Another old Steinman song appears here, but this time it’s not really making its first appearance on record. Versions of this song appear as far back as 1973, when it made an appearance on a demo tape for More than You Deserve, and continue to appear with regularity thereafter. An instrumental version named “Great Boleros of Fire” was used on the Bat out of Hell tour and appears on some editions of the album. It next appears on record in Tanz der Vampire as “Ewigkeit.” Braver than We Are credits it as inspired by Eric Bentley’s translation of Bertoldt Brecht, and indeed it appears that Steinman wrote it initially for a version of Brecht’s play Good Woman of Szechuan.

To get this out of the way, “Godz” is a stupid title. Replacing “s” with “z” in plurals isn’t edgy; it’s dumb.

Lyrically, this is a very straightforward song. “Why can’t the gods up in heaven assemble/An army of battleships, bombers, and minds/To lift up the good and make the bad people tremble?” it asks, and really just keeps asking. It’s basically a plea of the commoners to get something to save them from the evils of those in power. It’s basically what someone with a complete lay person’s knowledge of Bertoldt Brecht (*raises hand*) would expect. There really isn’t any sign of Steinman’s hand here.

The first thing we hear is a mix of drums and guitars playing a militaristic rhythm while another guitar plays the melody on top of them. After one round of the melody, everything else cuts out to just drums and piano playing the same rhythm and Meat Loaf (with some difficult-to-hear background vocals) starts singing the same melody. The rhythm guitar returns for an instrumental break that gets a new version of the lead melody on guitar, and it essentially just repeats itself once after that.

Surprisingly, the instrumental portions of this song are actually great. It does come across rather like the build-up to a show (which is how it was used on the Bat out of Hell tour), but it has a great atmosphere. The militaristic rhythms and sheer volume give the impression of an active warzone and the rollicking melody only adds more to that feel. The vocals don’t feel like a good fit and Meat Loaf sounds out of breath and weak again, but it’s a fun instrumental piece if you ignore them.

It’s barely new at all and it doesn’t do a lot, but it’s a reasonably fun song overall.