Lyrical Dissection: Meat Loaf - I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)

There are some songs that are misheard, and some that are misinterpreted. It's easy to have one aspect of a song hit you so hard the rest of the subtext gets lost in the wash. Of course, that's implying that most people are ever thinking about the lyrics, which I think we know is not happening as often as writers would like. Many will memorize the words so they can sing along, but will never give any time to contemplating what they might mean.

Case in point; "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)", the Meat Loaf classic that has been misunderstood ever since the day it premiered. The mystery of 'that' took center stage, and for good reason. If you weren't thinking about what Meat was singing, it would be easy enough to miss. I shudder to think of how viral the meme would have been if we had social media back then.

What fewer people seem to have ever noticed is that the song is, as Jim Steinman would have said, a 'boner song'. It is an unrepentantly horny song, in which you can find plenty of reason to think Steinman never figured out the difference between love and sex. Or perhaps he never wanted to.

"Some days it don't come easy
Some days it don't come hard
Some days it don't come at all
And these are the days that never end"

Could these words be about love? Of course they could, but if you know Steinman well enough, it becomes rather obvious the correct spelling should be 'cum', and he is talking about sexual frustration. The machinery of lust doesn't always work properly, but... ahem... cleaning out the pipes is the only thing that makes a day worthwhile. That is made clear when he later writes...

"Somedays I just pray to the God of sex and drums and rock 'n roll"

Sex is a part of love, but putting it first in the order of things his God is responsible for shows us where his mind is. He would say in another song on the album that rock 'n roll dreams are what save us in our lowest moments. For sex to be more important than what he claims saves his life is rather telling. No?

"But I'll never forgive myself if we don't go all the way, tonight"

Is that a common way of phrasing your love for someone? Surely, love should be able to survive not sleeping together, unless the word is being used improperly. Steinman rarely describes love in terms outside of fire and passion, which implies he never found the kind of love that doesn't require coital energy to stay alive. A love song can be the saddest thing in the world when the narrator doesn't understand what it is they actually want, or how disappointed they will be if the dream comes true. I get much of that impression here.

"Some nights I lose the feeling
Some night I lose control
Some night I just lose it all when I watch you dance and the thunder rolls"

If we are still viewing the song through my prescribed lens, Steinman is writing about... what is normal, and happens to every guy... so they say. Combine this with the line the female character sings..

"Will ya hose me down with holy water if I get too hot?"

There are several fetishes we can apply this too, and we've reached the point where I am going to stop digging. We don't need to know the full range of proclivities the narrators think prove the dedication of their love, but I think it's best left to the imagination.

That explains the horniness of the song, but what about the mystery? I've written about that before, but it's rather clear by the end of the song. And no, if you've heard Meat Loaf explain the meaning of 'that', I don't believe he has any better understanding than anyone else does. He points to the lines that seemingly explain it...

"I'll never forget the way you feel right now"
"I'll never forgive myself if we don't go all the way"
"I'll never do it better than I do it with you"
"I'll never stop dreaming of you every night of my life"

Those are exemplar's of 'that', but they don't fully explain what the lyric is saying. While he won't do those particular things, 'that' is the reason why he won't do them. That comes to us only in the final lines, when she sings...

"You'll see that it's time to move on"

He responds with, "I won't do that", which says everything. He claims to be willing to do anything for love, but what he is unwilling or unable to do is accept that the kind of love he is looking for might not be possible with her. His fantasies are so wrapped up in her, there is no other option. She asks him for things...

"Will you make it all a little less cold?"
"Can you make it all a little less old"
"Can you give me something I can take home?"

She is asking him to build a life, to show her a love that has depth and layers. He can only think in terms of sex. That is why she warns him off, because she can see his one-track mind is never going to have enough lanes to run the race of life.

Ultimately, the song is a sad story of a man promising the world in order to get laid. He claims to want love, but he doesn't seem to understand what love even is. Maybe it was fitting that Meat was dressed as a monster in the music video, because his hunger is animalistic, and without any of the deeper reason humanity is capable of.

Love is a bitch, isn't it?