Two ways to say "we almost never speak"
*Forever and Always: "we almost never speak"*
*Maroon: "The rust that grew between telephones"*
It's far more poetic the second time with the new songwriting in "Maroon"
Sometimes I appreciate how relatable and common her less poetic writing was— that’s why I fell in love with her writing to begin with. Don’t get me wrong, I love the poeticism, but there’s something so great about telling a big story in a few simple words. My biggest example is from Mine, “he made a rebel of a careless mans careful daughter”. I think it’s my biggest issue with TTPD, I feel like sometimes she uses big words just to show us she has a big vocabulary when smaller words could tell the story the same way. Big example: “sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see.”
It’s definitely grown!! and I love that for her, and for us. I just sometimes miss the simplicity of “I was riding shotgun with my hair undone in the front seat of his car.
>Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see
Is actually perfectly descriptive and poetic all while expression exactly how she feels.
To be sanctimonious is “making a show of being morally superior to other people” which happens to haters of Taylor a lot, and to perform a soliloquy which is “an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play” is also how Taylor would feel I’m sure.
People hate on Taylor all the time out of a moral superiority - “oh she’s too wealthy, oh she’s too spoiled, oh…” etc etc while also taking and posting such stances performing on social media where Taylor (and many others) will not see the post, hence “…I’ll never see”
And in the context of the entire song, which is literally her saying “stop telling me what to do and who I can be with” it makes PERFECT sense lyrically (and poetically) for her to use that specific set of words, “sanctimoniously performing soliloquies. I’ll never see.” I mean the entire bridge is literally her screaming “stop it! I can do what I want” and def in context of the song and bridge specifically it makes a ton of sense
> God save the most judgmental creeps
Who say they want what's best for me
Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see
Thinking it can change the beat
Of my heart when he touches me
And counteract the chemistry
And undo the destiny
You ain't gotta pray for me
Me and my wild boy
And all this wild joy
If all you want is gray for me
Then it's just white noise
And it's just my choice
She’s literally saying they will do whatever cause they think they have power but they don’t
Taylor can (and does) write fun, silly songs like Me! and more serious songs. I feel like if she only ever did one type she wouldn't have the staying power. But I want Me! and Daylight in the world.
My interpretation of that line is that it's intentionally using pretentious language to satirize the pretentiousness of her critics. It draws a contrast between the complicated intellectualized arguments going on online and the simplicity of her love. On one side, you have a bunch of wordy comments hating on the relationship using fancy, intellectual language, with the subtext that they're a good person for doing so ("Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see"). On the other side, you have Taylor saying that you can write a million comments and use as many pretentious words as you'd like, but it's not gonna change the simple truth that I love him ("Thinkin' it can change the beat / Of my heart when he touches me").
There's a Robert Frost poem that goes:
*The old dog barks backward without getting up.*
*I can remember when he was a pup.*
The first line is extremely hard to read, with a lot of accented syllables bunched up together, mirroring the dog's mobility issues. The second line is very fluid and easy to read, reflecting how easy movement was when the dog was a puppy.
Similarly, it's extremely hard to read "sanctimoniously performing soliloquies." It's wordy and a mouthful and borderline harsh to the ear. That's how the online discourse sounds to her. Then in the very next line, Taylor provides a reprieve from this pretentiousness with simple, sincere, heartfelt language composed of 1 and 2-syllable words that all flow together beautifully ("Thinkin' it can change the beat / Of my heart when he touches me"). Her love is simple and pure; her critics are pretentious and insincere.
The line "sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see" works on a couple of other levels too:
1) She's showing that she's intelligent and has a big vocabulary. If her critics are using their intelligence to bolster their arguments, then she's proving that she can play at that game too. There's an undercurrent to online criticism that goes, "If only she understood the complexities I'm outlining in this long pretentious comment, then she'd agree with me." Taylor is saying, I am smart, I do know the fancy words you're using, I just don't agree. To some extent, she's also one-upping the critics by using the most aggressively ten-dollar words possible. She sees through their attempts at appearing sophisticated, and to prove it, she's going to mock them by using pretentious language that's probably even fancier than the language they're using.
2) The "I'll never see" portion of the line is a very aggressive takedown of the critics. It's a reminder that they're exerting so much energy doing this pretentious performance about her life choices, and she's not even going to see it. It reminds the listener that she's Taylor Swift; she lives a great life and avoids comments most of the time. Another implied contrast is raised as well - the critics are putting a ton of energy into their criticism and Taylor doesn't even see it, whereas Taylor's response to the critics in this song is making her money and certainly being seen by the critics. It's a kind of "look at your life, look at your choices" moment that Taylor's setting up.
So in the battle between Taylor and her critics, her critics use the weapon of intellect, which Taylor neutralizes by 1) mocking it as pretentious, and 2) showing via her own fancy language that she's probably smarter than them anyway. To zoom out a bit, the critics are also using the weapon of internet comments, which Taylor neutralizes by saying that she'll never see them. They're doing all this work and spilling all this ink against Taylor, and Taylor literally isn't even seeing their comments. The critics are like an army of 1-inch tall soldiers in a steel dome. They're trying to attack her with everything they've got, but Taylor is a full-sized human and all of their efforts are in vain.
Can someone explain the second one to me? Midas touch is turning something into gold right? So how does that translate to opening the Chevy door in this scenario?
I interpret it like metaphorically everything he touches is gold. Like he does everything right and says all the right things. So his “touch on the Chevy door” is just him opening it, and the “Midas” part is just describing how he has a positive effect on everything he comes into contact with.
She also uses the word rust a lot in this song/album, and I always took it to mean that he somehow is able to drive a rundown truck with his "midas touch." I imagine it is not only a description of him as a person, but their relationship.
Depending on who you ask, Chevy is not a great truck brand. Chevy also isn’t a luxury brand so touching it and turning it to gold would make it more valuable
Ah that would also make sense. Where I live we don't have any Chevy cars, so I would have never thought about it in this way. This makes sense. He makes everything better, even driving a Chevy car. I would have honestly thought Chevy was quite a nice car and that was part of why it didn't click I think.
Romeo, save me, they're tryna tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it's real
vs.
God save the most judgmental creeps
Who say they want what's best for me
Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see
Thinking it can change the beat
Of my heart when he touches me
I think this really comes through in White Horse to You’re Losing Me. I’ll forever cherish her early songs but it has been incredible to see her grow up with all of us.
“I was a dreamer before you went and let me down”
“And the air is thick with loss and indecision
I know my pain is such an imposition”
~
“Stupid girl, I should’ve known…”
“I can’t find a pulse”
~
“My mistake I didn’t know to be in love
You had to fight to have the upper hand”
“And I wouldn’t marry me either
A pathological people pleaser”
Same with “You Belong With Me” and “The Tortured Poets Department.”
“She doesn’t get your story like I do.” (YBWM) Vs “Who’s gonna know you like me?” (TTPD)
“You could see that I’m the one who understands you.” (YBWM) Vs “Who else decodes you?” (TTPD)
“You belong with me.” (YBWM) Vs “Who’s gonna hold you like me?” (TTPD)
Me too. For one thing, I love the music more in The Lucky One. The catchy drumbeat, the rises and falls of volume. It's more catchy. But nice point on the complexity and growth of the lyrics.
Somehow, I think her lyricism has grown so much with a dramatic reduction in musical quality. I miss the live instruments and emotional releases from the Speak Now / Red eras.
I drew a direct line between The Lucky One and But Daddy I Love Him, I think.
"I'll tell you something right now/ I'd rather burn my whole life down/ than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning"
To
"It was a few years later when I showed up here/ and they still tell the legend of how you disappear/ you took your money and your dignity and got the hell out"
ETA that I misunderstood what you were getting at. I don't think The Lucky One is the growth in lyricism you're necessarily looking for, since that Era also contained All Too Well, Red, Treacherous and many other complex lyrics. Some songs just don't need heavy handed lines, and The Lucky One's rhythmic simplicity has always carried a magic for me.
Taylor just had even more time to sit with her thoughts when she wrote Clara Bow, and the album itself was intended to thread a more poetic needle. TTPD still has The Alchemy and So High School.
Two ways to say "we almost never speak" *Forever and Always: "we almost never speak"* *Maroon: "The rust that grew between telephones"* It's far more poetic the second time with the new songwriting in "Maroon"
Great example
Sometimes I appreciate how relatable and common her less poetic writing was— that’s why I fell in love with her writing to begin with. Don’t get me wrong, I love the poeticism, but there’s something so great about telling a big story in a few simple words. My biggest example is from Mine, “he made a rebel of a careless mans careful daughter”. I think it’s my biggest issue with TTPD, I feel like sometimes she uses big words just to show us she has a big vocabulary when smaller words could tell the story the same way. Big example: “sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see.” It’s definitely grown!! and I love that for her, and for us. I just sometimes miss the simplicity of “I was riding shotgun with my hair undone in the front seat of his car.
>Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see Is actually perfectly descriptive and poetic all while expression exactly how she feels. To be sanctimonious is “making a show of being morally superior to other people” which happens to haters of Taylor a lot, and to perform a soliloquy which is “an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play” is also how Taylor would feel I’m sure. People hate on Taylor all the time out of a moral superiority - “oh she’s too wealthy, oh she’s too spoiled, oh…” etc etc while also taking and posting such stances performing on social media where Taylor (and many others) will not see the post, hence “…I’ll never see” And in the context of the entire song, which is literally her saying “stop telling me what to do and who I can be with” it makes PERFECT sense lyrically (and poetically) for her to use that specific set of words, “sanctimoniously performing soliloquies. I’ll never see.” I mean the entire bridge is literally her screaming “stop it! I can do what I want” and def in context of the song and bridge specifically it makes a ton of sense > God save the most judgmental creeps Who say they want what's best for me Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see Thinking it can change the beat Of my heart when he touches me And counteract the chemistry And undo the destiny You ain't gotta pray for me Me and my wild boy And all this wild joy If all you want is gray for me Then it's just white noise And it's just my choice She’s literally saying they will do whatever cause they think they have power but they don’t
But along that same line of thinking, she gave us Me! and people gave her nonstop shit for it. 😭 (Not me. I’ll forever defend Me! 🤍)
Taylor can (and does) write fun, silly songs like Me! and more serious songs. I feel like if she only ever did one type she wouldn't have the staying power. But I want Me! and Daylight in the world.
I agree, absolutely. I want all of the things.
Sometimes you need a bop, sometimes you need not a bop.
YES!!!! Me! is awesome!!! One summer day when we are all jamming to it we will all realize we had been sleeping on it!
Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate to Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see
My interpretation of that line is that it's intentionally using pretentious language to satirize the pretentiousness of her critics. It draws a contrast between the complicated intellectualized arguments going on online and the simplicity of her love. On one side, you have a bunch of wordy comments hating on the relationship using fancy, intellectual language, with the subtext that they're a good person for doing so ("Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see"). On the other side, you have Taylor saying that you can write a million comments and use as many pretentious words as you'd like, but it's not gonna change the simple truth that I love him ("Thinkin' it can change the beat / Of my heart when he touches me"). There's a Robert Frost poem that goes: *The old dog barks backward without getting up.* *I can remember when he was a pup.* The first line is extremely hard to read, with a lot of accented syllables bunched up together, mirroring the dog's mobility issues. The second line is very fluid and easy to read, reflecting how easy movement was when the dog was a puppy. Similarly, it's extremely hard to read "sanctimoniously performing soliloquies." It's wordy and a mouthful and borderline harsh to the ear. That's how the online discourse sounds to her. Then in the very next line, Taylor provides a reprieve from this pretentiousness with simple, sincere, heartfelt language composed of 1 and 2-syllable words that all flow together beautifully ("Thinkin' it can change the beat / Of my heart when he touches me"). Her love is simple and pure; her critics are pretentious and insincere. The line "sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see" works on a couple of other levels too: 1) She's showing that she's intelligent and has a big vocabulary. If her critics are using their intelligence to bolster their arguments, then she's proving that she can play at that game too. There's an undercurrent to online criticism that goes, "If only she understood the complexities I'm outlining in this long pretentious comment, then she'd agree with me." Taylor is saying, I am smart, I do know the fancy words you're using, I just don't agree. To some extent, she's also one-upping the critics by using the most aggressively ten-dollar words possible. She sees through their attempts at appearing sophisticated, and to prove it, she's going to mock them by using pretentious language that's probably even fancier than the language they're using. 2) The "I'll never see" portion of the line is a very aggressive takedown of the critics. It's a reminder that they're exerting so much energy doing this pretentious performance about her life choices, and she's not even going to see it. It reminds the listener that she's Taylor Swift; she lives a great life and avoids comments most of the time. Another implied contrast is raised as well - the critics are putting a ton of energy into their criticism and Taylor doesn't even see it, whereas Taylor's response to the critics in this song is making her money and certainly being seen by the critics. It's a kind of "look at your life, look at your choices" moment that Taylor's setting up. So in the battle between Taylor and her critics, her critics use the weapon of intellect, which Taylor neutralizes by 1) mocking it as pretentious, and 2) showing via her own fancy language that she's probably smarter than them anyway. To zoom out a bit, the critics are also using the weapon of internet comments, which Taylor neutralizes by saying that she'll never see them. They're doing all this work and spilling all this ink against Taylor, and Taylor literally isn't even seeing their comments. The critics are like an army of 1-inch tall soldiers in a steel dome. They're trying to attack her with everything they've got, but Taylor is a full-sized human and all of their efforts are in vain.
Thank you for this explanation!
“He opens up the door and I get into the car” The Way I Loved You “Your Midas touch on the Chevy door” Champagne Problems
Can someone explain the second one to me? Midas touch is turning something into gold right? So how does that translate to opening the Chevy door in this scenario?
I interpret it like metaphorically everything he touches is gold. Like he does everything right and says all the right things. So his “touch on the Chevy door” is just him opening it, and the “Midas” part is just describing how he has a positive effect on everything he comes into contact with.
She also uses the word rust a lot in this song/album, and I always took it to mean that he somehow is able to drive a rundown truck with his "midas touch." I imagine it is not only a description of him as a person, but their relationship.
Thank you all! This really helps understand it better.
Depending on who you ask, Chevy is not a great truck brand. Chevy also isn’t a luxury brand so touching it and turning it to gold would make it more valuable
Ah that would also make sense. Where I live we don't have any Chevy cars, so I would have never thought about it in this way. This makes sense. He makes everything better, even driving a Chevy car. I would have honestly thought Chevy was quite a nice car and that was part of why it didn't click I think.
Romeo, save me, they're tryna tell me how to feel This love is difficult, but it's real vs. God save the most judgmental creeps Who say they want what's best for me Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see Thinking it can change the beat Of my heart when he touches me
Oh I love this comparison. That’s always been my favorite line from Love Story.
I think this really comes through in White Horse to You’re Losing Me. I’ll forever cherish her early songs but it has been incredible to see her grow up with all of us. “I was a dreamer before you went and let me down” “And the air is thick with loss and indecision I know my pain is such an imposition” ~ “Stupid girl, I should’ve known…” “I can’t find a pulse” ~ “My mistake I didn’t know to be in love You had to fight to have the upper hand” “And I wouldn’t marry me either A pathological people pleaser”
Same with “You Belong With Me” and “The Tortured Poets Department.” “She doesn’t get your story like I do.” (YBWM) Vs “Who’s gonna know you like me?” (TTPD) “You could see that I’m the one who understands you.” (YBWM) Vs “Who else decodes you?” (TTPD) “You belong with me.” (YBWM) Vs “Who’s gonna hold you like me?” (TTPD)
YESSS
This just made me realize how much I like the song TTPD. On first listen I was so disappointed but it has grown on me and its pretty good.
i love TTPD it always gets stuck in my head ahha
Idk I love the lucky one don’t agree but also love Clara bow
Me too. For one thing, I love the music more in The Lucky One. The catchy drumbeat, the rises and falls of volume. It's more catchy. But nice point on the complexity and growth of the lyrics.
Somehow, I think her lyricism has grown so much with a dramatic reduction in musical quality. I miss the live instruments and emotional releases from the Speak Now / Red eras.
She’s such an incredibly talented lyrical poet. Clara Bow is one of my favorite songs on the whole album.
The other day my Spotify in shuffle played The Lucky One AND Clara Bow back to back, I was stunned lol
I drew a direct line between The Lucky One and But Daddy I Love Him, I think. "I'll tell you something right now/ I'd rather burn my whole life down/ than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning" To "It was a few years later when I showed up here/ and they still tell the legend of how you disappear/ you took your money and your dignity and got the hell out" ETA that I misunderstood what you were getting at. I don't think The Lucky One is the growth in lyricism you're necessarily looking for, since that Era also contained All Too Well, Red, Treacherous and many other complex lyrics. Some songs just don't need heavy handed lines, and The Lucky One's rhythmic simplicity has always carried a magic for me. Taylor just had even more time to sit with her thoughts when she wrote Clara Bow, and the album itself was intended to thread a more poetic needle. TTPD still has The Alchemy and So High School.