1DFBI said Trouble was written in 2012 with gosling and Leonard, who are they? Who is that account? I wonder if they actually know anything.
I don't know anything about the account, the only thing of Harry's they have shared I hadn't heard before was the full studio version of Medicine. So far I think they more fan than insider but we'll see.
Trouble isn't registered, unlike 2 other Gosling/Leonard/Harry collabs so I am dubious this is right, and it doesn't fit the lyrics. But if so, Gosling & Leonard are:
Jake Gosling has production credits on Moments, Little Things and Right Now. For Ed he produced A Team and Lego House, and
Chris Leonard, the 1D guitarist who's couches Ed and Harry slept on, he played bass on Little Things, guitar on the song Midnight Memories and cowrote Lego House with Ed.
It could be, however, I think it it was written after December 2012 because it refers to the no-shoes at the MSG night and snowmobile accident.
Harry working with Chris & Jake
1D, Jake, Ed and Chris were all together to when Little Things was recorded in August 2012. So, it's certainly plausible that it was written around Little Things in August 2012, sans Ed, probably up to mid-September if it was intended for Take Me Home. Chris posted a photo with Harry and Elton John 20 September 2013, when there was no apparent collaboration. (TBH I think it was written then based on lyrics IF IDFBI was right about the collaborators). They also wrote Lay Down (around 2012) and Not Our Fault (2014) with Harry.
The timeline for IKYWT is vague, but generally considered to be in written with Max in April 2012. Harry and Taylor were both in LA and wrote with Ed and Gary Lightbody in May 2012 so hearing it then is plausible. Haylor also saw each other again at the VMAs after Red was complete. So the short answer is yes, Harry had a few opportunities to hear IKYWT before Take Me Home was complete.
The lyrics are very overtly Haylor, with thirteen and Trouble, so much it is not surprising it wasn't released.
[Verse 1]
Listen to the song I wrote and all these notes
I put them there for you
I still taste, the time we kissed, upon my lips,
swimming in the blue
I love this intro, it makes him sound so young and naive. It reminds me of Slut also "Aquamarine, moonlit swimmin' pool, What if all I need is you?' We don't know what it was written, but the next line also refers to Hollywood which is in that verse of Slut too. (Flamingo pink, Sunrise Boulevard). The blue may also be sadness.
[Verse 2]
It never snows in Hollywood,
But when we sang it showed us that it could
I carried you across the way and you showed me
that thirteen can be good
How I love that he put thirteen in this song. It literally snowed in California on 2, 14 and 19 December 2012, the first hint this song was not from August 2012. Haylor was LA on the 19th.
It reminds me of Taylors song Snow on the Beach actually. Not just in the matching imagery but that imagery of unlikely snow representing a rare romantic encounter is the same.
[Pre-Chorus]
You flipped me upside down
We’re both laying on the ground
And I don’t even know you
The overall meaning to me is that the muse has Harry in a whirlwind. The I don't even know you speaks to falling fast but is also in other songs. The conflict of close but distant is a theme.
Even Genius links the flipped me upside down, laying on the ground and snow reference in this song to their Snow Mobile Accident. Which I do also. To me this is why I am not sure 1DFBI is correct about it being for Take Me Home as the album was out then.
Flipped me, we lay on the ground reminds me especially of I Love You, but Harry says he is on the ground this a lot. The I don't even know you reminds me of Love of My Life "I don't know you half as well as all my friends"" he says similar things in Sunflower Harry sang “Let me inside, I wanna get to know you” and in Fine Line “Spreading you open Is the only way of knowing you” to explore the idea of intimacy co-existing with distance with the same person.
[Chorus]
But I feel like I do sometimes
Looking in your eyes,
When I see that smile therе’s trouble
So turn around
And I'll hold my hands up
You know I’m trouble
I’m trouble with you
The phrase “there’s trouble” matches Taylor’s “I Knew You Were Trouble”. But he is playfully agreeing that he is the trouble. He is flipping a negative in to a positive. He isn't blaming her for heartbreak, he’s acknowledging his role and that together they become volatile. He's asking her to turn around, to come back. He is putting his hands up in surrender.
[Verse 2]
If I could havе a hundred things,
Not one of them could compare to you
And we could take this anywhere,
Cause where we’re going
We don’t need no shoes
The opening of this verse reminds me of Sinéad O'Connor/Prince: "Nothing Compares 2 U", not sure if it is intended but it does.
The second line about no shoes is another clear reference to the MSG day, the same reference Taylor makes in Maroon. She had no shoes during karaoke:
[Bridge]
And you know that I’ll be gone in the morning
And I hope that you'll think of me like
I think of you all the time,
Looking in your eyes when I see that smile
there’s trouble
Poor Harry is always singing that he will be leaving before he wants:
Story of My Life - “And I'll be gone, gone tonight”
Daydreaming - “You know I'll be gone for so long” / “Stay until the morning”
Already Home - “You don’t have to go, but you’re already leaving” / “Your car is outside with the door open wide”
Back for You - “I'll be coming back for you, back for you…”
