‘The sirens are screaming and the fires are howling

Way down in the valley tonight . . . ‘

Could it be that the unmistakable melodic prose of Jim Steinman mixed with the bombastic style of one Marvin Lee Aday – better known to us all as ‘Meatloaf’ – afforded the world one of the greatest rock albums (commercially at least) that we’re ever likely to see?

Bat Out Of Hell (released in 1977) surely resides in either the mind or collection of every music lover – regardless of genre.

Still selling an estimated 200,000 copies each year, we know there’s at least 40 million fans out there who have willingly parted with their ‘hard-earned’ just so they can recount the delights of what Rolling Stone rated in its Top 500 Albums of all Time.

In fact it’s only one of two albums that have never actually exited the top 200 in the UK charts.

Facts aside – the album cover alone is a frame-able piece of pop art –
while culturally it is probably best remembered for the rock operetta “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.”

Without doubt the most thesponian and spectacularly dynamic piece on the album, it features wailing vocals extravagances and what reviewer Steve Gdula penned as being a “testosterone-crazed tenor in an incremental game of sexual bargaining with the resistant, but willing, Ellen Foley.

“By employing exaggerated power chords, screaming vocals, over-the-top arrangements, and a sense of rock & roll as Broadway theater, Bat made Meat Loaf a star. “

One thing is certain – Bat Out Of Hell provided an Everest for both Steinman and ‘Meat’ – a summit that they’ve never quite managed to reach since.

Collectively though – we – their musical Sherpa’s will continue to delight in the achievement.

I think somebody somewhere must be tolling a bell . . .

Click here to listen to Bat Out of Hell

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