Bolton's big hit "How am I Supposed to Live without You" begins thus: "I could hardly believe it/When I heard the news today/I had to come and get it straight from you/They said you were leavin'/Someone swept your heart away/From the look upon your face I see it's true." That strikes me as a marvelous bit of story telling. The rest of the song, unfortunately, soon slips into standard-issue '80s ballad. But what exactly do I like about the above? The first line sets up the rest, pressing the listener to ask what was so unbelievable. We might already guess that a romantic disappointment was the hardly-believed thing, but we are steered subtly in another direction by "news". The narrator didn't hear gossip or "the word". He heard "the news". For many of us that suggests headlines or something broadcast. Then it turns out, not until the third line though, the first suspicion was accurate. I could hardly believe ...