Ian Anderson always believed Meat Loaf was a “churlish, arrogant” singer, until he saw the light
Prog rock has a pretty unique reputation. Seen by a large chunk of the music industry as perhaps so intelligent it can neatly venture into the realm of silliness through just an accidental sneeze, it shares many commonalities with the classic rock end of the musical spectrum.
It’s difficult to ignore the daftness attached to both genres. They require a certain amount of departing mental faculties to allow a certain sense of fantasy to drift into the listener’s experience. For prog rock, it is usually the more traditional slices of such thinking, wizards, beasts and other fantastical creations. For classic rock ,it is usually allowing yourself to believe that someone like Meat Loaf can be a true sex icon.
The latter was something that Ian Anderson struggled with for many years. The forerunning singer for the prog rock clique, Anderson’s Jethro Tull, can be considered pioneers in the truest sense when it comes to the genre. Through the band and Anderson’s lyrics, the group defined a whole swathe of a music-loving population who lost themselves in the worlds they created.
While those worlds flirted with the fantastical and almost always relied on a hefty amount of storytelling and poetic license, half of what Anderson put down on the page and into the airwaves felt honest. It’s part of what made the band such a unique force in the prog rock world. It was also why he couldn’t seem to connect with the deliberately theatrical and showbiz-driven Meat Loaf.
Speaking to The Quietus, Anderson explained: “Ever since I’d been aware of Mr Meat I’d not been a fan at all. I thought he was bombastic, loud, churlish, arrogant. There was nothing about him that appealed to me, including his overtly showbizzy operatic voice. I’d never been a fan, until I was desperate for a track for some radio show I was doing. I needed to find an example of storytelling.”
It would seem that this was the one thing that the two men did share, a knack for storytelling, even if Meat Loaf wasn’t always the direct author. “I was looking for examples of people who told authentic observational tales, and I was stuck,” Anderson explained. “Then my wife called to me from the other side of the office saying, ‘life is a lemon and I want my money back’. I said I was terribly sorry to hear this. She said, ‘no, the Meat Loaf song, ‘Life Is A Lemon (And I Want My Money Back)’, although Jim Steinman actually wrote the song.”
While he may not have been the author, Meat Loaf was the sincere narrator of the piece, and it allowed Anderson to finally appreciate him. “So I found the song and became, if not a Meat Loaf addict, at least someone who had established a degree of reverence for both Meat Loaf at his best and the lyrical and musical writing of Jim Steinman,” the singer explained. “I think it’s a great song, and it just happens to be on this album. I’m not saying I enjoy the whole album or most of Meat Loaf’s work, but that is a very good track.”
One song can change a lot; it can instantly swap how you feel about a person following just a few simple notes. Anderson may not have found himself in the Meat Loaf fan club, but the track was enough of a kick towards his talent that the Jethro Tull man could understand the singer he once thought to be a brutish blight and his passion for performance.
“As soon as I heard it, I told my wife, ‘Damn, I wish I’d written that,’ which is probably the biggest compliment anyone in my position can pay to somebody else. In fact, I think that should be the epitaph on my gravestone,” Anderson shared, noting that while Meat Loaf may never be firmly placed in the singer’s most beloved albums, the power of one song is enough to change your opinion forever.
