I was working on my latest book, Before There Were Skeletons, and having one of my “Agatha Christie Days”—and by that I don’t mean channeling my inner Miss Marple, but rather attempting to follow Dame Agatha’s sage advice, which is “to write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you’re writing, and aren’t writing particularly well.” And while I sat there staring at the blank page, the radio playing softly in the background, a song came on that changed everything. Oh, not right away…that would have been too easy. But it did allow me the blocked writer’s greatest gift: procrastination in the name of research.
The song was Paradise by the Dashboard Light by the late Marvin Lee Aday, better known as Meat Loaf. Included in his 1977 bestselling album, Bat Out of Hell, the song has remained a cult favorite for decades. At the time, however, it would have been revolutionary, and as luck would have it, my protagonist, Calamity (Callie) Barnstable was in the midst of researching the disappearance of a pregnant seventeen-year-old who disappeared in Toronto in the spring of 1978.
It might be a stretch to call a song coming on the radio an omen, but it was certainly enough to get me googling “Meat Loaf concerts 1978.” And here my luck continued. Turns out that Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell concert tour took him to Toronto’s Massey Hall on Friday, April 21, 1978. A bit more googling and I found a ticket stub for that same concert on eBay (even went so far as to look at a Massey Hall seating chart) and then found a vintage t-shirt from that same concert. Procrastination at its finest.
Naturally, Callie makes good use of my Meat Loaf finds, but I’m afraid that’s as much as I can tell you without a spoiler, though I can share this YouTube link to the official music video
*A version of this post originally appeared on Chicks on the Case, an amazing multi-author blog you should really check out.
I enjoyed your blog today, Judy. Research can lead to so many fun things! Thanks for the Meat Loaf video link. I have to admit that I’ve never seen him perform. I didn’t know what I was missing.