The album needs no introduction. Everyone knows the songs. Let’s vote.
I personally am voting for “Paradise By the Dashboard light.” I think the baseball call by Phil Rizzuto is a transcendent touch. I also love the title song.
Love this CD. I saw Meat on his Back into Hell tour, got his autograph, spoke with him briefly, and got to listen while he talked with other fans.
I used to love ‘Paradise’, but these days, I’m fond of the title track and the last song. I went with the last track, because I figure of the two, that’s the one that will get the least love. If you get a chance to see any of his ‘making of’ shows, or his VH1 Storytellers episode, I recommend them. The one ‘Making of’ show I particularly like is entitled, “Classic Albums: Bat out of Hell”. It has Meat and Todd Rundgren (individually) at a mixing board messing with the different tracks and talking about them, Jim Steinman at a piano, Ellen Foley, and others. It’s an hour long, has a lot of amusing stories and anecdotes, and it’s really quite informative and entertaining. Look for Jim’s whining, “Where’s the motorcycle sound, Todd?”, (in the title track) story, and how Todd did the motorcycle effect on his guitar, coming out into his solo, all in one take.
Todd produced it on his own dime, and they said that the album was recorded and mixed for over a year before finding someone who would press and sell it. It’s now the fifth-best selling album worldwide, having sold 43 million copies, and no one would touch it!
BBC6 had a great series called “The Record Producers”. The episode about Todd was amazing. Todd had sent them duplicates of the multitrack master tapes. It is utterly fascinating.
In the recent interview of Todd by Roy Firestone, Todd repeated the story that the only reason he took on the project was that he thought it was a parody of Bruce Springsteen.
“Paradise” is the easy choice, so I won’t take it. Voted for the title track.
‘Paradise By The Dashboard Light’ by a mile. This is a wonderful, classic album but I think I’m in the minority in that I actually prefer Bat Out Of Hell II - song for song I think it just has a higher ratio of amazing stuff.
Bat Out Of Hell III was good too but doesn’t come close to the other two.
The creation of this thread officially marks SDMB as having collectively the most dad-like (the daddest) musical taste on the Internet.
Feel free to make a Justin Beiber poll, sonny.
There haven’t been any U2 or AC/DC polls yet, so we’re not quite there.
I voted for Paradise, but frankly, there’s not a song on this album that I don’t love!
“Looks like he’s gonna make it.”
Great album, but Paradise can’t be beat. Not only is it a great song, but it’s very sophisticated lyrically, especially at the end.
I would have said Paradise, but the long middle section with baseball metaphors and grunting is really unnecessary, which takes it off the top spot for me. It’s still a hilarious and awesome song, though.
This is available on Netflix.
mmm
This is a very hard call, because all the songs are wonderful.
I chose Paradise for the way the three songs blend into each other, and the surprise ending
I swore I would love you till the end of time.
So now I’m praying for the end of time
To hurry up and arrive,
Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you,
I don’t think that I can really survive
I’ll never break my promise or forget my vow.
But God only knows what I can do right now.
I’m praying for the end of time.
It’s all that I can do…hoo…hoo.
Praying for the end of time, so I can end my time with you!!!
One of Jim Steinman’s best.
I have very mixed feelings about this record. It’s manipulative and insincere. It makes me emotional, and I love it.
Pretty much all of the songs are masterpieces, but “Paradise” is one of my favorite songs of all time.
“So now I’m praying for the end of time
To hurry up and arrive
'Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you
I don’t think that I can really survive
I’ll never break my promise or forget my vow
But God only knows what I can do right now
I’m praying for the end of time
It’s all that I can do
Praying for the end of time,
So I can end my time with you”
Edit: Annie, you bitch! You beat me to the quote!
Joe
Though it’s cold and lonely in the deep dark night, I vote for Paradise by the Dashboard Light.
Even though I voted for Paradise, I feel obligated to throw a little love at On a Hot Summer Night.
“I bet you say that to all the guys.”
My sister and I used to scare each other with the beginning to “On a Hot Summer Night…”
Agreed, the baseball voiceover and moaning seemed trite even when listening as a teenager, and devalue an otherwise epic song.
When I worked as a DJ there was a caller who would call and request Paradise by the Dashboard Light each Saturday morning. I’d play it about 50% of the time, but it’s 8+ minutes long and that’s just a lot to ask of a DJ. Both to have to sit through it, and to re-schedule everything else to fit it into the timeslots. I got thoroughly sick of it by the end of my time at the station(2.5 years). So while I appreciate Paradise, I gotta go with Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.
Enjoy,
Steven
A few years ago, I would have agreed with you all about “Paradise” and I still sing the crap out of it every time I hear it, but lately “For Crying Out Loud” has seemed to me to be pure musical genius… (probably has to do with some personal issues I have going on right now 
)
***Says the girl who wore out 3 Bat Out of Hell tapes before she hit 18. Also, my Dad introduced me to the wonders of Meatloaf, so I suppose this might be a Dadlike thread…