Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Jim Steinman - Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through



Might as well wrap up this whole “Meatloaf and Friends” ramble. The fourth musician to have tracks on this compilation album is the man Jim Steinman himself.

Steinman spent his career a song writer. He worked with many musicians, usually seeking vocalists to perform his songs. He wrote many musicals and was the driving musical force behind “Streets of Fire.” He has had a very full and vibrant career, and I think it is nice he has a solo album to round his out resume.

“Bad for Good” has a complicated background, mostly because it was never the plan for Steinman to release his own solo album. The project was initially intended to be Meatloaf’s follow up album after “Bat Out of Hell,” titled “Renegade Angel,” (good name) but Meatloaf, the man, had worn himself out and temporarily lost his voice. They had a schedule to keep and Steinman decided he did not want to the project to go to waste or wait, so he decided to perform on the album himself.

I am probably stating the obvious when I say, the reason “Bat Out of Hell” was so amazing, was because of the divine combination of Meatloaf’s powerful voice and Steinman’s genius song writing. So, as you can imagine, Steinman, as talented as he is, unsurprisingly, is an inferior singer to Meatloaf, you know, like most human beings.

A lot of critics at the time could not help but notice the sharp decrease in quality in singing when the unavoidable comparison to “Bat Out of Hell” was made to “Bad for Good.” The songs were too huge and powerful for Steinman’s voice to carry like, well, a bat out of hell. I love Steinman, but I have to be real, I hear it too, the songs would be enhanced with a stronger vocalist.

“Bad for Good” is inferior to “Bat Out of Hell,” and Steinman is clearly a stronger song writer then performer. But here is the thing, I just love Jim Steinman. I love Steinman’s songs so much, that mediocre performance of a Steinman song will still result in above average music. Quality of music is a major, but not singular reason, why Steinman’s music stands out to me, there is a personality that is rarely recaptured. Steinman had a lot of tropes he used in the storytelling of his music, but there were his tropes. Lovers in the night; motorcycle odysseys; sarcastic witticisms; and sometimes vampires; these are the things Steinman’s music is made of, and all these are enjoyable. All these things are present on “Bad for Good.”

We should be fair, the biggest reasons we are being critical of Steinman’s performance on “Bad for Good” is because we cannot help but compare it to Meatloaf’s performance on “Bat Out of Hell.”

There are ten tracks on “Bad for Good” and over the course of time Meatloaf and others have covered eight of them. This comparison between Steinman’s performance and everyone else become harder to ignore because of this, but this is also where we can sing Steinman additional praise. Taste is subjective, but many of these covers are probably considered superior by most, but there are a couple where I prefer the original.

The two best songs on “Bad for Good” are the “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through.”

A serious effort went into making “Bad for Good” a grandiose flagship title track. It is the closest thing to “Bat Out of Hell” on this album, the song “Bat Out of Hell.” It is more lighthearted and playful then the more aggressive motorcycle crash song. Partially because it is the title track, but this song is forever linked to Jim Steinman as one of his most personal songs, at least I perceived it to be. “Bad for Good” was covered by Meatloaf in the third installment of “Bat Out of Hell,” where a serious effort went into making it a respectful rendition. This cover is very good, yet even with the help of the great Brian May on guitar, I still prefer the Steinman version.

In my opinion “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through” is the best song on “Bad for Good.” It is also my opinion that “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through” is the most Jim Steinman song ever. How do we quantity a song as measurably Jim Steinman?

Insanely, Steinman would not need to write a song for it to be very Jim Steinman like in essence, I spoke about Ellen Foley’s “We Belong to the Night” earlier this month, and that song is very Jim Steinman, I was shocked to learn he did not write it, nonetheless the most Jim Steinman song would need to be written by Jim Steinman.

Since Steinman did not perform on many of the songs he wrote, a song need not include Steinman’s presence to be very Jim Steinman like. Steinman was not involved with the actual performance in the musical “Dance of the Vampires” but his presence is in every single second of sound. Nonetheless, the most Jim Steinman song ever should have Steinman.

My criteria naturally leads us to the “Bad for Good” album, so among these ten songs, we need to look at other aspects. Steinman is a smart ass, I love that about him, and “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through” opens with one of my favorite witticisms of his.

“You can’t runaway forever,
But there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start.”


Great start to a song.

While being far from his most epic track, and there being no motorcycle or vampires, the soul of Steinman is very much on display. The savior is rock and roll. Salvation from all struggle will be reward to us, when we need it the most music, rock and roll, will come through for us. Not even hell can keep the spirit of rock and roll from young lovers, no matter down and out. That is the unifying spirit of Steinman’s music. An everlasting love letter to rock and roll.

“Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through” was covered by Meatloaf on the second installment of “Bat Out of Hell.”

Meatloaf version from Bat Out of Hell II

Here is something I did not know until just now, nineteen-year-old Angelia Jolie is in that music video.

Steinman was heavily involved on that album, so I have always assumed it was he on piano and maybe the backing vocals. It is a very good version, arguably superior to the “Bad for Good” original, but I love Jim so much, that I like the softer original. As passionate as Meatloaf is, and he is obviously the superior singer, Jim’s voice carries something in it that I link with, like he is bearing his soul to us.

It could be I am just projecting the image of Steinman that I hold in my mind from years of listen to his music, onto this song specifically, but I cannot rule out the very real possibility that genius song writer Steinman meant “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through” to be the spiritual epicentre of his creative musical efforts. Even if I am wrong, I am still partially correct, “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through” is undeniably a Steinman track through and through, and for that reason, I will always enjoy hearing him sing it more than anyone else.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves

 

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