What a brilliant man-in addition to being a musical and lyrical genius, he's so knowledgeable about film, theatre, opera, literature, history, etc. but not at all arrogant. He's funny, cheeky and youthful-very down-to-earth and friendly. If anyone asks me who my dream dinner guests are, I'll include Jim Steinman. They might not know him by name, but they'll know his music. I wish I'd had the chance to meet him. R.I.P. Jim 💔
Great to see these interviews. Jim Steinman seems like he was a modest fellow, very intelligent, witty, and incredibly funny, in addition to being musically talented.
This guy is one of the greatest songwriters in history!!! So talented!!! All his songs are so dramatic and emotional and take you on a journey from start to finish. God Bless Jim!!! 👏👏👏👏
What a songwriting genius and visionary..died a few months before Meat Loaf after working together for over thirty years.. Jin Steinman is a great storyteller of history and so entertaining.
That was incredible - I could listen to this guy all day! Love the stories about Jimmy Iovine at the end, that impression is gold haha. It's crazy to think he did this interview 18 years ago.
Jim: I like brutal rejections. Oh look at the blood against the purple, green and red. Me: You need help my bro 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Painfully heartbreaking, to hear of this tremendous loss. I grew up, through adolescence, in the Meat Loaf / Steinman "Bat Out Of Hell" era, and bottom line: when you closed your eyes listening - NOBODY could take you to those far-away, gothic, fantasy places like Steinman could. In late 1983, when I heard "that 'It's A Heartache' chick" sing her new power-ballad "Total Eclipse Of The Heart", I knew the first time I heard, who wrote it. That turned into my favorite single Jim Steinman composition. So, being a professional musician myself, for the last week I've been "reconstructing, re-performing, re-recording, and remixing" that song, everything but the vocal track I've re-done. My own personal tribute to Jim Steinman, who is so well deserving of it. May we all remember!... "I remember everything!... I remember every single thing as if it happened only yesterday..."
What's tragic is that the genius of Jim and Meat wasn't recognized by many till after their deaths. I know that over the years when I have brought it up in conversations with my peers, they were kind of amused, because even though we all grew up in the 70's, it wasn't cool to be a Meat Loaf fan. Even now when I share one of their incredible works on FB, only one or 2 friends will actually listen and comment. I don't get what they don't get, but I consider myself richer because I do get it.
Thank you for posting this. I have listened to this over a period of a couple of long winter evenings and enjoyed it so much. This world has lost so so much in the death of Jim and Meat. Makes me so so sad.
I saw Meat Loaf at Wembley in 1994 (and multiple times). Jim was in the audience and he signed my program. I was in awe and was speechless but I did tell him he is amazing. Unfortunately it was the days before camera phones so I don't have a photo. But I got a photo of Meat and I in 1999.
Bat out of Hell and Dead Ringer albums are MASTERPIECES!! his lyrics and music along with Meat Loaf will live forever. Absolute Legends RIP both of you 🥺
Gosh, can you imagine being a fly on the wall in the room during those early rehearsal days for Bat? When there was only Jim on piano and Meat's voice making the room shake? Wonderful to hear Jim's recollections, will work my way through this two-parter eventually!
@@MLBFCollection true...I'm just thinking about that anecdote in Meat's book when he and Jim are practising in a hired room together and they argue about something. Meat loses his temper and flips over the piano, then they have to stick one of the foot pedals back in with chewing gum! 😂
Oh, man I just found out he passed away. I was listening to Bonnie Tyler's Secret Dreams album, and decided to Google Jim for interviews, then found out about his passing. R.i.p Jim! So great. I'll do Anything for Love (But I won't do that), Making Love out of Nothing At All, Total Eclipse of the Heart, Holding out for a Hero, It's all Coming Back to Me Now, Tonight is What it Means to Be Young, Nowhere Fast, Read Em and Weep....
Jim Steinman at his most epically ham moments could provide enough ham to feed a family of four for a whole week. One of the reasons why he was so awesome
What an incredible piece of history. Jeez, Jim was like a walking encylopaedia from the historic archives. So fascinating to just sit and listen to him like this :O
Jim Steinman 1947-2021 🎇 Meat Loaf 1947-2022. 🎆 50:00 His favorite band was the Doors, his favorite film was Psycho. He was from Hewlett, Long Island, right next to Woodmere where my father grew up, heavily Jewish area. 47:00 "I felt I was like Donald Trump". Different connotation back then 55:00 Yes should have been billed as a Duo, but I get Meat Loaf solo was easier to sell..
*JAMES RICHARD STEINMAN: November 1, 1947 - April 19, 2021* Jim Steinman, who died aged 73 on April 19, 2021, was the songwriter behind some of the most successful - and most sung-in-the shower - records in the history of rock music, notably the Bat Out of Hell albums with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler’s chart-topping ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. James Richard Steinman was born at Hewlett, New York, on November 1, 1947. His father owned a warehouse that stored steel and his mother taught Latin. After attending the local high school, he went to Amherst College, Massachusetts, and originally hoped to have a career in film. Customarily described as a rock opera - Steinman nicknamed himself “Little Richard Wagner” - “Bat Out of Hell” in fact drew on the whole gamut of America’s musical heritage, including doo-wop, gospel, rock’n’roll, and in particular musical theatre. Years in the making, the roots of “Bat Out of Hell” lay in a show that Steinman had begun writing as a student in the late 1960s. “The Dream Engine” had a brief run in Washington, fronted by a young Richard Gere, and caught the eye of Robert Stigwood, the impresario who managed the Bee Gees, and Joseph Papp, the producer of “Hair”. Encouraged by them, Steinman worked for some years in theatre in New York. He met the outsized Meat Loaf (born Marvin Lee Aday) in 1973 when the singer auditioned for a role in a Vietnam War-inspired musical Steinman was putting together. While the pair toured in the National Lampoon Show (replacing Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi), they worked on a staging that recycled many of Steinman’s earlier songs. Incorporating themes of teenage rebellion and lust, drawing on Gothic imagery and the modern mythology of the motorcycle, they had the “Bat Out of Hell” album written by 1975. Its songs included “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”, which reframed a back-seat seduction as a baseball match, complete with commentary. The record was produced by Todd Rundgren, who matched a Phil Spector-style “Wall of Sound” to Steinman’s deliriously frenzied words and music, the whole witches’ brew saved from parody only by the wholehearted sincerity of Meat Loaf’s performance. Other influences included Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” - several of members of his band played on “Bat Out of Hell” - and “The Rocky Horror Show”, in which Meat Loaf had appeared on stage and screen. Yet record companies, in the era of disco and punk, at first showed no interest in acquiring the record. Famously, Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records, told Steinman that his songs - many of them three times the length of most singles - did not sound sufficiently like those on the radio. It was not until 1977 that “Bat Out of Hell” was released by a small subsidiary label, Cleveland International. Steinman recalled that only when the record deal was signed did he learn that he and Meat Loaf would not be billed as a duo. Finding a foothold first in Britain, where it would eventually spend an astonishing 10 years in the chart, “Bat Out of Hell” would go on to sell about 50 million copies worldwide, helped by the success of singles such as “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” and “You Took the Words Right Out of my Mouth.” Meat Loaf however, struggled with his transition to stardom, and although the 1981 LP “Dead Ringer”, which included a duet with Cher, reunited him with Steinman, the two became embroiled in legal action after Steinman released an album of his own, “Bad for Good”, in 1981. In retaliation, Steinman then began to collaborate with the group “Air Supply” (who took his song “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” to No 1 in America) and with Bonnie Tyler. The soaring, lushly orchestrated ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, with a passionate performance by Tyler and aided by a typically understated video directed by Russell Mulcahy (who later made the film “Highlander”), hit the top in both Britain and America in 1983. The Welsh singer also made the most of Steinman’s “Holding Out for a Hero” in 1984, from the soundtrack to “Footloose”, while Barry Manilow scored success with “Read ’Em and Weep” in 1983. Steinman was said to have been approached by Andrew Lloyd Webber to write the lyrics to “The Phantom of the Opera”, but after a long hiatus he and Meat Loaf unexpectedly reunited in 1993 to create “Bat Out of Hell II”. Heralded by the single “I’d Do Anything For Love”, which was a worldwide chart-topper, the album went on to almost equal the success of its predecessor. After the success of “Bat Out of Hell II”, Steinman won a Grammy in 1996 for writing “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”, which was a hit for Celine Dion. That same year, he composed the lyrics for “Whistle Down the Wind”, the Lloyd Webber musical. Although not a smash at the box office, it did yield a huge pop hit when Boyzone recorded one of the songs, “No Matter What”. In 1997, “Dance of the Vampires”, Steinman’s own musical version of Roman Polanski’s film “The Fearless Vampire Killers”, opened in Vienna. A long-cherished project of his, it was directed by Polanski himself. Subsequently there were rumours that Steinman was working on musicals about Greta Garbo and Batman, but these never materialised. Instead, Steinman was stricken by the first of several strokes in 2004 and then mired in yet more litigation with Meat Loaf, this time over the use of the “Bat Out of Hell” trademark for the third album by that name, released in 2006. Although that record featured several of Steinman’s songs, all written for earlier records, it was the first of the trilogy in which he was not involved in their production. The litigation was eventually settled. Between 2017 and 2019 a musical drawing on the songs in the “Bat Out of Hell” cycle, toured North America and Britain. Critics routinely characterised Steinman’s vision as camp and over-the top, a verdict that ignored not only the joy he brought to millions but also an originality which in cinema would have seen him hailed an auteur. As he observed: “If you don’t go over the top, you can’t see what’s on the other side.”
Amazing man, amazing interview. So great to see inside the mind of a musical legend, and yet also an absolute weird crazy guy (I think he would love that description).Thank you Jim for the music and the memories. Your music will live in our hearts forever. Now I'm not gonna say rest in peace, I hope when I get to Heaven that you and Meat are still banging out new music and blowing our minds
Heck ya! I'll say it again! A total one of A kind "Legend" Steinman&Meat! So lucky are Wei's! That they got together was just meant to be! A once in a Life time,Greats! Weather they like it or not's! Pure all around Legend's! How lucky is Wei's! To have lived it! I'll never forget! And still listening here in Va.....2021
Just heard the awful news, what a loss, i*m gutted. Jim will be sorely missed n *Bad for Good.* He was extremely underated, what a great talent. R.I.P.
"We don't need people like you in this world." WTF did Warner Bros. say to him? I'm appalled, but he showed them. I can't imagine a world without Jim Steinman's music. He's an absolute genius and so charming and cultured. R.I.P. Jim 💔
This is brilliant. So much. Been waiting for Steinman to talk about all this stuff, especially about the Bat tour, for decades. Wow, if I saw something like this in the 80s (I know) I would've been like a Teenage Dream....
You and Melvin have always been my greatest heroes since I was a child. Always thought I'd meet you guys in this realm, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. I'm really looking forward to seeing you in the next life my brothers. I've never been a big fan of celebrity Heroes. The two of you pretty much the only ones I really idolized my whole life and that's great. You're both actual Heroes to me. I followed your careers closely and you're more than just musicians you're really super cool peeps people
What a phenomenal memory for detail he has, even if they are somewhat embellished by his own admission. And his observations and descriptions are brilliant as are his impersonations. He's so funny and sage. I'm supposed to be working but I can't tear myself away from this interview, which I've seen before-Lol-twice. I can't get enough of Jim Steinman! R.I.P. 💔
Damn, I was just listening to a bunch of Jim's music last night, and this morning I woke up and said, I bet there's a "little" documentary or something "about" him on RUclips. Yeah, I'd say 4 hours is a little interview. Really what else should I expect from The Lord of Excess? Genius.
I've been planning "Jim Steinman - A Deep Dive Into The Wonderful World Of Steinmania - The Method To His Madness" for a while. It might materialise as a something-part series one day. Or not. Maybe, who knows.
Absolutely engrossing awesome stories .. I love it! Don't know why they didn't just call him Michael off stage. I was just turning 13 when this album come out.. the seventies were just simply awesome crazy wild and will never be repeated.. had the 8-track .. rest in peace rock and roll brother..what a total pisser
@@MLBFCollection okay what a phenomenal two-part documentary.. I see his name was Marvin.. but you know back then nicknames where everything.. I'm very choosy about the bars & Friends and this guy jim I would definitely hang out with
I could form amazing lyrical landscapes cherry picking this conversation. I won't because it would be wrong but it is all going into the soup of my consciousness. A very spicy, strange, satisfying soup.
@@MLBFCollection So visual and interesting. Like Billy Corgan tries to be and falls just a little short in my opinion. I do think he is interesting as well but not on this level!
@@allisonmarlow184 Thank you. I have written lyrics, poems and even attempted a novel or two. I have always been an avid reader and I really love it when a few words or a phrase just grabs me. Things like, The whistling wind chills your skin The voice of nothing No one. "She was born old and knowing most things" Perhaps you have inspired me.
This is SO incredibly wonderful. What a gift to have this. THANK YOU! One quick question....are the "speed-ups" to change camera tapes - or to skip over sensitive material of some sort? NOT complaining - just curious.
The long Jimmy Iovine story Jim told here is still SO funny, however sadly it's a tough hang now because of recent allegations against Iovine. Steinman generally was really adept at impersonating people he worked with in a funny way.
What a brilliant man-in addition to being a musical and lyrical genius, he's so knowledgeable about film, theatre, opera, literature, history, etc. but not at all arrogant. He's funny, cheeky and youthful-very down-to-earth and friendly. If anyone asks me who my dream dinner guests are, I'll include Jim Steinman. They might not know him by name, but they'll know his music. I wish I'd had the chance to meet him. R.I.P. Jim 💔
Great to see these interviews. Jim Steinman seems like he was a modest fellow, very intelligent, witty, and incredibly funny, in addition to being musically talented.
Genius. Complete and absolute genius. He lives on in our hearts and minds. Thank you for the magic.
How can I write music like him?
@@leif1075 when you find out let me know😃❤
I'm very grateful this man lived. He combined the epic and the ridiculous (with a bit of melodrama) and created the most extraordinary sensations.
Jim Steinman created lyrics that made you feel like you were there. Meat Loaf gave Jim Steinman's heart a voice and brought it to life.
This guy is one of the greatest songwriters in history!!!
So talented!!! All his songs are so dramatic and emotional and take you on a journey from start to finish. God Bless Jim!!! 👏👏👏👏
What a songwriting genius and visionary..died a few months before Meat Loaf after working together for over thirty years.. Jin Steinman is a great storyteller of history and so entertaining.
Actually it's 40 years together. What a powerhouse couple.
Really impressive guy - thoughtful, gracious, funny, talented
Brilliant. Steinman's Music is and always will be the soundtrack of my life.
That is one of the greatest Interviews ever.
That was incredible - I could listen to this guy all day! Love the stories about Jimmy Iovine at the end, that impression is gold haha. It's crazy to think he did this interview 18 years ago.
A movie should be made about this genius, so much great stories from this amazing interview.
Who could play Meat Loaf in a movie? Jack Black has been mentioned but don’t think he’s right for it.
Such a great communicator, visionary and no ego whatsoever.
Jim: I like brutal rejections. Oh look at the blood against the purple, green and red.
Me: You need help my bro 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
so inspiring if you are working in any creative field...his perspective on things is very refreshing!!
Very much so
He is writing for the Dionysian spirit in all that never dies, a master of the craft
He will be missed, big piano inspiration to me
I'm a drummer and he was an inspiration to me as well... so.. do the math.. he WAS ONE OF A KIND... REALLY.
Painfully heartbreaking, to hear of this tremendous loss. I grew up, through adolescence, in the Meat Loaf / Steinman "Bat Out Of Hell" era, and bottom line: when you closed your eyes listening - NOBODY could take you to those far-away, gothic, fantasy places like Steinman could. In late 1983, when I heard "that 'It's A Heartache' chick" sing her new power-ballad "Total Eclipse Of The Heart", I knew the first time I heard, who wrote it. That turned into my favorite single Jim Steinman composition.
So, being a professional musician myself, for the last week I've been "reconstructing, re-performing, re-recording, and remixing" that song, everything but the vocal track I've re-done. My own personal tribute to Jim Steinman, who is so well deserving of it. May we all remember!...
"I remember everything!... I remember every single thing as if it happened only yesterday..."
💔💔
What's tragic is that the genius of Jim and Meat wasn't recognized by many till after their deaths. I know that over the years when I have brought it up in conversations with my peers, they were kind of amused, because even though we all grew up in the 70's, it wasn't cool to be a Meat Loaf fan. Even now when I share one of their incredible works on FB, only one or 2 friends will actually listen and comment. I don't get what they don't get, but I consider myself richer because I do get it.
Thank you for posting this. I have listened to this over a period of a couple of long winter evenings and enjoyed it so much. This world has lost so so much in the death of Jim and Meat. Makes me so so sad.
I saw Meat Loaf at Wembley in 1994 (and multiple times). Jim was in the audience and he signed my program. I was in awe and was speechless but I did tell him he is amazing. Unfortunately it was the days before camera phones so I don't have a photo. But I got a photo of Meat and I in 1999.
This interview is a treasure for humanity. It deserves to be made into a bestselling book.
I thought that same thing.
What a great guy, great story teller , and a great sense of humour . RIP Jim Steinman ❤️😢
Definitely some sort of genius
Bat out of Hell and Dead Ringer albums are MASTERPIECES!! his lyrics and music along with Meat Loaf will live forever. Absolute Legends RIP both of you 🥺
💔💔
I agree. Dead Ringer has finally been rated as one of Meat’s greatest albums. No one will ever duplicate or top Bat out of Hell.
First time coming back here since...well, since either of them passed. 😢
I could listen to 12 hours of Jim telling stories.
Just crying, the MAN I miss him.
Dont RIP jim , rock the mfking place!!!!!!! we salute you! one legend we will remember!
Totally unique and way ahead of his time. NO ONE has written lyrics like Jim IMO.
Damn right!
Some have. But they only did it that way, because of Jim's influence. Definitely no one wrote like him, before him. lol
BILLY JOEL???
@@kitcachapp3094 ehh
Honestly
I wouldn't say so
How can I write like him and sing like Meatloaf?
Gosh, can you imagine being a fly on the wall in the room during those early rehearsal days for Bat? When there was only Jim on piano and Meat's voice making the room shake? Wonderful to hear Jim's recollections, will work my way through this two-parter eventually!
I imagine Ellen, Karla, Rory and Roy would have also been present at some of them.
@@MLBFCollection true...I'm just thinking about that anecdote in Meat's book when he and Jim are practising in a hired room together and they argue about something. Meat loses his temper and flips over the piano, then they have to stick one of the foot pedals back in with chewing gum! 😂
@@ctuckwell6562 Aha. Yeah, it's some story, there's a LIFE interview with Meat and Andrew Polec on the subject.
Are you kidding me! I finished it in one gulp. Before I knew it, I had listened for 3 hours. This man is (was) amazing and quite the storyteller.
@@allisonmarlow184 ha ha! In the end, I watched it all in one go, too! 😂
Loved this interview very intelligent funny great stories one of the best ive seen
One of the most fascinating humans I've ever seen
Oh, man I just found out he passed away. I was listening to Bonnie Tyler's Secret Dreams album, and decided to Google Jim for interviews, then found out about his passing. R.i.p Jim! So great.
I'll do Anything for Love (But I won't do that), Making Love out of Nothing At All, Total Eclipse of the Heart, Holding out for a Hero, It's all Coming Back to Me Now, Tonight is What it Means to Be Young, Nowhere Fast, Read Em and Weep....
Jim Steinman at his most epically ham moments could provide enough ham to feed a family of four for a whole week. One of the reasons why he was so awesome
that guy in some way never grew up and in some way he was an adult from the very start
Yeah. Like a cryogenically frozen Benjamin Button.
What an incredible piece of history. Jeez, Jim was like a walking encylopaedia from the historic archives. So fascinating to just sit and listen to him like this :O
His stories are interesting. Love it
This guy is a national treasure
Indeed!
Jim Steinman 1947-2021 🎇 Meat Loaf 1947-2022. 🎆 50:00 His favorite band was the Doors, his favorite film was Psycho. He was from Hewlett, Long Island, right next to Woodmere where my father grew up, heavily Jewish area. 47:00 "I felt I was like Donald Trump". Different connotation back then 55:00 Yes should have been billed as a Duo, but I get Meat Loaf solo was easier to sell..
Watching this after meat passing can’t believe there both gone now where does the time go
The time runs out before the music does.
RIP - Reign In Power Jim, miss you already. At least we know that his Rock and Roll Dreams really did come through!
man what a trip this interview is .. and what a character he was ! .. think ill listen to Bat now ...RIP
RIP, Jim. A genius creating masterpiece music in heaven now.
I´m playing "Bad for good (-81)" on Spotify 4th time in a row now.
*JAMES RICHARD STEINMAN: November 1, 1947 - April 19, 2021*
Jim Steinman, who died aged 73 on April 19, 2021, was the songwriter behind some of the most successful - and most sung-in-the shower - records in the history of rock music, notably the Bat Out of Hell albums with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler’s chart-topping ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.
James Richard Steinman was born at Hewlett, New York, on November 1, 1947. His father owned a warehouse that stored steel and his mother taught Latin. After attending the local high school, he went to Amherst College, Massachusetts, and originally hoped to have a career in film.
Customarily described as a rock opera - Steinman nicknamed himself “Little Richard Wagner” - “Bat Out of Hell” in fact drew on the whole gamut of America’s musical heritage, including doo-wop, gospel, rock’n’roll, and in particular musical theatre.
Years in the making, the roots of “Bat Out of Hell” lay in a show that Steinman had begun writing as a student in the late 1960s. “The Dream Engine” had a brief run in Washington, fronted by a young Richard Gere, and caught the eye of Robert Stigwood, the impresario who managed the Bee Gees, and Joseph Papp, the producer of “Hair”.
Encouraged by them, Steinman worked for some years in theatre in New York. He met the outsized Meat Loaf (born Marvin Lee Aday) in 1973 when the singer auditioned for a role in a Vietnam War-inspired musical Steinman was putting together.
While the pair toured in the National Lampoon Show (replacing Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi), they worked on a staging that recycled many of Steinman’s earlier songs. Incorporating themes of teenage rebellion and lust, drawing on Gothic imagery and the modern mythology of the motorcycle, they had the “Bat Out of Hell” album written by 1975. Its songs included “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”, which reframed a back-seat seduction as a baseball match, complete with commentary.
The record was produced by Todd Rundgren, who matched a Phil Spector-style “Wall of Sound” to Steinman’s deliriously frenzied words and music, the whole witches’ brew saved from parody only by the wholehearted sincerity of Meat Loaf’s performance. Other influences included Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” - several of members of his band played on “Bat Out of Hell” - and “The Rocky Horror Show”, in which Meat Loaf had appeared on stage and screen.
Yet record companies, in the era of disco and punk, at first showed no interest in acquiring the record. Famously, Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records, told Steinman that his songs - many of them three times the length of most singles - did not sound sufficiently like those on the radio.
It was not until 1977 that “Bat Out of Hell” was released by a small subsidiary label, Cleveland International. Steinman recalled that only when the record deal was signed did he learn that he and Meat Loaf would not be billed as a duo.
Finding a foothold first in Britain, where it would eventually spend an astonishing 10 years in the chart, “Bat Out of Hell” would go on to sell about 50 million copies worldwide, helped by the success of singles such as “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” and “You Took the Words Right Out of my Mouth.”
Meat Loaf however, struggled with his transition to stardom, and although the 1981 LP “Dead Ringer”, which included a duet with Cher, reunited him with Steinman, the two became embroiled in legal action after Steinman released an album of his own, “Bad for Good”, in 1981. In retaliation, Steinman then began to collaborate with the group “Air Supply” (who took his song “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” to No 1 in America) and with Bonnie Tyler.
The soaring, lushly orchestrated ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, with a passionate performance by Tyler and aided by a typically understated video directed by Russell Mulcahy (who later made the film “Highlander”), hit the top in both Britain and America in 1983. The Welsh singer also made the most of Steinman’s “Holding Out for a Hero” in 1984, from the soundtrack to “Footloose”, while Barry Manilow scored success with “Read ’Em and Weep” in 1983.
Steinman was said to have been approached by Andrew Lloyd Webber to write the lyrics to “The Phantom of the Opera”, but after a long hiatus he and Meat Loaf unexpectedly reunited in 1993 to create “Bat Out of Hell II”. Heralded by the single “I’d Do Anything For Love”, which was a worldwide chart-topper, the album went on to almost equal the success of its predecessor.
After the success of “Bat Out of Hell II”, Steinman won a Grammy in 1996 for writing “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”, which was a hit for Celine Dion. That same year, he composed the lyrics for “Whistle Down the Wind”, the Lloyd Webber musical. Although not a smash at the box office, it did yield a huge pop hit when Boyzone recorded one of the songs, “No Matter What”.
In 1997, “Dance of the Vampires”, Steinman’s own musical version of Roman Polanski’s film “The Fearless Vampire Killers”, opened in Vienna. A long-cherished project of his, it was directed by Polanski himself. Subsequently there were rumours that Steinman was working on musicals about Greta Garbo and Batman, but these never materialised.
Instead, Steinman was stricken by the first of several strokes in 2004 and then mired in yet more litigation with Meat Loaf, this time over the use of the “Bat Out of Hell” trademark for the third album by that name, released in 2006. Although that record featured several of Steinman’s songs, all written for earlier records, it was the first of the trilogy in which he was not involved in their production. The litigation was eventually settled.
Between 2017 and 2019 a musical drawing on the songs in the “Bat Out of Hell” cycle, toured North America and Britain.
Critics routinely characterised Steinman’s vision as camp and over-the top, a verdict that ignored not only the joy he brought to millions but also an originality which in cinema would have seen him hailed an auteur. As he observed: “If you don’t go over the top, you can’t see what’s on the other side.”
R.I.P. Jim amazing creativity!
Amazing man, amazing interview. So great to see inside the mind of a musical legend, and yet also an absolute weird crazy guy (I think he would love that description).Thank you Jim for the music and the memories. Your music will live in our hearts forever. Now I'm not gonna say rest in peace, I hope when I get to Heaven that you and Meat are still banging out new music and blowing our minds
Love and miss you man...pure talent...your gift gave pure joy... At least I can say ...remember Jim.......I was there.
Heck ya! I'll say it again! A total one of A kind "Legend" Steinman&Meat! So lucky are Wei's! That they got together was just meant to be! A once in a Life time,Greats! Weather they like it or not's! Pure all around Legend's! How lucky is Wei's! To have lived it! I'll never forget! And still listening here in Va.....2021
One of the greatest world builders in music.
Absolutley, well said.
You can tell he'd be a brilliant songwriter as he's such a brilliant and enthusiastic storyteller
"Twinkies, or whatever those Satan!c truck drivers usually eat."⚰
If you combine the genius of Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman you get a genius lyricist called Steinman
Just heard the awful news, what a loss, i*m gutted. Jim will be sorely missed n *Bad for Good.* He was extremely underated, what a great talent. R.I.P.
It would be nice if the interviewer also had a microphone so I didn't have to turn the volume way up to hear the questions.
Thank you Jim. Thank you man
Jim , you stunning , genius Romantic !
RIP Jim
Your music will live on.
"We don't need people like you in this world." WTF did Warner Bros. say to him? I'm appalled, but he showed them. I can't imagine a world without Jim Steinman's music. He's an absolute genius and so charming and cultured. R.I.P. Jim 💔
This is brilliant. So much. Been waiting for Steinman to talk about all this stuff, especially about the Bat tour, for decades. Wow, if I saw something like this in the 80s (I know) I would've been like a Teenage Dream....
RIP to a visionary and songwriting genius
Absolute hero of a man
So glad you have Meat a chance, genius. RIP.
I read that wrong and thought you said Meat had died and I panicked for a second..
You and Melvin have always been my greatest heroes since I was a child. Always thought I'd meet you guys in this realm, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. I'm really looking forward to seeing you in the next life my brothers.
I've never been a big fan of celebrity Heroes. The two of you pretty much the only ones I really idolized my whole life and that's great. You're both actual Heroes to me. I followed your careers closely and you're more than just musicians you're really super cool peeps people
Marvin
Steiny dissociating and thinking about the cinematic qualities of Meat literally headbutting a truck epitomises what they were about
Just loved his writing and arrangements.
What a phenomenal memory for detail he has, even if they are somewhat embellished by his own admission. And his observations and descriptions are brilliant as are his impersonations. He's so funny and sage. I'm supposed to be working but I can't tear myself away from this interview, which I've seen before-Lol-twice. I can't get enough of Jim Steinman! R.I.P. 💔
Damn, I was just listening to a bunch of Jim's music last night, and this morning I woke up and said, I bet there's a "little" documentary or something "about" him on RUclips.
Yeah, I'd say 4 hours is a little interview. Really what else should I expect from The Lord of Excess? Genius.
I've been planning "Jim Steinman - A Deep Dive Into The Wonderful World Of Steinmania - The Method To His Madness" for a while. It might materialise as a something-part series one day. Or not. Maybe, who knows.
I will eventually. Will take a while tho
@@MLBFCollection Oh, please do it!
I love him and Meat Loaf 😍😍
Absolutely engrossing awesome stories .. I love it! Don't know why they didn't just call him Michael off stage. I was just turning 13 when this album come out.. the seventies were just simply awesome crazy wild and will never be repeated.. had the 8-track .. rest in peace rock and roll brother..what a total pisser
I mean he was always Meat
Even from a young age
While his name has legally been Michael since 1987 he'll always be Meat
@@MLBFCollection okay what a phenomenal two-part documentary.. I see his name was Marvin.. but you know back then nicknames where everything.. I'm very choosy about the bars & Friends and this guy jim I would definitely hang out with
What a fascinating interview✌
Genius, result of tenacity...
I love the songs u write my daughter 10 years sometimes listen to bat out of hell think u have one of the classic albums now
Legend.
WOW A 2 HOUR VIDEO OF THIS MUSIC WRITTING GENUIS THANK YOU SO MUTCH
Glad you like it!
JUST WOW. And just found out he past last year. this interview and and Noe Mr. Meat now gone.
RIP Jim Steinman
Amazing stuff. Please keep it up with the content. This whole interview got me through work today.
That's my hundred million dollars! Too funny!!!
What an amazing video. Thank you so much.
You're very welcome :)
What an Ex trod a nary talented Genius! A one of a kind! A legend! For Ever!!....Amazing!......
Steinman is one of my favorite songwriters. Great interview, thank you.
That's okay :)
Jim was great. RIP
It was all a pre-destined calling , undoubtedly , same with Meat.
What a great story from a great guy
I could form amazing lyrical landscapes cherry picking this conversation. I won't because it would be wrong but it is all going into the soup of my consciousness. A very spicy, strange, satisfying soup.
Paha! :) Jim is some guy tho, even just his casual words come out like songs
@@MLBFCollection So visual and interesting. Like Billy Corgan tries to be and falls just a little short in my opinion. I do think he is interesting as well but not on this level!
Dude, you need to be a writer. You have such a way with words. Really.
@@allisonmarlow184 Thank you. I have written lyrics, poems and even attempted a novel or two. I have always been an avid reader and I really love it when a few words or a phrase just grabs me.
Things like,
The whistling wind chills your skin
The voice of nothing
No one.
"She was born old and knowing most things"
Perhaps you have inspired me.
"The Church, the Police, and Big Business .. were the villains..."
STILL ARE.
"ROCK OPERA" a class all on their own
he was UNIQUE
Love him!
Thank you for uploading
This was a year before he had his stroke. He couldn't speak for a time afterwards
what a luck, he did this before getting really ill
Jim's meat impression is just amazing
"JIM-MEH!"
Just adorable. 🥰
WOW!!!!!
Where is this interview from??
I LOVE IT!!
You have the best Meat Loaf Jim content!!!
Found it on Jimmy's site!
One Satanic truck driver disliked this video. Jeez! 🙄
Damn!
Fabulous interview. Thanks for the upload. I never imagined that he'd be so entertaining! Loved it. Rock on, boys.
Lmao @ Robert Goulet
This is SO incredibly wonderful. What a gift to have this. THANK YOU! One quick question....are the "speed-ups" to change camera tapes - or to skip over sensitive material of some sort? NOT complaining - just curious.
I honestly think it's just an issue with the tape
Why is Jim wearing sunglasses indoors has he problems with his eye sight.
Why not
He wore a lot of strange clothes
More power to him
The long Jimmy Iovine story Jim told here is still SO funny, however sadly it's a tough hang now because of recent allegations against Iovine.
Steinman generally was really adept at impersonating people he worked with in a funny way.
Not as bad as Stephen Collins being in most of Steinman's early plays...