Bat out of Hell (song)

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"Bat out of Hell"
No cover available
Single by Meat Loaf
from the album Bat out of Hell
Released 1979
Genre Wagnerian rock
Length
  • 9:52(album version)
    • 4:54(edit)
Label Epic Records
Writer(s) Jim Steinman
Producer(s) Todd Rundgren
Chart positions
  • #15 (UK)
  • #8 (UK 1993 reissue)

"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.

Contents

[edit] Inspiration

Inspired by 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".[1]

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.[1]

"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."[2] 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."[3]

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."[4]

[edit] Music and lyrics

Audio sample:

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 girl:

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

Sounds magazine commented that the "pure" girl is "always an important symbol".[5]

This leads into the chorus.

[edit] 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.[1] 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.[6]

[edit] 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.[1]

The lyrics describe how the cyclist is riding "faster than any 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.[4] According to Steinman:

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.[1]

The song ends with the line "bat out of hell" three times, each ending on a high C.[1]

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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."[5]

[edit] Single release

Although the album was a huge hit, the single release performed relatively poorly. It reached 15 in the UK in 1979: the first two singles from the album had only reached the high thirties. It was reissued in December 1993 following the huge 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.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Jim Steinman. (1999). Classic Albums: Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell [DVD]. Image Entertainment.
  2. ^ The Power Of Rock 'n Roll. Gallery magazine (May, 1978). Retrieved on November 17, 2006.
  3. ^ Sold on Song Top 100: Bat Out Of Hell. BBC Radio 2. Retrieved on November 17, 2006.
  4. ^ a b Meat Loaf (commentary). (2004). Meat Loaf Live with the Melbourne Symphone Orchestra [DVD]. Melbourne: Warner Music Vision.
  5. ^ a b Robertson, Sandy. "Heavy Metal With A Heart", Sounds magazine, 1978. Retrieved on November 17, 2006.
  6. ^ Loaf, Meat; David Dalton (2000). To Hell and Back: An Autobiography. London: Virgin Publishing, 122. ISBN 075350443X. 
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