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Renegade Angel

Posted by:
steven_stuart 08:52 pm UTC 04/23/21
In reply to: re: My Jim Tribute - rockfenris2005 10:17 am UTC 04/23/21

Renegade Angel must be the most famous album never made. Fantastic title. Was it going to be a concept album? Such a shame that Meat had problems with his voice and they split the songs between Bad For Good and Dead Ringer. Although, those were both important albums. Its just that Renegade Angel could have been another BOOH. But just my opinion.

> It was only in more recent years that I came to appreciate
> fully, the body of work that was there, without wondering
> what was going to come next. I never stopped believing
> somehow something might though. You just never knew. I
> don't think Jim ever gave up on "Renegade Angel".
>
> > Thank you for posting this. It’s strange but I find it
> > helps to know others are dealing with the same emotions I
> > am struggling with right now. It helps to discuss it with
> > like minded individuals whom Jim meant so much to.
> >
> > I’ve evolved so much since being a teenager and maybe have
> > tried to move on from those years. Jim’s passing brought
> > me right back to being a teenager again. Feeling all those
> > crazy hormone induced emotions and having his music to
> > guide me through. It feels like so long ago but then
> > again, just like yesterday.
> >
> > I tend to get immature when it comes to handling a loss
> > like this. I start to question what the best thing to get
> > through it is? I think the best thing is to just let it
> > hurt and cry. It’s what I did consistently yesterday. I
> > really just can’t believe that he’s gone. His music was
> > larger than life. He seemed like someone who would always
> > be there but hopefully, in a way, he will. Of course it
> > won’t be the same.
> >
> > Perhaps being greedy I always felt too much was never
> > enough with Jim’s music. I really kept hoping someone
> > would eventually have a proper hit with “Safe Sex.”
> > Madonna or Lady Gaga? I was hoping to hear songs hinted at
> > such as “Paradise Lost”. I even hoped to hear the
> > mysterious missing verse from “What Part Of My Body”.
> >
> > The one thing that has been consistent since yesterday is
> > that so many people have expressed nothing but positivity
> > and respect towards Jim’s work. One thing that’s nice to
> > know is so many people loved his songs!
> >
> > Thank you again for posting here! I never got formerly
> > aquatinted with Facebook and miss the days when this place
> > use to have so much activity.
> >
> > > 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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Previous: re: My Jim Tribute - rockfenris2005 06:50 pm UTC 04/26/21
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