‘Bat Out of Hell’ is a song written by Jim Steinman for the 1977 album Bat Out of Hell and performed by Meat Loaf. In Australia, the song was picked as the second single from the album in May 1978, accompanied by a music video. In January 1979, the song was released as a single in the UK and other European countries, and re-released in 1993.
Like most songs on the album, the song was written about Peter Pan and the Neverland story. Steinman had intended for the song to appear on "a rock 'n roll sci-fi version of Peter Pan". The song was also inspired by teenage tragedy songs such as ‘Leader of the Pack’, ‘Terry’ and ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’, the latter being the first single Jim Steinman had ever bought. Steinman wanted to write the "most extreme crash song of all time": Steinman said, “There is something so thrilling to me about that operatic narrative that involves a cataclysmic event, especially one so perfectly in-tune with a teenager's world, and rock and roll, as a car or motorcycle crash.”
The motorcycle sound in the middle of the song is producer Todd Rundgren on electric guitar. Todd hated the idea at first, but Steinman begged him until he tried it, pulling it off, along with the subsequent solo, in one take. Jim Steinman wrote this song for his stage production Neverland, which he had been developing since 1975. The play debuted at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, on April 26, 1977. The Bat Out Of Hell album was released on October 21, 1977 and contained two other tracks from Neverland as well: ‘Heaven Can Wait’ and ‘All Revved Up with No Place to Go.’
Despite being released more than a year after the album became available, the single reached number 15 in the UK in 1979, becoming his first top 20 UK hit and the highest-charting song off the Bat Out of Hell album and was reissued in December 1993 following the huge chart success of ‘I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)’ in 1993. This time it reached number 8 giving Meat Loaf two singles in the UK Top Ten at the same time - a feat not repeated by any artist until 2002. A live version of the song, from the album Live at Wembley, was released as a single on 26 October 1987 but failed to chart in the UK. The Bat Out of Hell album spent 474 weeks on the UK albums chart and became one of the top five all-time best-selling albums there.
The song was honored at the Q Awards 2008 with the "Classic Song" award. Paul Rees, Q's editor in chief, said: "There are some songs that transcend such things as time and genre, and "Bat Out Of Hell" is assuredly one of them. It sounded extraordinary when it was first released, and it appears no less so now—like something beamed in from another planet. Extraordinary, and magnificent too, thanks in large part to one of the great vocal performances on record." This song placed third of Top Gear's Top 5 Ultimate Driving Songs, as voted by the audience of the show. It was ranked below Queen's ‘Don't Stop Me Now’ and Golden Earring's ‘Radar Love’.
Label – Epic
Songwriter – Jim Steinman
Producer – Todd Rundgren
SONG LYRICS
[Instrumental Intro 00:00-01:55][Verse 1]
The sirens are screaming and the fires are howling
Way down in the valley tonight
There's a man in the shadows with a gun in his eye
And a blade shining oh so bright
There's evil in the air and there's thunder in sky
And a killer's on the bloodshot streets
Oh, and down in the tunnel where the deadly are rising
Oh, I swear I saw a young boy down in the gutter
He was starting to foam in the heat
[Pre-Chorus]
Oh, baby you're the only thing in this whole world
That's pure and good and right
And wherever you are and wherever you go
There's always gonna be some light
But I gotta get out, I gotta break it out now
Before the final crack of dawn
So we gotta make the most of our one night together
When it's over, you know we'll both be so alone
[Chorus]
Like a bat out of hell
I'll be gone when the morning comes
Oh, when the night is over
Like a bat out of hell
I'll be gone gone gone
Like a bat out of hell
I'll be gone when the morning comes
But when the day is done and the sun goes down
And the moonlight's shining through
Then like a sinner before the gates of Heaven
I'll come crawling on back to you
[Verse 2]
I'm gonna hit the highway like a battering ram
On a silver black phantom bike
When the metal is hot and the engine is hungry
And we're all about to see the light
Nothing ever grows in this rotting old hole
Everything is stunted and lost
And nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls
And nothing's ever worth the cost
And I know that I'm damned if I never get out
And maybe I'm damned if I do
But with every other beat I've got left in my heart
You know I'd rather be damned with you
If I gotta be damned, you know I wanna be damned
Dancing through the night with you
Well If I gotta be damned you know I wanna be damned (gotta be damned you know I wanna be damned)
Gotta be damned you know I wanna be damned (gotta be damned you know I wanna be damned)
Gotta be damned you know I wanna be damned (gotta be damned you know I wanna be damned)
Dancing through the night (dancing through the night)
Dancing through the night (dancing through the night)
Dancing through the night with you (dancing through the night)
[Pre-Chorus]
Oh, baby you're the only thing in this whole world
That's pure and good and right
And wherever you are and wherever you go
There's always gonna be some light
But I gotta get out, I gotta break it out now
Before the final crack of dawn
So we gotta make the most of our one night together
When it's over, you know we'll both be so alone
[Chorus]
Like a bat out of hell
I'll be gone when the morning comes
When the night is over
Like a bat out of hell
I'll be gone, gone, gone
Like a bat out of hell
I'll be gone when the morning comes
But when the day is done and the sun goes down
And the moonlight's shining through (Oo-oo-ooh)
Then like a sinner before the gates of Heaven
I'll come crawling on back to you
Then like a sinner before the gates of Heaven
I'll come crawling on back to you
[Guitar Solo]
[Bridge]
Oh, I can see myself tearing up the road
Faster than any other boy has ever gone
And my skin is raw, but my soul is ripe
And no one's gonna stop me now
I'm gonna make my escape
But I can't stop thinking of you
And I never see the sudden curve 'til it's way too late
And I never see the sudden curve 'til it's way too late
[Outro]
Then I'm dying at the bottom of a pit in the blazing sun (ooh)
Torn and twisted at the foot of a burning bike (ooh)
And I think somebody somewhere must be tolling a bell (aah)
And the last thing I see is my heart still beating
I'm breaking out of my body and flying away
Like a bat out of hell
Then I'm dying at the bottom of a pit in the blazing sun
Oh, torn and twisted at the foot of a burning bike
And I think somebody somewhere must be tolling a bell (ooh)
And the last thing I see is my heart still beating, still beating
I'm breaking out of my body and flying away
Like a bat out of hell
Oh, like a bat out of hell
Oh, like a bat out of hell
Oh, like a bat out of hell (I'll be gone when the morning comes)
Like a bat out of hell (I'll be gone when the morning comes)
Like a bat out of hell (ooh, ooh)