We get a scene of the Lost in their home base (a subway station beneath the Natural History Museum) that gives us some character exposition. Tink is apparently frozen at a younger age than the others (He explains, “Stuck before all the good shit comes,” which is actually a heartbreaking line.) and he and Strat have a special relationship–they’re best friends (and “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through” is their song) but Tink clearly wants to be more than that and Strat isn’t interested. Zahara also makes moves on Strat, but his response to her is instead, “Not tonight.” Zahara is surprised, which suggests that they have had some sort of sexual relationship. But Strat doesn’t care right now, because his mind is on Raven.

He tries out a pick-up line on Zahara that he will use on Raven later, asking, “On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?” and I’m sure every Steinmaniac’s head explodes. And then we go into the song, alternating between Raven with his gang here and Raven in her bedroom.

The changes to this song from the other recordings are few but one is a really big one. The Pandora’s Box and Meat Loaf versions are very similar to one another, so that’s far from a surprise.

It opens with the familiar piano refrain and Christina Bennington’s vocals join in along with an organ. In the chorus, she also gets a saxophone counterpoint behind her that’s new to the arrangement. The saxophones also go along with the piano and vocals for the title phrase at the end of the chorus.

Andrew Polec then sings the second verse in the same arrangement as the first. The second time through the chorus sees both Polec and Bennington singing, sometimes together and sometimes call-and-response.

But then, instead of going to the bridge and the final chorus, we cut straight to the outro and the two sing us out together. The song ends up being only about 2/3 as long as the Pandora’s Box and Meat Loaf recordings because of this cut. That and the saxophone are really the only changes.

The changes to this version of “It Just Won’t Quit” result in a song that has a surprisingly different tone. In the earlier versions, especially the Pandora’s Box recording, the guitar solo serves as something of an exultant catharsis–the screaming guitar portraying the rapturous joy of submission to the love that the rest of the song is so reticent to admit. Taking out that solo and the final, loudest version of the chorus gives the song a sense of aching melancholy. Add in that it’s now a duet, and the song becomes easily one about a couple that is in the thrall of love but is being held apart and doesn’t know how to move forward. While the ending is always a rather melancholic comedown, taking out those most exuberant parts of the song does make the entire song have a different feeling.

As a story point, the last line of “And I never really sleep anymore” is sung by Tink.

Ranking the versions:

1. Pandora’s Box-Original Sin (original)
2. Meat Loaf-Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell
3. Jim Steinman’s Bat out of Hell: The Musical
4. Sharon Sexton & Rob Fowler-Vision of You
   • Yes, that’s Sloane and Falco singing it. They became a couple during the show’s initial run and now are married and regularly working together. Their version is a very stripped down one and that’s what makes it weaker. Though it should be said that they can both absolutely sing and that it’s still a fantastic song. I do also like that this version is actually quite different than the others.