A REAL PRESSURE COOKER

Guilty pleasure.

Paradise By the Dashboard Light—Meat Loaf

It dripped nostalgia for ‘60s teenage drama and Phil Spector.

It was the hit of the Bar Mitzvah season of 77/78, echoing through catering halls as I broke Tam-Tams over illicit cups of Manischewitz.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up the second Old Grey Whistle Test DVD, which contains a bizarre live performance.

Mr. Loaf is hanging on to his voice by a thread, and Karla DeVito is vamping in a black blouse with large tit-revealing slits on each side.

They do the basic pantomime of the song’s narrative, including some quite explicit groping by Mr. Loaf. But where it gets truly weird is at the end…

The end of the studio version is a relatively subdued coda—the calm after the preceding storm. In this version, however, the end is the storm.

“I hate you so much! You make me wanna spew up!” screams Mr. Loaf, right in Karla’s face.

“I think you just did, fat boy,” deadpans Karla as she wipes her upper lip.

The histrionics continue, with Mr. Loaf pounding the top of an amp, then picking up a mike stand and taking a run at Karla, brandishing the business end. She ducks the charge.

Mr. Loaf eventually ends up behind Karla and lets out a soul-curdling bellow: “Fuuuuuuuucccccckkkkk yoooooooouuuuuuuu!!!”

Damn.

It was a train wreck that I had to replay immediately. And I promise you, I’ll surely watch it again…