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We said: You're The Critic: Review the Bat Out Of Hell album! |
I'd do anything for love, but I won't do laundry
Posted by Russell on September 15, 1999 at 02:14:11:
I still haven't figured out why we, the patrons of this website and
others in similar taste, seem to be aware of the genius that is the
Steinmeister. Maybe it just really sucks that I can't have a decent
conversation with anyone in the restaurant industry, but even when I say
the basic he-wrote-the-Bat-Out-of-Hell-album explanation, I get a
response of "oh." I seem singular in my habitat to recognize this
demigod, alone in my overwhelmed state that his music is the soundtrack
of my life and the lives of most everyone I know. Only in rooms like
this are my thoughts corroborated and my anxieties vanquished.
So Jim, if you actually read these things, why am I the unfortunate soul
to recognize the stars and reach and be laughed at when I crash to earth
because they're so damn far? Why am I the sad creature who feels someone
out there understands, someone gets it, but no one knows who the hell
I'm talking about. Why am I the poor fool who cranks up Tire Tracks and
Broken Hearts when I'm stuck in freeway gridlock and gets the head
bouncing and the hands doing their air drum routine and the looks from
the onlooking commuters of disdain and insolence because they are groggy
in their cell-phoned, coffee-stained, Lexus-driving, Polo-wearing,
croissant-eating, flat-topped, bug-eyed, the-one-with-the-most-toys-wins
states? Why have you forsaken me?
You get it, Jim. You're the coolest man I ever heard of. Going to the
German Tony awards in your leather jacket, seeing pictures of you next
to the dapper Lord Webber while you wear biker gear. You're the only one
of your generation who did not sell out, who stayed true to his own
singular character. On top of all that, you're the only genius left in
rock and popular music. You're the man, Jim.
Why are we so few in number???
Posted by Balance on September 19, 1999 at 22:56:07:
Why are we so few in number??? Why is Jim's music not that which is
popular? These questions plague me almost every day. I just don't get
it. Based on the content that most of us write on this message board, it
is clear that we are more intelligent than the average person. But
that's not the answer because there are a lot of smart people who do not
like Steinman. The other annoying thing is that most of the people who
like Meat Loaf know very little about Steinman. They also mindlessly
like it. It sounds good and people will like it without thinking why
it's so good. We, however, analyze, nurture, perhaps even pray to this
music. The only thing that I can think of to explain why we are so few
in number is that we are true to not only our own selves, but true to
the inner workings of the human soul. We remain untainted by conformity
and the toxic misguided majority. Jim's music is a reflection of the
universe translated for human perception and understanding. Those who
stay true to themselves and raw human spirit, aspirations, emotions,
dreams, etc. can experience his vision of the truth. We will stay few in
number for a long time because "real" people aren't that common.
Currently, the world is at an all time low for ability to write and
appreciate music. Popular music is simple and empty, but that is what
most people are like and so the music fits with the listeners. The music
industry has become more of a business now than a supporter of art. It's
always been mostly about making money, but now that's all it's about. It
is the age of one hit wonders. When bands don't last beyond a handful of
albums at best. This approach yields the most profit. Maybe this A.D.D.
trip will end and Jim will be recognized for his brilliance. Maybe it
will happen when the piano is reintroduced into Rock and Roll. However,
the piano is a hard instrument to play and since people aren't
interested in doing things that require effort right now, I'm not sure
if this is plausible. Until that time arrives, the world's performers
will keep banging on their drums and guitars not even knowing what a
musical note looks like. I guess I'm a little bitter right now...sorry.
I'm just frustrated with the lack of recognition, appreciation, and most
importantly, understanding of Jim's music. At least he has us... the
best fans in the world :) What do you all think about this issue? Is it
that we are more true to ourselves and humanity than others? Or is it
something else that I haven't thought of? For now I'm tired and I'm
going to "forget all these questions...someone give me another beer!"
Balance
Re: Why are we so few in number???
Posted by Mike on September 23, 1999 at 20:24:34:
In Reply to: Why are we so few in number??? posted by Balance on
September 19, 1999 at 22:56:07:
Maybe, and I'm going out on a ledge here, maybe people have more of a
life than listening to the creative verse of one man and pontificating
about it for hours on end. Jim is an adequate poet and a better than par
musician but, really, he's not a super-hero. Enjoy his music in the
context of what it is - it's music. It hath charm to soothe the savage
breast, as they say, but it is only music. Life happens everyday - don't
miss out.
To the poor sap who told us to get a life
Posted by Russell on September 24, 1999 at 08:06:15:
In Reply to: Re: Why are we so few in number??? posted by Mike on
September 23, 1999 at 20:24:34:
I feel so sorry for someone who refuses to feel passionate about
anything, especially music. There's a reason why people feel as they do
about Jim--THEY FEEL! They live lives, they work and play, and yes, they
live in the vast world outside their doors. But the bottom line is THEY
FEEL. More than any other composer in the rock era, Jim gets that.
That's why people here show such allegiance to him.
I feel very sorry for you if you think it's only music. I feel sorry for
anyone who is numb to that world you profess us to live in. Do you ask
us to live without feeling? Are you a drone? Music is one of the most
essential bases for living an everyday life--pick your poison. I prefer
to listen to a guy who gets it, who understands what it's like to feel
and ache and can do so in the most bombastic terms.
You tell us to get a life? I tell you to get a soul.
The blessed get ahead
Posted by Mr PC on September 23, 1999 at 03:43:32:
In Reply to: Why are we so few in number??? posted by Balance on
September 19, 1999 at 22:56:07:
I really don't know why... everytime some asks me what kind of music I
like I always end up explaining that Jim Steinman is the guy who wrote
songs lik Paradise, Anything for love, it's all coming back 2 me now,
total eclipse, ......., and then they go like, "yeah, ok, cool, yeah,
he's good". But does it matter? I don't! Ok, it would be nice if Jim got
all the credit he deserves, even more than he deserves, but let's face,
it's not gonna happen unless 'Bat Out Of Hell IV; Worse For Good' is
gonna be a global killer like Bat / Bat II. and then Jim has to come
forward, like tour with Meat. Hell yeah! That would be cool. Rock n'
Roll dreams, baby, rock n' roll dreams! But reffering to the title of
this post: we're the lucky few...
Keep on believing!
Re: Why are we so few in number???
Posted by Steven on September 20, 1999 at 14:39:25:
In Reply to: Why are we so few in number??? posted by Balance on
September 19, 1999 at 22:56:07:
Why are we so few in number?
I believe that not everyone has "compatible receptors"...which are
necessary to feel and understand Jim's music...
It's the same thing about people you like/understand or don't
like/understand...there are people who seem to live in a completely
different world...(Britney Spears for example?) We just don't have
the same "receptors"...we don't share the same [so-called] reality...
So if someone is able to FEEL Jim's music/lyrics he just accidently
has an affinity to that kind of music/lyrics...you can't influence
it.
Well, this seems to go a little too far...here's another thought:
Should we be [un]happy about being so few in number??
And why should we?
Sorry, if this is too far away from the topic...at the moment I'm not
so sure about anything --
Steven
Re: Why are we so few in number???
Posted by Q on September 20, 1999 at 11:06:58:
In Reply to: Why are we so few in number??? posted by Balance on
September 19, 1999 at 22:56:07:
Actually I have no answers for you...just some questions...
It may be the American way to pray everything high into heaven, but as
far as I know now, there are people posting in here from all over the
world...ok, I agree with you that Jim Steinman has an extraordinary
talent and a lot of courage plus self confidence (whereas the last two
abilities are most important)...however to call him (a) god for that
(I'm not even criticizing you calling him a genius, there seems to be no
real definition for this word, I suppose)
Or am I overlooking just some ironic point(s)?
And don't think I'm a heretic (maybe I am in some terms of definition),
I'm just seeing things a bit critical...
And for those who might wonder now why I'm here:
I'm just following the romantic idea (and with "romantic" I mean the
time period) of having to know something about the artist to understand
his music...and here I have even the rare opportunity to learn something
about his fans and their thoughts
One more retort
Posted by Russell on September 20, 1999 at 16:35:34:
In Reply to: Re: Why are we so few in number??? posted by Q on September
20, 1999 at 11:06:58:
I understand the want to know a little something about the man to gain a
further understanding about the music. As far as music goes, you have to
dig a tad deeper than just picking up the Bat Out of Hell album at Sam
Goody (although that wouldn't be a bad place to start). His music is
pervasive and in places you wouldn't expect it, performed by persons as
various as Sisters of Mercy, Streisand, and Pavarotti.
But about the man--you seek as to why we have such allegiance for Jim,
eh? Look around you. The world has sold itself out. All of it. Jim is a
lone sentinel to all that remains true to itself, all that does not
chase a buck. His music is literally all that matters to him, and he
puts his heart out on every single work he produces. He'll spend a
million bucks on a project that doesn't ever get released in the US. Why
does he do that? Because it's all about the music. Period. He cavorts
with Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber while donning his leather jacket and black
skulled t-shirt. That's who he is, and in all facets he remains to that
basic notion, the sole rock and roll romantic, the heavy metal Peter
Pan. He's no god--quite the opposite, he's as human as it gets. Wish we
all were as human, wish we all were as flawed and eccentric and
desperately loyal to who we are.
But he's also the one guy I ever heard of that tells you how human he
is, and how human we are, in every single work he produces, and he does
this with such bombast and honesty and over-the-top extremity that you
can't help but be knocked on your ass. He's all over the place in the
music. You're a dolt if you can't see him.
The question of godliness
Posted by Tifa on September 20, 1999 at 11:45:49:
In Reply to: Re: Why are we so few in number??? posted by Q on September
20, 1999 at 11:06:58:
Okay, maybe I'm misunderstanding everyone else here, but at least most
of us (I tihnk) do not envision Steinman as a god the same way that
Christians see Jesus or Moslems see Allah, etc. We don't celebrate
strange ritualistic rites on his birthday or the release date of Bat Out
of Hell. We don't bow before his image or offer anything in sacrifice.
But in another, very real way, he serves the function of a god in that
HE SAVES OUR SOULS. Who can deny that? He preserves our very being
through his music, and thereby fulfills one of the major psychological
functions of a religion in modern society. No, we don't think he is
immortal--but his music is. He won't save us from Satan--but he can save
us from conformity. Steinman's music keeps us who we are, and so in one
very real way he is a saviour... however many of us also posess other
religious beliefs (myself, I'm "undecided" but I've met Steinman fans
who were Christian or Jewish or atheist, or whatever) I am not trying to
elevate Steinman to the level of messiah, and I don't think anyone else
is either. He may not save the world but that doesn't mean he cant save
us as individuals.
The queen of long posts--Tifa ^_^
my two cents worth
Posted by Russell on September 20, 1999 at 07:50:32:
In Reply to: Why are we so few in number??? posted by Balance on
September 19, 1999 at 22:56:07:
I have an opinion on the subject. Why are there so few of us? Because we
have not been dummied down by society on whole. We have not been
anesthetized to the heartache of life, we have not turned a blind eye to
the beautiful and horrific nightmares we can concoct, not just in our
own minds, but across the continents. Those of us who still keep the
faith, those of us who let Jim's music seep down through the layers of
B.S. and into our souls, we still feel it all, as raw and as pure as
when we first felt them. THAT is why Jim's music speaks so directly to
us, and THAT is why there are so few of us. Jim never dummied us down to
the four-minute single formula. Jim gets it, and very few of us in the
AMerican peasantry do as well. He will never be popular because he
refuses to dummy down his audience, as has the rest of society. His
music works because it has always brought forth the raw and honest
emotion of youth. He is the only rock and roll romantic, maybe the only
one there ever was. And those of us who didn't get dummied down by
Yupppie B.S. understand it.
Angst and things
Posted by Xavier T on September 27, 1999 at 01:49:28:
In Reply to: my two cents worth posted by Russell on September 20, 1999
at 07:50:32:
Sort of adding in my two cents worth of useless information, I've got an
extended theory on this. A phrase that's always bandied about in
Steinworld is "Teenage Angst", and I've often wondered why so many
people tend to eventually fall away from Jim-mania as they get older.
Again it comes down to being "dummed down" by the need to conform to
society's idea of adulthood. We eventually give up and choose to "grow
up", and lose that overpowering passion about everything that mattered
so much, way back before we built the picket fences. The divine JD
explained it well a few weeks back when she said it isn't really
"Teenage Angst" - it's "Human Angst", and she's right. It all still
matters just as much when we get older but we just lose the plot along
the way. We bury our anxieties because they're too hard to face - it's
too hard to feel - and it's all crap, an easy cop-out. I for one intend
to live in an ageless state of puberty.
Xay, stepping down off the soapbox. :)
a "KISS" is a terrible thing to waste?!
Posted by cedric on September 30, 1999 at 05:36:40:
I've been thinking for a while about that song (akiatttw), and also
about all the other songs which talk about last kisses etc, but do they
really mean to have a last kiss, or not to miss out on a kiss.
I think Steinman, when he was writing akiatttw,actually was using the
work KISS, to disguise the work FUCK, i mean who much cares about a
first kiss, but you would most definintly care about getting LAID, for
the first time, it's just like the song SURF'S UP it's got nothing to do
with the title, but if you through Steinman's cleverly disguised lyrics
you'll see what it really means!!!.
Post your replys and let me know what you think about AKIATTTW, and the
word "KISS" used in songs.
PS: A FUCK IS A TERRIBLE!!! THING TO WASTE!!
Re: a "KISS" is a terrible thing to waste?!
Posted by Michael Dube on September 30, 1999 at 19:04:33:
In Reply to: a "KISS" is a terrible thing to waste?! posted by cedric on
September 30, 1999 at 05:36:40:
Wrong, wrong! The line "There's a feast waiting for you / And you've
never even gotten a taste" takes what you're saying into account. The
power of the song is the title line COUPLED with the feast line.
A cyst is a terrible thing to paste
Posted by Russell on September 30, 1999 at 20:53:41:
In Reply to: Re: a "KISS" is a terrible thing to waste?! posted by
Michael Dube on September 30, 1999 at 19:04:33:
so are you agreeing with the original premise that AKIATTTW is about
getting laid? Why is that so insulting? Andrew Lloyd Webber is also
credited with the song, you think that uptight limey would go for a
getting laid song in one of his musicals? Think, people. Jim is a
romantic, and though he is not above talking about sex in a very frank
and even sophomoric way, you all are reaching on this one.
You're right, the power of the song is in that singular couplet. As
such, the meaining of the song ought to just drop on your head. This
song is about youthful exuberance and not missing what could be a
wonderful moment. It may ELUDE to getting laid, but that is not the
central basis of this song. The "kiss" is the object of the song. The
POINT is not letting a moment slip away.
Have you listened to the WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND original cast soundtrack?
Tell me after listening to that version that you think Jim AND Andrew
wrote a gettng-laid song
Re: a "KISS" is a terrible thing to waste?!
Posted by Tifa on September 30, 1999 at 11:25:33:
In Reply to: a "KISS" is a terrible thing to waste?! posted by cedric on
September 30, 1999 at 05:36:40:
I don't think "A Kiss..." is about sex at all... but maybe it's not
specifically aobut a kiss either. I think it's just about any moment,
any special time spent withone that you love, be it a kiss, a sexual
encounter, even only a conversation. I tihnk the song is telling us to
cherish what we have when we have it, to take every oportunity when we
can, because things will never work out in exactly the same way again.
And is you think a kiss is nothing... I'll admit, I'm pretty young, and
inexperienced even for my age. I've only been kissed by two guys, ever,
and only one of them was passionate. That kiss meant more to me than
anything in the world, and I firmly believe that twenty, thirty years
from now when I've been kissed (hopefully) many more times, that one
instance is going to be special to me because of the specific
circumstances. If any of you read something I posted maybe 6 months ago
about this, you know my heartbreakign story so I wont repeat it. My
point is, I feel like I DID waste that most beautiful kiss, that most
perfect moment. It could have become something more and instead it just
disrupted a wonderful friendship. When I went home that night, I put on
The Very Best of Meat Loaf, which had just come out. At the time my line
of tohught was "I'm so happy, I'm going to listen to my new CD" but then
"A Kiss..." came on and I realised what was happening in my own life.
Don't degrade a kiss. A special kiss can be the most magical thing in
the world. It can also be a nexus in any relationship--the perfect time
for somethign to go terribly right or terribly wrong. I tihnk that's
what Steinman is trying to say. Take adavntage of every opportunity...
you'll have to pay for it later if you don't get it when it's going for
free.
Tifa :-)
Not much of a romantic are you?
Posted by Psycho on September 30, 1999 at 09:06:54:
In Reply to: a "KISS" is a terrible thing to waste?! posted by cedric on
September 30, 1999 at 05:36:40:
Sure, there are songs that (more or less subtly) are actually talking
about getting laid- Surf's Up, Paradise, even For Crying Out Loud (ever
noticed that "faded Levi's burstiing apart" lyric?). But I honestly
don't think Jim and every other songwriter that's ever written a song
about a kiss are sex-maniacs with withdrawal symptoms... If that's true
I'm seriously going to start worrying about what the world has become
(not that I haven't already...). After all, when you're a teenager, a
first kiss is a rather important part of your life. And it's that age
Jim writes about most of the time.
A briss is a terrible thing to taste
Posted by Russell on September 30, 1999 at 07:39:58:
In Reply to: a "KISS" is a terrible thing to waste?! posted by cedric on
September 30, 1999 at 05:36:40:
After thinking about this comment for the eternity of thirty seconds, I
suppose there's some legitimacy to the claim that you could supplant the
word fuck for the word kiss. But is that really what the song is about?
Is that what Whistle Down the Wind about, getting laid? Jim has wrote a
few songs about getting laid, not that he ever used the word fuck in
them--it's not the most elegant word to use, not the most poetic.
AKIATTTW is not necessarily about a kiss at all, although that is what
Amos is seeking from Swallow during that scene. It's more about living
each moment to the fullest, about being young and knowing every minute
is precious, to seize the opportunities to live that arise. The kiss is
a metaphor for that. You look simply at the title--look at the rest of
the lyrics--
--We'll never be as young as we are right now.
--There's a feast waiting for you and you've never even gotten a taste.
--So many things in your life that you're bound to regret/So many
chances you've lost that you'll never forget.
If you simply want to hear a Jim song about getting laid, there's always
Paradise. I would hope Jim has matured as a writer, and that even if he
did want to use the word FUCK he'd have done so correctly. Jim's lyrics
have such depth, such youthful exuberence. Don't tell me he would waste
his skills just to write another getting-laid song.
But then again, it's not as if your idea is entirely wrong.
And yes, there is still something about that first kiss. You know that,
to be young and feeling lonely and just wanting a piece of intimacy if
not a piece of ass. Jim gets that. And shame on you for taking the
romantic flavor out of the song and trying to make it more lewd than it
is.
You ought to know that much by now. And one of these days you're gonna
show us that you already know.