock acts to follow.

Michael (''né'' Marvin) Lee Aday (September 27, 1947 – January 20, 2022), a.k.a. Meat Loaf, was an American singer and actor best known for his hit 1977 album ''Bat Out of Hell'' and its two "sequels". With the assistance of songwriter and producer Music/JimSteinman, Meat Loaf's bombastic, Wagnerian style made a huge splash on the genre and paved the way for many arena rock bands to follow.

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_meat_loaf.png]]

Michael (''né'' Marvin) Lee Aday (September 27, 1947 – January 20, 2022), a.k.a. Meat Loaf, was an American singer and actor best known for his 1977 album ''Bat Out of Hell'' and its two "sequels". With the assistance of songwriter/producer Music/JimSteinman, Meat Loaf's bombastic, Wagnerian style made a huge splash on the genre and paved the way for many arena rock bands to follow.

Born in Texas, Meat Loaf dabbled in musical theatre from an early age. When he received a draft notice in 1967, he tore it up, stole his father's credit card, and moved to UsefulNotes/{{California}} to break into the music industry. During the early '70s he made several forays into stardom - he performed in several small-time bands, released a duets album with Stoney Murphy which largely went under the radar, sang lead on Music/TedNugent's ''Free-For-All'' album, and performed in touring productions of ''Hair'' and ''[[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow The Rocky Horror Show]]'', landing a role in the film version of the latter. His big break was to come while performing in an off-Broadway show called ''More Than You Deserve'', when he befriended its writer Jim Steinman. Steinman had been toying with a sci-fi RockOpera adaptation of ''Literature/PeterPan'' and saw Meat Loaf as ideal for the lead role in it. Though the project, called ''Neverland'', didn't come to fruition until forty years later (in a much altered form, as ''Bat Out of Hell: The Musical''), the songs Steinman wrote for it became the genesis of ''Bat Out of Hell''.

After several years shopping the concept around before getting Music/ToddRundgren's attention, ''Bat Out of Hell'' hit the shelves in 1977. While not immediately a hit, the album grew with popularity over time. It spent 485 weeks on the charts in Britain (second only to Fleetwood Mac's ''Rumours'' at 522 weeks), is presently the #5 best-selling album ever released with more than 43 million copies sold worldwide (14 million in the United States alone), and still sells about 200,000 copies per year. A "sequel" album, ''Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell'', was released in 1993 with new songs by Steinman, including his only U.S. #1 single, "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)". A third in the series, ''Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose'', was released in 2006 featuring songs written by him and by Bon Jovi lyricist Desmond Child. This was the first ''Bat'' album not produced and written solely by Steinman, although several older songs written or recorded by Steinman beforehand are featured. In addition to the ''Bat Out of Hell'' trilogy, Meat Loaf has released several other albums, with varying levels of involvement on Steinman's part.

Unfortunately Meat Loaf suffered a complete loss of his voice in 2016 and has struggled to perform live since then, heavily relying on backing tracks. In 2018 it was announced that on his next tour he would not actually be singing at all, handing off vocal duties to 2014 ''Series/AmericanIdol'' winner Caleb Johnson while Meat Loaf would act as host and storyteller during the shows.

* AgeProgressionSong: From ''Bat Out of Hell 2'' with "Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are". Other songs may also fit.

* AntiLoveSong: "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad", "Paradise By the Dashboard Lights" and "Not A Dry Eye In The House".
* AudienceParticipationSong: All together now: "You took the words right out of my mouth...oh, it must've been while you were kissing me..." When performing with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, he stopped the show because the singing from the audience was lacklustre, and he said they sounded like they were from Sydney. The audience suddenly got a lot more involved, but exploded when he screamed at the top of his lungs "ARE YOU TOO OLD TO STAND UP?!" During live shows, he has been known to stop the band mid-song and call out a particular audience member who was ''not'' singing along.
* AuthorAppeal: Jim Steinman really has a thing for Peter Pan - aside from ''Bat Out Of Hell'' itself, references to "lost boys" and never growing up or changing appear throughout his lyrics. Additionally, Meat Loaf's touring band is called "the Neverland Express".

* TheBandMinusTheFace: Jim Steinman's ''Bad For Good'', an album he recorded with Meat Loaf's band after he'd lost his voice.

* CallAndResponseSong: "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" and part of "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)".
* CallBack: Subverted by "Souvenirs" from his 2016 album ''Braver Than We Are'' features the line "You been cold to me so long I'm crying icicles instead of tears", one of the most memorable lyrics from "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad", one of the big hits from ''Bat Out Of Hell.'' In fact, "Souvenirs" predates "Two Out Of Three" by some years, coming from a very early Steinman musical, so "Two Out of Three" was in fact calling back to it.

* DirtyOldMan: Averted. Because Meat is well over 50, singing "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" to a young woman who looks like she's still in high school brings up all sorts of [[{{Squick}} nasty mental images]], so the female vocalist will usually dress up like a frumpy housewife to make the whole thing feel more like a flashback.

* DramaPanes: has scenes in the music videos for both "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" and "It's All Coming Back to Me" that briefly show him posing dramatically by huge curtained windows with lightning flashing in the background.
* EpicInstrumentalOpener: "Bat Out Of Hell" and "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" both go about two minutes before the first vocals are heard.
* EpicRocking: Many of Meat Loaf's songs (particularly those written by Jim Steinman) run considerably longer than the average pop tune and go through two or three [[TruckDriversGearChange major changes in key or tempo]] before the end. "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" is 7:38 in its ''short'' version, making it, at the time, the longest song to have reached #1 on the [=US=] charts. (The album version is an even twelve minutes -- Steinman reportedly ''wept'' when he was told they'd have to trim it down to get it on the radio. More to the point, Meat Loaf's autobiography describes the original studio version pre-album as ''fifteen'' minutes long, needing a shave presumably due to the limited space of a vinyl LP.)

** From ''Bat Out Of Hell 3'', the OminousLatinChanting track "Monstro" smoothly transitions into "Alive".
** "One More Kiss (Night of the Soft Parade)" clumsily segues into the title track of ''Blind Before I Stop.'' Also, from the same album, "Execution Day" overlaps into "Rock And Roll Mercenaries".

* HeroicBSOD: After the original Bat Out of Hell Tour, work on the follow up album was impeded by the theft of Jim Steinman's manuscript, which he apparently took a long time to get over.

** Meat Loaf has struggled with vocal polyps for decades due to his singing style and has lost his voice more than once.

* HomoeroticSubtext: Meat believes that, to some extent, "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" is about him and Jim Steinman. He explained, "I love Jim Steinman, but I wouldn't French kiss him!"
* IWorkAlone: "Party Of One".

* IncrediblyLongNote: On several tracks, most notably the end of ''Bat Out Of Hell''. In concerts he'll go for ''[[UpToEleven even longer.]]''

* IrrationalHatred: For some reason, the man utterly despises karaoke. Whenever he's asked about it, he vehemently declares it "devil worship".

* LiteralGenie: In "Paradise By the Dashboard Light," the singer swears to love his girl until the end of time. He then prays for the end of time so he can be released from his obligation.
** His promise comes off as a ButThouMust, because his girl presses him ''really'' hard for that promise by refusing to have sex unless he makes that promise. Despite his repeated refrain of "Let me sleep on it/Baby, baby, let me sleep on it," she insists that she can wait all night for an answer, and finally, he makes his promise out of insanity following the pressure she applied.

* LoveNostalgiaSong: "It's All Coming Back To Me Now."

* TheMusical: ''Bat out of Hell'' was expanded and made into a stage musical, essentially a retooling of the original '70s era ''Neverland'' concept altered to remove the explicit Peter Pan references, although this basically involved changing the names and not much else, that spent quite a while in DevelopmentHell[[note]]This is excluding the 40+ years the basic framework languished following the end of the 1977 workshop[[/note]] before finally premiering in Manchester in early 2017, transferring to the West End a few months later, and making its North American debut in Toronto. No Broadway transfer has been announced as of yet.

* [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous Spanish Chanting]]: "Monstro" from ''Bat Out Of Hell III''.
* PastInTheRearViewMirror: "Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are"

* RashPromise: Meat-Loaf's lengthy single "Music/ParadiseByTheDashboardLight" details how excited teens start a make-out session, until the girl suddenly exploits a LysistrataGambit: "Will you love me forever?" Unable to think clearly with raging lust, the singer makes a poor choice, and ultimately laments, "Praying for the end of time, so I can end my time with you."
* RecycledSoundtrack: "Seize the Night", from ''Bat Out Of Hell III''', features lyrics from the English version of ''Theatre/TanzDerVampire'', a string intro borrowed from Steinman's ''Bad For Good'' album, and the guitar riff from "Good Girls Go To Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)."
** "Wasted Youth" from ''Bat Out of Hell II'' is "Love and Death And An American Guitar" from Steinman's ''Bad For Good'' with different background noises.
** "Dead Ringer For Love" began life as, of all things, the theme song for the ''Animal House'' TV show.
** Generally, if Steinman's involved, there will be no small amount of SelfPlagiarism from his previous work.
* RockOpera: "Bat Out of Hell" and "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" both tell a self-contained story. The remainder of the ''Bat Out Of Hell'' album, while not operatic in theme, certainly has a Wagnerian vibe to it.
* SeductionLyric: “Dead Ringer For Love” depicts a mutual seduction in a bar. The woman clearly thinks that the man is a bit clueless, but what the hell...
* SelfDeprecation: He really doesn't think much of his own songwriting abilities (although the title track on ''Midnight at the Lost and Found'' is popular with his fans).
** The cover art for ''Hang Cool Teddy Bear'' includes the skeletal remains of the swordsman from the cover of ''Bat Out Of Hell III''.
** A lot of the songs on that album have self-deprecating themes, including "Peace on Earth," "Living on the Outside" and certainly "Los Angeloser."

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: "Life Is A Lemon And I Want My Money Back" reaches ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion]]'' levels of cynicism.
* TheSongBeforeTheStorm: Appropriately, "Stand In The Storm" from ''Hell In A Handbasket''. The next track is, indeed, a lot of thunder and lightning (and titled "Blue Sky").

* StealthPun: He's been cannibalized on screen at least twice: once in ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' ([[AudienceParticipationSong "Oh no, not Meat Loaf again"]]) and once in an episode of ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt''. In ''WesternAnimation/SausageParty'', he's depicted as literal meatloaf.[[note]]The man himself technically isn't ''in'' the movie. The animated character is used to lip-sync a few bars of "I Would Do Anything For Love" and appear in a couple of visual gags, but doesn't have any speaking lines.[[/note]]
* SurprisinglyGentleSong: ''Bat Out Of Hell 3'' closes with a lullaby-esque song, of all things, titled "Cry To Heaven". It's kind of sweet.
* TakeThat: "Party Of One" rails against all the people who have treated him like crap in his life.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: To say nothing else of the man, when he does anything (acting, singing, etc.), expect him to do it with enough [[LargeHam bigger-than-life bravado]] to kill him ([[FatalMethodActing and it nearly has]]!). As WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows put it when describing "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad," Meat Loaf doesn't just not love you; "He very, ''very'' passionately does not love you. He is driven to the very height of heart-rending emotion by his lack of love for you."

* UpdatedRerelease: The ''Bat Out Of Hell'' album has been rereleased on a couple of occasions by adding extra tracks to the end of the album. ''Dead Ringer For Love'' was added to earlier versions and a live rendition of ''Bolero'' and ''Bat Out Of Hell'' were later additions to newer releases.
* VillainSong: From ''Bat Out of Hell III'', "In the Land of the Pig, the Butcher is King," which was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally]] written as a VillainSong sung by the corrupt officials of Gotham City in an abandoned [[Theatre/BatmanTheMusical Batman musical]]. It eventually made an appearance in 2017's ''Bat out of Hell: TheMusical'' as a villain song for BigBad Chief of Police Falco and his goons at the top of Act II.

** His voice has also, sadly, been declining steadily since 2005 or so. He still sounds pretty good on ''Bat 3'' and the subsequent studio albums, but it's clear that his range has decreased. On the Melbourne and ''3 Bats'' live albums, he struggles with some of the melodies and is frequently flat.

Michael (''né'' Marvin) Lee Aday (September 27, 1947 – January 20, 2022), a.k.a. Meat Loaf, is an American singer and actor best known for his 1977 album ''Bat Out of Hell'' and its two "sequels". With the assistance of songwriter/producer Music/JimSteinman, Meat Loaf's bombastic, Wagnerian style made a huge splash on the genre and paved the way for many arena rock bands to follow.

He died on January 20, 2022 at the age of 74.

Michael (''né'' Marvin) Lee Aday, a.k.a. Meat Loaf, is an American singer and actor best known for his 1977 album ''Bat Out of Hell'' and its two "sequels". With the assistance of songwriter/producer Music/JimSteinman, Meat Loaf's bombastic, Wagnerian style made a huge splash on the genre and paved the way for many arena rock bands to follow.

Born in Texas on September 27, 1947, Meat Loaf dabbled in musical theatre from an early age. When he received a draft notice in 1967, he tore it up, stole his father's credit card, and moved to California to break into the music industry. During the early '70s he made several forays into stardom - he performed in several small-time bands, released a duets album with Stoney Murphy which largely went under the radar, sang lead on Music/TedNugent's ''Free-For-All'' album, and performed in touring productions of ''Hair'' and ''[[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow The Rocky Horror Show]]'', landing a role in the film version of the latter. His big break was to come while performing in an off-Broadway show called ''More Than You Deserve'', when he befriended its writer Jim Steinman. Steinman had been toying with a sci-fi RockOpera adaptation of ''Literature/PeterPan'' and saw Meat Loaf as ideal for the lead role in it. Though the project, called ''Neverland'', didn't come to fruition until forty years later (in a much altered form, as ''Bat Out of Hell: The Musical''), the songs Steinman wrote for it became the genesis of ''Bat Out of Hell''.