Bat Out of Hell - Compositions

Compositions

Todd Rundgren acknowledges that Steinman was highly influenced by the "rural suburban teenage angst" of Bruce Springsteen. According to manager David Sonenberg, "Jim would always come up with these great titles and then he would write a song that would try to justify the greatness of the title."

The album opens with its title track, "Bat Out of Hell," taken from Steinman's Neverland musical. It is the result of Steinman's desire to write the "most extreme crash song of all time." It features a boy who is riding so fast and ecstatically that he is unable to see an obstruction until it is "way too late." The next track, "You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth," opens with spoken word, performed by Steinman and Marcia McClain, that was also taken from the Neverland musical, as were the next two tracks.

"All Revved Up with No Place to Go" describes the beginning of a relationship and also the taking of the girl's virginity:

You and me 'round about midnight
Someone's got to draw first blood
Oooh I got to draw first blood.

Side two opens with "Two out of Three Ain't Bad," which was written near the end of the album's production. The song documents the break-up of a relationship where despite the fact that the girl wants and needs the singer, she will never love him, however she tries to be positive and supportive in emphasizing that the two emotions of want and need are very positive and "Ain't Bad", which gives the song a sarcastic twist. Rundgren identifies how the song was influenced by the Eagles, who were successful at the time. The producer also highlights the "underlying humor in the lyrics," citing the line "There ain't no Coupe de Ville hiding at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box." He says you could only "get away" with that lyric "in a Meat Loaf song."

The sixth track, "Paradise by the Dashboard Light", is an epic story about teen romance and sex. A duet between Meat Loaf and Ellen Foley, the couple reminisce about driving to a secluded spot, at which he plans to have sex. They "make out" heavily in the middle instrumental section, described in metaphor in a baseball commentary by New York Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto. However, she stops him just before they have sex, insisting that he first proclaim that he will "love her forever." He swears to love her until the end of time. The final part of the song displays the couple in an acrimonious relationship, in which they are "praying for the end of time" because "if I got to spend another minute with you I don't think that I can really survive." Whereas the title track is the "ultimate car crash song," this, according to the writer, is the "ultimate car sex song." It epitomizes the album's, as Ellen Foley describes, "pre-pubescent sexual mentality."

The seventh and final track, "For Crying Out Loud", is a more sedate love song. It recounts the positive changes that a girl has made to the singer's life, which had "reached the bottom". The song also incorporates some sexual innuendo with the line "And can't you see my faded Levi's bursting apart."

Comparing the album to Steinman's late-60s musical The Dream Engine, Classic Rock magazine says that Steinman's imagery is "revved up and testosterone-fueled. Songs like "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," "Two out of Three Ain't Bad" and "For Crying Out Loud" echoed the textbook teenage view of sex and life: irrepressible physical urges and unrealistic romantic longing."

Steinman's songs for Bat Out of Hell are personal but not autobiographical:

I never thought of them as personal songs in terms of my own life but they were personality songs. They were all about my obsessions and images. None of them takes place in a normal world. They all take play in extreme world. Very operatic ... they were all heightened. They don't take place in normal reality.

For example, citing the narrative of "Paradise," Rundgren jokes that he can't imagine Steinman being at a lakeside with the most beautiful girl in school, but he can imagine Steinman imagining it.