Over on the Wedding Bee forums there was a discussion that came up about the well-known Meat Loaf song: I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That). Exactly what, the poster wondered, wasn’t he going to do?!
Well, I happen to be a pretty big fan of the Loaf’s work, especially his collaboration with Jim Steinman on the Bat Out of Hell Trilogy which is where we get this sweeping production of a 12 minute (album edit) song.
So I thought it would be fun to figure out exactly what is it the singer isn’t going to do. (Oh, like you haven’t had those days where you spend a few hours idly contemplating the meaning of song lyrics. We can’t all be striving for the Nobel prize with every waking thought, can we?)
Just from a careful listen to the lyrics we find out he specifically will not
- forget the way you feel right now
- forgive himself if they don’t go all the way tonight
- do it better than he did it with you
- stop dreaming of you every night of his life
- treat you like a fling and move on
- screw around on you
Those sorts of things also remind me of another song, one more on the tell end of the show don’t tell theory of wordplay.
Yes, I just Rick-rolled you. But not at all sneakily, so I don’t think it really counts. Remember, there was a time when we thought this song was good without it being a meme!
What song did you just never “get”?