Bat Out of Hell
Meat Loaf, 1977. Solo by Todd Rundgren.
Producer Todd Rundgren played the revving-motorcycle guitar parts that open the track and drive its operatic sprawl.
Bat Out of Hell is pure theatre, and Todd Rundgren's guitar plays the role of the motorcycle and the madness. The track opens with fast, frantic runs and roaring, revving sounds that mimic an engine tearing down the highway, setting the song's melodramatic tone before a word is sung. Throughout the long arrangement he adds stabs, flourishes and screaming lines that punctuate the story like sound effects in a film. It is a lesson in how guitar can serve drama rather than simply sit in a solo slot. Listen for the engine imitation near the song's climax, where the guitar sounds like it is throttling up and crashing, and hear it as storytelling rather than soloing.
Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf is ranked #289 in our consensus of 79 guitar-solo lists. The solo is played by Todd Rundgren and the song was released in 1977. It appears on 1 lists, placing as high as #51 (uDiscover Music).
In our lists
Sources
Who played the guitar solo on Bat Out of Hell?
Todd Rundgren played the solo on Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell (1977).
Where does Bat Out of Hell rank among the greatest guitar solos?
#289 in the GreatestSolos consensus of 79 published lists; it appears on 1 of them.