R.I.P MeatLoaf

 This week we're looking at a legend.

Last Thursday we lost a unique guy.

Born Marvin Lee Aday and later legally known as Michael, the musician died on Thursday with his wife, Deborah Gillespie, by his side.

Rock Singer and actor Meat Loaf has died aged 74 years whose shows were things people looked forward to as they never let up and his operatic gothic rock style of music replete with costumes was in some respects a modern day Wagner for the Rock Generation, telling stories of adolescent life and loves with verve and passion.

Written and composed by Jim Steinman who died last year, Meat Loaf’s 1977 debut album Bat Out of Hell remains one of the biggest-selling albums in history. 

Steinman and Meat Loaf’s 1993 album Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell produced the global hit single I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That). It was his only UK No 1 single, spending seven weeks at the top. 

He completed the Bat Out of Hell trilogy with The Monster Is Loose in 2006. The three albums have sold more than 65m copies worldwide.

He famously stared as  Eddie, an ill-fated delivery boy who sings the song Hot Patootie in the 1975 film make of the stage production The Rocky Horror Picture Show entering on his motorcycle.

All in all he starred in some 50 films including Fight Club, Wayne’s World and Spiceworld the Movie where he played a taxi driver.

Working with how things are

 

I am not unfortunately feeling too well this week so we will side step the loud noise coming from the groan up world (allegedly) of politics simply because I'm not remotely up to it.

Instead I've been propped up in bed surrounded by plushies and teddy bears trying to get through this period where I'm feeling rather dizzy listening to so music from some of collection, most single discs and a few box sets to relax and take my mind away from that and ideally more on the things I love when this is all over.

Equally I have been reading comics and especially reprints of stories from them from the past because they do take me back to places with better memories so it's like a stroll in a meadow, soothing and yet engaging so I focus on other things and ideas, thinking about what might of been at a cliffhanger ending.

Sometimes the stories are of and about adventure and courage in trying situations, making the most of it, learning from your experiences.

It's a time where for me to engaging more with your younger more Pollyannish self really is more use than more adult cynicism and looking for "why me, why now" dealing with what is rather than any notions of being cheated of.

 

Looking back to early 2020

In view of events I'm just going to express a few thoughts around the at times forever change nature of restrictions.

One big problem with making restrictions is everybody's situation is different, some have easy access to open countryside, others are very dependent upon the parks and green spaces and in those early days of 2020 things were highly restrictive.

Here you were challenged if you wanted to go the commercial centre of the district and if your answer was to want to look around you'd be turfed right off the bus by drivers.

Derbyshire police famously arrested a woman  for sitting on a sit while out having a coffee cos she was cold lest others do the same and might get close.

In Wales restrictions were such that parents could not get clothes to fit their children properly because shops were banned from opening even for the most essential items such as damaged or not fitting coats so children went cold.

Everybody lives in different sorts of accommodation from say a two bedroom flat in a high rise block to a mansion via a farm house and the open space such as gardens varies hugely.

Even in this district we have terraces with just a"postage stamp" rear garden to large ones belong to detached properties and my own being a corner plot has a small front, substantial side and medium sized rear gardens.

The restrictions while being based upon the best available advice about spreading covid through shared spaces and taking in social distancing initially two metres were identical regardless of your situation meaning while the letter of the law may of been broken, a good number of us could and did meet more people out of doors than regulations permitted because we felt the understanding given showed no risk to public health where the rules were based on what everyone could do.

For us this was using "common sense" with caution.

We read about things like groups of over a hundred in indoor spaces meeting for weddings because it was custom and equally while some were misguidedly told no one was allowed to attend funerals for partners or immediate families three hundred plus strong funerals did take place in some communities with the police turning a blind eye to it and many of us at that point  could only at best get around 14 to 18 attendees.

I know in this district rules certainly were not followed to the letter in the early months in the spring and summer of 2020 with people buying sheds to make unofficial points to gather for alcohol and chat.

Ill advised for sure but it happened regardless and so across all society rules were bent if not broken some certainly by people who really should of known better given the work they did.

While some do owe us an explanation of just why they did and in certain situations I do feel it was plain wrong, I don't feel it was an Us and Them situation as from where I'm standing plenty of Us did it too.

I feel in hindsight some of those initial restrictions were flawed, stopping things that were good for peoples health where actually there was little risk and the enforcement was all over the place, overzealous in some areas while ineffective and ignored for social order reasons elsewhere. 

Old masters

 

As I type this just a bit before bedtime here it is expected to fall to below one degree C having spent part of the day putting away the physical trappings of Christmas such as the decorations and tree for another year.

The magic that we invoke by our ritual served us well providing a focus on what really mattered avoiding the deafening noise from other things this last year settling in to enjoy the New Year listening to this years New Years Day concert from Vienna.

While in many ways I like to buy new recordings often more generous when it comes to couplings and frequently on the higher quality super audio cd format, the allure of the past can cut in.

Take this 1976 recording originally made in SQ Quadrophonic sound for EMI/Angel during a period the celebrated Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan was under contract to EMI Records.

It's hardly generous at just under forty four minutes  being a straight issue of that lp with nothing added outside of an excellent remastering done in 2017 that improves on the 1990  Angel original cd transfer.

The thing that makes it worth while actually is the playing not just of the orchestra in Richard Strauss's work but that of the soloists Rostropovich on cello and Koch on voila being one of the finest ever recordings of this work.

It really holds your attention until the very end.