I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) by Meat Loaf

Every New Zealand #1 single…

Looking back, it’s interesting how conservative 1993’s single charts were in New Zealand. Some of the biggest songs were reworks of oldies – Whitney Houston covered Dolly Parton, UB40 covered Elvis Presley, and Bitty McLean covered Fats Domino. Billy Joel topped the charts with ‘River of Dreams’.

And Meat Loaf topped the NZ singles charts for the first and only time, with an epic single that recalled his 1970s Bat Out Of Hell heyday.

Meat Loaf

Marvin Lee Aday was born in Dallas in 1947. Some interesting titbits from his Wikipedia biography:

• He also attributed the nickname to an incident where, after he stepped on a football coach’s foot, the coach yelled “Get off my foot, you hunk of meatloaf!”
• Meat Loaf’s father would binge-drink alcohol for days at a time, a habit he started when he was medically discharged from the U.S. Army during World War II after being wounded by fragments from a mortar shell. Meat Loaf often accompanied his mother in driving to the bars in Dallas to look for his father.
• On the day of the assassination of John F. Kennedy …, Meat Loaf had seen the President when he arrived at Dallas Love Field. Later, after hearing of Kennedy’s death, he and a friend drove to Parkland Hospital where he witnessed Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, covered in her husband’s blood, getting out of the car that brought her to the hospital.

Aday found work in musical theatre, appearing in Hair and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Through this work, he met aspiring songwriter Jim Steinman.

Steinman and Aday started Bat Out of Hell in 1972. It grew out of a musical based on a futuristic Peter Pan. It became a quirky monster, with epic songs that synthesised Broadway, Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, and the grandeur of Wagner. Record companies were initially reluctant, but Todd Rundgren championed it and produced. Bat Out of Hell became one of the biggest-selling albums of all time.

Despite the initial success, Aday’s career stumbled in the 1980s. He fell out with Steinman, and albums like Blind Before I Stop sold a fraction of previous records.

I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)

Steinman started writing Bat Out of Hell 2 in the 1970s. But Steinman’s notebook of lyrics was stolen in 1978, while Meat Loaf lost his voice when they tried to record the project, then titled Renegade Angel, in 1981. Steinman and Meat Loaf’s creative parting meant that songs were recorded by other acts. Some appeared on Steinman’s 1981 solo album Bad for Good, while two others were released on the 1989 Pandora’s Box album, Original Sin, all all-female group Steinman formed.

Steinman and Meat Loaf reconnected around 1990, and started working on Bat Out of Hell 2. Lots of the old gang returned – Todd Rundgren and Ellen Foley on backing vocals, and Roy Bittan on piano.

‘I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)’ was the lynchpin, the lead single and album opener. Impressively, it recaptures the grandeur and memorability of the original project.

I started writing what I felt was Bat Out of Hell part 2, definitely like The Godfather part 1 and part 2, that’s how I saw it. I wanted to do a continuation and I wanted to do an album that went even further and that was more extreme, if possible, which a lot of people felt wasn’t possible but I just wanted to see if I could make a record that was even more heroic because that’s what I thought of it … Bat Out of Hell to me was ultimately very heroic though it was funny … and I wanted to do one that to me would be even more heroic and more epic and a little more operatic and passionate

Jim Steinman, BBC

“We called it Bat Out of Hell II ‘cos that would help it sell shitloads

Meat Loaf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X_ViIPA-Gc

My verdict

An eight-minute single is unusual. I listened to the radio a lot in 1994, and this song was hard to escape – it’s easy to burn out on something so bombastic.

But returning to it in the 21st century, it’s easier to appreciate the craftsmanship. It seamlessly recaptures the grandeur of the original project. The moment when Meat Loaf’s quivering voice first enters is magical.

People have willfully misinterpreted the song for years, wondering exactly what Meat Loaf won’t do.

But the things he won’t do are part of the songs narrative – he’s responding to earlier lines in the song. So the things he won’t do are:

• 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.

The Aftermath

Bat Out of Hell 2 was an impressive comeback – ‘Rock and Roll Dreams Come True’ was another successful single.

But it marked the end of Meat Loaf’s cultural relevance as a singer – a third Bat Out of Hell instalment wasn’t as successful as the first two. He had more success as an actor, appearing in Fight Club and Spice World.

• 1990s album reviews
• NZ #1 hits