I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) - Music and Lyrics

Music and Lyrics

The song opens with a guitar played to sound like a revving motorcycle, which scholar Anne Bader interprets as foreshadowing "the male angst to come". This is a reference to Todd Rundgren's contribution in the middle of "Bat Out of Hell". Roy Bittan's piano begins to play, along with the guitars. The vocals begin at the 1:50 point, which is where many pop songs are beginning their second chorus. Steinman "alternates ... style with mellow moments where the hard-hitting piano licks are fleshed out with ethereal synthesizer and choral-styled backing vocals."

And I would do anything for love
I'd run right into hell and back

These 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 popular phrase "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" was censored to become "Some days I just pray to the god of sex and drums and rock and roll."

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