Don't Do Love

About

Written by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers, Don’t Do Love appeared as a B-side to Supreme in December 2000. A melancholy ballad set to soft piano and strings, it captures Williams at his most vulnerable, confronting emotional detachment and fear of commitment. The restrained vocal delivery and gentle orchestration belie the sadness at its core.

The song portrays a narrator who pushes others away, aware of his inability to connect. “I can’t help being rude if you get too close to me,” Williams sings, reflecting the guarded attitude that characterised much of his early adulthood. The chorus, “I’m not your lover, baby, I’m not the one, I won’t meet your mother, lady, I don’t do love,” is both confession and defence mechanism, acknowledging loneliness while refusing intimacy.

It’s about closing yourself off because you’re scared. I wasn’t ready for love back then — that’s me admitting it.Robbie Williams

Recorded during the Sing When You’re Winning sessions but left off the album for its subdued tone, the track sits among Williams’ most introspective B-sides. Its cyclical lyric — moving from “I can’t believe it’s not in me” to “I can’t believe that you can’t see it’s not in me” — highlights his frustration with being misunderstood, even when he tries to be honest.

Though understated, Don’t Do Love offers a stark emotional counterpoint to Williams’ pop bravado of the same era. It reveals the quiet melancholy that often lay behind the swagger, making it one of his most affecting and overlooked songs from this period.