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rockfenris2005 · 03 Jan 2024, 01:36

Here's my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong:

Meat thought "Couldn't Have Said It Better" was going to be the last album, and the tour was literally called "The Last World Tour", but according to the media of the time Jim rang him up and said they still had to make "Bat out of Hell III". This was after "Dance of the Vampires" had flopped on Broadway, and "Garbo" shuttered in Sweden after about three months, and "Batman: The Musical" was cancelled. It's my guess (not my guess actually, I got it from someone else but it makes sense) that Jim got scared and wanted to make "Bat III". This time, it was sort of the reverse of "Bat II" where I think Meat needed Jim more than Jim needed Meat, despite "Pandora's Box".

I have an article from around this time where Meat said Jim had left David Sonenberg (his manager) after 25 years, and they were going to make the album together, and there was as much as 8 songs ready already. (Does anyone remember Fireball saying that Jim had written an even longer song than "Anything for Love" which was going to be fifteen minutes? My guess is that was "Braver Than We Are" aka "Going all the Way".)

You only have to look at the "Bat III" thread with Fireball, to get an idea of what happened next. Fireball said that they worked on a contract that would have made Jim the highest paid record producer in history, and they'd been putting together the deal for a year. At some point, before this, I can remember reading that Peter Mokran who produced "CHSIB" was going to handle the vocals this time, whereas Jim would produce the rest of it.

For whatever reason, the contract for Jim to produce "Bat III" came back unsigned, and that was basically where the whole thing went to hell, as it were. Then Michael Beinhorn was announced to produce it, after Meat began singing "Only When I Feel" on tour (that was a really exciting time), and everyone just assumed it was going to be all Jim. After Desmond was announced, it seems like a few months later there are going to be non-Jim songs. I never understood how that entered the equation. Meat himself said "I'm the singer, Jim Steinman's the writer, and it's got fantasy art on the front cover." If they wanted, could they not have just chosen about 2 or 3 more Jim songs, and extended the rest?

I mean, "All Coming Back" is missing two verses! "Bad for Good" doesn't have the "God speed" bits. Live in the 80s, that song got up to 15 minutes long. Could they have made it an all-Jim album? And if they could have, why didn't they? I have ideas, but I don't know for 100% certain.

03 Jan 2024, 01:36	#17
rockfenris2005 Mega Loafer Join Date: 16.02.2003 Location: Posts: 2,217	Here's my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong: Meat thought "Couldn't Have Said It Better" was going to be the last album, and the tour was literally called "The Last World Tour", but according to the media of the time Jim rang him up and said they still had to make "Bat out of Hell III". This was after "Dance of the Vampires" had flopped on Broadway, and "Garbo" shuttered in Sweden after about three months, and "Batman: The Musical" was cancelled. It's my guess (not my guess actually, I got it from someone else but it makes sense) that Jim got scared and wanted to make "Bat III". This time, it was sort of the reverse of "Bat II" where I think Meat needed Jim more than Jim needed Meat, despite "Pandora's Box". I have an article from around this time where Meat said Jim had left David Sonenberg (his manager) after 25 years, and they were going to make the album together, and there was as much as 8 songs ready already. (Does anyone remember Fireball saying that Jim had written an even longer song than "Anything for Love" which was going to be fifteen minutes? My guess is that was "Braver Than We Are" aka "Going all the Way".) You only have to look at the "Bat III" thread with Fireball, to get an idea of what happened next. Fireball said that they worked on a contract that would have made Jim the highest paid record producer in history, and they'd been putting together the deal for a year. At some point, before this, I can remember reading that Peter Mokran who produced "CHSIB" was going to handle the vocals this time, whereas Jim would produce the rest of it. For whatever reason, the contract for Jim to produce "Bat III" came back unsigned, and that was basically where the whole thing went to hell, as it were. Then Michael Beinhorn was announced to produce it, after Meat began singing "Only When I Feel" on tour (that was a really exciting time), and everyone just assumed it was going to be all Jim. After Desmond was announced, it seems like a few months later there are going to be non-Jim songs. I never understood how that entered the equation. Meat himself said "I'm the singer, Jim Steinman's the writer, and it's got fantasy art on the front cover." If they wanted, could they not have just chosen about 2 or 3 more Jim songs, and extended the rest? I mean, "All Coming Back" is missing two verses! "Bad for Good" doesn't have the "God speed" bits. Live in the 80s, that song got up to 15 minutes long. Could they have made it an all-Jim album? And if they could have, why didn't they? I have ideas, but I don't know for 100% certain.