You may know Todd Rundgren as the six-stringer and founder of Nazz and Utopia, or from his celebrated solo catalog. However, the multi-hyphenate guitarist also has an accomplished string of production credits under his belt. That includes Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell – the conceptual, “Wagnerian rock” debut album that, perhaps puzzlingly, was often compared to Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run.
“Meat Loaf was just plain weird. By the standards of the time, he was just a plain weird act,” says Rungdren in a new no-holds-barred interview with Guitar World.
“And every producer couldn’t figure out what to do with them because the songs were so long.”
The album was originally developed from a musical, Neverland, conceptualized as a futuristic rock version of Peter Pan, which composer Jim Steinman wrote for a workshop in 1974. Meat Loaf, who was active in theater circles, met Steinman, and the two eventually began working on what would become Bat Out of Hell.
Alongside producers struggling to understand the project, record labels were also hesitant to take on an album that was so off-kilter – especially for that era. So what convinced Rundgren – whom Steinman later called “the only genuine genius I've ever worked with” in an interview with Classic Rock – to get involved?
“I was in a certain frame of mind, and making that record represented a certain revenge to me. I’m very much about progress, and I know things are cyclic, especially in the music business, you know, we go through phases. Every once in a while, we’re due for a change.”
Another reason that led Rundgren to Meat Loaf was The Boss – and his immense popularity, and, in the polymath's opinion, his overexposure at the time. “He [Bruce Springsteen] was on the cover of Time Magazine, and, Jesus, was the ‘savior of rock ‘n’ roll.’ You know, he looks like Jesus, he’s gonna save rock ‘n’ roll.
“And I listen to Bruce Springsteen, and it’s these long songs, they’re all about the ’50s, and it’s like, ‘Wait a minute… we have to go through this again? The motorcycles? The switchblades? The leather jackets? We’re going to do this again?’
“I thought, ‘We’re going to rebuild rock ‘n’ roll from the beginning? Oh, hell, no.’ So, when I saw Meat Loaf, I said, ‘This is a spoof of Bruce Springsteen, and that’s why I’m doing it.’ And the rest, as they say, is history. I didn’t care if it succeeded or not; I just wanted to make fun of Bruce Springsteen.”
Spoof or not, the groundbreaking record would go on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time – selling over 43 million copies worldwide – and redefining what a rock icon looks like along the way.
Guitar World's full interview with Todd Rundgren will be published in the coming weeks.
