In the summer of 1971, Demian enlisted the musical talents of Jim Steinman for an adaptation of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu On The Hill (originally written in 1888). Jim was a student at Amherst College and was an excellent pianist, composer and arranger.

Barry Keating, who recommended Jim to Demian, assisted in communicating to Jim the musical needs of the script. These needs included music for the introduction, several songs, many interludes and the end piece. Once the desired musical segments were made clear, Jim composed — on the spot — on a baby grand piano on the Amherst campus.

There was little time to compose and Jim came through with just the right style, tempo and song variety. The melodies were excellently matched to the poetic texts. After finalizing the shape of each section of music, Jim played the pieces once again, recording on a reel-to-reel tape machine.

Later, the taped music was cued to play with the live voices and sound effects that were performed at the recording studio at the WMUA radio station. The resulting tape became the master “sound track” which was played for the live puppet performances of UBU.

Unfortunately, the music recordings for UBU are not available. The contracts with the music and acting talent for the sound track were made only for use in the original puppet show, and not for any further distribution.

Jim’s current work can be heard through the songs he has written for Meat Loaf (Bat Out of Hell), Bonnie Tyler, Sisters of Mercy, Air Supply, Celine Dion (It’s All Coming Back to Me Now), and within Jim’s own solo album, Bad for Good.