| "I haven't done all I wanted to do yet. I have too long a list. But I want to write something really great of all times. Not necessarily music. Just something that really matters. "Bat Out o | |
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Bright_Eyes 12:08 am UTC 10/12/07 |
| I read the interesting interview in the Hartford newspaper. Thanks to whoever posted it, and to Steinman for answering the questions. One of the parts that really stood out was: "I haven't done all I wanted to do yet. I have too long a list. But I want to write something really great of all times. Not necessarily music. Just something that really matters. "Bat Out of Hell" did that, I guess, but I want to do more." This was surprising to read because I had started to think of Steinman was somebody who gave up, maybe 15 or so years ago, on the kind of renegade creativity he had at the beginning of his career. If he has "too long a list" I have to wonder why so much of his work in the past decade has been recycled, and why in the past two years he has focused on projects that are primarily recycling of past work. If he's got a long list, what is the guy waiting for? Here's a list of all the songs Jim has commercially released since 1993 that are written solely by Steinman, and that were not a recycling of something already commercially released: - If It Ain't Broke (Break It) - from low-budget Wuthering Heights CD - Cry to Heaven - Desmond Child's mediocre production - In The Land of the Pig, The Butcher Is King - Desmond Child's mediocre production Unless I'm forgetting something, that's the whole list. (Unless you count Everly Bros.) Kinda shocking that it's just those three songs, for a full 14 years of his career. And none of those are high-budget Steinman productions. I think that's why I used to think The Dream Engine was such a big deal, because they would have added at least 3 great songs to that list, in presumably high-quality, Steinman/Rinkoff productions. Excitement over TDE was partly a matter of starvation, because it had been so long since new Steinman songs were released, and it looked like TDE would do that. What explains his trend toward recycled work? Could it be a financial thing? Maybe, but he could also try to make money with new work, and it's hard to believe that he'd be poor if he didn't recycle his old hits. This comment of Steinman's stands out to me because it's mostly in new work that I'd be interested. When I first heard Steinman's work, I was interested in hearing all of it over and over again, and reading anything that could be read about it. Now I've gotten tired of that, and I rarely listen to Steinman's work. But I'd still be interested in new songs, as long as they're good, because at least they're new. Is it possible Steinman wants to write a lot of new stuff, but doesn't have the creative juices flowing anymore? I'm also kinda intrigued by the distinction between work that really matters and work that does not. How do you decide which Steinman project really matters? Does it have to be serious or political or realistic to matter? Does it just have to be very successful or influential? I've always thought of Steinman's work as stuff that does not really matter, but that is still great anyway. | |
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