Won’t Do What?

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

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

      1. forget the way you feel right now
      2. forgive himself if they don’t go all the way tonight
      3. do it better than he did it with you
      4. stop dreaming of you every night of his life
      5. treat you like a fling and move on
      6. screw around on you
Not a bad list of don’ts for any dude, come to think of it.

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!

Pretty Book and Flower Icon

 

What song did you just never “get”?