After losing his voice and then disappearing for essentially the 1980s, Meat Loaf reunited with Steinman and then spent another decade plundering what Steinman had done without him. Of the nine non-orchestra songs on Bad for Good, Meat Loaf would eventually cover six, leaving only “Stark Raving Love,” “Surf’s Up” (though it’s arguable that “Surf’s Up” morphed into his “Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are”), and “Dance in My Pants”–and in this case, that even includes the spoken-word “song.” Of the six original songs on Original Sin, Meat Loaf eventually covered five, with this being the last one. (“Safe Sex,” for those who are not keeping score at home, is the odd song out.)

Eventually, he also covered “More” and “Loving You’s a Dirty Job (But Somebody’s Got to Do It).” Only a handful of Steinman pop songs (By which I mean songs that actually made appearances outside of musicals, were songs rather than dramatic monologues, and were not instrumental “classical” pieces.”) escaped Meat Loaf’s shadow: “Surf’s Up,” “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” “Faster than the Speed of Night,” “Ravishing,” “Rebel without a Clue,” “Holding out for a Hero,” and “Safe Sex.”

There is some re-arranging in this one, resulting in a song more than two and a half minutes shorter than the original. In the original, the first verse has three stanzas where the second only has two. Meat Loaf repeats the third stanza of the first verse before going to the pre-chorus. He seems to be a much bigger fan of traditional rock verse-chorus song structure than Steinman. The bridge is a guitar solo in this version. Further, the fade-out is handled quite differently, with Meat Loaf and Jennifer Hudson trading lines back and forth over essentially the same music as the verses earlier instead of the “The future just ain’t what it used to be/It’s never gonna be what it was” call-and-response between Gina Taylor and the backing vocals over the intro sound. Unsurprisingly, the barber shop ending of the original is also excised.

In very Steinman style, this song opens with a soft piano and soft, cooing backing vocals. Meat Loaf sings over just the piano for a bit, then is joined by some heavily chorused, echoing, chiming guitars as he heads into the pre-chorus. Two different sets of backing vocals, those same guitars, drums, and some more distorted twangy country-style lead guitars all come on as he shouts his way through the chorus. Gospel-style backing vocals (And there is a credited gospel choir.) and an organ join the piano as he hands one stanza off to Jennifer Hudson. They stay in place as he takes one himself and the chiming guitars come back. Then the country guitars become more prominent as the two together sing the pre-chorus and chorus. Mark Alexander provides a straight-out-of-Nashville guitar solo over the gospel choir, and then it slowly fades out as Meat Loaf and Hudson trade repeats of the title and ad libs.

It’s a little odd that it’s a pattern of Meat Loaf’s latter-day “duets” that he doesn’t so much “share” lead vocals as hand off a few phrases while it remains 75% or more his lead. I kind of wonder if he’s just doing “duets” because it sells thanks to “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” Here, Hudson is clearly meant to sell the more gospel-tinged feel of this rendition of the song, but how little she sings compared to Meat Loaf really just serves to make it clear how out of his element Meat Loaf is. He seemingly doesn’t know how to deliver the chorus and so ends up shouting. Maybe it’s supposed to be some Little Richard tribute, but, to say the least, Meat Loaf doesn’t shout anything like Little Richard. His voice would clearly and severely deteriorate over the next decade (his seventh on earth), but we can hear early signs of it here. Hudson sounds fine but doesn’t have room to do much.

While I never liked the original recording all that much, Meat Loaf’s doubles down on what I consider the worst part, the twanging countrified guitars. This has way more of them and they are much twangier. The country-style guitar solo is livable on its own (and it makes sense to change that bridge since the original is very similar to the instrumental breaks in “Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer than They Are”) but when added to those twanged-out leads just makes me feel like I accidentally clicked on the aborted Bat out of Nashville project.

Also not working for me but in a different way, the gospel elements that come more to the fore in the fade-out sound good on their own. But they’re kind of lost in a netherworld where they are neither prominent enough to make the whole song nor so subtle that they aren’t noticeable, which makes them feel like they’re just out of left field.

Further alienating me, Meat Loaf cuts out the best parts of the original recording. That instrumental bridge may be awfully close to “Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer than They Are,” but it’s still fantastic. That barber shop rendition of the chorus at the end definitely feels tacked-on in that it is completely disconnected from the rest of the song, but it’s also actually the strongest part (and probably what inspired the gospel sounds in this version). A heavily gospel-inspired recording of this song might be the best way to go, but that’s just not what Meat Loaf actually delivered.

I never found “The Future Ain’t What It Used to Be” to be one of Steinman’s stronger songs, but I think the Meat Loaf recording is a noticeable step down from the Pandora’s Box original. There are hints of an interesting interpretation in the gospel elements, but Meat Loaf is unwilling or unable to commit to them. I’m left with the conclusion that if Jennifer Hudson ever tries this one on her own, that would probably be worth hearing.