He was a rock star of a certain period, so it would have been weird if Meatloaf hadn’t done a fairly serious amount of drugs. But then Meatloaf lost his voice — those glorious, soaring, over-the-top pipes of his; O cruel fate! Years passed, as did several crappy albums. “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” would still play in full during holiday classic-rock blocks. But in 1993, 16 years after the original album, came Bat out of Hell II. And that song. Oh, that song — “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).” What was that? You’ll do anything but love, but you won’t do what? Who cares; heartfelt and campy, with a video directed by Michael Bay of all people — this is what we call a comeback.
In 1994, punk trio Green Day released its major-label debut, Dookie. With catchy punk-pop ditties like “Basket Case” and “When I Come Around,” the album blew up, making Green Day instant radio stars. But the next decade saw increasing tension and friction among the band members, the release of tepid albums like 1997′s Nimrod and an entire album’s worth of master tapes stolen out of the band’s studio. But the theft of that stillborn album lit the spark that would become their comeback: instead of attempting to re-create it, the band embarked on a rock opera. An angry, political rock opera about the decline of America, which dropped about a month before George W. Bush was re-elected, American Idiot astonishingly worked and became a massive hit — allowing a whole new bunch of disaffected, frustrated, jittery teenagers to discover the band. And all those old disaffected, frustrated, jittery teenagers, who had been through four adult years of insanity and were about to experience another four, rediscovered the band too.
As we prepare for the Game of Thrones finale, we recognize Joffrey and nine other baddies who showed us that terrible, horrible things can come in small packages
