Last modified on Thu 22 Apr 2021 13.31 EDT
His own website described him as “The Lord of Excess”, and the Los Angeles Times dubbed him “the Richard Wagner of Rock and Roll”. Jim Steinman, who has died of kidney failure aged 73, made a spectacular career of being bigger and more bombastic than the rest, and his achievement in masterminding Meat Loaf’s album Bat Out of Hell will guarantee his immortality.
Bat . has sold more than 50m copies since its 1977 release. It is the original and best showcase for Steinman’s mixture of extended multipart song structures, beyond-operatic production, and lyrics in which teen angst is inflated to berserk dimensions. Bat’s producer, Todd Rundgren, thought the album was supposed to be a parody of Bruce Springsteen – members of Springsteen’s E Street Band played on it – and Steinman did not entirely reject parallels with the Boss. His own songs, Steinman said, “are dream operatic, his are street operatic. He’s more West Side
Grammy-winning composer Jim Steinman dies aged 73
Jim Steinman, the Grammy-winning composer who wrote Meat Loaf’s bestselling Bat Out Of Hell debut album as well as hits for Celine Dion, Air Supply and Bonnie Tyler, has died, his brother said. He was 73.
Bill Steinman told the Associated Press that his brother died on Monday from kidney failure and was ill for some time. He said Jim Steinman died in Connecticut near his home in Ridgefield, according to The Guardian.
“I miss him a great deal already,” Bill Steinman said by phone on Tuesday.
Jim Steinman was born on 1 November 1947 in New York City.
Jim Steinman, Bat Out of Hell songwriter, dies at 73
Weâre sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later.
Dismiss
By Neil Genzlinger
Save
Normal text size
Jim Steinman, who wrote all the songs on
Bat Out of Hell, Meat Loafâs operatic, teenage-angst-filled 1977 debut album, which remains one of the most successful records of all time, died on Monday, US time, in Connecticut. He was 73.
His long-time manager, David Sonenberg, announced the death. He said that Steinman had a stroke four years ago and that his health had recently been declining.
Jim Steinman, pictured in 2012 at his induction to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, has died at the age of 73.
‘Everyone hated Bat Out of Hell’: how Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf made a misunderstood masterpiece
Rolling Stone gave it zero stars. But its Springsteen on Broadway on steroids excess paved the way for 80s bombastic rock
21 April 2021 • 10:08am 10-minute Wagnerian explosive anthems sung by a 350-pound guy with a huge voice : Jim Steinman on Bat Out of Hell, his collaboration with Meat Loaf
New York in the mid-1970s was the crucible of two emerging music scenes. Nightclubs such as The Loft, The Gallery and – from 1977 – Studio 54 were playing disco music, while CBGB was home to the nascent raw punk sound of Patti Smith and Television. There was little room for anything else between these two musical pillars, let alone a 24-stone singer from Texas with a voice that could fell trees. And yet, in a theatre in Lower Manhattan, Meat Loaf was forging a creative collaboration that would lead to Bat Out of Hell, an album of operatic rock anthems that – against the grain of e
The Steinman song that inspired an epic clash between music stars theglobeandmail.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theglobeandmail.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.