Two Outta Three Ain't Bad...

Dear Readers,

The summer before I turned seventeen my brother Tim got this killer boom box with two tape decks. It was the era of the mix tape and that killer boom box had a high speed record so that you could make magical mix tapes in half the time. Right about that same time my father became obsessed with Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell  album, and specifically the song: “ two out three ain’t bad”.  I remember the pride on my brother’s face when he made the tape for my father. Side one, the entire Bat Out of Hell  Album. Side two-all “ Two outta three ain’t bad” for the entire side of the 90 minute tape. Tim’s pride would soon become his beast of burden.

Within a day, it was clear that Dad was more interested in the “two outta three ain’t bad” side of the tape. I vividly remember every time that we walked through the garage, or up the drive way, or turned off the lawn mower  hearing good old Meatloaf sing, “I want you, I need you, but there ain’t no way I’m ever gonna love you…” My father, much like all of his sons, was never shy about singing along with the radio, and much like his sons, his ability to hold a tune was never a concern.  Driving around town was probably the worst, as at least in the yard you could walk away from it, but in the car, you were trapped by Meatloaf. That summer it was all meatloaf all the time.

Now I’ll be honest, these memories are well over 20 years old, and frankly a little fuzzy on details…  I think I remember late one afternoon, my brothers Craig, Tim and I were running some errands for my parents in the car.  We flipped on the radio, ejecting Dad’s Meatloaf tape and tossing it on the dashboard. Tim threw in a Ramones tape. He always gravitated to the Ramones. We went around the corner and watched Dad’s tape slide all the way across the dashboard as inertia pulled the tape across the dash. Craig, Tim and I all looked at each other suddenly knowing, but not saying a word. Now the rest of this memory is really hazy for me, and I’ll be honest I don’t remember exactly what happened, but on the next tight corner we might have gone around a little hot, and once again the tape slid across the dashboard and launched right out the window… I clearly remember each of us reaching for the tape as it slipped through our hands. ”NOOOO!!!” we yelled. 

The three of us looked at each other in disbelief. Maybe it was Craig, who asked, “should we go back and get it?” “ it’s probably been smashed into a million pieces by now for sure.” I can hear Tim saying as each of looked at each other nodding in agreement and slightly smiling, but not overtly celebrating.

Today in the office, the guy across the hall had his music up a little louder than usual.  I immediately recognized Meatloaf’s bellowing voice as he belted out “I want you, I need you, but …” I felt a twitch in my eye, and a creak in my neck. I started to break out into a sweat. I think I had a small seizure. Then I found myself smiling and laughing…

I called my parents. Told them what song I was hearing. My immediate memories.

We all laughed.

In closing I'll say that I don’t have mix tape of all one song, but I am pretty famous for playing songs to  death, I’ll attribute that directly to my awesome father…

anyway,

thanks for reading.

respect

Vanderbacon