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Officially unreleased music by Jim Steinman
Jim Steinman The Dream Engine
(A Rock and Roll Fantasy) 1969 Book by Jim Steinman, Lyrics by Jim Steinman, Music by Jim Steinman, featuring Jim Steinman as Baal.
Most of the music remains unreleased though some themes ended up in such songs as Total Eclipse of the Heart, Happy Ending, The Storm and Bad for Good. Some spoken parts have been released too. The biggest and most epic song is Hymn to Fire. Who Needs the Young is another favorite of mine. It’s a like a 30’s German cabaret song in the tradition of Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht but with very twisted lyrics. It was going to be on Bat Out of Hell but unfortunately it was never released.
The Dream Engine was like no musical before or after it. It’s not really a story but more a ritualistic oratorio or mystery play. When I was 12, I wrote a dramatic cantata about the Egyprian god Osiris which was a bit like the Dream Engine. In 1997 I was in a futuristic version of Hair which also was a bit like that. That’s of course interesting because made in 1969, the Dream Engine was some kind of response to Hair. While Hair was hippie musical from the Summer of Love, the Dream Engine was clearly influenced by the darkest bands of the era, The Doors and The Velvet Underground, as well as some early progressive rock bands. Unlike Jim’s later work, The Dream Engine isn’t very romantic or emotional. |
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Jim Steinman and Michael Weller More than You Deserve
(a musical) 1974 Music by Jim Steinman, lyrics by Michael Weller/Jim Steinman, Book by Michael Weller.
This satirical Vietnam comedy was Steinman’s first musical which was performed as a major production. Some of the actors (Fred Gwynne, Marybeth Hurt, Graham Jarvis) were or would be quite well known. And then there was Meat Loaf singing Steinman’s music for the first time. He didn’t have the biggest part or many songs to sing but he was the real star of the show. He recorded a single of the song More than You Deserve, and later a new version of it was on his album Dead Ringer. This show was also the start of the collaboration between Steinman and the talented arranger/pianist Steve Margoshes. Only one of the songs (More than You Deserve) has been released though Jim has used some of the musical themes in his other songs. A lot of the music probably was a bit too light to be released on a Steinman album |
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Jim Steinman Neverland
(A Rock Odyssey) 1977 Book, music and lyrics by Jim Steinman.
Most songs from this musical can be found from different albums in some form or another. Three songs, All Revved Up with No Place to Go, Bat Out of Hell and Heaven Can Wait, were released soon afterwards on Meat Loaf’s album Bat Out of Hell.. Dance in My Pants was on Steinman’s album Bad for Good and some musical themes were in Tanz der Vampire. Who Needs the Young and The Annihilation were originally from The Dream Engine and Come with Me (Midnight Serenade) was from More Than You Deserve.
Eight years had passed since The Dream Engine. Neverland was basically a new version of it but it was a more conventional story and less ritualistic, and most of the music was new. There were already some elements from Peter Pan in The Dream Engine but Neverland actually is a futurized and urban version of Peter Pan.Steinman has written several new version of Neverland, and a lot (maybe even all) of his songs tie in its theme (most clearly Lost Boys and Golden Girls and It’s All Coming Back to Me Now). However no version of Neverland has been performed after 1977. For more than 20 years Steinman has had plans for stage productions and film versions so maybe some day it will be performed or filmed. After all Pete Townshed finished writing Lifehouse almost 30 years after he started it.
Paul Jacobs, the musical director of Neverland later co-produced and co-wrote Meat Loaf’s album Bad Attitude and played in Meat’s touring band. Barry Keating who directed both Neverland and The Dream Engine is going to work with Jim in the American production of Tanz der Vampire. |
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Jim Steinman and Ray Earl Fox The Confidence Man
(a musical) 1987 Based on the novel by Herman Melville. Music by Jim Steinman, book and lyrics by Ray Earl Fox.
The musical was performed only once in 1986. The music is more lighthearted than Steinman’s music usually, and there’s a lot of ragtime and bluegrass influence. This isn’t a bad thing at all, Steinman writes very good music like that too. Two of the songs have been later released with different lyrics: New Orleans Is Coming to Me became The Future Ain’t What It Used to Be, and Milady became Für Sarah. There are also many other songs that are worth recording, at least Pain Humbles, Edging into Darkness, and my favorite Confidence. One of the songs, Give Us This Day Our Daily Flesh (which actually is very good) isn’t composed by Steinman but Bobby Blume. |
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Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman Whistle Down the Wind
(the American version of the musical) 1996 Whistle Down the Wind was performed for some time in 1996 in Washington DC. It didn’t do very well. The reason probably was that no songs from it were released on cd yet. Steinman and Lloyd Webber said they rewrote it completely for the English version. I haven’t seen the American version, only heard a tape, and I didn’t hear that many differences.
The cast is excellent though it’s hard to say which cast was better. Irene Molloy and Lottie Mayor both have beautiful voices, probably they will be big stars. Davis Gaines is much better than Marcus Lovett. And unlike the Brits, the Americans sound natural when they speak American English. |
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Meat Loaf Live at Nassau Coliseum 1978 This show was played only shortly before Loaf lost his voice and Steinman stopped working with him, and for many fans it’s the ultimate Meat Loaf show. Steinman plays the piano and does Love and Death and an American Guitar, Nocturnal Pleasure and More than You Deserve, and tells funnys stories. |
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Meat Loaf Live in Vienna 1988 A lot of Steinman songs that Meat hadn’t recorded at the time: Out of the Frying Pan and Lost Boys and Golden Girls which would appear on Bat II, and Bad for Good and Dance in My Pants (this version rocks!) which still haven’t been released as Loaf versions. The guys from the band sing two previously unreleased songs: the still unreleased Come in the Night (some musical themes of Neverland and The Dream Engine) and Original Sin which would be released the next year by Pandora’s Box. Meat speaks a lot, his speeches are quite funny and often have something to do with Steinman’s Neverland musical. |
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Jim Steinman and Andrew Lloyd Webber Whistle Down the Wind - The Demos
(c. 1995-1998) Vaults of Heaven: A demo sung by Scarpia and some other people. Sounds good but lacks some of the power of Tom Jones’s version
Overture: First some narration by Martin Sheen. Then the overture of the show which is a very good instrumental version of the title track. Doesn’t differ much from the cast album version. This, the Finale and The Nature of the Beast were recorded at Andrew Lloyd Webber’s private birthday bash.
Whistle Down the Wind: A very good version sung by some girl (Irene Molloy?) with piano.
Cold: Sung by Scarpia who is always a great singer. Much better than the Everly Brothers version but not as amazing as the cast album version.
If Only: Short and pretty. Sung by some girl. I don’t know who the singer is but my guess is that she’s Irene Molloy.
No Matter What: A rather dull version with female vocal. The singer has a pretty good voice but somehow I just don’t like this.
A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste: Sung by the great Scarpia. This song was played on the radio in 1996 in an interview of Jim Steinman and Andrew Lloyd Webber. The backing track is mostly the same as in Meat Loaf’s version. Scarpia sings also Bonnie Tyler’s part. He probably has a better voice than Meat Loaf but I’m not sure of which version I prefer.
When Children Rule the World: The Red Hill Children version which was released as a single. Probably the best version of the song.
Finale (A Kiss..., When Children..., Nature of the Beast, Whistle Down the Wind): With narration by Martin Sheen and Dialogue by some actors.
Try Not to Be Afraid: A short instrumental version.
The Nature of the Beast: Very good though it can’t beat Michael Ball’s version (Unsettled Scores). Unfortunately on this song the quality of sound is quite bad. “Fading one by one” sounds much better than “loaded in this gun”. I don’t know who the singer is, maybe Davis Gaines. |
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Some more unreleased songs: Rory Dodd with Jim Steinman: A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste
It’s from 1985 and doesn’t have much to do with the Whistle Down the Wind song with the same title. It’s a demo with strings, piano and a drum machine. It couldn’t have been released like this but with more work it could have turned into a very good song. There are also other demos of this song, sung by Gina Taylor and the Everly Brothers, but I haven’t heard them. Scarpia (aka Kyle Gordon): Seize the Night
An English version of the song Carpe Noctem from Tanz der Vampire. Jim has written better lyrics than this but musically it is one of Jim’s best songs. Unlike in the German version, the lead vocals are sung by one person only. Scarpia’s voice sounds great.. The backing track is a remix of the German version with some changes. I prefer the more mellow ending of the German version.
Scarpia’s real name is Kyle Gordon. He’s been a background singer in some records by different people, and sung lead vocals on several Steinman demos. He has taken the name Scarpia from Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca (1900). In it Scarpia is a villanous chief of police. In the early 90’s there was an excellent tv version of Tosca with the really wonderful singer and actor Ruggero Raimondi as Scarpia and Placido Domingo as Cavaradossi. But that hasn’t much to do with Steinman. Except that if Jim wants to work with an opera singer some day, Raimondi would be a perfect choice. |
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