06/08/2026
As anyone who comes to a event knows, I always make my gag about open brackets worthing close brackets being "It's a Meat Loaf thing - open brackets - but we don't talk about it - close brackets"
So the recent outpouring at the death of Bonnie Tyler was sad and interesting, as it seemed to bring out a lot of love for Jim Steinman and his very particular type of music.
(I completely understand why people don't like it, it's a total adolescent fantasy of life, love, excitement and rock'n'roll kicks which can't possibly have any connection to reality, but it ties in with my favourite film of all time which also shares a similar unreality and years later the penny would drop that Steinman was all over that film too...so for me he's always been there for many years)
Anyway, it led me back to the Loaf's second album. Which I haven't heard in years. But on release I had on cassette and listened to it loads. But weirdly, like when I listen to Kings of the Wild Frontier which was RINSED when I was 4 or 5 years old I seem to barely remember anything, apart from the singles. Listening to it again was almost afresh.
I say almost because what's odd now is seeing what a strange mash it is of what should have been Bat Out Of Hell 2 if Loaf hadn't lost his voice, record company pressures, fall outs and Steinman going off to make his own solo album Bad For Good...which I came to about 20 years ago when I'd got over the hump of "guilty pleasures" horse s**t (no such thing, it's either a pleasure or isn't - EMBRACE IT KIDS - well, maybe not Embrace) Quite a few of the songs on Bad For Good would be reworked for Bat 2, yet when I listened to Bad For Good I don't think I made any connection with the songs I'd been listening to 15 years before. Which is weird. Or maybe I did - Steinman had quite a fun habit of pilfering and reworking riffs and elements from his work into other songs, which creates a strange effect of knowing but not knowing.
Anyway, Bat 2 - I still absolute utterly adore I'll Do Anything For Love, though I wish it ended with the fist pumping ride off into the sunset, instead of the lower tempo coda. I guess it's a running joke that Steinman would turn any phrase into a song - he would have probably turned "Give priority to oncoming vehicles" into a track...and Objects In The Rear View Mirror became a running joke with me and my mate Mark (who is the one who bought me the album on cassette for my birthday all those years ago, iirc) But funnily enough he sent me the over the top video to it at the end of last year, which I'd never seen at the time and...dunno...I got all a bit teary over the song. It's big broad brash pomp with an absurd faux profound title, but I think if you look beyond that (or embrace it) there's a genuine heart about it. Or maybe it was the self reflective mood I was in when I watched the video.
It's all pretty much what you'd expect from Steinman, except the (Back Into Hell) (title track), which is an odd grinding instrumental passage linking into the final track - Lost Boys and Golden Girls - which was from the bonus 7" of Steinman's album (don't buy a copy without it - the A-Side The Storm is an incredible cinematic pomp orchestral introduction, then Lost Boys feels like the finale - so when I ripped the vinyl digitally that's the order I put the tracks in)
Having never seen the artwork that big in years I had never clocked on my little cassette that the demon on the Chrysler building has kidnapped and tied up a blonde angel woman (OF COURSE) I had no recollection of the images inside either, apart from a great photo of Loaf...but there's also a very odd photo of Steinman covered in flames.
I could probably go on about this all day (but I best stop here)
