Meat Loaf the rock star died yesterday at age 74. I didn’t follow his career and I’ve rarely listened to music in the last 20 years. But his 1993 song “I’d Do Anything for Love (but I Won’t Do That)” somehow got my attention. I loved the song but never stopped asking “What wouldn’t he do?” and back then never found an answer. Maybe I just didn’t look hard enough.
Finally, yesterday, I read a great explanation. The answer was right there in the song all along. I’ve just never been one to catch more than a few lyrics when listening to music.
As it turns out, there were a number of things he wouldn’t do, each mentioned just before the chorus kicks in:
- Lie to you
- Forget the way you feel right now
- Forgive myself if we don’t go all the way tonight
- Do it better than I do it with you
- Stop dreaming of you every night of my life
- See that it’s time to move on
- Be screwing around
Thanks to the BBC for elucidating.
such a great post and I always found him fascinating
Thanks. I was so happy to finally have the answer clearly spelled out.
I saw an interview where he explained every song had a character and was like its own little play. I crossed paths with him twice in my life. once, as a cocktail waitress when he came in to put his hands in our cement blocks outside, the second time, not much later, when he was running down a beach in Florida, not kidding
You actually saw/met him IN PERSON!? I’ve never seen/met anyone famous. Unless you count the two whole concerts I’ve been to.
It just was a weirdest of circumstances- first case i was working at a music cafe/bar and many musicians who were playing in town would stop in to put their hands in cement, a couple of months later I ran into him as he was running down a beach in Florida when I was walking down a beach. He was hard to miss as he was wearing a Speedo)
LOL. Difficult to imagine anyone built like that running down the beach in a Speedo.
I’ve been a Meat Loaf fan since around 1979. It about broke my heart when I heard the news. It was at about 1:45 am Friday morning – I was up working very late (I build websites from home). Saw a notification come in from WaPo that he had passed. Started playing his music then, and didn’t stop until yesterday afternoon.
If the one song was any indication, he had one helluva voice. And a much longer career than I realized.
He had a great voice. I got his first album on tape and my sons wore it out and I had to get aonother. Finally replaced it with a CD.
Isn’t it fun when you and your kids love the same music? You can play it as loud and as long as you want and everybody loves it. (Speaking from experience!)