The timings in this article refer to the original album version. There are many shorter single and radio edits.

The song opens with a guitar played to sound like a revving motorcycle. Roy Bittan's piano begins to play along with the guitars. The vocals begin at the 1:50 point. The opening vocals are accompanied by piano and backing vocals. The song then becomes much louder as the band, predominantly piano, plays the main melody for twenty seconds. An instrumental section follows the first verse and chorus, lasting over 45 seconds, with piano playing the title melody, accompanied by guitar and wordless background vocals by Todd Rundgren, Rory Dodd and Kasim Sulton. The lead vocals recommence with another verse. The phrase "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" was changed to "Some days I just pray to the god of sex and drums and rock and roll" on the recording, although Meat Loaf occasionally sings the more familiar phrase in concert.[3]

Duet coda Edit

At the 9:28 point, the song transforms into a duet coda. The structure of the verses remains, but the woman now asks what the man would do. He answers in the affirmative for the first four sections.

Woman:

Will you make me some magic with your own two hands?

Can you build an emerald city with these grains of sand?

Can you give me something I can take home?

Man:

I can do that!

The song's tone changes for the final two sections, in which the woman, Lorraine Crosby on the original recorded version, predicts that the man would eventually do things to upset her and their relationship.[4] Both times, he denies it.

The duet part was and still is performed regularly on stage by Meat Loaf with his current featured female vocalist Patti Russo. However, with the passing years their interplay during the coda has gradually taken on ironic overtones, if not overtly comedic ones, which were totally absent from the original album version. For example, in the 2007 show 3 Bats Live, after Russo sings "After a while you'll forget everything, it was a brief interlude and a midsummer night's fling", Meat Loaf stops the band and asks her (half-sung, half-spoken): "Why do you say this to me? Why do you keep saying these things to me every single night?", and she replies innocently (again half-sung): "It's in the lyrics". More funny exchanges of the same kind occur during their other live duets, such as the famous Bat Out of Hell track "Paradise by the Dashboard Light".

Perceived ambiguity of "that" Edit

Meat Loaf says that the question, "What is 'that'?" is one of the most popular questions he is asked.[5]

Each verse mentions two things that the man would do for love, followed by one thing that he will not do. The title phrase repetition reasserts that he "won't do that." Each mention of "that" is a reference to the particular promise that he made earlier in the same verse.[6] The four things he says he will never do are:

"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"

At the song's conclusion, the woman predicts two things that he will do: "You'll see that it's time to move on", and "You'll be screwing around." To both of these, the male emphatically responds, "I won't do that!"

In his 1998 VH1 Storytellers special, Meat Loaf even explained it on stage using a blackboard and a pointing stick.[6] In a 1993 promotional interview, Steinman states that the definition of "that" is fully revealed in the song in each of the several verses in which it is mentioned. This sense would have been more clear if the lyric had been "and I won't do that" instead of "but I won't do that." It is the use of "but" instead of "and" that leads to the ambiguity.

It sort of is a little puzzle and I guess it goes by - but they're all great things. 'I won't stop doing beautiful things and I won't do bad things.' It's very noble. I'm very proud of that song because it's very much like out of the world of Excalibur. To me, it's like Sir Lancelot or something - very noble and chivalrous. That's my favorite song on the record - it's very ambitious.[7][8]

Meat Loaf believed that the lyrics were unambiguous, but Steinman predicted that they would cause confusion.[9] An early episode of the VH1 program Pop-up Video made this claim at the end of the song's video: "Exactly what Meat Loaf won't do for love remains a mystery to this day." A reviewer writing for AllMusic commented that "The lyrics build suspense by portraying a romance-consumed lover who pledges to do anything in the name of love except 'that,' a mysterious thing that he will not specify."[11] Frank O'day says the lyrics provide "an enlightening example of how listeners project their own thoughts, values, and concerns onto the meaning of the song with misconstrued lyrics."[4]

The phrase "I would do anything for love but I won't do that" had previously appeared as a spoken interlude in the song "Getting So Excited," released in 1985 by Bonnie Tyler in her album Faster Than the Speed of Night. In this song, the phrase's meaning is more clear: a woman is refusing an offensive proposal. Steinman produced this record and wrote many of the songs but this song is credited to Alan Gruner.

Length Edit

Steinman's songs are usually long, and "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" is no exception.[9] The song is a full 12 minutes, and Steinman was deeply upset when executives advised him that he had to cut it down to get radio play.[9] Manager Allen Kovac warned that any song over five minutes would not be played on radio, saying that if Steinman and the group did not make the cuts then the stations would. Even after they made the cuts, Steinman sent his own version to the stations.[9]

The single version was edited down to five minutes and 13 seconds, with the motorcycle introduction omitted.[9] The video version was whittled down to seven minutes and 38 seconds, with part of the motorcycle intro remaining.[12] In the video version and single version, the lengthy instrumental break is completely omitted. In the video and single versions, the refrain is abridged as well; Lorraine Crosby sings six verses in the complete song. In the video version, the second and third verses are omitted. In the single version, the second, third, and fifth verses are omitted.