This was written by songwriting team of Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin. According to Mojo magazine, Reid got the idea from a newspaper article about a guy who got drunk and shot up his girlfriend's car. When the judge sentenced him and asked him what he had learned, the guy said, "You can't make a woman love you if she don't." The judge was expecting something along the lines of, "I can't shoot stuff because I'm angry."
The song is about a woman who knows her man has lost interest and just wants to spend one more night with him before moving on with her life. Instead of lying to herself or trying to work things out, she confronts the reality and seeks closure with that final night together. In the morning, she'll be on her way.
Reid and Shamblin began writing this song with a faster tempo; it came together when they slowed it down. When they completed the demo, they thought it might be a good fit for Linda Ronstadt, but the song ultimately went to Raitt, who loved it on first listen. "It was absolutely one of the most honest and original heartache songs I had ever heard," she told the Los Angeles Times. "It was a point of view that I had been on both sides of, and it struck me deeply. I knew immediately I wanted to sing it." Getting the news that someone doesn't love you anymore is devastating, but Raitt feels that delivering it is worse.
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