If only they new about robot bats and gluten free meatloaf in the 70s it may have gone from camp to prog.


http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/watch-new-robot-fly-just-bat
 
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/gluten-free-glazed-meatloaf/39128993-c6ee-493a-b67a-0cdc8977f2fd
 
 
 

I don't care about sales numbers.  I don't take them as an indicator of value.  For example, Alanis sold 20 Million copies and she can't sing or write songs.  Another case in point is that Gary Puckett and the Union Gap supposedly sold more records in 1968 than the Beatles did. 
 
More importantly, the numbers don't tell me what I was asking - which is why people like it, what makes it resonate.  Whenever I ask people, I rarely get a more thought out answer than "Oh it's so good, how can you not like it".
 
I also have to add that having great musicians on a track does is not a sufficient condition for a great track. 

quantumeffect
If only they new about robot bats and gluten free meatloaf in the 70s it may have gone from camp to prog.

People keep calling it camp.  Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't camp not supposed to take itself so seriously?
 

I don't have a strong opinion about the record. I do have some pretty intense memories about life in general when that record was big. The girls loved it and I loved the girls, paradise by my dashboard lights and all that. There were many parties where that record was played. Happy days.

I can't stand musicals, prolly why I don't care for Meatloaf either, maybe.  I never understood the fascination with them either.  But after reading through this thread, I see why people like them.  Makes sense when you put it all in context.  
 
Oddly enough...I used to sit and watch that classic MTV video of "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" like a car wreck. I disliked it so much I would just sit there, fascinated, tearing it apart in my mind while I watched the whole thing..."this guy is ridiculous..look at all that sweat, gross...what in the world could she see in him..what in the world does he see in her...look at 'em..they're weird..gosh this music sucks" for the whole 8 minutes. ha ha.  

mumpcake

quantumeffect
If only they new about robot bats and gluten free meatloaf in the 70s it may have gone from camp to prog.

People keep calling it camp.  Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't camp not supposed to take itself so seriously?
 

Yes it's the avant garde of those who are rejected by society yet are at the same time intelligent.  Camp.  It's like a wink at people who take things too seriously.  Wink, wink.  Do you take drag shows seriously?  I think some people do.  Do you take mick jagger seriously when he struts around the stage?  He doesn't!
 
This is camp:  the fact that all these  rocking,rebel young men never smile on stage taking themselves seriously (except maybe george michael), and then by the time they do their reunion tours 40 years later, they're all smiling (as if to say, *now I get it*)   Thus spinal tap.
 
 

mumpcake
I don't care about sales numbers.  I don't take them as an indicator of value.  

i find that a disingenuous stance.

It's guitar-based "musical theatre."  Can't stand it myself, Meatloaf annoys me in the same way as Gilbert & Sullivan.
Having said that, I had to learn Paradise By The Dashboard Light last year.  That damned song (at least the bassline) doesn't repeat itself once!  Some like him, some don't, but I think he's a talented songwriter.

Forget sales numbers, I have my own criteria.
 
The list of albums everybody liked except me is quite long, and includes Bat Out of Hell. However, back in the day my band covered almost the entire album.  The material was fun to play, audiences ate it up, and "Two Out of Three" got me laid more than once. As did "Mandy" and "Bridge over Troubled Water".
 
We also covered "Nutrocker" by Bee Bumble and the Stingers, which impressed other musicians but never once got me anywhere with a barmaid.
 
 

It is also worth mentioning (as someone that was growing up at the time) that musicals then were very much of the "South Pacific"  and "Carousel" type. Schwartz with Godspell  and Webber and Rice with Jesus Christ Superstar (sorry to anyone I missed) broke that mould and soon after came Richard O'Brian's Rocky Horror Picture show.
It was sort of the punk rock era of musicals which I suspect gave birth to Steinman's ambitions (and Meatloaf's career).  Let's face it Webber's later contributions to musical theatre reverted back to type.
 
I guess you had to be there.  I have fond memories of a braless music teacher with unshaven armpits sitting on the edge of my bed whilst we talked about the Rocky Horror Picture show.  Richard I owe you one!
:)