Steinman had intended for the song to appear on "a rock 'n roll sci-fi version of Peter Pan".

"[3] A BBC article suggested, "...the fact that Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan from Springsteen's E Street Band played on the album only helped reinforce the comparison.

"[4] According to Meat Loaf, the song is "constructed from" a shot near the beginning of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho in which the viewer looks down a valley and sees the lights of a city.

"[5] The song, along with "Heaven Can Wait" and "All Revved Up with No Place To Go", originally featured in Steinman's Peter Pan-inspired 1977 un-finished musical Neverland, which was finally completed in 2018 and renamed Bat Out of Hell.

The lyrics begin to set the scene of evil, guns, knives and "blood shot streets."

[9]Steinman insisted that the song should contain the sound of a motorcycle, and complained to producer Todd Rundgren at the final overdub session about its absence.

Rather than use a recording of a real motorcycle, Rundgren himself played the section on guitar, leading straight into the solo without a break.

"[9] Rundgren and Meat Loaf were angry with Steinman when he refused to stop writing when the track was already six minutes long.

He can see his "heart still beating", which is also represented musically through bass guitar, a section devised by Kasim Sulton.

[5] Steinman says "I don't think there's ever been a more violent crash... the guy basically has his body opened up and his heart explodes like a bat out of hell.

[12] Sounds magazine described it as "heavy metal thunder with Bruce Springsteen overtones (it's L-O-U-D, but this fellow sang with Ted Nugent...), a lyrical, white-noise tale of screaming sirens, silver black phantom bikes, the Ultimate Girl and her purity (always an important symbol), ending in the final death crash when his heart tears out of his chest and flies away.

[11] Paul Rees, Q's editor in chief, said: "There are some songs that transcend such things as time and genre, and "Bat Out Of Hell" is assuredly one of them.