This song was written by Benatar and her guitarist and future husband, Neil Giraldo. The song is about the ups and downs of previous relationships and how they affect the one you're in now. Haven't we all had to deal with the emotional scars left by whoever arrived first? Giraldo and Benatar's marriage worked out quite well: they married in a cow pasture on Maui in 1982 and have been together ever since. They've also continued their musical collaboration, with Giraldo producing all of Benatar's subsequent albums.
Giraldo and Benatar were dating when they wrote this song, which was early in their musical partnership.
Neil Giraldo explained:
"That was a song that Patricia started first. I mean, I start probably 93% of them, and she'll jump in after I get it started. But she actually started writing that on an airplane. And then she put some words together, and she said, 'Here, try to do something with this thing.' Actually she slipped the words under the door of our music room in this little house we had. We wrote that I think in 1980. Even though we could have put it on Crimes of Passion, we ended up putting it on Precious Time instead. But she put the words under the door because she was too embarrassed to let me see the words face to face. Then she had a little bit of an idea of a melody, so I took a little bit of what that was, and I wrote it on piano in our little music room. My favorite guitar I had in the room at the time fell and busted while I was writing, and busted the top of the neck off it. So that was like a curse. And then when we went to record it, we had everything but the last verse, and then I just wrote the words for the last verse in the studio while we were recording it. So that's how that one goes."
Lyrics
Never again, isn't that what you said
You've been through this before
You swore, this time, you'd think with your head
No one would ever have you again
And if takin' was gonna get done, you'd decide where and when
Just when you think you got it down
Your heart securely tied and bound
They whisper promises in the dark
Armed and ready, you fought love battles in the night
But too many opponents made you weary of the fight
Blinded by passion, you foolishly let someone in
All the warnings went off in your head, still you had to give in
Just when you think you got it down
Resistance nowhere to be found
They whisper promises in the dark
But promises you know what they're for
It sounds so convincing, but you heard it before
'Cause talk is cheap and you gotta be sure
And so you put up your guard
And you try to be hard but your heart says try again
You desperately search for a way to conquer the fear
No line of attack has been planned to fight back the tears
Where brave and restless dreams are both won and lost
On the edge is where it seems it's well worth the cost
Just when you think you got it down
Your heart in pieces on the ground
They whisper promises in the dark
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