Bat out of Hell (song)

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“Bat out of Hell”
Single by Meat Loaf from the album Bat out of Hell
Released	1979
Genre	Wagnerian rock
Length	9:51 (album version) 9:54 (edit)
Label	Epic Records
Writer(s)	Jim Steinman
Producer	Todd Rundgren
Meat Loaf singles chronology
"Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" (1977) "Bat out of Hell" (1979) "Dead Ringer for Love" (1981)
"I'd Do Anything for Love (but I Won't Do That)" (1993)	"Bat out of Hell" (re-release) (1993)	"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.

Contents 1 Inspiration 1.1 Neverland 2 Music and lyrics 2.1 Motorcycle 2.2 Crash 3 Video 4 Critical reaction 5 Single release 6 Personnel 7 References

[edit] 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".^[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] 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.^[5] 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...^[6]

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

[edit] 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".^[7]

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.^[8]

[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.^[9]

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 2001: A Space Odyssey, 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."^[8]

[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 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.^[4] 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."^[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."^[7]

This song placed 3rd 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".^[10]

[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 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.

[edit] Personnel

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

[edit] References