Strat convinces Raven to agree to come with him for one night. (There is no explanation that I see for why it’s only one night.)

Just as they’ve come to the agreement, Zahara bursts into Raven’s room, warning that Falco is coming and Strat has to get away. The lovers escape to where Jagwire is holding Strat’s motorcycle and then take off into the night while Falco and his militia search for them.

The familiar chords of “Bat out of Hell” on piano and guitar open the song, joined by horns. A slightly truncated version of the introduction plays, only altered from the original in that the horns are added.

The first verse plays almost exactly like the original recording except with a more prominent synth organ line. Andrew Polec’s delivery is so exactly like Meat Loaf’s that it’s difficult to compare them. Just before the chorus, Raven begins questioning her decision. But then she starts singing along with Strat as we go through another verse and chorus.

Raven yells, “Stop!” and Strat stops the bike. She says that she can’t do this and that Falco will never stop until he kills Strat. Strat reluctantly lets her go. And apparently it’s unquestionable that she will make it home safe, because she just exits the scene and we continue with Strat.

The guitar solo matches the original, with the horns just adding a bit more to the sound. The rest of the song continues essentially untouched from the original other than adding the horns.

The crash verse is accompanied with Strat missing the sudden curve and crashing his bike, seemingly dead. He escapes his body and his heart, outside his body, continues to beat.

After the crash, Polec actually does sound different from Meat Loaf. There’s a softness to his tone as he describes his own death that Meat Loaf (at least in 1977) could not really provide. But the triumphant repeats of “Like a bat out of hell” at the end show the other end of the spectrum–there’s nothing wrong with Polec’s performance of it, but it’s one of the moments of the show that makes me miss Meat Loaf, because no one has the power to replicate Meat Loaf’s “Bat out of Hell” shouts.

Overall, this is a really good version of the song, because it’s hardly even noticeably different. The horns don’t replace things but only add, which is fine. Polec’s vocals are pretty darn close to Meat Loaf’s. There isn’t much at all to separate this recording from the Meat Loaf one.

Tink and Zahara happen across their fallen leader, screaming in recognition. And that’s how the first act ends.

Ranking the Versions

1. Meat Loaf-Bat out of Hell
2. Jim Steinman’s Bat out of Hell: The Musical
3. Andrew Polec-The Bat Unplugged EP
   • Yes, our Strat recorded his own solo version. It’s an acoustic rendition of the song that actually succeeds in emphasizing just how good the melody of this enormous rock song is. He gives it more of his own flavor in this version, straying more from Meat Loaf’s phrasings and delivery, and he sounds really good. It’s shortened from the original and necessarily lacks a lot of the dynamics, but it’s actually still great. The EP is a handful of acoustic (shocking given the title, I know) recordings of Steinman songs released a few years after Polec’s last performance of Strat.