If there is one song that consistently garnered criticism on Bad for Good, it was “Left in the Dark,” not for anything about the song itself but for Steinman’s vocal, which was described as “weak” by the kindest critics and typically described in far worse terms. It was never released as a single (Indeed, “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through” was the only single released from Bad for Good. It made the top 40. Meat Loaf’s highest-charting single from Dead Ringer peaked at number 84. And yet, Meat Loaf got three more bites at the apple while Steinman’s album was left to languish.) Barbra Streisand was a few years past her peak commercial powers when she covered it and couldn’t even reach the top 40.

With that history and its subject matter, “Left in the Dark” would seem to have been a prime candidate for inclusion in either Original Sin or Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell, but it didn’t end up appearing on either. So, here we are in 1995, with Meat Loaf taking on the song without Steinman.

Where Streisand had excised the “Who made the very first move?” speech from the end but left it at the opening, Meat Loaf instead leaves just the spoken line “Who made the very first move?” at the close. Otherwise, the lyrics and structure are identical to Steinman’s recording. It’s unusual within Steinman’s oeuvre to have a song that recurs with so little change, and I don’t know if that’s closer to being a sign that Steinman thought he couldn’t improve it or a sign that Steinman thought it wasn’t good enough, though either seems plausible.

Opening the song is a rather thin-sounding piano from Mark Alexander (It actually sounds borderline electronic–it’s odd.) that quickly gets joined by a quavering Meat Loaf vocal. It’s immediately clear to me that Meat Loaf is trying to sing the song in the exact same way that Steinman did back in 1982, matching all of the subtleties of Steinman’s delivery right up until the prechorus, when Pat Thrall and Tim Pierce guitars join in. We get a mix of power chords and some lead counter-melodies for the rest of the song, which is a good sound.

Once we get to the chorus, we start getting some Jeff Bova keyboard fills basically filling in the space where Steinman had an orchestra, but it’s far less noticeable in this mix than in Steinman’s version–the guitars are also filling much of that space and they are present through the vast majority of the song. As with many of Meat Loaf’s recordings without Steinman, this is a more standard “rock” arrangement of the song, giving us more guitars, less piano, and, in this case, no orchestra. However, he also reduces the dynamics of the songs. Guitars and drums are often what Steinman uses to create the booming enormity of his choruses where Meat Loaf and producer Ron Nevinson treat them as more of an integral part of the song.

In the prechorus and chorus, Meat Loaf does leave Steinman’s vocal behind, in both good and bad ways. He has the lung power and high end of the range that Steinman lacks. He’s definitely technically superior, hitting the notes and sounding strong enough as he does throughout. However, the fact that his voice never breaks down the way Steinman’s does means that he’s also less emotive, at least for me.

This arrangement also really does away with the false ending from the original, and I really love the whispered, broken down quiet of that moment in Steinman’s recording. Just the same way that the song overall has less dynamic change than the original, we don’t get nearly so quiet as the false ending or nearly as booming of a shouting noise thereafter.

If you just guessed how Meat Loaf would cover a Steinman song without Steinman, it would be exactly how he does this one. It’s kind of a shame, because just fixing the vocal on the original arrangement would be superior to what we get, which is a decent-but-unspectacular version of a song that really deserves better.

Notes

• I’m again thinking about how weird it is that the record company so treated Bad for Good like the second-class version of Dead Ringer when all evidence really should have told them that they were better off hitching their wagons to Steinman long-term than Meat Loaf. I can understand thinking Meat Loaf was more marketable and of course he was the credited artist for Bat out of Hell, but once both albums were out and a Cher-backed Meat Loaf duet couldn’t even chart while Steinman had been able to muster a minor hit, it sure seems like they could have just reversed course and put more behind Bad for Good. I am curious what would have happened.
• Tobias Sammett, if you read this, please, whether you sing it or find a singer for it, give us the ultimate version of this song–I feel like it’s your destiny.