![]() ![]() ![]() His latest project, Pandora's Box, will do much to establish him in the minds of his critics as the ultimate music business Svengali. Rather like McLaren though, he will neither deny nor confirm this role outright. Steinman, by virtue of the sheer scale of his success, makes Malcolm McLaren look like a three card trickster on the Old Kent Road. We doubt whether a charlatan would pursue his visions, however crass, with such aggression and single-mindedness. In our opinion the former is untrue basically because the latter appears so true. Steinman has been accused, not without some justification, of being a monstrous charlatan and, worse, a cold-blooded manipulator. Portentous piano gives way to Valkyrian choruses and massive powerchords as Steinman employs every possible trick to invent some vast phantasmagoric film-set where the central protagonist (often a Steinman protegee like Meat Loaf) acts out the writer's fantasies. He is, though, probably most noted and critically despised for writing and co-producing Meat Loaf's "Bat Out Of Hell," the biggest selling debut album of all time (17 million and still counting) that has yet, even after 12 years, to leave the British Top 200.Ĭonsidered a reactionary by most and a visionary by some, Steinman's enormous success is arguably due to his unquestionable ability to inflate a simple melody. He also produced the Sisters Of Mercy comeback single, "This Corrosion," and its follow-up, "Dominion," and worked briefly with the abysmal Def Leppard. He's written and produced hits for a veritable Rogue's Gallery of singers - Barry Manilow ("Read 'Em And Weep"), Barbra Streisand ("Left In The Dark"), Air Supply ("Making Love Out Of Nothing At All") and Bonnie Tyler whose "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" was the biggest selling single of 1983 and was further honored with a Grammy nomination. ![]() deMille of rock'n'roll." He describes himself with a characteristic mixture of humor, arrogance and kitsch as "Little Richard Wagner" and has been responsible for some of the most crass but indelible melodies of our time. Jim Steinman, in his 12-year career, has been variously described as "breathtakingly excessive," a "Phil Spector for the Eighties" and the "Cecil B. "When I was seven years old, I had a fortune-teller tell me that my entire life was gonna be driven by a relentless, obsessive and ultimately self-destructive desire to astonish people."Īnd astonish people he has. ![]()
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