<P> Steinman's songs for Bat Out of Hell are personal but not autobiographical: </P> <P> I never thought of them as personal songs in terms of my own life but they were personality songs . They were all about my obsessions and images . None of them takes place in a normal world . They all take place in an extreme world . Very operatic...they were all heightened . They don't take place in normal reality . </P> <P> For example, citing the narrative of "Paradise", Rundgren jokes that he can't imagine Steinman being at a lakeside with the most beautiful girl in school, but he can imagine Steinman imagining it . </P> <P> Steinman is credited with the album cover concept, which was illustrated by Richard Corben . The cover depicts a motorcycle, ridden by a long - haired man, bursting out of the ground in a graveyard . In the background, a large bat perches atop a mausoleum that towers above the rest of the tombstones . In 2001, Q magazine listed the cover as number 71 in its list of "The Hundred Best Record Covers of All Time ." </P>

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