Vital Viewing (Served with Gravy and Grandiloquence Edition)

 

1947-2022

About five years ago, Texas born-and-raised rock star Meat Loaf sat down for an interview with Texas born-and-raised TV journalist Dan Rather. Where they were born and raised is about all these two men have in common, but neither seems to mind:

Did you catch that? Meat Loaf explained exactly what "that" was, so try not to forget it. As for this "Jim" person who was mentioned in passing, he would be...

...Jim Steinman, whose death last April went unnoticed by me, or else I definitely would have done a post about him. Anyway, sometime in the early 1970s, budding young singer and actor Loaf met budding young composer Steinman. When the latter's attempt to mount a rock opera based on Peter Pan fell through, the two men decided to take several of the songs from that show and turn it into a concept album. The big labels all turned them down, so they took it to a small one, Cleveland International Records, which had recently been founded by former Columbia Records and Epic Records executive Steve Popovich, a man with a Cleveland-like surname if there ever was one (oddly enough, he was born in Pennsylvania.) Popovich took on the two young men. The 1977 result:

How to characterize this album? Some say it's Chuck Berry by way of Richard Wagner. Others say it's Rebel Without a Cause with a Pete Townsend score. Still others say it's an Andy Kaufman parody of Born to Run. Finally, a compelling argument can be made that producer Todd Rundgren dreamt the whole thing up while dropping acid with Peter Fonda. Whatever Bat Out of Hell is, I bought the album when I was something like 17 years old, and loved it, just loved it. All these years later, I still love it enough that I'm tempted to play all seven tracks from it. However, I should show some restraint (not that Meat Loaf or Steinman ever did) and give you just two. First up, the title track:   

I wonder if he's an organ doner.

OK, sports fans, let's take a break from rock 'n' roll for just a second and look at a man who I'm told was originally a baseball player, and a very good one at that. Phil Rizzuto played shortstop for the New York Yankees from 1941 to 1956, his entire career, and a period of time when the team captured 10 American League titles and won seven World Series. Named the AL's Most Valuable Player in 1950, Rizzuto played in five All-Star Games, had a batting average of .273 with 38 home runs and 563 runs batted in, all of which I understand is to the good. As a shortstop, his 1,217 double plays rank second in major league history. Rizzuto has other impressive statistics, but I'm already in over my head, so let's cut to what he did once his ballplaying career ended.

Well, like a lot of ex-athletes, Rizzuto became a broadcaster, a radio and TV announcer for the New York Yankees for nearly 40 years. An example of his play-by-play style can be heard in the following clip, but not right away as there's some musical interludes. Just be patient:

There's got to be a morning after. Or postseason.

Bat Out of Hell yielded two sequels, but it's only the first, from 1993, that I want to get into since it in turn yielded one of Meat Loaf's biggest (and at nearly 12 minutes, longest) hits. Here it is, and don't forget what Mr. Loaf told Dan Rather about "that":

Um...I'm a bit embarrassed to mention this, but I'm going to have to watch that Dan Rather interview again, because now I'm not so sure what "that" was.

OH, WAIT! It suddenly occurred to me! The brunette in the video...

...could it have been that girl?