B-B-B-Bonnie and the Vamps
We took a family Christmas cruise to the Bahamas this past December with too many small children and too few adults — bad idea. Lots of seasickness and intestinal distress ensued, as well as accommodations for the grandchildren that it would be generous to describe as rudimentary. We found a general lack of organization and urgency in the dining rooms, and unreasonable restrictions in the recreational areas. We usually have good experiences on cruises, but this one was a horror tale of its own.
On the plus side, I did get to spend some quality time with my new favorite bartender in Nassau and saw a show on the ship that reminded me that I needed to turn my laser focus on what has now become the subject of this post. It was an over-the-top production of power ballads from the 70s and 80s, with bright lights, exaggerated dance routines, ridiculous costumes and some pretty good singing. Fun! And one of the songs performed…
Don’t want to get ahead of myself. How about we throw this puppy into reverse and start from the beginning?
Sometime back in the dark and abyss of time that was the 1970s, record producer Jim Steinman was working on a musical based on the classic German Expressionist silent film, Nosferatu. I assume you’ve heard of it. One song he wrote for it before turning his attention to making records with Meat Loaf was called “Vampire in Love”. It went into inventory and was sort of forgotten.
Fast forward to the early 80s, when Welsh songstress Bonnie Tyler saw Meat Loaf on TV and decided that it was that guy’s producer whom she wanted to bring her next album to fruition. She met with Steinman, and during their initial negotiations he recalled that vampire song he wrote for the lost musical.
Thinking her raspy voice, the result of an operation to remove some vocal cord nodules in the 70s, was perfect for the piece, he pitched “Vampire in Love” to her. She jumped on it like a loose ball in the end zone, and musical history was made. Steinman tweaked it a bit, changed the title, and put it on Tyler’s fifth album, Faster Than the Speed of Night.
The album was released in April of 1983 in the United Kingdom, and in September of that year in America. It went to No. 1 on the charts immediately on both sides of the Big Pond, as did the single based on Steinman’s vampire love song, which became Billboard’s Number Six song of the year.
I have to confess that, having never learned about this context, I had no idea until a year or so ago that Tyler’s big hit, which was now called Total Eclipse of the Heart, had that vampire connection. But, come on. “Forever’s gonna start tonight”? All those references to shadows and night and love in the dark? How could it be about anything other than the living dead?
Steinman did eventually include a version of the song in a musical, retitling it “Totale Finsternis” (“Total Darkness” in English). His 1997 stage production Tanz der Vampire was based on Dance of the Vampires, a 1967 Roman Polansky movie known as The Fearless Vampire Killers in the United States. A Berlin performance from 2011 is on YouTube, in German with English subtitles. I recommend it highly. A better-quality print of a 2010 performance from Antwerp, Belgium is also on YouTube, but there are no subtitles. Alas, my Flemish is about as bad as my German, but it’s worth a look.
Tanz der Vampire has rarely to my knowledge been staged in America, mostly being mounted in Europe. But who knows? Maybe we’ll all get lucky and it will be performed in an opera house close by one of these days… or nights.
And depending on how you feel about Roman Polansky, you might want to check out the aforementioned film he directed, which co-starred his wife Sharon Tate two years before she was so horribly slaughtered by the Manson Family. The movie is a comedy, but knowing what was going to happen on August 9, 1969, overshadows the humor with a layer of melancholy. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Next time, we’re going to consider why one of the most distinctive voices in American film history did so little work on the radio and highlight what might be his most important effort in that medium. Why not step into my parlor in a couple of weeks to learn who I’m referring to, and which legendary duo comes to call on him in his very own haunted house? I look forward to your visit.
Until then, ye connoisseurs of creepiness, I bid you all to be afraid…
Be very afraid.
HorrorAddicts.net 