Meat Loaf: Two Out of Three Ain't Bad Meaning
Song Released: 1978
Two Out of Three Ain't Bad Lyrics
But that ain’t getting us nowhere
I told you everything I possibly can
There’s nothing left inside of here
And maybe you can cry all night
But that’ll never change the way that I feel
The snow is really piling up...
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Why doesn't the songwriter says what is meant by the song?
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Amazing all the intrepretations. To me the first choruses are going back and forth her and him when she left him yrs ago.the pain he felt at her distancing him in thier relation. Then the middle verse was him trying to rationalize with her that his love is real and no one else could ever love her more than he had. He realizes he loves her but she will never ever be able to love him like he loved her. So the last verse is remembering how she left.and the sadness he felt yes later over it.
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Okay, originally I thought that he was saying that the relationship had run its course, and that they needed to accept the inevitable. However, in listening to the song several times.
I think it's just a simple love song. She wants more out of the relationship than he is able to give. And he is making an effort to show her that he cares for her. By pouring himself out to her. And telling her about his pain from a past relationship. That he still loves her in his heart. And that he is empty, and has nothing to give her. But he is also trying to say to her that he does want her and need her. But that It can't be forced. And that those two things aren't bad. That perhaps she can come to terms with that to where Maybe she can accept that. -
I think that he is saying. The relationship has run its course. that they have to accept the inevitable. "Baby we can talk all night, but that ain't getting us nowhere". He loves her... "He wants her and needs her". But he cannot give her his love.
Because she will not accept it. He tried to love her by giving her all that he had inside of himself, to offer. But she rejected his love. Because she wanted him to be something that he was not. Indicated in some of the lines of the song. She seemingly wanted a life of luxury, that he could not give her. Indicating in the song, that "he cannot lie". "That he cannot tell her he's something that he's not. And that he would never be able to give her something, that he just hasn't got". That line could also be interpreted on an emotional level as well. In one of the lines, he indicates that he's tired of words and to Hoarse to shout. indicating that they consistently talked and argued about the issue. I think the only line that I don't clearly understand is when he says the snow is piling up outside and I wish you wouldn't make me leave here. It's also hard to tell if he is talking about the same girl or a different girl. I think it could be interpreted either way.
One thing that is for certain, is that he is saying that he can't love her. Because she will not let him love her. And that he cannot do it anymore. Because it hurts too much. And in ending the relationship. In his love for her,he has compassion, and tells her not to be sad. Cause two out of three ain't bad. -
All I can say is if my boyfriend means it like the way everyone is saying I will walk away how can you say you won’t love someone and think they will stay? A relationship is gonna have emotional and feelings but if it’s not gonna go forward why stay and know you will never have what we all want and need
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Same woman thruout the song. The man once loved her deeply
He also wanted her and needed her. She did not feel the same way and that hurt him so badly. Later on and through the years the tables turned and she developed a love for him and a need that could no longer be satified. He had been so hurt badly that he built a barrier to protect himself from future pain and now can no longer feel or provide the love she desires.
However in humility he is able to admit to wanting and needing her. Bittersweet. -
For me, the guy had a casual, no strings attached, relationship with a girl many years ago. They do things which love couples usually do or to be legal, married couples. The girl told the guy she wants him and needs him but she is not in love with him. In short, she will never have the heart to love him. She left him after living in together as couples do. Now, the guy met a different girl. He still loves the girl who left him many years ago. He is now saying the same words to this different girl. The two words.. want and need.. But he is not in love with the different girl. Oh well, a confusing set-up song. As for you, good for both of you. At least, he loves you as a sister and best friend. For now? Love can't be forced.
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Basically, they were together, years ago. But she left (possibly for someone else, possibly because she just didn't love him) while he still loved her. Years later (present) she comes back, and realizes she is in love with him now. They're talking about it, but he just doesn't love her anymore, not romantically. She is trying to get him to see it, to feel it, but he just can't anymore ("Baby we can talk all night/but that ain't getting us nowhere"). However, he still loves her, I'm guessing platonically or as a sister, or both, hence the title "two out of three ain't bad." This interpretation is based off of the situation I'm currently in; I'm pretty much in love with someone who doesn't love me back romantically, but he loves me as a sister and best friend, and I do him as well. So for me, two out of three ain't bad: it's better than him not loving me at all, and I'm content with it for now.
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I think it is the same woman all through the song. When he was a young man he loved her but she did not love him and she left him. She went to find her "dream" man, her "gold" her "oil" her "ruby" etc. At the start of the song he says "I poured it on and I poured it out
I tried to show you just how much I care"
But now he is too tired and he is hoarse of explaining how cold she was to him when she left him to find a "better" man. He would see her dating guys and be heartbroken about it and she was giving him the cold shoulder. Now she is back and wants him, possibly because she has finally realized that the ideal man was him all along and no one else wants her now, but the love he had for her was in the past and each day he saw her with someone else it was breaking his heart beyond repair where it got to the point that he could not love her like he once did. -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This song is sung by a guy who has been hurt so bad in the past, by another women that he just can't bring himself to admit he feels anything like that again. He can't say I love you because if he does it leaves him vulnrable to being hurt like that again.
He Wants her, He Needs her but he can't ever open himself up to calling it love. But is it not love.? -
I once heard that while they were recording the album "Bat out of hell" there were missing only one song to finish it, and while everyone else in the studio was getting tired, Meatloaf himself was still willing to write one more song that night, only he could'nt come up with lyrics that made sense. The producer told him:" Baby, we can talk all night, but this ain't getting us nowhere..."
Et voila, the first line was there. The rest of the lyrics, according to this legend, "just happened." I know, not a real interpretation, but a cute story, especially if you think of a guy calling Meatlof "Baby"... -
This one is too easy, he says it right in the lyrics. He met the love of his life and she left him, so now he can't love anyone else because he is still in love with his ex who left him, and so he is refusing to say I love you to any other woman even though he still cares for them.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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