2022 – R.I.P. Meat Loaf
(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on January 25, 2022)
Geez – the old stars are really starting to drop like flies lately (though no one would DARE to compare this man to a fly).
I really went all-in when Meat Loaf started out. I photographed his first East Coast show (second, overall) on a VERY rainy/flooding Election Day 1977 evening in a club in West Orange, NJ, called Creation, which was next door to the house where the Uncle Floyd Show was produced back then.
(“house”? Yeah – look!)
And a shot from that first East Coast gig is the first photo in the Meat Loaf section of my site – https://bobleafe.com/ .
Before I go any further, I have to tell you that these photos will bounce around between the 18 images (and stories) on my site and the 18 that I picked out this past weekend from my analog file cabinets (including the leadoff shot, which was taken at the Show Place in Dover, NJ, on 1-14-78). I’ll be going through these file cabinet B&W shots chronologically.
So while we’re still in Dover, here’s another shot from that show:
On March 4, 1978, I took this pic at Manhattan’s Palladium:
On March 27, he did an in-store at EJ Korvettes in Paramus, NJ. Here’s some of the crowd waiting to get their albums signed:
On August 29, he did a similar in-store at the Harmony Hut in Wayne, NJ:
This was a pretty cool event on 10-11-80 that involved Meat and Billy Joel, so I’m stealing this explanation from my site:
Hofstra University Stadium, Hempstead, NY 1980
Billy led the Long Island-based WLIR-FM Heavy Hitters team against the Meat Loaf-led WNEW-FM All Stars team from NYC in the first annual Charity Begins At Home benefit softball game. Meat pitched for NEW and Billy DH’d for LIR.
I don’t see a ball in the catcher’s mitt, so I guess Meat hit it.
On 10-14-81, Meat visited The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder and decided he should be wearing the album jacket as a hat:
He showed up on 11-5-81 at the taping of The Robert Klein Radio Hour sporting a black eye. I don’t recall what that was about………….or if it was even a real one:
On 8-26-82, there was a unique event in Forest Hills, Queens, NY called Musicourt ’82 that featured rock stars and tennis greats. Both played tennis and musical instruments at the jam that followed the matches.
There were a lot of photographers at this event, but nobody else got this shot of Meat leaping over the net (my notes say he tripped on it):
BTW – There’s a Musicourt ’82 listing on my site with some jam photos.
I can’t find any what/where/when/why information on this shot. I remember him crumpling something, but that’s it and it’s too cool a shot to leave out:
So much for the black-and-white pix………….
This is the program for Meat’s 5-26-78 show at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ (my house!). The cover was created by my friend Moyssi, who was the venue’s lighting director:
I had the inside shot:
Somehow, on 7-22-78, I stopped on the Garden State Parkway, got out and took this picture (I’m lucky I didn’t get a ticket):
A good guess would be that I was on my way to shoot the show at the GSAC. Some shots from that show are on my site.
Here’s a shot I had on the November 1978 cover of PIZZAZZ magazine:
They flipped it for this inside shot:
The athletic and high-flying Meat Loaf changes a light bulb during a show at the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, NJ, on Halloween, 1981:
(and if you believe THAT……………)
Again, not sure where this was or what this was about, but it says “March ‘85” on the slide and that’s an MTV mic pointed at him:
And let’s wrap this up with a weird photo I took at what I think was the last time I photographed him: May 7, 1989 at Bergen Community College in Paramus, NJ, where I was a faculty member the previous time I shot him there in 1978:
Summing up the encounters over the years: Meat could be real cranky – I got hit with his fury once or twice – but man, did he put on a show!
(………..and Karla DeVito was a real sweetheart who became a friend)
Awesome photos, Bob. As usual, your photos bring us back to ‘back in the day.’ You really captured the unique spirit of Meat Loaf…May he R.I.P.
Awesome
Love these photos. Creations…next town over from where I lived. Saw a bunch of great shows there! Meat Loaf – this one hits hard of another zap out of my youth.
Great pics and stories Bob. I was at the Meatloaf show at Bergen Community College in 78 too. We got our tickets from Bob Hussey