Bat out of Hell (song)

Infobox Single
Name = Bat out of Hell


Artist = Meat Loaf
from Album = Bat out of Hell
Released = 1979
Format =
[Recorded =]
Genre = Wagnerian rock
Length =

• 9:51 (album version)
  • 9:54 (edit)
    Label = Epic Records
    Writer = Jim Steinman
    Producer = Todd Rundgren
    Audio sample? = yes
    [Certification =]
    Last single = "Two out of Three Ain't Bad" (1977)
    This single = "Bat out of Hell" (1979)
    Next single = "Dead Ringer for Love" (1981)
    Misc =Extra chronology
    Last single = "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)"
    (1993)
    This single = "Bat out of Hell"
    (re-release)
    (1993)
    Next single = "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through"
    (1993)

    "Bat out of Hell" is a rock anthem written by Jim Steinman and performed by Meat Loaf as the opening track to the 1977 album of the same name. It was released as a single in 1979 and reissued in 1993.

    Many of the musicians who performed on the track were members of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and Todd Rundgren's Utopia.

    Inspiration

    Inspired by teenage tragedy songs such as "Leader of the Pack" and "Tell Laura I Love Her", the latter being the first song he ever bought, Steinman wanted to write the "most extreme crash song of all time".cite video |people=Jim Steinman |year=1999 |title= [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235298/ Classic Albums: "Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell"] |medium=DVD |publisher=Image Entertainment]

    There is something so thrilling to me about that operatic narrative that involves a cataclysmic event, especially one so perfectly intune with a teenager's world, and rock and roll, as a car or motorcycle crash.

    "Bat out of Hell", along with the album, is often compared to the music of Bruce Springsteen, particularly the "Born to Run" album. Steinman says that he finds that "puzzling, musically," although they share influences. "Springsteen was more an inspiration than an influence." [cite web |title=The Power Of Rock 'n Roll |work=Gallery magazine |url=http://www.jimsteinman.com/gallery1.htm |date=May, 1978 |accessdate=2006-11-17] A BBC article added, " [T] hat Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan from Springsteen's E Street Band played on the album only helped reinforce the comparison." [cite web |title=Sold on Song Top 100: Bat Out Of Hell |work=BBC Radio 2 |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/songlibrary/indepth/batoutofhell.shtml |accessdate=2006-11-17]

    Both song and album are also compared to the "wall of sound" associated with Phil Spector.

    According to Meat Loaf, the song is "constructed from" a shot near the beginning of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" in which the viewer looks down a valley and sees the lights of a city. He says all the clients in the Bates Motel "wish they would have left like a bat out of hell... It had nothing to do, believe it or not, with Bruce Springsteen. It had to do with Alfred Hitchcock and "Psycho"."cite video | people=Meat Loaf (commentary) | year=2004 | title= [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437327/ Meat Loaf Live with the Melbourne Symphone Orchestra] | medium=DVD | location=Melbourne | publisher=Warner Music Vision]

    Neverland

    The song, along with "Heaven Can Wait" and "All Revved Up with No Place To Go", originally featured in Steinman's Peter Pan-inspired 1975 musical "Neverland". Steinman and Meat Loaf, who were touring with the National Lampoon show, felt that the three songs were "exceptional" and Steinman began to develop them as part of a seven-song set they wanted to record as an album. [cite web |first=Jon |last=Hotten|title=Bat Out Of Hell - The Story Behind The Album |work=Classic Rock Magazine |url=http://www.jimsteinman.com/00classicr2.htm |date=September, 2000 |accessdate=2007-06-16] In the musical, the character of Baal describes to Wendy what Never Land feels like: " The sirens are screaming and the fires are howling..." After the first chorus, Wendy screams "Don't leave me." There is some rapid dialogue after the second chorus between Tink, Baal and Wendy, concluding:

    :Tink: Lost boys.:Baal: Lost girls.:Tink: Year after year.:Baal: Sooner or later—:Tink: —they'll never grow up.:Both: Sooner or later, they'll never grow up. :Wendy: Never grow up... [cite web |title= NEVERLAND by Jim Steinman |work=jimsteinman.com |url=http://jimsteinman.com/neverland4.htm |accessdate=2007-06-17]

    Baal yells "Destiny", and continues into the motorcycle part of the song.

    Music and lyrics

    The song opens with an instrumental section lasting nearly two minutes, predominantly featuring piano and guitar. The lyrics begin to set the scene of evil, guns, knives and "blood shot streets."

    The song then focuses upon a "pure" girl, which "Sounds" magazine commented is "always an important symbol".cite news |first=Sandy|last=Robertson |title=Heavy Metal With A Heart |work=Sounds magazine |url=http://www.jimsteinman.com/hmwh.htm |date=1978 |accessdate=2006-11-17]

    :"Oh baby you're the only thing in this whole world":"That's pure and good and right":"And wherever you are and wherever you go":"There's always gonna be some light"

    Steinman says that Rundgren vetoed two of his ideas. The first idea involved this section (the second concerns a later part of the song).

    In the soft section, I wanted to have a boy’s choir... Todd wanted to do it with the existing vocal backup section and then speed up the tape and use other technical tricks to get the boy’s choir sound. I said that we needed a real boy’s choir but he insisted. But it didn’t work out so we weren’t able to use it. You see, I’d heard this symphony by Mahler and I really wanted a boy’s choir. There’s nothing more beautiful than the sound of 20 boy sopranos singing.cite news |first=Ritchie |last=Yorke |title=The Julia Child Of Rock 'N Roll |work=Sounds magazine |url=http://jimsteinman.com/juliachild.htm |date= June 1978 |accessdate=2008-01-23]

    Motorcycle

    Steinman insisted that the song should contain the sound of a motorcycle, and complained to producer Todd Rundgren at the final overdub session about its absence. Rather than use a recording of a real motorcycle, Rundgren himself played the section on guitar, leading straight into the solo without a break. In his autobiography, Meat Loaf relates how everyone in the studio was impressed with his improvisation. Meat Loaf commends Rundgren's overall performance on the track:

    In fifteen minutes he played the lead solo and then played the harmony guitars at the beginning. I guarantee the whole thing didn't take him more than forty-five minutes, and the song itself is ten minutes long. The most astounding thing I have ever seen in my life.cite book |last= Loaf|first= Meat|authorlink= Meat Loaf |coauthors= David Dalton|title= To Hell and Back: An Autobiography |year= 2000 |publisher= Virgin Publishing |location= London|id= ISBN 075350443X |pages= 122]

    Steinman also wanted a choir in this section of the song, but Rundgren vetoed it. Steinman says that he wanted it to sound "just like in the film "", they used a choir sounding like it was singing whole clusters of notes. I wanted to use an entire orchestra, and I wanted to use them viciously."

    Crash

    Rundgren and Meat Loaf were angry with Steinman when he refused to stop writing when the track was already six minutes long. He knew that he had to do the crash.

    The lyrics describe how the biker is riding "faster than any other boy has ever gone." He is so involved that he "never [sees] the sudden curve 'til it's way too late." Drums and a roaring guitar indicate the crash.

    The cyclist lies fatally injured, "torn and twisted at the foot of a burning bike." He can see his "heart still beating", which is also represented musically through bass guitar, a section devised by Kasim Sulton.cite video | people=Meat Loaf (commentary) | year=2004 | title= [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437327/ Meat Loaf Live with the Melbourne Symphone Orchestra] | medium=DVD | location=Melbourne | publisher=Warner Music Vision] Steinman says "I don't think there's ever been a more violent crash... the guy basically has his body opened up and his heart explodes like a bat out of hell."

    The song ends with the line "bat out of hell" three times, each ending on a high C.

    Video

    The video intersperses shots of a motorcyclist riding through a graveyard, lit by a full moon, with shots of Meat Loaf and backing singers at microphones.

    ingle release

    Although the album was a huge hit, the single release performed relatively poorly. It reached 15 in the UK in 1979,cite news |title=Meat Loaf's epic to be honoured |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7642139.stm |date=2008-09-29 |accessdate=2008-10-04] and was reissued in December 1993 following the huge chart success of "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" in 1993. This time it reached number 8 making Meat Loaf the first artist in many years to have two singles in the UK Top Ten at the same time - a feat not repeated until 2002.

    Critical reaction

    "Sounds" magazine described it as "heavy metal thunder with Bruce Springsteen overtones (it's L-O-U-D, but this fellow sang with Ted Nugent...), a lyrical, white-noise tale of screaming sirens, silver black phantom bikes, the Ultimate Girl and her purity (always an important symbol), ending in the final death crash when his heart tears out of his chest and flies away."

    The song was honored at the Q Awards 2008 with the "Classic Song" award. Paul Rees, "Q"’s editor in chief, said: "There are some songs that transcend such things as time and genre, and "Bat Out Of Hell" is assuredly one of them. It sounded extraordinary when it was first released, and it appears no less so now -- like something beamed in from another planet. Extraordinary, and magnificent too, thanks in large part to one of the great vocal performances on record." [cite news |first=Anthony |last=Barnes |title=Meat Loaf to win 2008 Q award |url=http://www2.qawards.co.uk/2008/2008/09/meat_loaf_to_win_2008_q_award.html |date=2008-09-29 |accessdate=2008-10-04]

    This song placed third of "Top Gear"'s Top 5 Ultimate Driving Songs, as voted by the audience of the show. It was ranked below Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" and Golden Earring's "Radar Love".

    Personnel

    *Guitars, Keyboards, Percussion, Motorcycle Guitar, Background Vocals: Todd Rundgren
    *Piano, Keyboards: Roy Bittan
    *Keyboards, Percussion: Jim Steinman
    *Bass, Background Vocals: Kasim Sulton
    *Synthesizer: Roger Powell
    *Drums: Max Weinberg
    *Additional Background Vocals: Rory Dodd, Ellen Foley

    References