Love Untold

Does anyone recall, The saddest love of all? The one that lets you fall With nothing to hold

It's a love untold It's a love untold

Once upon a love untold Once upon a love untold...

Oh yes, I recall...

I can't explain how many unrequited teenage relationships to which I would like to apply this song. (4 actually). However, I think that as beautiful and hopeful as the song is, I believe that there is an undercurrent to the song which is an indication of the author's knowledge of his self-deception. Paul knows that he can sing this song because nothing ever worked out and that a relationship had appeared, it would not have remained this flawless dream. Rather it would have died in the insecurities and arrogances which each of us hold.

This song has to be the most ultra-true story ever told. Who hasn't been there and felt all those feelings? First time I saw the video I got tears in my eyes. One of Paul's best works. I have the dvd of his performance of this song on Letterman and it's awesome if you can block out moron Paul Shaffer's off-key crooning in the background.

I echo every sentiment expressed by winker, including the ones about tearing up over the video and Paul Schaeffer being annoying.

jenseda is spot on about this song. As much an aknowledgement of the "perfection" of those imagined relationships that never came to be as being just as imagined as the scenario itself, as it is a beatuiful description of unrequited love and of course the rituals of the dating game.

More likely about a grownup looking back at an earlier more innocent love he almost had. He is writing a song about it. Melancholic and at the same time idealising an older simpler time.

The underwear line kills me each time :)

I love the song more than anything for its empathatic nature. Heartbreak especially of the more innocent type is often left unshared or untold, possibly cuz its just too difficult to convey it coherently or convincingly (mebbe that's why we resort to old long songs). and the song is basically about those loves untold we hold on to most privately.

each time i hear this, of all the things it reminds me of the death scene of the Batty android in Blade Runner. all about how impossible there are some things and joys and pains one has had to convey adequately. how one carries these with em, these hurts.

anyways, a masterwork in its simplicity and ability to tap into a really emotional truth.

Agreed with others about the topic of this song. A few lines that are important that no one has brought up:

"They were going to meet on a Rocky Mountain Street..." is the start of the verse about excitement, fantasy, and unrealistic expectations. The following verse is talking about anticipation and the routine things we have all experienced before meeting someone who they are interested in.

"They were going to meet on a crummy little street..." is the start where the character comes to face reality that he still hasn't found his true love and this date won't amount to anything. The "spark" that the character in the first verse was hoping for, "never came to be."

However, the most important part of the song is when the fadeout starts and it he changes, "They were going to meet..." into, "We were going to meet..." which indicates that we have all had thoughts about meeting someone, sweeping them off their feet and living happily-ever after, which is obviously unrealistic.

My initial reaction to the song was formed before I saw video. ‘Oh about a love untold It's a love untold’ First there are two definitions of “untold”. One is “existing or present in an amount that is too large to be measured”. The other is ‘an untold story has never been read or heard by the public’. In a way I think both are relevant to this song. It’s a song you are hearing, maybe for the first time, of this incredible love story. The singer presents himself as the observer of this incredible love story and asks us to identify with “the saddest love of all”. However, when he speaks of the difficulty in describing this situation you suddenly realize he is talking about himself and his unrequited greatest love of all. His final fadeout “We were goin’ meet” reveals who he was singing about.

Fortunately, I didn’t see the video until today after all these years of listening to this song. Having seen it I wish I hadn’t. Rather than this singer/song writer’s observation on his own personal “love untold” the video presents it as a generic unrequited love collage that applies to all ages, though picturing the elderly couple meeting on a crummy little street seems a stretch. I don’t think Westerberg had in mind unrequited senior love. Maybe director Rocky Schenck applied his own “take” in the editing room.

Anyway, it is a heartbreaker and along with "Chasing Cars" is streamed daily by yours truly.