In all the current confusion over what we can and can’t do with our faces and lives, it’s easy to let some news get by you. But I didn’t think it was right to furrow much further into our springtime without acknowledging the recent deaths of two absolute legends, and for what are very specific singular reasons, two people I will forever consider purveyors of the sex-positives in life.
Songwriter Jim Steinman and burlesque legend Tempest Storm.
Steinman, who died on April 19th, was best known as the architect and songwriter of one of the greatest rock albums of all time, Meat Loaf’s 1977 release, Bat Out Of Hell. If you happen to listen to even one song from Bat (and on the follow-up Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, which Steinman was also solely responsible for writing), you will clearly hear how the man used the mighty Mr. Meat to relate tales of teenage libido and angst in full Wagnerian glory, unlike anybody before him or I dare say since. I was lucky enough to see Meat Loaf a few times, but most lucky to catch him when Steinman played piano in the band for my first-ever rock show at The Capitol Theatre in Passaic, N.J. in May of 1978 on the first Bat tour. To say I was blown away would be an understatement.
Beyond his connection to Meat Loaf, Steinman wrote for Bonnie Tyler’s huge hit, “Total Eclipse of the Heart,†penned musicals and placed songs in movies and was responsible for a bunch of musical hits for others. But for me, it will mostly be what the man managed to create for Bat Out Of Hell, relating the sheer clear Sturm und Drang in perfect rock and roll drama of what teenagers feel with their hormones racing through romantic dreams, that makes the man a legend.
And worthy of mentioned here.
Tempest Storm, born Annie Blanche Banks on leap day February 29th, 1928, would become one of the most famous and best-paid exotic dancers in history. Said to be ‘intimate’ friends with Elvis as well as President Kennedy, the “Last Queen of Burlesque†as she would come to be known, signed a contract in 1956 that saw her earn $100,000.00 a year.
Performing well into her mature years, Storm was the kind of performer involved in every aspect of her sly and sexy fiery red-haired image. She as much stitched her costumes as ran her business affairs in art form that is all too scattered these days. Storm was by far no ordinary exotic performer and we are likely never to see her like again. As we surely won’t with Steinman. Tempest Storm moved to Las Vegas in 2005, dying there at the age of 93 on April 21st.
