Meat Loaf: Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell Songs by Jim Steinman (1993)

The time was about spring 1993 on a Saturday night, when many Australians were gathered around the TV set watching "Hey Hey It's Saturday", that iconic 80s and 90s Australian variety show, when all of a sudden Meat Loaf appeared standing onstage ready to sing the new single "I'd do Anything for Love (But I Won't do That)" for the first time live, anywhere in the world. Yes, this is what they said, in the video which you should still be able to watch somewhere on YouTube. Meat was all set, fired up and ready to take off like a bat out of hell... when he flubbed the opening verse and asked everyone if he could start again. That's life sometimes hey? Anyway, take 2 Daryl, and what we were about to witness was rock history.

I can remember hearing that song for the first time, in the car, on the radio, and just being enchanted with it from the moment it first played. After that, I must have listened to the single everywhere we went. It was two songs, which were both five minute edited versions, me actually being none the wiser that there was an album version that was twelve minutes long, but soon... We were out somewhere one day, and they had a whole bunch of CDs that they'd just bought from somewhere. It was the first time I can remember seeing CDs, when everything was cassettes up until that point. There was Abba, there was Bryan Adams, there was John Farnham, and then there was that cover... the giant bat perched atop the Chrysler Building in a post-apocalyptic version of New York, the angel imprisoned beneath him, and a motorcyclist racing down from the heavens with only one goal in mind: blasting that villainous creature into a thousand smithereens. It struck me, like the bolts of lightning at the bottom of the cover, just above the fiery cloudscape. And when the disc began to play... suddenly my favourite song was seven minutes longer. How many times does that happen to people???

...as the album drew toward a close, would my life as a music lover ever be the same again? Would it even be the same again as a person? That's how much that album affected me, where to this day if I go to listen or watch or read something, I want to be as captivated, blown off my feet, on an emotional rollercoaster as much as I could? This is what music should be? This is what I should get from media? Looking back, "Bat out of Hell II" felt like "The Empire Strikes Back" of rock albums, or "Terminator 2" with the other Jim directing the action spectacular.

Word on "Bat II", if I'm not mistaken, seemed to come up sometime between 1987 and 1989, and I can only imagine the excitement of fans everywhere. Meat Loaf and Jim would be reuniting to record another album together. In 1988, Meat embarked on a world tour to commemorate the tenth anniversary of "Bat", which (if I'm not mistaken again) was still in the UK charts. It was a full on theatrical event inspired by Jim's "Neverland", with Meat coming out onstage as Captain Hook and covering songs from "Bad for Good". It was the first time the world heard him singing "Out of the Frying Pan (And Into the Fire)". Was this a preview of the new album? The world would have to wait until September 1993, when the resultant "Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell" was unleashed in a cynical music industry who thought Meat's time had come and gone, and the order of the day was Nirvana and "Smells like Teen Spirit". This album roared down from the heavens, like the motorcycle bounding toward that colossal monster, roaring in a blaze of glory. It was one of the finest comebacks in the history of rock and roll.

When the record arrived on shelves, fans and music listeners first saw the epic cover art, and then they turned it over onto the back to find out what the track listing would be. Their eyes sped quickly, even anxiously in some cases, through the list... "I'd do Anything for Love", the single, yes, "Life is a Lemon", yes that and "Anything for Love" are new and we can't wait, "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through", oh he's finally recorded it, "It just won't quit", that song from Pandora's Box for anyone who was lucky enough to have known about that album let alone having heard it, "Out of the Frying Pan", oh yes he was singing that one on tour before all of this happened, "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are", now that is one epic title, and this is probably going to sound phenomenal knowing Jim, "Wasted youth" and "Everything Louder than Everything Else", oh hey, "Good Girls go to Heaven (Bad Girls go Everywhere)", what will that sound like being sung by a guy, "Back into Hell", whoa Jim has actually written a sequel to the song, "Lost Boys and Golden Girls", yeah it makes sense that they would close the album out with that.

For some, there was a slight feeling of disappointment. For others, this was sort of par for the course with Jim. It made sense. There were some new songs, and then other songs that Jim had recycled which he probably felt that not enough people had heard. Actually, if you ask me, it was probably more about this than trying to improve on versions that had been recorded originally. From a technical standpoint, I love the idea of Jim revisiting a song with all of the latest technology at his disposal. For the uninitiated, we had no idea what any of this was, and most of us just listened with a sense of awe, or just a sense that this is completely ridiculous, these guys are a joke and you're just wasting your time, so go and listen to Springsteen. At this point in my life, I can't imagine this music being ridiculous, well only in a very positive way.

Generally, I think we can all say it was an experience of some form or another, and not just the music either. I mentioned the cover before, several times, and I've mentioned the covers a lot in these Meat Loaf posts, but this album was truly no exception. It even wanted to take the experience that extra step further. When you opened up the book of lyrics, they came complete with accompanying artwork for most of the songs, pictures that had been drawn from various illustrations the artist Michael Whelan had painted over the years. Graphically and sonically, this album was an experience, and it didn't stop there. Oh no.

The music video of "I'd do Anything for Love" was "Beauty and the Beast" on Broadway directed by Francis Ford Coppola, followed by "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through", Meat Loaf as Aladdin's genie of the motorcycle, and "Objects in the Rear View Mirror", with Michael Bay staging a plane crash, and Robert Patrick struggling frantically to get to the aircraft on time, because he was no longer the T-1000. Oh my! There's nothing else I can add except to say that everything about this release was just utter... class. Even though I was so young at the time, I feel privileged to have witnessed it.

With all of that said, let's have a look at the songs.

"I'd do Anything for Love (But I Won't do That)" --- again, utterly stunned when my favourite song was suddenly twelve minutes long. It is just a killer.

"Life is a Lemon and I Want my Money Back" --- this always felt like a negative, depressing song to me, until suddenly I realized how inspiring it actually was. Once you accept that nothing is perfect, and everything is defective to some degree, life tends to get easier.

"Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" --- the calm following the storm of "Lemon" and the excitement of "Anything for Love". That intro is like a dream.

"It Just Won't Quit" --- the classic single from this album that never was. I really can't complain about the record company here though, but if they could have done more, I would have wanted them to release this. Please someone cover this song.

"Out of the Frying Pan (And Into the Fire)" --- damn, this is such a rocking number. I love the little change of the lyric here too, to create the interior rhyme: "The subways are steaming and the skin of the streets is gleaming with sweat". On the original, Jim sings: "The subways are sizzling" and the lyrics still read that way.

"Objects in the Rear View Mirror" --- without a doubt, one of Jim's most accomplished, brilliantly achieved songs and a truly haunting performance from Meat. This is the "For Crying out Loud" of this album, and absolutely holds its own. The version from "Live Around the World" is even more brilliant.

"Wasted Youth" --- Love and Death and an American Guitar has been brought back, in the exact same recording, with some remixing. I'd heard this monologue so many times, I don't think I fully realized how nuts it actually is.

"Everything Louder than Everything Else" --- to me, this song is like Jim and Meat's anthem. Have a listen to the lyrics.

"Good Girls go to Heaven (Bad Girls go Everywhere)" --- the riff, the riff! I love how this contrasts with the Pandora's Box original too. That's why I can't choose between them either, because it's a contrast. One is bright, one is dark. It's sort of like different sides of the same coin. The best part for me is the middle: "Every time I try and dream you..." When it was cut from the "Bat" original cast album, I almost wish they'd have cut everything else except for this instead.

"Back into Hell" --- what? Where's the big sequel to Bat epic we were expecting? Actually, this never really occurred to me when I was first listening to this album. To me, this feels like a movie too. It's the underscore for what's happening on the cover.

"Lost Boys and Golden Girls" --- yes, this is such a great closer, and a beautiful song. I thought this and the original were it for me too, until I saw a video of Karla DeVito singing it live at a 54 Below concert for Jim. It was just so beautiful.

And that's all I really have to say about this album. Were there any B sides or anything else I had to mention? Firstly, I can't imagine Jim having B sides for this, secondly "Bat II" has been lucky enough to get several anniversary releases over the years, including two issues of an amazing picture disc and a recent 25th anniversary double vinyl. There was also a 1994 VHS of all of the video clips along with interviews with Meat and Jim, called "Bat out of Hell II Picture Show". Some if not most of this was incorporated onto the 2006 Collector's Edition bonus DVD.

Thank you for reading,

Ryan.