Current Events > Is there a musical partnership better than Jim Steinmann and Meat Loaf?

(+) Yeah! (+)

You have famous duos like Hall and Oates, Simon and Garfunkel and even Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Sometimes one or both of them can break out on their own, other times it's a symbiotic relationship where both of the artists are needed to make something incredibly special. Not to devalue their solo work, but there's a magic in a great musical partnership, and without that mutual input, an artist's music can be like watching a movie without the dialogue.

Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf were one of the best musical duos ever, in the vein of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Jim Steinman has this huge, bombastic sound and this overwrought melodramatic style, he's a genius when it comes to big theatrical musical numbers. But I hate to say it, but his voice is pretty weak.

But Meat Loaf matches that energy PERFECTLY. He sings loud and passionately, and he sells the atmosphere with melodrama dripping down his vocal cords. His voice is like a marbled cut of meat, veins of fat rippling through some of the most delicate and pure meat you'll ever have a chance of witnessing. Jim Steinman is the nervous system, the skeleton - but Meat Loaf is the flesh and the heart.

I'm going to use a song that I just found to illustrate my point, because it doesn't have as much baggage as other huge Meat Loaf hits and my point will hopefully come across a little better without that baggage.

This is a song called Left in the Dark, a bitter song about jealousy and infidelity. It's fucked up, the singer is climbing up the walls and demanding where his partner has been, saying that there's no lies on her body so take off your dress - it's toxic as fuck and aged like milk, but it's emotional and big and melodramatic.

This is Jim Steinman's version - it's 8 minutes long, listen through however long you want but I'd recommend trying to get halfway.

https://youtu.be/B6KBkiLr0mg

In my opinion, he's reaching really hard to hit the notes and sell the emotion of the track, but his voice is fragile and it wavers like it's going to break. That isn't bad necessarily, that in itself is a very emotional quality, but it's like the veneer of the song is paper thin and it's about to rip apart.

This is Meat Loaf's version:

https://youtu.be/X5g8PwUHF14

Meat Loaf's vocals make this song. He can sell the overwrought emotional turmoil and jealousy. He can sell the melodrama. I feel like he's gonna break, but that's a compliment to the veneer of the song, which is so much more filled out than in Jim Steinman's version.

It's so depressing because Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf hated each other for a lot of their careers. Bat out of Hell 1 and 2, GOAT albums where they were both on the same page and putting their best work together. But a lot of Meat Loaf's career involves covering Jim Steinman songs without his blessing, like It's All Coming Back To Me Now ("can you touch me like this, can you feel me like that" etc.).

And Meat Loaf needed Jim Steinman too. He was always at his best with Steinman's material behind him. Bat out of Hell 3 is historically a very mixed bag - Meat Loaf had dudes like Justin Hawkins working with him, people who do more theatrical hair/glam metal sort of songs, but it just doesn't fit. Meat Loaf needs an orchestra and a three act play, and his collaborators don't tend to come from that school of songwriting. Jim Steinman is in a class of his own, and Meat Loaf's best work was always with him.

They're both dead now, Steinman in 2021 and Meat Loaf the year after. And it stings knowing they didn't like each other for a lot of their careers. But I think it bears mentioning how great their music was. I'm not saying they're as influential or whatever as Hall and Oates or Simon and Garfunkel, or Elton John and Bernie Taupin. It's like comparing eating a really good cereal to having the best sex of your life. What I am saying is that all of those acts are in a league of their own, and I would submit Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman to another league to which they reigned as kings. Because when they put their skills together, they were at the height of their craft and they were fucking unstoppable.

Absolute power couple, for sure.

John/Taupin Lloyd-Webber/Rice and Lennon/McCartney definitely give them a run for their money overall, but if you're in the mood for something bombastic, dramatic and overblown to get you pumped up it's hard to do better.

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David Bowie / Trent Reznor

https://youtu.be/GfTAQG9raQ4