The Good Rats were one of the more popular club acts on Long Island along with Twisted Sister and Zebra so it made sense that they would open the rescheduled Meat Loaf concert taking place in the basketball gymnasium at Saint John’s University.

The “Bat Out of Hell” album was all over the radio airwaves and Mr. Loaf’s acrobatic stage show were becoming legendary so it was a bit of a disappointment to see him confined to a wheelchair with a recently broken leg. Meat Loaf did manage to dramatically lift himself out of the chair near the end of the concert and walk Frankenstein-like for a bit but without the stage antics the show was a bit of a disappointment.

Years later, Meat Loaf’s reenacting “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” became a little creepy but the man put his heart and soul into every performance until poor health knocked him off the road and possibly into retirement.

All Revved Up With No Place to Go

Rock on!

GQ