I want to tell you about a song that is a masterpiece of storytelling in three acts. It is about unrequited love and its cycle of damage.
There is an interesting tale behind how Jim Steinman came to write this song, but since this is also an exercise in brevity I am not going to tell you about it. Ask me in the comments if you are interested but can’t be bothered to look it up on Wikipedia - or if you just want to exchange trivia. I’d be happy to oblige.
I am not going to quote from the song extensively because it wouldn’t do the words justice. The official video is embedded at the bottom of this post and if you turn on closed captions the lyrics are accurate. This is a short primer for those who have not heard it, or else, not paid a lot of attention to it before.
Act I: “Baby, we can talk all night”
Picture the scene. It is snowing outside and a couple are talking through the night trying to work something out. He is tired of the conversation and feels empty, she is crying and talked out too and wants him to leave. He wants her to settle for what he can offer and he begs her to let him stay. He cares but that’s not enough for her.
If our sympathy was with him it changes when he says this:
I want you (I want you)
I need you (I need you)
But there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you
Now don't be sad (don't be sad, 'cause)
'Cause two out of three ain't bad
He is asking that she accept his inability to love her and suddenly his pleadings seem very selfish - it would appear he is not heartbroken after all.
Act II: “You'll never find your gold on a sandy beach”
Through an extended bridge, he says that it’s a mistake to look for things that are not there, and gives various examples. Perhaps in mitigation for not being able to offer the love she wants he mentions that he is being honest. Is that self-serving?
I can't lie (I can't lie)
I can't tell you that I'm something I'm not
No matter how I try
I'll never be able
To give you something, something that I just haven't got (whoa-oh)
You have to admit he is not making a stellar case for not breaking up.
Act III: “Well, there's only one girl that I will ever love”
Next we find that he did love someone who never loved him back and he cannot get over her. There is a symmetry in the fact that he is asking to be able to stay but in that earlier relationship he was imploring the girl to stay. Yet what seems to have driven her away was his sadness; he wanted more than she was able to give.
And she kept on tellin' me, she kept on tellin' me, she kept on tellin' me
I want you (I want you)
I need you (I need you)
But there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you
Now don't be sad (don't be sad, 'cause)
'Cause two out of three ain't bad
So we are witnessing the perpetuation of a pattern and we might think that he only cares about his wants and needs. Yet might there be another explanation?
Clearly he now regrets not settling for what the love of his life could have given him. Could he be trying to stop this woman from making the mistake he made i.e., by not realising that ‘two out of three’ ain’t bad’, after all?
Maybe we can talk all night
But that ain't getting us nowhere
Because he tried that and it didn’t work.