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| My Jim Tribute | |
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LordRahl 11:03 am UTC 04/21/21 |
| This is what I posted on a website that I visit pretty often, which had a tribute to Jim. I wanted to share it with you guys as well: Jim Steinman’s music has been a part of my life since 1994. In fact, Id say he was the soundtrack of my life. Losing him is losing part of myself. I am still struggling to accept it and I cried all day yesterday after reading the news. I spent the evening honoring his memory by listening to his music with my daughter while posting his lyrics in the comment sections of different websites I frequent. I remember when I first discovered Jim. I was just a kid, 8 or 9 years old at the time, waking up early one morning while the family was still sleeping and flipping through the channels to see what was on. I landed on VH1/MTV and saw a “real life” story of Beauty and the beast playing out with a song unlike anything I had ever heard before accompanying it. It was like a mini musical or something wrapped up into one song. Of course I am talking about I Would Do Anything For Love and the awesome video by Michael Bay. From there I would go on to get Bat 2 for Christmas and over the years pick up every Meat Loaf album, gradually learning more and more about who this “Songs by Jim Steinman” character was. Coincidentally one of my favorite films as a young kid was “Short Circuit 2” and the ass kicking ending sequence had “Holding Out For A Hero” playing over it, so that may in fact have been my first exposure to Jim. Moving well into the 90s I was browsing the internet all the time and discovering more and more of Jim’s involvement in the music industry. I found out that he was originally Andrew Lloyd Webbers pick for writing Phantom of the Opera, and while that fell through they did eventually work together for Whistle Down The Wind. Speaking of Phantom, the legendary Steve Barton (RIP) who played Raoul would go on to star as Count Von Krolock in the most popular modern musical in German history that Jim Steinman just happened to create (with Roman Polanski) called Tanz der Vampire. The 90s also introduced me to more of the “children of Steinman” and I got to hear his work with Barbara Streisand (Left in the Dark), Celine Dion (It’s All Coming Back to me Now & Is Nothing Sacred Any More), Barry Manilow (Read em and Weep), Karine Hannah (an entire album of unreleased music), Bonnie Tyler (Hero, Ravishing, Total Eclipse, Loving you is a dirty job), Rory Dodd, Pandora’s Box, The Everyly Brothers, Air Supply, and many others. There is even a Batman Musical Jim was working on (that was unfortunately canceled) where he still shared his demos with his fans. As an aside, the music from those demos inspired a big fan of his to create some extra songs for it that I personally felt were on the level of Jim (Scaramouche). That’s the influence he had with his fans. And speaking of his fans, something that always impresses me is the variety of ways Jim’s art encourages and inspires us. Even as his music releases became few and far between in the later years, his rabid fans that were always hungry for MORE would occasionally release their own covers of his songs, which really spoke to how much he meant to the people who he touched. A few “rabid fans” even went to the next level, hosting tribute shows with some serious musical guests showing up to honor the maestro. One fan in particular went on a mission to discover (and thankfully could share) some true gems from “the vaults of heaven”, that being Jim’s college and post college musical works (Dream Engine, Neverland, More than you deserve). He tracked down the live recordings and demos and uploaded them to the internet so people could finally hear this legendary music thought to be forgotten (a million thanks Ben). At the time I compared it to finding a lost book of the bible. That goes for the rare demos Rory Dodd also shared from a few of his studio sessions with Jim. Something very special to me was the few times I actually got to interact with Jim directly. In particular when I once shared a story on his message board about the time I met Mick Foley & James E Cornette at an autograph signing and had a discussion with them about Jim’s music. Jim mentioned it on his blog (1/24/06) and said that he was “thrilled with AGAwesome’s story of Mick Foley and Jim Cornette knowing all about my work”. Wrestling is as important in my life’s story as Jim Steinman’s music is, and knowing the two universes overlap was like a personal prophecy being fulfilled. We also spoke on FB about some book recommendations (Boys and Girls Together by William Goldman and Foley’s first book), which he told me he picked up to read! May not seem like much, but when you “worship” someone, an interaction like that can mean the world to you. Hell, Im talking about it 15+ years later still! Personally, I look back at Jim’s effect on my youth and growing up and how rather than struggling to fit in I instead grew a superiority complex because of the better music I was listening to. Hahaha. I was surrounded by so many kids who listened to bubble gum music and teeny bopper garbage. All mass produced and consumed by the simple mob. It offended me to no end and I would proudly wear my Bat out of Hell 1 & 2 T shirts to school all the time, letting people know what “real music” was. I recall a creative writing class giving me an assignment where I wrote a parody of Dante’s Inferno about myself and Jim Steinman wandering through “hell” together. And I still chuckle thinking back to the time where, rather than write a summer book report going into my freshman year of high school, I instead wrote a five page rant about how “kids today” don’t even read “real” books or “get” what real music is. I also filled it with Steinman lyrics that kind of poorly reflected on life/society (a bad move a few years after Columbine happened and the school admins thought I was a nut, of course maybe I was/still am). Jim guided me through my adolescence and painted a picture for what I thought life and love and growing up (never to do it) should be. He inspired me, he protected me, he taught me, and he saved me countless times. As I mentioned, I still can’t fully grasp it… he was supposed to live forever. “I don’t ever want to be rescued, and I don’t ever want to be saved. I got a feeling that Im gonna be alive forever, dancing on the edge of a grave… dancing on the edge of a grave”. But I know that even as he enters into the great beyond (heaven can’t wait…) his music and influence WILL live forever in my life. Thank you so very much O Captain! My Captain! Say a prayer for the falling angels Stem the tide of the rising waters Toll a bell for the brokenhearted Burn a torch for your sons and daughters The endless night has got a hold of me Dark days are pulling me forward And all the tears are washing over me I'm crying, lost forever In a future that ain't what it used to be No more, no more, no more The future just ain't what it used to be It's never gonna be like it was The future just ain't what it used to be I wish it wouldn't come but it does I wish it wouldn't come but it always does | |
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