I finally figured out what Meat Loaf would never do for love

Early last week, while gathered with some friends, we somehow landed on playing Meat Loaf’s iconic track “I Would Do Anything For Love.” None of us had thought to listen to the track in years and yet we soon found ourselves swept away in the 90’s operatic glory.

Flash forward the following day, and the news revealed: Meat Loaf had died.

Some things just can’t be explained by coincidence. The world is infinitely more mysterious that most allow it to be.

I remember as a kid watching the video on Much Music. It was epic in scope, borrowing heavily from Beauty and the Beast and The Phantom of the Opera.

A vampire on the run from the law, no doubt having committed horrifying crimes. He flees to his castle, where his reflection is spotted by his Beloved as she bathes in pool of purity, the goddess incarnate. She follows his footsteps to the castle, where out of shame for his demon appearance, he doesn’t let himself been seen.

The police play cat and mouse with the pair, even as he makes grand declarations of his love “I would run right into hell and back.” “I'll never lie to you and that's a fact.” He fears that she would never love a Beast. He will never truly be accepted by her.

All the while, he repeats “I would do anything for love…but I don’t do that.”

The story continues when he catches a glimpse of his face in the mirror and smashes his reflection to shards. His Beloved continues to pursue him until she’s raised aloft on a floating bed, her soaring vocals finally responding to his promises.

Surprisingly, her needs are much less lofty than his sense of ambition:

“Will you raise me up?
Will you help me down?
Will you get me right out of this Godforsaken town?
Will you make it all a little less cold?”

The Beast responds encouragingly
“I can do that!
Oh I can do that!"

She continues with lyrics that speak to the mythic and the modest, a life of epic scale and the simple sweetness of a life together:

“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?”

When the Beauty and the Beast finally meet, she coaxes him to show his full face. She receives him with full acceptance, and they embrace. His is transformed into a man and they dash off into the sunrise before the pursuing police find them.

____

Now, returning to the key lyric: “I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that.”

Research reveals that the composers Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman thought they were being pretty clear:

The thing he won’t do, Meat Loaf said, is spelled out in the line before the chorus kicks in. “It’s the line before every chorus,” Meat Loaf explained […]

In fact, four such promises are made during the course of the song, each time before a chorus kicks in. In addition to saying he’ll “never stop dreaming of you,” the singer also says he’ll “never forget the way you feel right now,” “never forgive myself if we don’t go all the way,” and “never do it better than I do it with you.”

And those, according to Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman, are the things he won’t do.

I believe there’s a far more interesting take on the lyric.

Here is a Beast who is infused with longing of his Beloved. “No one else can save me now but you.” His very salvation lies with their uncertain union.

And yet, he fears his own darkness, the shadowed parts of him that she would never truly love.

Therefore, what is the one thing he would never do for love? He would never give up who he is in order to obtain that love.

If he hid his darkness from her, he would be a fraud, a performer. And it would mean they would never achieve actual intimacy, because he would always be pretending.

It would banish the depth of union that he sought. It would never be true love.

In my understanding, true love arises from complete acceptance of each other. A love that does not require the other to change before you love them.

This does not mean poor behaviour or mistreatment is endured without consequence. In fact, love can often mean the setting of appropriate boundaries and even ending a relationship if necessary.

But true love will not arise unless partners are able to meet themselves fully, authentically, without pretence or calculation. Without conditions and coercion.

A love like that has the power to heal, to integrate the shadowed parts of ourselves through the sheer act of being loved. It is a love not bound by expectation, but with presence and generosity.

It requires a tremendous amount of courage and inner work to stand steady in the fires of that love.

A love like that is a union for the ages.

____

With gratitude to Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman. May you be well gathered into the halls of glory.