#multi song

[inocennt]

sarahs and hannahs in their sunday best, clutching their pearls sighing, “what a mess.” she looks like she’s been through it. you’ve got edge, she never did. it must have been her fault his heart gave out. they shake their heads, saying “god help her.” behind her back, her best mates laughed. what a shame she’s fucked in the head. don’t you worry folks, we took out all her teeth. there goes the maddest woman this town has ever seen. what a shame she went mad.

you made her like that.

[inocennt]

it’s like i’ve got this music in my mind, saying, “it’s gonna be alright.” it’s a new soundtrack, i could dance to this beat forevermore. i chose you, the one i was dancing with in new york. we’re dancing round the kitchen in the refrigerator light. we are too busy dancing to get knocked off our feet. everything will be alright if we just keep dancing like we’re 22. i was dancing when the music stopped. i dropped your hand while dancing. i lost you, the one i was dancing with in new york. i said, “dancing is a dangerous game.” i don’t want to dance if i’m not dancing with you.

[inocennt]

5 most important tracks from TTPD?

This question feels very similar to a little game I saw a few weeks ago that asked people to turn TTPD into a 5-song ep, and for that question, I'd chosen The Albatross, Peter, The Bolter, Robin and The Manuscript. Because those songs encompass The Gender Of It All™ to me, and I feel like gender and the the impact that gendered expectations in a binary/patriarchal society can have on people's behavior is a huge central theme in TTPD (particularly in the anthology section when we start to explore the hows and whys of the main narrative coming to play).

But despite the relevance of that theme, I feel like only choosing anthology tracks would be to neglect the actual main storyline of the album itself, which obviously is very important and relevant as well. So in terms of "most important" tracks, I would say:

But Daddy I Love Him -- Establishing TTPD's main narrative following a forbidden/disgraced love affair, the potential red flags on the part of the lover, and the narrator's own sense of self-assuredness and dedication, both to the relationship as well as her own idea of control and proving others wrong. Heavy use of religious metaphor and iconography, relevant obviously in the wider context of TTPD, but also to songs from past albums (most notably Would've Could've Should've). Narratively depicts an idealized scenario in which she tells off everyone poking their noses into her love life and ultimately wins them all over, which also calls back to songs from previous albums (Love Story, Ours). This song on its own carries and alludes to the themes from nearly every other main album song that is relevant to the lover storyline (MBOBHFT, Down Bad, Florida, I Can Fix Him, Guilty As Sin).

Clara Bow -- Honestly, a good case could be made for WAOLOM as one of the most important TTPD songs too, but I raise this one up as the most important fame-centric track because of how it is not just about the brutal nature of the industry, but also the cyclical nature of it. Cycles and habits are also a central theme of TTPD as an album, perhaps the central driving force behind everything that happens, so while Clara Bow may feel like an odd closer to the main album on its own, its inherent nature as an exploration of the constant cycling through "It Girls" within celebrity culture goes hand in hand with the romantic narrative of TTPD being a textbook reenactment of a previous relationship experience (the Speak Now narrative). The events of TTPD are perpetuated by a mentality that is born out of trauma responses, inflicted in part by past relationships, and in part by past industry experiences, which is why the romantic narrative and the fame narrative go perfectly hand in hand in TTPD.

The Prophecy -- I feel like this song touches on basically every underlying theme in the album. The desire for romantic connection. The looming shadow of fame and its worst facets. The gendered implications and societal dynamics. Religious and witchy iconography. I don't think there's a single song on this album that you couldn't find some thematic or narrative tie back to this song. And obviously, given TTPD's thematic nature as an exploration of cycles and habits, this song can be applicable to many of Taylor's past projects as well.

Peter -- The ultimate song depicting the gendered ideas at play in TTPD. Lamenting the loss of a past lover who swore that they would mature and find their way back to the narrator over time, but ultimately never staying true to that promise. In so many ways, this song depicts how girls are often forced to "grow up" much quicker than boys, and how even grown men are often given a pass for immature behavior, because that's just "how they are." "Life was always easier on you than it was on me." Perhaps, if these gendered restrictions/freedoms were not at play, the story of these two characters could have played out differently, but despite this album's wistful longings implying otherwise, there is no more than one ending to this story.

The Manuscript -- I honestly feel like this one is self-explanatory. It says everything so bluntly and straightforwardly, as is expected of the unrefined and unedited nature of a manuscript. With this single closer alone, you can recontextualize basically every entry in Taylor's discography from Speak Now to today, and even see the tragic fragments of foreshadowing at play in Debut and Fearless (A Perfectly Good Heart, TWILY, You all Over Me).

[inocennt]

The Lucky One Vs Clara Bow opening Versus

New to town with a made-up name In the angel's city, chasing fortune and fame And the camera flashes make it look like a dream

vs

"You look like Clara Bow in this light Remarkable All your life, did you know You'd be picked like a rose"

The camera flashes make it look like a dream. Another name goes up in lights, like diamonds in the sky. The lights are so bright, but they never blind me. You'll find me on my tallest tiptoes, spinning in my highest heels, love, shining just for you. Dim that spotlight, tell me things like "I can't keep my eyes off of you." Promise to be dazzling, like a mirrorball. But beauty is a beast that roars down on all fours, demanding more. Another name goes up in lights. The lights and noise are blinding. Only when your girlish glow flickers just so do they let you know. You wonder if you'll make it out alive. You took the money and your dignity and got the hell out. Now my name is up in lights, but I think you got it right. I know someday I'm gonna meet her, it's a fever dream, the kind of radiance you only have at seventeen. She'll know the way in, then she'll say she got the map from me. You should find another guiding light, but I shine so bright. "You've got edge, she never did." The future's bright, dazzling.

[inocennt]

it deeply agonizes me that the speak now elements of the manuscript are never discussed in favor of the atw of it all..... like i just. "in the age of him she wished she was 30 and made coffee every morning in a french press" vs "someday when we're older, this is something we'll laugh about over coffee every morning while you're watching the news," "now and then she rereads the manuscript of the entire torrid affair" vs "i used to think one day i'd tell the story of us," "afterwards she only ate kids cereal and couldn't sleep unless it was in her mother's bed" vs never grow up exploring the idea of moving out for the first time & how she couldn't be sleeping in her mother's bed if she was already moved out (also robin being the last song before the manuscript already creating this mental connection)..... please im insane

[inocennt]

13 fave fictional Taylor songs? (Songs not autobiographical)?

well to me almost every taylor song is fictional bc the Narrator™ is a mirrored image and dramatized characterization of taylor and not a 1:1 depiction of Taylor Swift The Living Breathing Being With A Life And Experiences Beyond The Thematic Exploration Of The Human Condition Within Her Songs, so. some of these might not be your own definition of "fictional" lol

peter

but daddy i love him

tis the damn season

this is me trying

champagne problems

illicit affairs

ivy

august

death by a thousand cuts

i can fix him (no really i can)

florida!!!

mine

miss americana & the heartbreak prince

[inocennt]

What's a song Taylor's done which is similar to TTPD The Song?

so i'm gonna go ahead and answer this based on lyrics and themes rather than production, bc i'm not really well versed in that (though funnily enough, i do think the ttpd verses and the superman chorus sound kinda similar if you think about it sfdsdfds), but oooh man do i have. a Few. 👀

I really love @wavesoutbeingtossed's take on TTPD as a manic version of Mine (on my Speak Now/TTPD narrative comparison playlist, I actually also have these two paired up on the chronology). In terms of narrating the story of a relationship from a broad perspective and choosing to stick things out through the tough times, these two are definitely very similar.

Keeping on the Speak Now train: Innocent. I know this may be an odd take, considering how most people seem to be unable to separate Innocent from its Kanye connotations, but at its core, Innocent is simply a song about seeing the good in someone, keeping faith, and believing in second chances, both for yourself and for the people around you. To me, it represents the last fragment of faith and trust that Taylor's character has in Speak Now, before the ultimate conclusion comes to pass in Haunted and Dear John. This sense of faith and assurance directed towards a second party who is clearly falling apart is paralleled strongly in TTPD. Some of my favorite lyrical connections include: "You awaken with dread, pounding nails in your head" vs "Did some things you can't speak of, but at night you live it all again" / "Your string of lights is still bright to me" vs "Who's gonna hold you like me? Who's gonna know you if not me?" / "You're in self-sabotage mode, throwing spikes down on the road, but I've seen this episode and still loved the show" vs "Lost your balance on a tightrope, it's never too late to get it back." I also think that, when taking Innocent as a parallel to TTPD, you can also connect "32 and still growing up now" to Peter, and Innocent's "who you are is not what you did" to The Smallest Man's eventual "you are what you did." TTPD is the point in time where she still believes he is "innocent," before he crushes her faith in a way not too dissimilar to the muse of Speak Now's narrative.

This flips the perspective around, but Anti-Hero very much feels like TTPD from the subject's point of view. When they awaken with dread, screaming from dreaming, it's because their depression is working the graveyard shift. "Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism like some kind of congressman?" feels like the exact kind of question that the subject of TTPD would ask that gets her to reply with, "This ain't the Chelsea Hotel, we're modern idiots." "I stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror" is PEAK self-sabotage mode. Anti-Hero and TTPD are just straight up having a conversation to me lmao, they're just so Linked™.

This is based mostly on general vibes rather than any overt thematic link, but: Hoax. Simply for how much weight "don't want no other shade of blue but you, no other sadness in the world will do" carries for the song, and how perfectly that ties to "I chose this cyclone with you." There's also some fascinatingly deeper thematic undertones when tying the "TTPD = Anti-Hero" connection back to "you knew the hero died, so what's the movie for?" and how that could begin to imply the eventual death/absence of the lover in TTPD, which in and of itself also links back to lyrics we go on to see later in the album ("two graves, one gun," "he said he'd love me all his life, but that life was too short," "you said normal girls were boring but you were gone by the morning"). And how, if we return to the thematic connection of TTPD and Innocent, and how Innocent represents the last threads of faith that the narrator had during the Speak Now chapter of her story, then of course, she already knows that the eventual disappearance of this new lover, the "hero," was always meant to be. She's seen the film before. He didn't come back, like he would if this was a movie. It's all just part of the prophecy.

[inocennt]

underrated taylor swift lyrical parallels

- you see me in hindsight // actually, i always felt i must look better in the rearview

- maybe i'm just a girl on a mission, but i'm ready to fly // criticize the way you fly when you're soaring through the sky, shoot you down and then they sigh and say, "she looks like she's been through it"

- it's like i've got this music in my mind, saying "it's gonna be alright" // i was dancing when the music stopped, and in the disbelief, i can't face reinvention

- it must have been her fault his heart gave out // everyone wants him, that was my crime // they paint me out to be bad, so it's okay that i'm mad

- i lived in your chess game, but you changed the rules every day // all the wisest women had to do it this way, cause we were born to be the pawn in every lover's game

- would you tell me to go fuck myself, or lead me to the garden? // so i sneak out to the garden to see you, we keep quiet cause we're dead if they knew // i snuck in through the garden gate every night that summer just to seal my fate // i'm only 17, i don't know anything but i know i miss you // marry me juliet, you'll never have to be alone, i love you and that's all i really know // i love you, ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?

- i don't like that falling feels like flying til the bone crush // my flight was awful, thanks for asking

- and you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars, and why i've spent my whole life trying to put it into words // and at last, she knew what the agony had been for