Bursting Onto the Stage Like a ‘Bat Out of Hell’

In the four decades since it was released, bearing the cover image of a motorcyclist blasting out of a graveyard on his bike, the Meat Loaf album “Bat Out Of Hell” has been described in many ways. Bombastic. Extravagant. Over-the-top.
But as Jim Steinman, the album’s composer and lyricist, said recently, “If you don’t go over the top, how are you ever going to see what’s on the other side?”
Listeners know “Bat Out of Hell” best for Meat Loaf’s indefatigable vocal performances, and for marathon-length power ballads like “Paradise By the Dashboard Light,” an enduring ode to adolescent horniness, and the title track, in which a lovelorn biker operatically eats it after misjudging a sudden curve.