Deceased April 19, 2021
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In Memory
Returning to Amherst for a 2013 honorary degree, Jim Steinman was in post-stroke recovery, shielded with sunglasses and black leather. He regaled students about his college days, when he test-launched his creative dimensions as composer, lyricist, producer, arranger, performer and dramatist.
Jim’s public persona emerged in Amherst fraternities, where he played keyboards and extemporized provocative, comedic lyrics with such bands as Things that Go Bump in the Night, Sundance and Leaves of Grass.
Jim’s musical theater career began with The Fantasticks in Stone basement, starring Ken Howard ’66 and Larry Dilg ’69. Jim played wooden chair percussion. Soon he integrated his music into underground plays directed by Barry Keating ’69, then Bertolt Brecht’s A Man’s A Man in Kirby Theater. In 1969, Jim seized Kirby, writing and composing The Dream Engine—a rock opera in which Jim starred, Barry directed and acted, and Larry and Stephen Collins ’69 appeared.
In 1972–73, Jim wrote a rock version of Wagner’s Das Rheingold and found Meat Loaf to sing his music at The Public Theater. The Kennedy Center later showcased Jim’s Neverland.
In 1977, Jim and Meat Loaf released Bat Out of Hell—one of the best-selling albums ever. Their 1993 sequel, Back into Hell, produced No. 1 hits in 28 countries. Jim’s songs were also recorded by Barbara Streisand, Bonnie Tyler, Celine Dion, Barry Manilow and Jim himself, selling 150 million copies worldwide.
In 1996, Jim wrote Whistle Down the Wind lyrics for Andrew Lloyd Webber and, in 1997, music for Tanz Der Vampire, which ran for 18 years in Germany, where Jim became a cult figure.
A full-blown Steinman rock musical was realized in 2018–19—Jim Steinman’s Bat Out of Hell in London, Toronto and New York.
Reflecting on Jim’s life, we see “rock and roll dreams come through.”
Frederick Baron ’69