As those who know me, you know that I am likely the biggest Meat Loaf fan you will ever know. Of course I have all three Bat out of Hell CDs. I even have three of the five CDs of Meat Loaf’s that were never released in North America (Thanks HMV!). I know more Meat Loaf songs then anybody I know, by far!
So lets talk about Meat Loaf for a moment.
If you look at your Bat Out of Hell CD (I’m just assuming you have one), you will see at the bottom of the cover in small text “songs by Jim Steinman.”
So lets talk about Jim Steinman for a moment.
Jim Steinman for those of you who don’t know, and I presume most of you don’t, is one of the greatest songwriters of our time. Other then writing nearly every single Meat Loaf song, he is creditable for making stars out of pop sensations Bonnie Tyler, Ellen Foley, and Fire Inc. (maybe you’ve seen “Streets of Fire”, I haven’t.). He also helped Cilene Dion’s ass by writing every song of hers that is actually any good. Barry Manilo, yep, he wrote a bunch of his songs too. He also wrote the Hulk Hogan theme song, you know the one by Rick Derringer - “Real American”. More importantly he has won international success by writing theatrical musicals. Back in the seventies he meet Meat Loaf when casting for his musical “More Than you Deserve”, which is a great song by the way. Since then his biggest success was in 1998 with his German production of “Tanz Der Vampire”, or “Dance of the Vampires” if you prefer. My brother Niall has the CD soundtrack for “Tanz Der Vampire” and it rocks. Expect to hear more from “Dance of the Vampires” in future music in reviews.
So now that you know more about my friend Jim Steinman, lets talk about Batman, that’s right, Batman.
Music producers were in awe of how awesome Jim Steinman was at creating “Tanz Der Vampire” so they offered him another gig. Guess what? Batman the musical.
How I know what you’re thinking, “Colin that’s a stupid idea. Batman the musical?” Well all I have to say is SHUT UP! Jim Steinman could make it work and if you don’t believe me, listen to March’s song in review. Meat Loaf – “In The Land of The Pig (The Butcher is King)”. This is the only song written for Batman the musical that has been recorded to date. Yeah apparently most people felt that Batman was better off not as a musical so Jim Steinman was stuck having written five songs for effectively nothing.
Now Meat Loaf sings “In The Land of The Pig”, which now you know is supposed to be sung by the bloodsucking villains to Batman at the climatic end just before Batman busts their asses. I don’t know about you, but I can totally see Two-Face, yelling at Batman about how out of control Gotham has become.
“There’s only one law Batman. The law of averages!” Two-Face tosses his coin in the air; will it be good side, or bad side? “In the land of the pig, the butcher is king, Batman!”
See what I mean! They should have made this musical! Like you wouldn’t go see it just for the novelty of it all.
Anyway I hope you enjoy Meat Loaf’s version of Jim Steinman’s Batman song. If you are really impressed or just love Batman as much as I do, check out also off “Bat Our of Hell III” the song “Cry to Heaven.” This song was not written for Batman the musical exactly. It is a base song Jim uses a lot in musicals. In “Dance of the Vampires” it’s instrumental fundamentals helped make the song “Angels Arise”, but for “Batman the Musical”, “Cry to Heaven” is apparently more or less as it was intended to be off Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell II”.
Crazy world right? Batman… awesome,
Until next month keep on rocking in the free world.
- Colin
