Post by Koukol on May 10, 2011 17:57:02 GMT -5
It is widely known that Jim Steinman, composer of Tanz der Vampire and also a successful rock/pop composer-producer, is a vigorous proponent of recycling one's music if it wasn't a hit the first time. Steinman is a notorious procrastinator and recycler of melodies, not that either of the two are necessarily bad things. Though Jim is widely known as the Wagner of rock, his career began with music for theater pieces in the late Sixties and early Seventies, and was only sidelined by his work with Meat Loaf on a little album called Bat Out of Hell which quickly proved to be The Little Album That Could. It is less widely known except among Steinman's fans that 70% of the score for Tanz stems from his earlier work, and is sometimes a re-re-recycling of earlier tunes. The story goes that after adapting a few of his hits to show Roman Polanski that the show could work as a rock musical, Jim had a month left to write the score and finished it in a mad rush, necessitating a lot of recycling and leaving in tunes that were only supposed to be sketches to be replaced by tunes that were the real deal ("Totale Finsternis" was one of these examples).
Here's the list of songs and their origin. In the future, this list may include links so you can listen to the original or early versions of the melodies you now know best through Tanz. The admin is well aware that the titles of some songs have changed since their first appearance on the Vienna OCR -- that said, the Vienna OCR titles are used here for brevity. The admin is also well aware that several of these themes are repeated extensively throughout the show; he is not going to catalog each one, attributing his lack of desire to do this to pure laziness.
Ouverture
Its origins lie in an instrumental piece called "The Storm" performed by the New York Philharmonic on the 1981 album Bad for Good, Steinman's only solo album, which went platinum.
Gott ist Tot
The main theme is recycled from the title track to the 1989 album Original Sin by Pandora's Box, a girl group that only lasted for one album and was mainly the brainchild of Steinman. Other portions of the (much longer) original song appear later in Tanz, as we shall see. Also, a few bars of a little Bonnie Tyler tune called "Total Eclipse of the Heart" slip into this number.
Einladung zum Ball
This piece is largely derived from the other half of the above-mentioned track.
Draussen ist Freiheit
The melody is borrowed from the first two lines of the chorus to a song called "Something of This Masquerade May Follow" from a musical called The Confidence Man, for which Jim provided the score in the early Seventies, loosely based on the novel by Herman Melville.
Starker Als Wir Sind
Also known as the "Say a Prayer" melody in the American version, or "Das Gebet" in some German productions, this theme is adapted from a piece in an incidental score Steinman wrote for an indie film called A Small Circle of Friends, which was distributed by UA in 1980.
Vor dem Schloss
The ending portion, called "Come With Me" in the American version, is another much recycled Jim theme that can be heard in two of his early musicals, More Than You Deserve and Neverland, as the intro to "For Crying Out Loud" on Bat Out of Hell, as part of the instrumental breakdown in Jim's version of "Left in the Dark" on Bad for Good (the only commercially released version to include the Tanz tag), etc.
Totale Finsternis
Alright, everybody knows this one even if they don't know Jim's work, but it's quite obviously "Total Eclipse of the Heart," from the 1983 Bonnie Tyler album Faster Than the Speed of Night.
Carpe Noctem
Leaving aside the fact that this number as is was an unused submission for the soundtrack of Batman Forever in 1995, the number is heavily recycled: the distinctive piano lick throughout the song originated as the lead guitar riff from the Bat Out of Hell II version of "Good Girls Go to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)" and also appeared in the instrumental number "Back into Hell" from the same album; the "Come With Me" theme appears again also.
Fur Sarah
This melody is recycled with barely any changes from "Milady," another tune pinched from The Confidence Man. It also appears instrumentally in the incidental score for A Small Circle of Friends. It is reported that Steinman's Confidence Man co-author threatened a suit over the use of this melody when DOTV came to American shores; a settlement was reached before the matter went to public court.
Ewigkeit
This number dates back to a production of Brecht's The Good Woman of Szechuan, for which Steinman provided a score in the early Seventies. A song called "Gods" in Steinman's musical Neverland, aside from small changes, bears a strong resemblance in its lyrical structure to "The Song of the Gods" from Brecht's piece; the melody is that of "Ewigkeit" as we know it now. This number also appeared in instrumental form as the overture to Meat Loaf's live concerts promoting Bat Out of Hell, and a live recording can be heard as a bonus track on a recent re-release of the album.
Die Unstillbare Gier
In large part, the melody is recycled from "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are," a song from Bat Out of Hell II.
Der Tanz der Vampire
The Act Two finale is a shameless recycling of "Tonight is What it Means to Be Young," which appeared originally on the soundtrack to the 1984 Walter Hill film Streets of Fire. The early demos for the American production featuring the vocals of Steve Barton and Elaine Caswell even use the backing track from the soundtrack version, with some Tanz elements spliced in. In DOTV, the song was largely rewritten from its German lyrics, with much of the original pop song's lyrics restored. It didn't go over well with Tanz fans, partly because now half the song didn't make sense as a result.
Here's the list of songs and their origin. In the future, this list may include links so you can listen to the original or early versions of the melodies you now know best through Tanz. The admin is well aware that the titles of some songs have changed since their first appearance on the Vienna OCR -- that said, the Vienna OCR titles are used here for brevity. The admin is also well aware that several of these themes are repeated extensively throughout the show; he is not going to catalog each one, attributing his lack of desire to do this to pure laziness.
Ouverture
Its origins lie in an instrumental piece called "The Storm" performed by the New York Philharmonic on the 1981 album Bad for Good, Steinman's only solo album, which went platinum.
Gott ist Tot
The main theme is recycled from the title track to the 1989 album Original Sin by Pandora's Box, a girl group that only lasted for one album and was mainly the brainchild of Steinman. Other portions of the (much longer) original song appear later in Tanz, as we shall see. Also, a few bars of a little Bonnie Tyler tune called "Total Eclipse of the Heart" slip into this number.
Einladung zum Ball
This piece is largely derived from the other half of the above-mentioned track.
Draussen ist Freiheit
The melody is borrowed from the first two lines of the chorus to a song called "Something of This Masquerade May Follow" from a musical called The Confidence Man, for which Jim provided the score in the early Seventies, loosely based on the novel by Herman Melville.
Starker Als Wir Sind
Also known as the "Say a Prayer" melody in the American version, or "Das Gebet" in some German productions, this theme is adapted from a piece in an incidental score Steinman wrote for an indie film called A Small Circle of Friends, which was distributed by UA in 1980.
Vor dem Schloss
The ending portion, called "Come With Me" in the American version, is another much recycled Jim theme that can be heard in two of his early musicals, More Than You Deserve and Neverland, as the intro to "For Crying Out Loud" on Bat Out of Hell, as part of the instrumental breakdown in Jim's version of "Left in the Dark" on Bad for Good (the only commercially released version to include the Tanz tag), etc.
Totale Finsternis
Alright, everybody knows this one even if they don't know Jim's work, but it's quite obviously "Total Eclipse of the Heart," from the 1983 Bonnie Tyler album Faster Than the Speed of Night.
Carpe Noctem
Leaving aside the fact that this number as is was an unused submission for the soundtrack of Batman Forever in 1995, the number is heavily recycled: the distinctive piano lick throughout the song originated as the lead guitar riff from the Bat Out of Hell II version of "Good Girls Go to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)" and also appeared in the instrumental number "Back into Hell" from the same album; the "Come With Me" theme appears again also.
Fur Sarah
This melody is recycled with barely any changes from "Milady," another tune pinched from The Confidence Man. It also appears instrumentally in the incidental score for A Small Circle of Friends. It is reported that Steinman's Confidence Man co-author threatened a suit over the use of this melody when DOTV came to American shores; a settlement was reached before the matter went to public court.
Ewigkeit
This number dates back to a production of Brecht's The Good Woman of Szechuan, for which Steinman provided a score in the early Seventies. A song called "Gods" in Steinman's musical Neverland, aside from small changes, bears a strong resemblance in its lyrical structure to "The Song of the Gods" from Brecht's piece; the melody is that of "Ewigkeit" as we know it now. This number also appeared in instrumental form as the overture to Meat Loaf's live concerts promoting Bat Out of Hell, and a live recording can be heard as a bonus track on a recent re-release of the album.
Die Unstillbare Gier
In large part, the melody is recycled from "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are," a song from Bat Out of Hell II.
Der Tanz der Vampire
The Act Two finale is a shameless recycling of "Tonight is What it Means to Be Young," which appeared originally on the soundtrack to the 1984 Walter Hill film Streets of Fire. The early demos for the American production featuring the vocals of Steve Barton and Elaine Caswell even use the backing track from the soundtrack version, with some Tanz elements spliced in. In DOTV, the song was largely rewritten from its German lyrics, with much of the original pop song's lyrics restored. It didn't go over well with Tanz fans, partly because now half the song didn't make sense as a result.