“There was so much left to dream”
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Music Week...
Rock and roll dreams come true
When the sad news broke of Meat Loaf’s passing last month, it marked a particularly poignant moment for me in my life as a music fan. I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) was the first cassette single I ever bought – the song that sparked a relationship with music that was purely my own, not my parents’. Dwelling upon the extraordinary arc of his career, there is one particular quality to the late great artist I keep focusing on: the only thing about Meat Loaf that was bigger than his voice was his self-belief. In 2017, David Sonenberg – the manager/lawyer who worked with both the late songwriting genius Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf from the very start – told me all about the inception of his bazillion-selling 1977 debut Bat Out Of Hell album. “When we showed up, rock’n’roll wasn’t happening,” he told me, in his own inimitable way. “Theatre wasn’t happening, ‘big fat boys’ weren’t happening, and the name Meat Loaf wasn’t happening! The industry couldn’t see that he was different and exciting.” Sonenberg went on to explain how Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman actually went to labels and live demoed the Bat Out Of Hell songs for bemused presidents in a bid to procure a deal. “Steinman would play the piano, Meat would sing, drink beers, and kiss Ellen Foley who was singing background vocals,” he reflected. “It was theatrical, wild, and exciting... and people stared at us like nothing had happened!” Eventually, it took the combined financial backing of Sonenberg and the producer Todd Rundgren’s manager Albert Grossman to front the studio costs to get Steinman and Meat Loaf recording. I am constantly fascinated by stories of belief such as these, whether it be Kanya King recalling how she re-mortgaged her home to launch the MOBO Awards or super-producer Yeti Beats in this month’s issue explaining how he initially tried and failed to get Doja Cat signed. “Until you’re winning, people don’t really believe you,” he says (see p66). “But I never had a doubt, I thought she was a superstar.” It’s one thing to say you believe in something, it’s quite another to put something on the line to prove it, be it your money or years and years of your life. The story of Meat Loaf is as true in 1977 as it is now in 2022, and worth remembering. Often the very thing the whole world is waiting for also happens to be the last thing anyone is actually looking for.
George Garner, Head Of Content
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