Crusaders of the Heart

Coming up on one year this year since maestro Jim Steinman took his final flight to Never Land ("You can fly and never land/And never need to sleep/But will it ever be enough?/You know that it'll never be enough") and I'm listening to the original "Bat out of Hell" album on my headphones.

Released on 21 October 1977, "Bat out of Hell" was the debut album of Meat Loaf with songs by Jim Steinman, which stands in the top 20 greatest selling albums of all time, along with AC/DC "Back in Black", Pink Floyd "The Dark Side of the Moon", Michael Jackson "Thriller" and more. The result of two people meeting at an audition, Jim's musical "More Than You Deserve" staged between the Public Theater's triumphs with "Hair" and "A Chorus Line".

From there, they got together and rehearsed a series of songs with just vocal and piano accompaniment. Jim would pound the piano, and then hold up his hands and watch his fingers bleed onto the keyboard, while Meat Loaf's voice would rattle the walls. It was a sound, Jim said in an interview once, that the records never really managed to capture.

Imagine... going back in time, and hearing those songs being rehearsed in the next room... songs like "Heaven Can Wait", "For Crying Out Loud", and then "Bat out of Hell" and "You Took the Words Right out of my Mouth", and with no other accompaniment at all. Since they were planning to record an album, these songs then needed arrangements and a band to play them. They also needed a record label and a producer.

Here is where the fun begins... "These songs are too long for radio.." "Jim Steinman's songs are crazy..." "Meat Loaf belongs in a Broadway musical..." "Meat Loaf doesn't resemble the conventional rock star..." "Meat and Ellen are making out in our office during "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" and we're supposed to find a way to convey this on a record..." 

Or how about... "We'll sign you to our label but we don't want Todd to produce the album..." "Yeah, but Todd's the only producer who wants to do it?"

Or... "We'll sign you to our label," with the whole album pretty much in the can, "but we won't do any promotion." Imagine if somehow they'd gone with that, with Steve Popovitch at Cleveland International Records just around the corner, who spent a year promoting this album. It was finally released through Cleveland and the parent label Epic Records (a fitting name for a company putting out "Bat out of Hell".)

The rest is history... but Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman and the band toured the earth trying to make this happen. Even then, members of the record company apparently thought Jim was being ludicrous when he thought it would sell 10 million. It's since sold, I don't really know... 50 million possibly.

If you followed their careers, you'll know that they both went off in separate directions for a while, Jim writing and producing for Air Supply ("Making Love out of Nothing at all"), Bonnie Tyler ("Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Holding out for a Hero"), even Barry Manilow and Barbra Streisand (both songs released as singles), and the film "Streets of Fire" (containing Jim's anthems "Nowhere Fast" and "Tonight Is What It Means to be Young"). Meat recorded several more albums and revolved back toward his acting career, with movies like 1992's "Wayne's World".

It was time for a sequel... wasn't it? "They're actually making a Bat out of Hell II?" "This music is irrelevant now..." "This music was never relevant to begin with..." "Who makes a sequel to a rock album?"

"Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell" was released on Virgin Records in September 1993, spawning the single "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", reaching Number 1 in 28 countries worldwide. Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman were 43, 44 years old.

Why does this music succeed, at least for me personally? Because it reminds me that I'm alive. Listening to "Bat out of Hell 2" is like a rock and roll Disneyland.

Meat Loaf and Jim are both gone now... The future (most certainly) ain't what it used to be... but their legacy survives here, passionate storytelling, bringing the audience into a world of sound and light... and there hopefully it will remain. Keep them in your thoughts, music lovers, because they belong in the true Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.