A Couple of Quick Reflections on the Death of a Rock Singer

In the grand scheme of things the death of rock singer Meat Loaf (Marvin Aday) is hardly important. The news brought back some memories of school years and learning he was an anti-vax proponent I immediately thought of the joke that is certain to circulate – that he would do anything for love but he wouldn't do that (get a vaccine).

On a more serious note, a couple of quick reflections...

One the popular but wicked song Paradise by the Dashboard Light was one that resonated with my generation and yet I had to pause and wonder if today's youth would even understand it?

Would they understand that even though the characters in the song were less than virtuous there was still a notion that marriage was the context for sexual activity? The girl was willing to give up her virginity in a pre-marital context but only if the boy promised to marry her – which he did.

Given that today one can turn on a game show like Wheel of Fortune and it's common for contestants to mention how they live with a boyfriend or girlfriend and often have kids with the same or previous, these social mores are no longer meaningful and increasingly are beyond the ability of people to even understand. Cohabitation is quite normal and has even made deep inroads into ostensibly conservative Evangelical circles. And these statements are made without any hint of shame or embarrassment. The whole point of the song and the ethical and emotional pressures attached to the situation is in that regard meaningless in today's context.

I thought of the same thing last year with the death of Don Everly. Would the idea of a wrecked reputation as expressed in Wake Up Little Susie be something that people could understand today? What was once scandal and shame is today the norm and worthy of congratulation. It demonstrates the social values of the previous generation were in the end little more than a veneer and a bit of leftover reactionary Victorianism.

In fact today, the same young couple (in Meat Loaf's car) would probably commit their acts right under their parent's roof and maybe even with their blessing. Or the fact that they were engaged in such behaviour, would be no source of shame. That young man would shamelessly look the girl's father right in the eye, knowing that he knows what they're doing. It's not a problem in this whore-sodom culture that is America.

Likewise, Meat Loaf was associated with The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a degenerate film that appeared in the 1970's and became part of the alternative and goth subcultures. Meat Loaf had a small part in the film. Growing up I remember many of the kids who were part of that set would visit an old theatre in the grimy part of town that would have a midnight showing. Some would dress up, the whole thing (the movie and its audiences) surrounded by the camp ethos of inside jokes, parody, and self-mockery. Many had seen the film dozens of times. It was a social event, a recurring freak show as much as anything. I never went but I certainly knew many who did and was invited and encouraged to go more than once. While I was a functional pagan back then I wasn't interested in that scene and didn't find it to be funny. Part of the scandal of the cult film was its transvestite character and undoubtedly some of the audience members who resonated with this character (or dressed up like him) were engaged in forms of early experimentation for what would come later in their lives. They wanted to dress up and attending the film gave them context to do so (publically) in which it was acceptable.

But it was a dark and scandalous production – relegated to off-beat theatres in the dead of night. It wasn't the sort of film that decent mainstream people wanted to see or would resonate with.

And yet today, one can turn on the Jeopardy game show and find an unabashed cross-dresser in full drag, reigning as champion and celebrated. And rather than turn off the show as I did (we usually watch the next day via YouTube as we don't have television), ratings have actually soared. It's culturally tragic and a sign of further judgment. I am personally annoyed because the one show I like to watch on a regular basis has been ruined – probably permanently. Though my children are all old enough to deal with the subject matter and understand the person is mentally unsound and under judgment, I nevertheless refuse to allow such filth to become normalised in my home and the YouTube tab has thus remained closed.

Part of me wonders what Meat Loaf himself thought? A Trumpite and supporter of Right-wing causes he was no conservative. He may have decried the direction of culture in some respects but ironically he played a part in normalising the shift and yet in his own sad lifetime the culture moved far beyond him to the point that forty years after his initial success and 'heyday' he had moved from being on the cutting and progressive edge to the reactionary extreme.

Again, his death is culturally and historically meaningless and now he's in the hell he liked to sing about and associate himself with, but I couldn't help but reflect on the whole context for a moment. It's filled with irony and sad endings as clearly the singer never reflected with any kind of meaning on these very questions. That's a tragedy as profound as the pervasiveness of sin in this culture.