Not all messages are displayed:
show all messages (61 of them)
sixteen years pass...
Perceived ambiguity of "that"
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."[10] 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.