Heaven Can't Wait Anymore - A Requiem for Jim Steinman

[Beowulf]

Jim Steinman, the colourful composer behind hits like Bat Out Of Hell and Total Eclipse Of The Heart, has died at the age of 73.

Every good song Meat Loaf ever sang? Steinman wrote it. We owe this man for generations of rock anthems about teenagers trying to get laid.

And while I'm sad to hear that he won't be writing any more songs, I'm really happy that he got Neverland (renamed Bat Out of Hell) onto Broadway before all live theater went dark for two years. He'd apparently been writing and rewriting that musical with every song he'd written since the 70s.

(For that matter, he also composed the gloriously terrible Dance of the Vampires, which was once of two chances I got to see René Auberjonois on stage before he passed. The man couldn't write a plot for love or money, but he was amazing at rock music.)

 

[Kirin]

Last night my partner was reading news on her phone and remarked that "the guy who wrote Total Eclipse of the Heart" died. Gears turned in my head and I was like... wait... Jim Steinman? Aw, dang.

Cheers to a dude who followed the hell out of his extremely weird dreams.

 

[Positronic Brain]

He was, no question, my favorite composer - probably the only one I've ever learned to identify on the spot as his lyrics and his musical style were and still remain unparalleled. As somebody said, his songs didn't go to 11 - they started there and then went into overdrive.

 

[Mightyblue]

Yeah, he did some good work and wrote the only good stuff Meatloaf ever did really.

 

[Octopus Prime]

There is zero doubt in my head that he is my absolute favorite song writer, ever

 

[ShakeWell]

He was also quite the producer, having produced goth club anthem "This Corrosion," among others. He also wrote the original songs for Walter Hill's Streets of Fire.

 

[Positronic Brain]

He also wrote the original songs for Walter Hill's Streets of Fire.

And we'll fly away on those angel wings of chrome in your daddy's car is *such* a Jim Steinman lyric

(my favorite from Streets, though, is But I don't see any angels in the city / I don't hear any holy choirs sing / And if I can't get an angel / I can still get a boy)

 

[ShakeWell]

The first time I saw that movie, I was like "why do these all sound like fuckin' Meat Loaf songs?" When I got to the credits, I figured it out.