A Very Self Indulgent Analysis of the 1 from ~a Kaylor Perspective~
Is the 1 about Karlie Kloss? Probably not. It’s probably a song about wishing Taylor and Harry could’ve been more than beards, who am I to say? But I will write you this post about Kaylor and this song because I was listening to it last night and it made me sad. (And I’m avoiding being actually productive besides)
That being said. This analysis isn’t the word of god, I’m not Taylor nor do I have access to her brain. Every interpretation is equally valid but I will roll my eyes at you if you say this is about Taylor au-ing if her and Karlie broke up I will roll my eyes at you. I also don’t take this song 100% literally. Few if any people Taylor’s been with can just “meet some woman on the internet and take them home”, so whether or not Karlie can or would do that with a husband and a baby due soon is a moot point to me.
The fact Aaron Dessner also said it was from another friend’s perspective also does not impede my analysis. We know Taylor is in a happy committed relationship with Joe, most people would side eye their relationship if she said with her whole chest she wrote this from her perspective.
That all being said, in the words of one Philip DeFranco, let’s jump right into it.
“I hit the ground running each night/I hit the Sunday matinée/You know the greatest films of all time were never made”
I see the first line as a bit of a double meaning. She’s demonstrating how moved on she is a la the first line in the song, while also describing the relationship she moved on from “the one” with, it happening to her rather quickly. In this context “hitting the Sunday matinee” could be a metaphor for our actor boy Joe.
“You know the greatest films of all time were never made”
This is my favorite line in this motif. Taylor never got to tell any of her stories about her relationships with women. Not plainly and explicitly anyway. Not only did their coastal town they wandered round never see their love (whether because of hiding or having to tip toe around Josh), even if Taylor comes out tomorrow she’ll never be able to acknowledge these relationships the same way she can with men, and I’m not crying about this I’m definitely not.
“I guess you never know, never know/And if you wanted me, you really should've showed/And if you never bleed, you're never gonna grow/And it's alright now”
Karlie chose Josh, thus is the fundamental truth of Kaylor. Taylor was the other woman, longing to be remembered and to be “more than a footnote in the story of your life”. If Karlie wanted Taylor, as a friend, girlfriend, whatever, Taylor is saying she should’ve acted like it. Though Taylor has grown from the experience, and time has passed, she still catches herself dwelling on these memories, the good times if you will a la my gold rush and happiness analysis.
“But we were something, don't you think so?/Roaring twenties, tossing pennies in the pool/And if my wishes came true/It would've been you”
To me, the first line of the chorus here feels like Taylor, even though years have passed, to try and acknowledge they were something, if not girlfriends, at least a relationship with meaning. Roaring twenties could also be a 1989 era reference, and Taylor acknowledging that at one point, being with Karlie in an actual relationship, not an other woman scenario, was her wish.
“We never painted by the numbers, baby/But we were making it count/You know the greatest loves of all time are over now”
One day I will write a post about every time Taylor mentions counting, you see this a lot in Karlie songs (You did a number on me, but honestly baby who's counting?) or rather, ones I think are Karlie songs.
I also interpret not painting by the numbers as a reference to Tay and Kar never having a traditional relationship, and the following line being another dig at Karlie that they did have a relationship and it meant something, whatever Karlie has to tell herself to sleep at night. Still, even if they were in love, it’s all over now.
“I, I, I persist and resist the temptation to ask you/If one thing had been different/Would everything be different today?”
If Josh wasn’t there, if Karlie had been more available in xyz capacity, if the master heist hadn’t happened, would they still be together? Would they still be friends even? Does she even want that anymore? There’s a wistfulness here for the imagined possibilities. You can know something ended for a reason, and you’re happy now, and you’re better off without them anyway, and still wonder if there’s an au out there where everything fell into place and you ended up together.
“In my defense I have none/for digging up the grave another time/but it would’ve been fun/if you would’ve been the one”