Meat Loaf sang:

I would do anything for love but I won’t do that

And to this day people make a joke that Meat Loaf never actually said what he would not do.

I’ve even seen people refer to it as:

“The most mysterious of song lyrics.”

—What "they" say

Frankly, if trying to understand the "that" in:

I won’t do that

...is your benchmark for mystery, I have some liner notes that will spin you into existential crisis overload. There are lyrics out there that are worthy of a Dan Brown novel, there are no less than seven PhD's on just one verse of "Stairway to Heaven" -- there are Beatles' lyrics that have toppled governments -- but Meat Loaf here? He uses a dependent clause, that's it.

And yet:

When Meat Loaf died people joked — they joked — that the real tragedy is:

"now we’ll never find out what it is that Meat Loaf won’t do for love."

—What "they" say

How twisted are we, as a species? How deluded, how cynical, how cruel.

A person's death becomes an opportunity to further highlight our own ignorance, or complete reluctance to perform even the most perfunctory research.

Let's look at the lyrics. And I'll have to ask you to be patient, as this is a purely intellectual journey we are embarking upon. Are we ready?

We're going to have to start right back at the beginning of the lyrics. This is the album version, not the radio edit, by the way. Here we go.

And I would do anything for love
I'd run right into hell and back

Let's recap for a moment. We’re now two whole lines into the song, and we haven’t yet worked out the answer to the greatest mystery in rock and/or roll. Hmmm. This is proving difficult!

But don’t worry. We’re already 50% of the way toward finding our answer.

Here are the next two lines —

I would do anything for love
I'll never lie to you and that's a fact

Ah, there we go. What he won’t do is lie to you. He’s given the answer right there in the first verse. Like some kind of sneaky sneaker.

If we’re patient enough to stick around until, oh the very next lyrics we find —

But I'll never forget the way you feel right now
Oh no
No way
And I would do anything for love
But I won't do that,
No I won't do that

Ah-ha! Another example — he will never forget the way you feel right now.

Mystery solved - again!

How many other examples does he give?

Considering that he allegedly died without telling us what he’s done — but he actually gave us example after example — and published it on an album that for a while there got non stop radio airplay and which was purchased millions of times — what would he actually have to do for you to get the message?

But I'll never forgive myself if we don't go all the way
Tonight

Yikes.

Ok if we’re going to be disrespectful to Meat Loaf - and to the songwriter Jim Steinman — we could instead focus on lyrics like this, which continue the date-rape cheer-squad tone of the original bat out of hell album. I mean Yikes.

This skips glibly (or airily) past the topic of consent.

Let’s take that argument as separate — worth making - but not the gist or responsibility of this article alone.

He’s given a third example of what he won’t do. Won’t forgive himself if doesn’t - let’s take a generous view and say he must go all the way in his declaration of love. Primarily he is a balladeer. Following in a long tradition of balladeers declaring their love. And he wishes to excel at this task.

In summary, here is a representative list of things, directly referenced in the lyrics, which Mr M. Loaf, Esq. assures us he won't do:

• lie to you
• forget the way you feel right now
• not go all the way tonight
• turning back
• do it better than I do it with you

External references

• Meat Loaf – I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) Lyrics (Genius.com)

See also

• Smoke On The Stairway To Roadhouse California