Meat Loaf: 10 Incredible Forgotten Songs
9. The Giving Tree
A less bombastic track from his penultimate album Hell In A Handbasket that matched his wavering voice perfectly, The Giving Tree still rocks - if not to the theatrical excess of Meat Loaf's better-known material. Musically it was stripped down, at least in the context of Meat Loaf's back catalogue.
Once the chorus hits, however, Meat Loaf showed he still had some chops vocally, pushing his range. The emotion and energy was still there but combined with a maturity and wisdom absent from the hormonal extremes of the Steinman work.
The song focused on an "old soul" who has lost his fortune and can no longer rely on being handed anything. With his own years inching along and a documented history of struggling with bankruptcy, The Giving Tree borders on biography in a way most of Meat Loaf's fantastical and bombastic output avoids.
Listen to the chorus as Meat struggles to hit the notes on "old soul" and for a brief moment in his career you may glimpse Michael Lee Aday instead of his charismatic alter ego.