Discography

PLASTIC MEAT AND HOW MANY WAYS CAN YOU SAY BAT (or 79% disc, 21% tape): 650,000 UK and rising …

Though it seemed for a time that Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman would be doomed forever to be known for Bat Out of Hell and naught else, there are other records involving their baroque talents, even apart from their own more recent Epic/Cleveland discs. This discography is as complete as we here at the advanced chemistry centre could get with the help of Jim Steinman.

Trivia:

YVONNE ELLIMAN, The Food of Love (MCA). One song, ‘Happy Ending’, by Jim.

An album, still unreleased after years in progress, of various Los Angeles maniacs like Phil Spector and Rodney Bingenheimer on Harvey Kubernik’s projected Freeway Records, contains a Steinman declaimed poem title ‘Shadows on the Freeway’ The double LP, L.A. Radio, exists in test pressing form. (1979)

There are no known recordings by early Steinman groups such as The Clitoris That Thought It Was a Puppy (!)*, likewise no completed soundtracks, though Jim almost ended up composing symphonic music for Steven Spielberg’s movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. * “My Disney title”—JS.

Meat Loaf handles a bunch of vocals on Ted Nugent’s Free for All (Epic), issued 1976.

Early Meat:

The album Featuring Stoney & Meat Loaf (Prodigal), released in 1978, is a reissue of the album Meat Mad for Tamla around 1970. USA & UK sleeves differ totally.

A single on RSO from aeons ago, never widely publicised: Meat Loaf, ‘More Than You Deserve/Presence of The Lord’ (RSO). The Steinman tune which resurfaced on Dead Ringer b/w the Blind Faith song! Jim: “It was a piece of shit — they wouldn’t even let me in the studio.” He describes the flip as “One of the most bizarre things I’ve ever heard.”
“a religious tuba”—JS.

Bat and beyond:

Bat Out of Hell came out here Jan. ‘78. All tracks were subsequently issued as 45s. ‘You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth/For Crying Out Loud’ (Epic), March ‘78. ‘2 Out of 3 Ain’t Bad/For Crying Out Loud’, July, ‘All Revved Up With No Place To Go/Paradise By the Dashboard Light’, October, and January ‘79 saw a 12″ version of ‘Bat’ b/w ‘Heaven Can Wait’. (red vinyl).

The Bat LP is also available as a pic disc, and in 1980 it was put out as a half-speed mastered high-tech LP too.

There are 2 LIVE Meat Loaf albums, issued as promos only:
Live at El Mocambo
Live at My father’s Place

Then there’s Bad for Good and the 45 from it ‘Rock’a Roll Dreams Come Through/Love & Death & an American Guitar’, and the Meat Loaf followup Dead Ringer LP.

Sidekick girls Ellen Foley and Karla De Vito have delved into the the solo world. At the time of writing Karla’s LP has not been issued, but one song set for inclusion is ‘Heaven Can Wait’. Ellen has made 2 discs, Nightout and Spirit of St. Louis.

Films

Meat appears in:
Rocky Horror Picture Show (as leather boy Eddie)
Americathon (wresting a car!)
Roadie (with Blondie, et all)
and will play ‘Tink’ in Steinman’s Neverland (if it gets made!).

Plays

Jim Steinman has written:
Dream Engine,
More Than You Deserve,
Neverland,
Kid Champion (starring Christopher Walken, Jim did music only, play loosely based on Jim Morrison). Oh, to hear Steinman’s group Things That Go Bump in the Night doing “heavy rock versions of Phil Ochs protest songs” …

Things to do when you’ve worn out you Meat Loaf records …

Supplementary listening. Impress your girlfriend.

JIM MORRISON & THE DOORS: An American Prayer (Electra) Speeches from the tomb, in Steinman mode. And funny!
BERNARD HERRMANN: The Composer Conducts (Phase 4) Quick tour of bent psyche.
BERNARD HERRMANN: Sisters (Entracte) Late, sombre, Left in the Dark: forever.
TODD RUNDGREN: A Wizard, A True Star (Bearsville) Todd sings Peter Pan. Really.
RICHARD WAGNER: Excalibur (Island) Scoring for images (in reverse).
IGOR STRAVINSKY: Le Sacre du Printemps (CBS) The original Ig speaks, explains!

Also check out anything by Phil Ochs, The Grassroots and Glenn Gould, to get a wizard cross-section of Steinman’s past, obsessions and total eccentric relevancy.

Heavy reading

J.M. BARRIE: Peter Pan (Puffin) A paederast’s guide to eternity.
JERRY HOPKINS: No One Here Gets Out Alive (Warner) A poet’s guide to bathtubs.
RICHARD CORBEN: Neverwhere (Ariel) Big tits, big concepts.
WILLIAM GAUNT: The Pre-Raphaelite Tragedy (Cardinal) Romance, detail, death.
SILVERMAN & SIMON: The Pill Book (Bantam) All drugged up and cake paste to go.
ERNEST NEWMAN: Wagner Nights (Picador) Excess; who started it?
COLIN WILSON: The New Existentialism (Wildwood) Reissue; phenomenology a-go-go.
CHAPPLE & GAROFALO: Rock ‘n’ Roll is Here To Pay (Nelson Hall)* Without ever mentioning him, explains why the success of an act as original as Meat Loaf is so unlikely.

* The History & Politics of the Music Industry.