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

 Each song rated from 1-10 (only songs written by Steinman). These are just my opinions. Feel free to disagree.
 

Jim Steinman

Bad for Good

Steinman's only solo album. He doesn't have as strong voice as Meat Loaf but I really like the way he sings, especially when he sounds like an angry or overdramatic little boy. Rory Dodd sings some lead vocals. Out of the Frying Pan is in my opinion the most energetic song ever written, and Stark Raving Love is the song I usually play when I want somebody to hear what kind of music Steinman writes. The guitar solo (by Davey Johnstone) is amazing. Surf's Up is probably meant to be a tribute to The Beach Boys (Surf’s Up is also the title of one of their best songs and albums). I wish The Beach Boys had recorded it. Unfortunately Carl Wilson, who would have been the perfect lead singer, is now dead.

I’ve been dreaming up a storm lately!
And the entire city is burning
Look! You can see the colours dancing around the flames like the inside of a mad jukebox.
Horny angels stalk the streets looking for a little damnation and wearing nothing but a red badge of love.

Pandora's Box

Original Sin

Possibly Jim’s greatest album and the greatest album ever made. On almost every song Jim goes to an extreme: There’s the most bombastic rock song ever written (Original Sin), perhaps the best vocal performance on a Steinman record (Holly Sherwood on Good Girls), Jim’s best spoken thing (I’ve Been Dreaming...), Jim’s best love ballad (It’s All Coming...), Jim’s saddest song (It Just Won’t Quit) and Jim’s best instrumental composition (Pray Lewd). There are some things I’m not that crazy about though: 1) The two cover songs (by The Doors and Burt Bacharach/Hal David) are good but not as good as the other songs, the arrangements in them sound a bit plastic. 2) The spoken monologue Want Ad is a lot of fun but not something I would listen to a million times - completely unlike the other monologue I've Been Dreaming Up a Storm Lately. 3) The a cappella ending of The Future Ain't What It Used to Be sounds a bit too much like plastic fake gospel. But the rest is magnificent. The album features some of Jim's best songs ever and the singers are absolutely great.

Marquis de Sade painted by Man Ray

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.