#hayloraf

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From "All you had to do was stay" 13 tracks later: I would stay forever if you say, "Don't go"

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Taylor and Zayn the Day They Started IDWLF

Taylor: So How's Harry been?

Zayn: I don't know. I'm not in 1D anymore.

T: I know, but you're still friends right? You still talk to him.

Z: Not really. He wasn't really a fan of me leaving and bashing the band.

T: Oh.

Z: Yeah.

T: So y'all don't talk?

Z: Nope

T: You're not friends?

Z: No

T: Why are you here again?

Z: To work on the song you wanted to sing with me.

T: Oh yeah... I should've picked Niall.

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Harry on Howard Stern 2020:

"The only time you really think about, is this song too personal? Is if you think about, is this(media) going to be really annoying for the other person?"

Taylor 2023:

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Renegade

Taylor’s words hit me so hard when I heard her first voice memo and still do, every time.

Big Red Machine and Taylor Swift Share Video for New Song “Renegade”

The latest collaboration between Swift, Aaron Dessner, and Justin Vernon

🩷 I tapped on your window on your darkest night / The shape of you was jagged and weak / There was nowhere for me to stay, but I stayed anyway.

🩷 And if I would've known / How many pieces you had crumbled into / I might have let them lay.

🩷Are you really gonna talk about timing in times like these? / And let all your damage damage me / And carry your baggage up my street / And make me your future history.

🩷it's time, / You've come a long way, open the blinds, let me see your face

🩷 You wouldn't be the first renegade to need somebody / Is it insensitive for me to say / "Get your shit together so I can love you"? / Is it really your anxiety that stops you / From giving me everything / Or do you just not want to?

🩷 You fire off missiles 'cause you hate yourself / But do you know you're demolishing me?

🩷 And then you squeeze my hand as I'm about to leave

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"Red; when I wrote that song, it’s almost like everything shifted" 🏎️

If you thought DWOHT was a monster post, strap on in you'll probably need another coffee at midnight to keep you going...

What has Taylor said about Red?

Speaking to Taste of Country in 2013 Taylor recounts: "I had been writing for about a year when I wrote ‘Red,’ the song. And when I wrote that song, it’s almost like everything shifted, and I wanted to take the album to a different pace. Because as soon as I wrote the song, I knew I wanted to name the album ‘Red.’ So, that was kind of in my mind when I worked on the album for the next year, and that ended up being — those songs ended up being the majority of the songs that ended up on the record."

Taylor confirmed again to Billboard magazine that the writing of Red the song was the turning point and the muse for the rest of the album. "“Red” the song was a real turning point for “Red” the album. When I wrote that song my mind started wandering to all the places we could go”."

In that same Billboard interview Taylor talks about the the themes of the album, It’s all the different ways that you have to say goodbye to someone. When you’re experiencing the ups and downs of a relationship, especially when you’re 22 years old, they all strike you different ways. Every different kind of missing someone, every kind of loss – it all sounds different to me. When you are missing someone, time seems to move slower and when I’m falling in love with someone, time seems to be moving faster. So I think, because time seems to move so slow when I’m sad, that’s why I spend so much time writing songs about it. It seems like I have more hours in the day.

According to Taylor’s Lover journals, she wrote the song on a flight home after a show in Tacoma Washington September 7, 2011. She was supposed to head to LA after her show however after a phone conversation with her brother (Austin) she was “missing my mum and my town where I know my way around”, so she flew home to Nashville instead.

Sounds like Red was a crucial piece to the TS4 album no?

Context

So from the above we know the song was written in September of 2011. So what was or had been happening for Taylor? The general consensus is that the entire Red album is written about Jake with maybe a haylor song or two. I whole heartedly disagree - its more likely the opposite is true. Here's why:

Taylor has stated in almost every interview ever that she will not reveal who her songs are written about, she does however say her music is where her truth is.

So swifties do you know your Jake herstory?

All To Well was the first song that was written for the Red album. It was written with one of Taylors regular co-writers of the time Liz Rose. At the time of writing Taylor was recovering from a bout of writers block that followed a damaging relationship. Taylor said to USA Today: "There's a kind of bad that gets so overpowering you can't even write about it," she says of that time. "When you feel pain that is so far past dysfunctional, that leaves you with so many emotions that you can't filter them down to simple emotions to write about, that's when you know you really need to get out."

Brutal.

More alarmingly she opened up to The Guardian: [Hide away and find your peace of mind / With some indie record that's much cooler than mine.] "That was the most important line of the song," Swift says. "It was a relationship where I felt very critiqued and subpar. He'd listen to this music that nobody had heard of … but as soon as anyone else liked these bands, he'd drop them. I felt that was a strange way to be a music fan. And I couldn't understand why he would never say anything nice about the songs I wrote or the music I made."

And finally to USA Today: "WANEGBT is a definitive portrait of how I felt when I finally stopped caring what my ex thought of me. He made me feel like I wasn't as good or as relevant as these hipster bands he listened to. So I made a song that I knew would absolutely drive him crazy when he heard it on the radio. Not only would it hopefully be played a lot, so that he'd have to hear it, but it's the opposite of the kind of music that he was trying to make me feel inferior to."

I don't really wish to delve too deep into their relationship as we absolutely do not have the information necessary to make certain judgements however there's quite a bit to be concerned about in the statements above.

However, for a songwriter who "writes all the time" to be so debilitated by a relationship that they are unable to process their emotions is pretty alarming. Do you think this is the type of relationship you would be singing State of Grace, Red, Treacherous, I Knew You Were Trouble, 22, I Almost Do, The Last Time, Holy Ground, Sad Beautiful Tragic, Everything Has Changed, Begin Again, Come Back…Be Here, Babe, Message In A Bottle, Run, and The Very First Night about? Would you go back to this person who was so damaging to you? Would you miss them in a longing way?

Yeah nah. Me neither.

So who then?

Taylor made a rare comment on her personal life to Vanity Fair in 2013, "“But what it ended up adding to was this whole kind of everyone jumping on the bandwagon of ‘Taylor dates too much’—which, you know, if you want some big revelation, since 2010 I have dated exactly two people.”

Those two people, Conor Kennedy and Harry Styles. Oh well it MUST be Conor Kennedy! You say? Wrong.

Taylor's first public sighting with Conor was in July of 2012, almost a year after the song the changed the course of the album. Taylor allowed a "friend" to comment on her personal relationships from the same Vanity Fair article above. That friend had the below to say about Conor, "He was just like a two-month thing,” and that Swift “says he was awesome”.

Okay so it's not Conor, but it can't be Harry. Taylor and Harry met at the Kids Choice Awards on 31st March 2012. Wrong again.

Courtesy of Taylor's Time Person of the Year 2023 interview we get a great insight as to how she handles new relationships and the unique circumstances of her job “We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other. By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.”

And now I direct you to the incredible @foxes-that-run's timelines for further information. These are continuously being updated as we dig through the trenches of the interwebz.

Now that you're back from that rabbit hole we continue!

Talking to NPR in November 2012 Taylor reveals: I've had relationships with people that were really substantial and meant a lot to me, but I couldn't write a song about that person for some reason. Then again, you'll meet someone that comes into your life for two weeks and you write an entire record about them.

In October 2013 she spoke with Vulture, “I heard from the guy that most of Red is about,” Swift said. “He was like, ‘I just listened to the album, and that was a really bittersweet experience for me. It was like going through a photo album.’ That was nice. Nicer than, like, the ranting, crazy e-mails I got from this one dude."

🏎️Crazy ranting emails does not sound like Harry, but it does sound like a serial gaslighter who never had anything great to say about your art even when you were dating. You know who would understand having an album written about them? Another songwriter.

Cars

Written on 7th September 2011, conveniently the same day our curly haired muse makes his first purchase into the classic/high performance car world. Harry purchased an Audi R8 on this day in England. (England is 8 hours ahead of Washington) The biggest of shoutouts again to @foxes-that-run for finding this nugget!

The level of troll between these two will never not amuse me. Harry one of the esteemed guests at the 2019 Google Camp had the option of a Mercedes Benz, Maserati, or Luxury Van to ferry themselves around the event. He did not disappoint:

Harry has a vast sports and vintage car collection and impeccable taste(imo). My personal favourite, the 1966 Mercedes-Benz 230SL convertible

Secret Message

Red's secret message in the album liner spells out SAG.

This one's still a work in progress, its definitely not Screen Actors Guild, or SAGgittarius. Taylor loves a bait and switch. My hero @foxes-that-run's leading theory is that it's Styles At GQ, which is pretty spot on if you ask me. For more context go read the timeline^^

Red

Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street

Faster than the wind, passionate as sin, ending so suddenly

Loving him is like trying to change your mind once you're already flying through the free fall

Like the colours in autumn, so bright just before they lose it all

Taylor opens by painting one of the most vivid pictures she ever has, driving a new Maserati down a dead end street. A high powered sports car that is designed for performance, should never be on a dead end street, it will crash and burn. While this song switches through past/present tense the context shows us its reflective. She's not in this moment right now, but her feelings are unresolved.

"Loving him is like trying to change your mind once you're already flying through the free fall" is a direct reference to gold rush:

🏎️ I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush

Losing him was blue like I'd never known

Missing him was dark gray, all alone (Woah)

Forgetting him was like tryin' to know somebody you never met

But loving him was red (Red, red)

(Red, red)

But loving him was red, (Red, red)

(Red, red)

Colours, colours, colours, colours!!

Colours are the centrepiece of this song; this song is the key for colours that follow.

The rest of the world was black and white, But we were in screaming colour

Losing him was blue like I'd never known.

A reference to sadness, melancholy, depression. This is a very common theme throughout Taylors music and escalates when she is reminiscing about this muse and living without him.

🏎️ My, my love had been frozen deep blue, but you painted me golden - DWOHT

🏎️ And it’s blue, the feeling I got - Cruel Summer

🏎️ My heart’s been borrowed and yours has been blue - Lover

🏎️ We’re so sad, we paint the town blue - Miss Americana

🏎️ I’m with you even if it makes me blue - Paper Rings

🏎️ I blew things out of proportion, now you’re blue - Afterglow

🏎️ If your cascade ocean wave blues come - peace

🏎️ Don’t want no other shade of blue but you - hoax

🏎️ Did I paint your bluest skies the darkest grey a universe away? - Coney Island

🏎️ Sapphire tears on my face, sadness became my whole sky - Bejewelled

🏎️ Looked up at me with honour and truth, broken and blue - The Great War

🏎️ Catastrophic blues, moving on was always easy for me to do - Hits Different

Missing him was dark grey, all alone

When she is without him, there is no colour. Everything fades to grey. There is no passion, there are no sparks.

🏎️ I make all your grey days clear - So It Goes...

🏎️ In shades of grey and candlelight - Getaway Car

🏎️ It fades into the grey of my day-old tea ‘cause it will never be - gold rush

🏎️ Did I paint your bluest skies the darkest grey a universe away? - Coney Island

🏎️ Gray November, I’ve been down since July - evermore

🏎️ Got swept away in the grey, I just may like to have a conversation - Question...?

But loving him was red

His love has painted her with colour, colours she's never seen with anyone else. The use of the colour red following this album links back to this muse.

🏎 Cherry lips, crystal skies - Blank Space

🏎️ And I got that red lip classic thing that you like - Style

🏎️ Red lips and rosy cheeks - Wildest Dreams

🏎️ You’re still all over me like a wine-stained dress I can’t wear anymore - Clean

🏎️ We show off our different scarlet letters - New Romantics

🏎️ So here’s the truth from my red lips - End Game

🏎️ Crimson red paint on my lips - I Did Something Bad

🏎️I’ve got a list of names and yours is in red underlined - LWYMMD

🏎️ I once believed love would be burning red, but it’s golden - Daylight

🏎️ A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground with no one around to tweet it - The Lakes

🏎️ I don’t like anticipating my face in a red flush - gold rush

🏎️ Literally the whole song Maroon.

🏎️ And we will never go back to that bloodshed, crimson clover - The Great War

🏎️ I’m not even sorry, nights are so starry, blood moonlit - Glitch

Touching him was like realizing all you ever wanted was right there in front of you

Memorizing him was as easy as knowing all the words to your old favorite song

Fighting with him was like trying to solve a crossword and realizing there's no right answer

Regretting him was like wishing you never found out that love could be that strong

These two love a puzzle, especially of the wordplay variety.

Remembering him comes in flashbacks and echoes

Tell myself it's time now, gotta let go

But moving on from him is impossible when I still see it all in my head

In burning red

Burning, it was red

Another direct reference to another Taylor song, this time Treacherous.

🏎️ Your name has echoed through my mind - Treacherous

And that's why he's spinning 'round in my head (Red, red)

Comes back to me, burning red (Red, red)

(Red, red)

Yeah, yeaa (Red, red)

Here's the reference. He keeps spinning in her head, she can't let go. Why not? Because he keeps coming back. That sounds awfully like other songs we've heard from Taylor? You would be correct.

🏎️ And when we go crashin' down, we come back every time - Style

🏎️That's how you got the girl - HYGTG

🏎️ When you're young, you just run, But you come back to what you need - This Love

🏎️ This love came back to me - This Love

🏎️ And so it goes, You two are dancing in a snow globe 'round and 'round - YAIL

🏎️ We team up, then switch sides like a record changer - New Romantics

🏎️ Was it over then? And is it over now? - Is It Over Now?

🏎️ 'Cause we break down a little, But when you get me alone, it's so simple - So It Goes…

🏎️ But then you called, showed your hand, I turned around before I hit the tunnel - Cornelia Street

🏎️ Now I'm missing your smile, hear me out, We could just ride around, And the road not taken looks real good now - 'tis the damn season

🏎️ In my defence, I have none, For digging up the grave another time - the 1

🏎️ It's never too late to come back to my side - dorothea

🏎️ And I knew you'd come back to me, You'd come back to me - cardigan

🏎️ But it might just have been you, Passing by unbeknownst to me - SOTB

🏎️ And you passed right by - Long Story Short

🏎️ I thought the plane was goin' down, How'd you turn it right around? - Labyrinth

🏎️ A brief interruption, a slight malfunction, I'd go back to wanting dudes who give nothing - Glitch

His love was like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street

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Thinking about the incoming Is It Over Now? music video and I'm not sure I'm ever going to be emotionally ready.

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Betty is the other side to How You Get The Girl.

Change my mind.

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Wait.. what.?