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Pat Benatar - Promises In The Dark



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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