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I’m looking for Steinman related videos in European PAL format, and rare music by Jim Steinman.
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e-mail me if you have something I might be interested in.

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 Steinman and me

In summer 1994 I heard the song Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through by Meat Loaf. I fell in love with that song immediately. I almost bought one of Meat Loaf's albums the same day. That summer I listened a lot to Talking Heads, and soon I forgot Meat Loaf. But every once in a while I heard Meat's songs. My cousin had bought the album Bat Out of Hell II and played it to me. I taped Rock and Roll Dreams from the radio and listened a lot to it. Then I heard that Meat didn't write his songs, they were written by somebody called Jim Steinman. At the time I thought that singers should write their songs themselves, so I lost my interest in Meat Loaf for some time. One day I saw a cassette by a band called Pandora's Box in a supermarket. "Written and produced by Jim Steinman". Isn't that the guy who's written Meat Loaf's songs? The cassette was very cheap so I bought it. When I listened to it, I knew that I had found what I'd been looking for. This guy was My Songwriter. Then I bought both Bat Out of Hell albums and Bad for Good.
   A very important thing happened to my Steinmania in early 1996. I had made an internet homepage and mentioned there that I liked Steinman’s music. Richard Orchard who had a Steinman fan page saw my page and asked if I’d like to join a new Steinman mailing list. On that list I found out lots more about Steinman and his music, and got to know many more Steinman fans. Some of them helped me to find recordings of rare Steinman music. Soon the mailing list grew bigger. There were 20 to 50 messages every day. Unfortunately there was also a lot of arguing between the members of the list. Most of it was between fans and haters of Meat Loaf. I didn’t want to take anyone’s side or dispute about tastes, and I got sick of it all. I left the list but still kept in touch with some people who had been there. In September 1998 I went to London where I saw Whistle Down the Wind, the musical Steinman wrote with Andrew Lloyd Webber. In early 1999 I made this fan page for Steinman
    I certainly wouldn’t know this much about Steinman without the internet. My main source of information would have been some rock encyclopedia at the library but I probably wouldn’t know anything about Neverland, The Dream Engine, The Confidence Man and a lot of other more or less rare stuff. I’m quite certain that without the internet I would have these:
- Pandora’s Box: Original Sin
- Meat Loaf albums
- Bad for Good
- Bonnie Tyler’s albums
- possibly the Sisters of Mercy albums
I’m not completely sure if I had heard Celine Dion’s version of It’s All Coming Back to Me Now because they didn’t play it almost at all on MTV Europe, and I don’t listen to radio very much.
I probably would have read about Air Supply’s Making Love Out of Nothing at All but I don’t think I would have heard the song. So whatever nasty things I may say about the internet, it is very useful in some things.
 

Why Steinman?

What's so special about Steinman? I could simply say that his music is more red than any other music. You may or may not understand what I mean with that (it has nothing to do with politics). I like both opera and rock music, and of course it's nice that some songwriter is influenced by the both of them. His taste of music is a lot like mine, I also like Wagner and The Beach Boys. Steinman seems to be completely independent, he doesn't care what the public or the critics think about him, or if his music is trendy or not. If there's a thing about Steinman that isn't good, it's that he's not very productive. Many songwriters have written ten times as many songs as he. But I do understand why he doesn't write more songs, he doesn't want to release any bad songs. And he actually hasn't released any bad songs which is very uncommon even for the best songwriters.
   I’ve never really heard of anybody else like Steinman. There are a lot of people who are a bit like him but nobody’s as extreme as you are. To have one Steinman, you have to take a bit of Wagner, Little Richard, Brian Wilson, Jim Morrison, Phil Spector, Jacques Brel, Marquis de Sade, Salvador Dali, Federico Fellini and J.M. Barrie.

Steinman and the others

Do my other favorite artists have something in common with Steinman?
   Since 1991 my favorite band has been The Beach Boys which happens to be one of Jim's favorites too. The things they have in common with him are the melodic songs, beautiful vocal harmonies and lush arrangements. People have called both Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and Jim Steinman "mad geniuses". But I think they mean different things with this. When they call Jim mad, they probably mean that he's a bit eccentric. I don't think Jim has ever been mentally ill, unlike Brian. (Actually some time ago I heard that Jim too was once diagnosed schizophrenic...) 
A connecting person between Steinman and The Beach Boys: Barry Manilow has recorded one song by Steinman (Read ‘Em and Weep) and one by the Beach Boy Bruce Johnston (I Write the Songs).
A recommended Beach Boys album for a Steinman fan: Surf’s Up, not only because of the title. It was just re-released with another masterpiece Sunflower.

   The music by French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg (1928-1991) doesn't sound like Steinman but he has some things in common with him. Both of them are Jewish boys who never grew up. They have written more songs for other singers than themselves. They were influenced by classical and pop music. The most important similarity is that they both like to astonish and offend people.
See my new Gainsbourg page:
Lunatic Asylum
Connecting people between Steinman and Gainsbourg: Curtis King Jr (background vocals) and Larry Fast (synthesizer) have been on albums by both of them.
A recommended Gainsbourg album for a Jim Steinman fan: Histoire de Melody Nelson, an epic-psychedelic-symphonic rock album.

   Queen sounds a bit like Steinman. They have a lot of operatic influences too, Freddie Mercury even recorded an excellent album with the opera singer Montserrat Caballe. Their background vocal arrangements (especially the high parts that are sung by the drummer Roger Taylor) are a lot like Steinman's. I think Roger Taylor should sing some Steinman songs, he has a perfect voice for that. Steinman said that he likes Queen, and Original Sin was a tribute to them.
A connecting person between Steinman and Queen: Brian May, the guitarist of Queen, played on the Billy Squier album that Steinman produced.
A recommended Queen album for a Jim Steinman fan: The highly progressive Queen II or the bombastic Innuendo.

   Another classically influenced band, Electric Light Orchestra has the same kind of vocal harmonies and is a lot like Queen. Steinman’s said he likes ELO.
A connecting person between Steinman and ELO: Eric Troyer who sings on many Steinman albums is the lead singer of ELO part 2, and Steinman almost produced their album.
A recommended ELO album for a Jim Steinman fan: A New World Record.

   Pet Shop Boys have the same kind of orchestral synthesizers on their albums Behaviour and Very as Jim does on the albums Original Sin and Bat II. And I’m sure Jim often feels like taking all his clothes off and dancing to the Rite of Spring.
A connecting person between Steinman and Pet Shop Boys: Boy George who recorded Crying Game with Pet Shop Boys and Try Not to Be Afraid with Steinman
A recommended Pet Shop Boys album for a Jim Steinman fan: Behaviour which is their most melancholy and grandiose album.

All text and images © Robert Storm except where otherwise noted. (Pandora in the buttons painted by John William Waterhouse). Ask my permission if you want to use something.

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