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| re: I wonder why... | |
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SeeingI 02:43 pm UTC 02/26/08 |
| In reply to: | re: I wonder why... - Smeghead 12:22 pm UTC 02/25/08 |
| From everything I've heard, Rinkoff is a mediocre engineer at best, and JIm would do well to find other collaborators. However, with Jim's quirks and eccentricities, that must not be a very easy prospect. When I say "heard" I mean what's on disc, not gossip or what-not. Look, I am in my third decade of Steinman fandom, but that doesn't mean I can't be critical of the guy. Like everybody, his feet are of clay. He's made some career mis-steps and his obsession with recycling the same tunes, while enjoyable on one level (it certainly is a wonderful "treasure hunt" for fans like me) tends to cheapen his ouvre overall. I kind of thought that once Bat II came out, and the lost promises of "Bad For Good" were redeemed, then we'd see a gush of fabulous new material, but it wasn't to be. Can anyone really argue that "Tanz" would not have been a stronger show if there were more original material? Fine, keep "Total Eclipse" as your showpiece (because the re-imagining was genuinely witty IMO) and keep songs like "Eternity" and "The Storm" that few have heard before. But re-working "Objects" and "Good Girls" and "Tonight is What It Means" just seem lazy. And while the idea of a "Bat" stage show - basically "Neverland" reborn - is very exciting, still one wonders how it will escape the perception that it will be just another karaoke show. (If I may presume to advise, the publicists should emphasize over and over again that most of these songs were written for the stage to start out with.) Jim's still written more and better songs than I have, and more and better songs than a million songwriters. Maybe he's the flame that burns bright & burns out, and what we see now are just the ashes - but then I hear songs like "Break It" and I think that can't be the case. Maybe he's got stacks of songs and demos he can't find the right artist for. Maybe he just has bad luck. Anyway - Jim's still one of the top 3 most influential artists in my life (right behind Jim Henson and right before Josef von Sternberg) and, even though I don't spin his tunes that often anymore, they are still burned into my synapses. But there's a whole world of music out there, tons and tons of stuff to experience, and only so much Steinman material to listen to. Of course, a lot of things that I am into now reflect on tastes developed partly because of Steinman - like opera and Phil Spector. So i guess you could say his songs are like a shadow on me all of the time (all of the ti-i-ime!) even though they are not in heavy rotation on my CD player like they used to be. Still, every time I hear Total Eclipse or Paradise or whatever on the radio, it's like a secret message just for me. And that's priceless. PS - None of this stops me from wishing "Safe Sex" would find the right singer someday, or harboring a desire to direct a massive-budgeted video for "Original Sin" set on the eve of the French Revolution. > Jim put his name to it, he talked about it, he was behind > it and then he gave up on it, got bored with it, > whatever, > > > Hmm, maybe. But did Jim promise "The Dream Engine". Not > > sure. > > > > > I think it is the fact that Jim makes a lot of promises > > > and fails to deliver... Batman, The Dream Engine, A > > > Million and One other projects. It gets disheartening > > > after a while... > > | |
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