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Theres ajukebox musical of his worksand a number of film soundtrack contributions.
Buried among the flashy names and accolades lie two songs from a largely forgotten 1984 Walter Hill film.
The songs are performed under the name Fire, Inc. despite no such band ever technically existing.
If youve never seenStreets of Fire,the first thing you must understand is that theres nothing like it.
Steinmans songs provide the backbone to the films fast-paced opening and its anthemic finale.
Steinmans lyrics provide a mission statement of sorts for a cinematic world ruled by the young.
Theres nothing wrong with going nowhere, baby but we should be going nowhere fast.
Hill uses the songs tempo to set the films breakneck momentum.
Its a million bucks well spent.
At a certain point its hard to articulate why this is.
Full disclosure, I could be projecting here Streets of Fireis one of my favorite movies.
I would say thats where the films triumphant finale takes me.
It puts to song and screen something deep in me I dont have words for.
Streets of Fireis, in a sense, the film Steinman was always writing for.
What it may lack in narrative it makes up for in a fierce clarity of theme and identity.
Like Steinmans songwriting, its all heart in all caps painfully sincere and unapologetic for that.
An earlier version of this story stated thatStreets of Firewas Diane Lanes feature film debut.
Her debut was George Roy HillsA Little Romance.
