Mostly Excellent
Bad for Good by Jim Steinman
Fictional sidekicks throughout history have been relegated to a second-banana status that seems unfair. Tonto was always ready to guard the Lone Ranger's back, yet it was the masked man who received the accolades. And while Tom Sawyer was a regular fictional cutup, Huck Finn proved to have just as a many adventures.
Merriam-Webster defines a sidekick as "a person closely associated with another as subordinate or partner." Note the word partner.
A Little History
Rock's most famous sidekick is Jim Steinman. You are excused if you do not know that Steinman was a classically trained pianist who formed a friendship in the early 1970s with a rawboned Texan named Marvin Lee Aday. The two met while Aday was singing in the chorus of Steinman's off-Broadway More Than You Deserve. Now, you probably know that Mr. Aday, as he cheerfully admits in his pseudo-autobiography, dumped the name Marvin because a jeans maker produced a television commercial making fun of a "fat Marvin" when he was a child. Young Aday instead took the name Meat Loaf and subjected a brilliant songwriter to the ranks of being a sidekick.
That is because they spent several years creating one of rock music's landmark albums, Bat Out Of Hell, and several more years trying to parlay that album's incredible success into a partnership of equals. But just as Tonto and Huck Finn were doomed to be relegated to the sidekick ranks, so too is Jim Steinman inextricably linked with Meat Loaf in the public's mind.
After Steinman and Meat Loaf, both eccentric persons even for the music business, released their album, the public accepted Meat Loaf as the artist and Steinman as the quirky journeyman. Much of the blame for this misperception rests squarely on the shoulders of the label releasing the album, Epic Records. They reportedly felt that the act had legs as a solo act; Steinman could play piano in the band, they argued, but there was no way that this was going to be called Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman or vice versa. Eventually, the songwriter settled for "Songs By Jim Steinman" on the album cover.
The album, a dizzying array of rock mixed with variety show and classical overtones, remains one of rock's seminal works. Released in the summer of 1978, three Top 40 hits propelled it first to gold (500,000 units sold) and then platinum (one million units sold) within months. Four million copies in all were sold within 10 years. Another two million copies were sold in just four years, and as the 1990s began, the album had sold 6 million copies.
But you knew that. Here is something incredible that you probably did not know, however. Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell with "Songs By Jim Steinman" sold yet another SEVEN million copies in the next seven years. That is right; the album averaged a million sold units every year for seven years. The Recording Industry Association of America certified 13 million units sold in 1997, awarding it a brand new level of certification - "diamond" (ten million units sold). There are albums that have sold more, older albums and all sorts of albums on RIAA's charts. What is fascinating is how the decisive works such as Bat Out Of Hell maintain their sales year after year. By way of example let me pick on Yes and drive my wife crazy. The album Yessongs was certified gold in 1973 and platinum in April of 1998. That means it took 25 years for the album to sell 500,000 copies, an average of 20,000 copies a year. Bat Out Of Hell sold 20,000 copies each week during the 1990s - 25 years after its release.
They Did A Sequel. I Bought It In 1993!
Well, yes you did buy a sequel. Nice album; a couple of really strong hits were featured and the whole thing revitalized Meat Loaf's career. Steinman again penned the tunes and the operatic thrashing was just as beloved as the previous effort.
But you didn't buy "the sequel".
Meat Loaf never recorded the true sequel to Bat Out Of Hell. He tried by all accounts, but emotional and physical fatigue had devastated the then 300 pounder. His voice, alternately sweet and powerful, was shot. Sounds magazine quoted Steinman in 1980 that the touring was too much for Meat Loaf's voice, and that the singer with the strained cords "freaked" and the entire issue became psychosomatic. Meat Loaf could not physically hit the notes that his faithful sidekick Jim Steinman wrote for him. After months of unsuccessfully trying to release an album, Meat Loaf quit.
And Jim Steinman took their work and began rebuilding using his own vocals. He later explained that he did not covet the spotlight per se, but that he would not allow his songs to languish without being heard. Meat Loaf had already for different songs, Steinman told Cashbox, an industry magazine. Steinman simply wanted the music he had already created to be heard.
So yes, you bought a sequel. Meat Loaf did eventually recover his voice and continue his career. Several of the songs from Bad for Good even made it on to the "official" sequel more than a decade letter. Because deep down, with all of the self-admitted ambivalence they feel towards each other, even Jim Steinman knows that his songs are best presented by Meat Loaf. And as for Meat, he spares no one's feelings regarding what he believes is his place with Steinman. Listen to an unedited interview or see him in concert; chances are good that Meat will lose control at the thought of the artists who have covered Steinman songs and made them international smashes: Barry Manilow, Air Supply, Bonnie Tyler and Celine Dion.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Tom and Huck and Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman. Except on this very special album, Steinman stood alone and acquitted himself well.
Dropping The Needle: Cut-by-Cut
Bad For Good - Although I despise rock cliches, the only way to truly describe the guitar work Todd Rundgren does on the title track is "thundering". The thunder-like percussion helps the effect, but Rundgren's guitar is as distorted, nasty and dirty as anything Keith Richards ever played. This is the album's signature cut, the sound that Steinman gets accused (with some degree of appropriateness) of writing and re-writing on successive albums. The lyrics are strong, the backing chorale lends just the touch of heavenly vision to the song, and Steinman himself only has to resort to vocal trickery several times. You see, Meat Loaf could not hit the notes. There was no way his songwriter could do it either. But where as the songwriter doesn't mind garbling his voice in a satanic growl, Meat Loaf's pride would never allow that type of trickery. An extremely long cut that finally dissolves into another thunderclap. If ever a song was written specifically to open a Meat Loaf tour - this is the one. At 8 plus minutes, the listener knows that the bat is truly coming out on this album.
Lost Boys and Golden Girls - This song remains one of Steinman's most achingly beautiful ballads. Extremely radio-friendly, Meat Loaf grabbed this song for the "official" 1993 sequel, but I actually prefer the gritty reality of Steinman's version. Peter Pan and Neverland continue to be themes that the songwriter explores and he doesn't disappoint with lyrics like "And we'll never be as young as we are right now/Running away and running for home." I really dislike quoting lyrics in reviews, but I have to make an exception when the artist's primary field of endeavor is his songwriting. A gorgeous piano here, courtesy of Roy Bittan (the E-Streeters have always adored Steinman) and some nice vocal arranging for Steinman. Regular readers have seen me write that the best of music comes from the heart. Steinman's version is not as polished as Meat Loaf's, but it is more real and therefore more substantive.
Love and Death and An American Guitar - Steinman claims that this spoken word cut with no musical accompaniment was meant to be a monologue from yet another musical he was developing. Meat Loaf, in concert, claims that Steinman released the album Bad for Good just so that he could make sure that this soliloquy saw the light of day. Critics derided its obvious influence from Jim Morrison's rant. Here, the narrator uses an electric guitar to go on a murderous rampage before ending in a Poe-like suspenseful moment when the narrator considers killing his sleeping parents. I will not tell you the catch-phrase that ends the cut for two reasons. Not only do I want to keep the surprise fresh, but the actual quote will never pass a language filter.
Stark Raving Love - There is no gap between this song and its predecessor. As Steinman shrieks the last syllable, the band explodes into a brilliant pop-rock sound. Again, the chorale makes an appearance, as does Todd Rundgren and Davey Johnstone on guitars and Max Weinberg on drums. Ellen Foley and Rory Dodd continue their backing vocal work, and the song is recorded closer to what appears to be Steinman's natural key than any other. The result is a terrific 4 and 1/2 minute pop song that anyone in 1981 would have been proud to record.
Out of The Frying Pan (And Into The Fire) - There are two songs on this album that cry out for Meat Loaf's vocals. This is the first. The song is pleasant in and of itself, but Steinman can't create the cabaret/opera/theatrical ambience that Meat Loaf delivers when he sings. We are left with what is politely called "filler", but what could have been good filler that fit into the context of the album.
Surf's Up - This song may be a shot at recapturing some element of Steinman's California youth. Frankly, he writes on so many levels that I could nott say for sure, but lyric and melody here both contribute to form a soothingly gentle but powerful ballad. Haunting keyboards and a guitarist with too much time and money on his hands (presumably Mr. Rundgren again) plays a dazzlingly melodic solo that makes this song the hidden gem of the album.
Dance In My Pants - Here is the other song that is crying out for Meat Loaf's vocals. Critics also jumped on this one because the vocal byplay between Ellen Foley and Steinman is very similar to Paradise By The Dashboard Light. This is the same songwriter, a similar idea, different song and a very different male lead. Steinman can't pull it off, but he gives it a valiant try.
Introduction/Medley/The Storm - All of the pop and rock songwriters want a piece of that classical pie, and not because of the royalties from slashing their audiences by several orders of magnitude. I believe the reasons that artists such as Steinman, Billy Joel and Paul McCartney (to name only a well known few) create classical works is an attempt to resolve music to its core. Mathemeticians calculate derviatives, chemists isolate compounds at the molecular level and pop musicians try their hand at Western classical composing. Given his stature at the time, it's surprising that Steinman was able to pull off using the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, but that is who appears as the artist here; Steinman is listed solely as arranger and composer. I would describe this piece as perhaps the second movement of something much larger in scale. I find myself hunting for the theme's repetition as a landmark in a very busy arrangement.
Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through - Finally - the song you heard on the radio! Yup, Meat Loaf and Steinman each had hits with this. In the original album, Steinman actually kept this song as a single bundled into the album. Seeing how hard it is to use a 45rpm record on a CD player, the CD version simply includes this song as the final cut. Meat Loaf recorded this for Bat 2 and has included his version on subsequent anthologies and live albums, but the momentum was gone. Had the follow-up single to Two Out of Three Ain't Bad in 1978 been this song in 1980, Meat Loaf-mania might never have died out. As it was, Meat's voice was gone and Steinman was left to record his own song, which is so powerful that the single broke out in radio airplay and ended up charting in the Top 40, the sole solo hit in Steinman's career. This song is anthemic and mixes the best of Steinman's various formulae to create a rock masterwork. Bad For Good is worth purchasing simply for Steinman's original version of this song. Again, Meat Loaf's voice is more powerful, but Steinman's original arrangment is more satisfying.
20 Years Since A Solo Album? Where Has He Been?
Steinman never set out to be a solo recording artist. He wanted to create music that more talented instrumentalists could perform. In interviews, he reveals that he holds no illusions about his place in music - which is typically off stage or in front of a keyboard.
A bit of rock legend: Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber thought enough of Steinman to ask him to collaborate and write the lyrics for a play Webber was producing. Steinman was busy at the time and declined the offer. The musical Steinman passed on became The Phantom Of The Opera. The two ended up collaborating in the mid 1990s on another show, Whistle Down The Wind. The show opened in Washington, D.C. (guess who got to be at the debut?), but closed quickly for reworking. A London version was produced two years later and remains in London, booking for another 6 months.
There were also the aforementioned hits by the pop artists of the 1970s and 1980s as well as several creative efforts that never quite succeeded. And, of course, there was work on the true sequel to Bat Out Of Hell.
Oddly enough, what did succeed at the time was a solo album called Bad For Good that spawned a hit single and allowed a songwriter to have his songs heard without the delay that ended up being more than ten years. You should own a copy of this album if only for historical purposes. I suspect, however, that the darkly forbidding Stark Raving Love and the melancholy Surf's Up will mix with the energy of Bad for Good and the lightness of Rock and Roll Dreams will eventually win you over.
