Fearless

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Fearless" from her "Fearless" album.

This song is a perfect song for the beginning of a relationship, "Well you stood there with me in the doorway/My hands shake/I'm not usually this way but/You pull me in and I'm a little more brave/It's the first kiss/It's flawless/Really something/It's fearless."  You always want to remember those first moments, "You put your eyes on me/In this moment now capture it, remember it/Cause I don't know how it gets better than this."  This person makes you want to "dance in a storm in my best dress."

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Fearless".

Who is this song about?

The lyric hint in the song is, "I LOVED YOU BEFORE I MET YOU."

Okay that was a trick question, it isn't about anyone, it's a song that Taylor wrote about what it would be like to be that in love.  Taylor says, "This is a song about the fearlessness of falling in love. No matter how many break up songs you write, no matter how many times you get hurt, you will always fall in love again. When I wrote “Fearless,” I wasn’t dating anyone. I wasn’t even in the beginning stages of dating anybody. I really was all by myself out on tour and I got this idea for a song about the best first date. I think sometimes when you’re writing love songs, you don’t write them about what you’re going through at the moment, you write about what you wish you had. So, this song is about the best first date I haven't had yet."

The lyric hint "I LOVED YOU BEFORE I MET YOU" refers to the future love of her life.  Taylor has met a lot of guys and always picks herself up again.  I had to go through a lot of duds before I found my prince charming.  Kudos to her for picking herself up again and being fearless about falling in love.  Some day you will find your prince charming Taylor!

Click here for the music video to the song, "Fearless".

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I Knew You Were Trouble

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "I Knew You Were Trouble" from her "Red" album.

This song is definitely a pop song.  It has a catchy chorus, a distinct beat and her voice is definitely in pop mode. I love it.

In her preview of the song on Good Morning America Taylor said, "The song we're releasing tonight ... it's a song that's one of my favorite songs on the album because it sounds just as chaotic as the feeling was when I wrote it. It's a song about kind of being frustrated with yourself because you have your heart broken and you knew when you first saw that person you saw all these red flags and you just went for it anyway, 'So, shame on me.' "

Who is this song about?  I had my suspicions when I first heard the song, but after watching the music video I definitely know who it is. It is about John Mayer!

Here are some of the clues from the lyrics. The first is, "Once upon a time, a few mistakes ago".  There are some rumblings that this is about Harry Styles, it is not, why not?  This line.  John Mayer was definitely a few mistakes ago.

She says that this guy "never loved me or her or anyone or anything."  And that as soon as she "fell hard" he "took a step back."  How many women has John Mayer tried to get just so he could dump them?  Taylor definitely knew he was "trouble when you walked in" and in the end "heard you moved on from whispers on the street" and she knew she was just "a new notch in your belt."  She sings about not really knowing the status of their relationship, just wanting to talk to him again when she saw him CMT awards in the song "The Story of Us".   John Mayer clearly never gave any closure to Taylor, boo John Mayer.

Click here for the lyrics to the song, "I Knew You Were Trouble".

The other clues come from the music video.  The guy in the music video has a lot of tattoos  as does John Mayer.  The guy in the music video plays the guitar and is a musician, John Mayer certainly is that.  The other may come from the necklace that is featured prominently in the video.  It seems to be one that is half of another necklace, and it appears that the guy in the video is wearing the other half at times.  He gives this necklace to her and is seen wearing it.  In the end she drops it on the ground to signify the end of their relationship.  Taylor and John sang "Half of My Heart" together for John's album "Continuum".  Taylor is also seen wearing a leather jacket, much like one that John Mayer wore while they were dating.

What is most important about this song though is Taylor communicating her feelings about how she lost herself in the whole relationship.  In the music video she has a voice narration introduction, she says "I think that the worst part of it all wasn't losing him, it was losing me".  She knew "his world moved too fast and burned too bright" but wondered how "the devil be pulling me towards someone who looks so much like and angel when he smiles at you?"  The video focuses on Taylor's confusion and loss of herself.  She wakes up in the ruins of a party, very disheveled.  The mood of the video is very melancholy and bleak, void of bright and vibrant colors. At the end of the video she says, "I don't know if you know who you are until you lose who you are".  Taylor has definitely moved on, is happy and dating again, and I am happy for her, because John Mayer definitely was trouble.

Click here for the music video for "I Knew You Were Trouble".

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"I Knew You Were Trouble" Music Video

Here's Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble" music video, with the introduction narration and the ending narration.

Click here for the meaning of the song, "I Knew You Were Trouble".

Introduction:

"I think, I think when it's all over it just comes back in flashes you know
It's like a kaleidoscope of memories, but it just all comes back.
But he never does.

I think part of me knew the second I saw him that this would happen
It's not really anything he said or anything he did
It was the feeling that came along with it
And crazy thing is I don't know if I'm ever going to feel that way again.
But I don't know if I should.

I knew his world moved too fast and burned too bright, but I just thought,
How could the devil be pulling me towards someone who looks so much like and angel when he smiles at you?
Maybe he knew that when he saw me.
I guess I just lost my balance.

I think that the worst part of it all wasn't losing him, it was losing me."

Ending:

"I don't know if you know who you are until you lose who you are."




I Knew You Were Trouble Lyrics (Red Album)

Written by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback

once upon a time, a feW mistakes ago
i was in your sigHts, you got mE aloNe
You found me, you fOund me, you foUnd me…
i gueSs you didn't cAre and i guess i liked that
and i When i fell hard, you took a step back
without Me, without mE, without me…
and he's long gone when he's next to me
and i realize the blame is on me, cause

CHORUS
i knew you were trouble when you walkeD in
so shAme on me Now
flew me to plaCes i’d never been till you put me down
oh I knew you were trouble when you walked iN
so shame on me now
flew me to places i’d never been
now i’m lyinG on the cold hard ground
oh oh trouble, trouble, trouble
oh oh trouble, trouble, trouble

no apologies, he'll never see you cry
pretends he doesn't know that he's the reason why
you're drowning, you’re drowning, you’re drowning…
and i heard you moved on from whispers on the street
a new notch in your belt is all i’ll ever be
and now i see, now i see, now i see…
he was long gone when he met me
and i realize the joke is on me
hey!

REPEAT CHORUS

and the saddest fear
comes creeping in
that you never loved me
or her...or anyone...or anything
yeah

REPEAT CHORUS

i knew you were trouble when you walked in
trouble, trouble, trouble
i knew you were trouble when you walked in
trouble, trouble, trouble

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A Place In This World

Today is Taylor's 23rd birthday!  Happy Birthday Taylor!  In honor of her birthday the meaning of today's song is "A Place In This World" from her "Taylor Swift" album.

Who is this song about?

It's about Taylor and her desire to find a place in this world through her music.

"I was thirteen when I wrote the song "A Place In This World" and I was just kind of looking around at all these big buildings and all these important people and wondering how I was going to fit in."

In the beginning of the song Taylor is doubtful and unsure of what she wants, "I don't know what I want, so don't ask me/Cause I'm still trying to figure it out."  In the middle of the song she knows that "I'm just a girl, trying to find a place is/This world/And tomorrow's just a mystery, oh yeah."  By the end of the song she is more confident and expresses this thought "Maybe I'm just a girl on a mission/But I'm ready to fly" knowing she needs to find her place in this world.

Click here for lyrics to the song, "A Place In This World". 

What was her place in this world?  What did she want more than anything?

In "A Place In This World" documentary Taylor says, "My big dream is to look out into a crowd of thousands of people and have them singing the words to my songs.  That to me would just be everything I've ever hoped for. I want to make people feel things when they hear my music. I want to give a song to someone who is going through a breakup.  I want to give a song to someone who loves someone and can't tell them, a song for someone who has just fallen in love, and a song for people who are just living their lives." ("A Place In This World" documentary)

Taylor's dream started when she was ten Taylor says, "I think I first realized I wanted to be in country music and to be an artist when I was ten and I started dragging my parents to festivals and fairs and karaoke contests and I did that for about a year before I came to Nashville for the first time." ("A Place In This World" documentary)

Taylor tells CMT Insider in 2008 "I first visited Nashville after I watched this TV program about Faith Hill. It said that she went to Nashville and that's how she made it in country music. So ever since I saw that TV program when I was about 10, I was obsessively, obnoxiously bugging my parents every day -- 'We've got to go to Nashville. Can we go to Nashville? Can we go on a trip to Nashville like now? Or maybe spring break, can we go to Nashville?' Everything led to that. It was like, 'So how was your day at school today, Taylor?" 'Great. Can we go to Nashville?' I would bug them every day about it until finally we planned a trip to Nashville."

 "I was eleven and I had this demo CD of me singing Dixie Chicks and Leann Rimes songs and walked into ever major record label and was like, 'Hey I'm Taylor, I'm eleven, I want a record deal. Call me."

"I think that was the trip that made me realize that I really needed to be different so I went back home to Pennsylvania where I grew up and I started writing songs and I picked up a 12 string guitar and started to play.  That's when I started writing every single day after school.  I would go into town after school and write until nine pm, come home do my homework and that's what I did for about 2.5 years straight." ("A Place In This World" documentary)

Taylor tells CMT Insider in 2008 "After the trip that we initially took and met with people on Music Row, I went home and decided that I needed to learn a few more things before I went back. I learned guitar and I learned songwriting, and I never put it down. I would play guitar for four hours a day, and my mom would make me stop, and we'd have to tape up my fingers. So instead of playing at karaoke bars and things like that where I needed to drag my little karaoke machine everywhere, I would go with my guitar and I would plug it in at coffee houses, and I would bring my little amplifier and plug it in at Boy Scout meetings. I would plug it in at all these different places, little random places where you could play. I now had a portable instrument, and I could go accompany myself, and I could play anywhere I wanted to. That really expanded the places where I could play and my abilities. I played so much that I came a long way in a short period of time."

She still tried to make it in Nashville, and did not give up. "When I was about 12, we started going to Nashville and taking trips every two months or so, going to Nashville for a week trying to meet songwriters, trying to get my foot in the door at different places. Eventually, we scored this meeting with RCA Records when I was 13. I went into RCA, and I pulled out my guitar and I played them a bunch of songs, maybe 20 songs. The A&R people there said, "We want to sign you to a development deal." And that was when I was 13. A development deal is not a full-on record deal. It's not 'All right, we're going to make an album. Let's go.' It's 'We're going to sponsor and pay for your demos that you do over this next year, and we're going to see how you grow as an artist. And then in a year, we're going to decide whether we want you or whether we want to develop you for more time or whether we want to drop you.' It's a non-committal commitment, but I was elated. I was just, 'Oh, my gosh! This huge record label wants to sign me to a development deal! I'm so excited!' So we started coming to Nashville more and more and more, and eventually we just decided to move." (CMT Insider)

Taylor moved to Nashville when she was fourteen and started attending Hendersonville High her freshman year. And finally when she was fifteen everything started to pay off, she got a record label and was able to start sharing her music with the world.  When she was sixteen she released her first album, a major victory in Nashville, a city that didn't see many young artists.  Everything skyrocketed after that.

"In this last year everything I've ever worked for has started to pay off. This last year has been absolutely amazing.  It's like everything I've ever wanted, everything I've ever worked for all this time is just happening because getting a record deal means being able to do what I want to do.  This is my chance, this is my chance to bring my music out of my bedroom where I'm writing it. I think it's definitely very surreal right now because there are so many firsts." ("A Place In This World" documentary)

In her lyric hints, capital letters in the lyric booklet Taylor says "FOUND IT".  I'm SO glad you found your place in this world Taylor!  Thanks for your music and Happy Birthday!

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Our Song

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Our Song" from her album "Taylor Swift".

This song is a really fun song about a couple who doesn't have a song.  In the song Taylor describes all the fun things they do together and in essence it becomes their song.  This song would be a fun upbeat wedding song.

Who is this song about?

"Our Song" music video

It is about her boyfriend her freshman year of high school named Drew.

In November 2012 Taylor Swift during her VH1 storytellers concert Taylor said "This is a song that was off of my first album, and my first album came out when I was sixteen so the songs that I wrote on that album were songs I wrote when I was fourteen and fifteen. This was a song that I wrote actually to sing at the high school talent show. I was a freshman and I was, they had this talent show and I'd just moved there and I really wanted to like play for my friends the first time and I'd never told them really that I did this and I loved this and I write songs.  I had been dating this guy who was so nice.  So I wanted to write this song about us and play it for him and his friends and for me and for like all my friends and it was the high school talent show.  So I wrote this song and I included all these details about our relationship like how when we were on the phone really late at night my mom would patrol outside my room. She for real would just be like pacing outside my room like in figure eights and I'd be under the covers saying 'I like you so much too, I can't get off, I don't want to get off the phone, I just like you so much.'  My mom would be like 'Taylor get off the phone, you have to sleep, it's four in the morning you have to sleep, this is ridiculous, you will see Drew tomorrow, this is ridiculous.'  I wrote a song about like all the details of our relationship like when we were riding in cars and shotgun and like all those things.  So I go and I play it at the talent show and my friends loved it and like his friends loved it and people clapped a lot for it.  I went to my record label and I said to the guy at the record label, 'I think we should really put this song on the record because my friends at high school love it.' He was like, 'Now you can't just make all your decisions about a very serious thing like an album based on if your high school friends like it or not.' It ended up being our first number one at country radio so I guess you can."

It is such a happy and upbeat song and is definitely a Taylor classic.

Click here for the lyrics to "Our Song". 

Click here to watch the music video for "Our Song".

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Fifteen

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Fifteen" from her "Fearless" album.

This is a very touching song, it talks about freshman year of high school, finding your first love and then they use you and don't love you back.  It makes me cry every time I listen to it.

Who is it about?

It's about Taylor and her best friend Abigail Anderson.

"I wrote this around the story line of my best friend from high school, Abigail. I started everything with the line 'Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind' and wrote everything else from that point, almost backwards. I just decided I really wanted to tell that story about our first year of high school because I felt in my freshman year, I grew up more than any year in my life so far."

Taylor Swift and Abigail Anderson

Taylor and Abigail met when she moved to Tennessee and started attending Hendersonville High School. "You sit in class next to a redhead named Abigail/And soon enough you're best friends/Laughing at the other girls who think they're so cool/We'll be out of here as soon as we can."

During the year they both dated older guys.  Taylor realized that she had bigger dreams, "When all you wanted was to be wanted/Wish you could go back and tell yourself what you know now/Back then I swore I was gonna marry him someday/But I realized some bigger dreams of mine." "But Abigail gave everything she had to a boy/Who changed his mind/'cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you/You're gonna believe them."

Click here for the lyrics to the song, "Fifteen". 

This song touches on a very important subject. Girls want to be loved when they are that age. But if a guy is telling you he loves you, but you need prove that you love him by doing things with him, he doesn't really love you. You don't know that when you are fifteen, you only feel the pressure from him and want to be loved so badly.  I had friends who gave things away when they were young because of this reason.  They found someone to love them, felt the pressure, gave in, and regretted it like Abigail.

Taylor and Abigail talk about the personal nature of the song and the hope that it will help other's who are fifteen and going through the same thing in the "On the Set Behind the Scenes 'Fifteen' ".

Taylor: "My song fifteen is about my freshman year in high school, things that I wish had been said to me in a song. I remember when I first played the song for Abigail I was really nervous because I didn't know if she would be okay with me telling her story like that. It's really a personal song especially from her angle."

Abigail "People always ask me, 'Does it bother you that your name is in a song that's so personal?' And it really doesn't just because of the way Taylor and I feel about it. If one girl can kind of learn from it or connect to a song like that, it's totally worth it."

Taylor: "Half of it is reminiscing what I went through, but half of it is really sort of cautionary to people going into their freshman year of high school and walking through the doors."

I hope that young girls will realize that they do not need to give everything to their boyfriends and will learn from Abigail's story.

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Innocent

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Innocent" from her "Speak Now" album.

Taylor performed this song for the first time at the 2010 VMA's, September 12th.  She chose to perform this song because of a specific event that took place at the 2009 VMA's.

Taylor performing at the 2010 VMA's, 9/12/2010

  Click here for video of the live performance to "Innocent".

What happened at the 2009 VMA's?

Taylor Swift had just won Best Female Video for "You Belong To Me".  She was delivering her acceptance speech when Kanye West came onstage, stole the microphone and said, "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you and I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!"  It was a shock to everyone there including Beyoncé who let Taylor come back up on stage when she won Video of the Year.  President Obama even weighed in on the controversy.

Kanye West and Taylor Swift, 2009 VMA's, September 13, 2009

Taylor told The View September 15, 2009, "Well, I think my overall thought process was something like, 'Wow, I can't believe I won, this is awesome, don't trip and fall, I'm gonna get to thank the fans, this is so cool. 'Oh, Kanye West is here. Cool haircut. What are you doing there?' And then, 'Ouch.' And then, 'I guess I'm not gonna get to thank the fans.' You know, I'm not gonna say that I wasn't rattled by it. But I had to perform live five minutes later, so I had to get myself back to the place where I could perform."

Kanye did feel bad for what happened that night, but I don't know if it was more over the bad press he was getting or he really felt sorry.  In a series of Twitter messages Kanye said, "She deserves the apology more than anyone... Who am I to run on stage? I would never ever again in a million years do that. Sorry to let you down. It is distasteful to cut people off as a general rule. What's the point of dressing tastefully if I'm going to act the complete opposite? Yes I was that guy. A 32 year old child. When I woke up from the crazy nightmare I looked in the mirror and said GROW UP KANYE ... I take the responsibility for my actions. Beyonce didn't need that. MTV didn't need that and Taylor and her family friends and fans definitely didn't want or need that."

So what did Taylor do? She wrote a song. In the song "Innocent" she compares making mistakes in childhood versus making mistakes when you are older. She let Kanye know that she accepted his apology and that grown ups can make mistakes too.  "It's okay, life is a tough crowd/32, and still growin' up now/Who you are is not what you did./You're still an innocent."  

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Innocent".

Taylor told Access Hollywood "The decision to perform 'Innocent' on the VMA's was very inline with what the album is about. The album is called Speak Now, it's about saying, saying what you need to say at the moment that you need to say it.  I had a bunch of different options going into the VMA's.  I could have sung a different song, I could've not gone, I could've done a bunch of different things, but I felt like going to the VMA's and singing a song about how I had felt, it seemed like the right call if I'm going to live my life in the way that I wrote that album."

I think that Kanye is a still a jerk for what he did, but kudos to Taylor for taking the higher road and forgiving him.

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Girl At Home

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Girl At Home" from her deluxe Target Red album.

I so relate to Taylor in this song.  I have known plenty of guys in my lifetime that were dating someone else and flirting incessantly with other girls or weren't dating anyone specifically, but flirted with every girl they knew.

Taylor tells Yahoo music, "And there's a song called 'Girl at Home,' which was about a guy who had a girlfriend, and I just felt like it was disgusting that he was flirting with other girls."

Who is the guy that was flirting with other girls?

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles, Central Park 2012

I thought about it long and hard, and decided on Harry Styles!  They met at the 2012 Nickelodeon's 25th Annual Kids' Choice Awards introduced to each other by Justin Bieber and while he was nice, he flirted with tonz of girls.  He even kissed Emma Ostilly after he met Taylor.

Taylor shows that she has interest in him, "it would be a fine preposition" but she would only go along with it "If I was a stupid girl/And yeah I might go with it/If I hadn't once been just like her." He's "the kind of man who makes me sad/While she waits up/You chase down the newest thing/And take for granted what you have."  She has had this happen a few times to her, one of the biggest ones being Joe Jonas, which she sings about in "Better Than Revenge".

I am proud of Taylor for not going along with this flirtatious guy.  I know from experience that they can be very charming to you and to every other girl they meet, and it only ends in heartbreak.

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Girl At Home".

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Come Back, Be Here

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Come Back, Be Here" from her deluxe Target Red album.

Taylor tells Yahoo Music "There's a song I wrote with Dan Wilson called 'Come Back... Be Here,' which I wrote about falling for someone and then they have to go away for work.  They're traveling, you're traveling, and you're thinking about them, but you're wondering how it's gonna work when there's so much distance between you."

Who is it about?  Who lives far away from Taylor?

Walgreen's Meet and Greet

I thought about this long and hard. I thought it could be Jake Gyllenhaal because they had to travel during their romance and he was in London while they were dating, but I don't think he had to travel very soon in their relationship and Taylor lived in New York at the time.  Why would she say "You're in New York today" twice in the song?

This song is about Eddie Redmayne!  

Eddie Redmayne

Taylor met him when she was being considered for a role in Les Miserables in October 2011.  (BTW, I am very sad that she is not in that movie.  It is one of my favorite musicals, I know all the words and I am so excited for the movie production and I thought Taylor would have been perfect for the role of Eponine.  But either she turned it down because of her album, or they chose someone else.  I have a feeling she turned it down because of the album) But she had to say goodbye after they met.  "You said it in a simple way 4am, the second day/How strange that I don’t know you at all/I stumble through the long goodbye/One last kiss then you catch your flight/Right when I was just about to fall." She had to say goodbye to him just as she was falling for him.  Eddie also lives in London, "I guess you are in London today". It also mentions him being in New York and her being in New York with "taxi cabs and busy streets".  They were both traveling during this time.  She was finishing her Speak Now tour and he was promoting "My Week With Marilyn". Eddie was in New York for the premiere of "My Week With Marilyn" and Taylor was in New York Madison Square Gardens for her tour, but not at the same time.

There was just no time for them to get to know one another.  Too bad they were never in the same city and given a chance to date.

Click here for the lyrics to the song, "Come Back, Be Here".

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Untouchable

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Untouchable" from her Platinum edition of "Fearless".

Taylor performing "Untouchable" at Stripped performance.

Who is this song about?

Well it's not really about anyone, it is a cover from Luna Halo and Taylor did an amazing job with it.  There is a little story behind it though best told by Scott Borchetta at the CMA Festival 2012.

Click here to hear the original song by Luna Halo.

"We were doing somethng to set up the Fearless record, a Clear Channel online (event). The hardcore Taylor fans know what I'm talking about. There was this beautiful acoustic setting, and she was doing a few new songs, but she had to do a cover song... So a couple weeks out, I'm like 'Taylor, I need to know what cover song you're going to do because we need to clear the publishing.' 'All right.' 'You got a title for me?' 'No.' A week before: 'Hey pal!' 'Hi!' 'This Clear Channel thing's coming up next week.' 'I know, it's gonna be great.' 'You know you have to do a cover song, right?' 'Yeah!' 'Any hints?' 'I'm working on it, I'll get back to you.' Click. So the day of... she's getting her hair done and playing around with the guitar, and I'm like 'All right ,what song are you gonna do?' She doesn't say anything, she just flips her computer open. And she knows that I love this rock band, Luna Halo, that I helped to get signed out of Nashville. They're friends of mine. And she starts playing 'Untouchable'—[and] if you've heard the original, it's this crunching rock song, and she turned it into this extraordinarily beautiful, touching piece of music. That's what she gives to me, those kind of moments. She knew that I loved that band and she took that song and said 'I'm doing this one for you.' "

She surprised Scott and played a song for him from a band he loved.  Luna Halo didn't mind either. Nathan Barlowe of Luna Halo told Dave Paulson November 24, 2009 "She could have chosen any cover in the world, but that’s what she chose. And we had heard from other people that she was a fan of Luna Halo, so I think it was a combination of those things. We lucked out, really. She covered the song and it sounded amazing, so from there, there were so many YouTube hits on it, and so many people watching it and doing imitations of it, that’s when the label decided that they should put it on the record."

I like this song a lot, it has a great melody and message.  It is basically about a person that is untouchable, that can't be reached, but the person singing wants to be with them so bad.

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Untouchable".

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The Lucky One

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "The Lucky One" from her "Red" album.

Who is this song about?

"The Lucky One" cover art, courtesy of taylorswift.com

It is about Taylor's fears and stories of people she has been inspired by. She doesn't explicitly say who is the main person in the song.  (*When I met Taylor I asked her how many people this song was about, she said three and there are three verses, Coincidence? I think not.)  I think it is about many people.  It could be about Joni Mitchell, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn etc.  Who do you think it is about specifically?

The subject of the song starts out being "The Lucky One", The camera flashes make it "look like a dream/You had it figured out since you were in school/So overnight, you look like a 60s queen/Another name goes up in lights/Like diamonds in the sky..."  But end up not being happy even though "they tell you that you're lucky but you're so confused/cause you don't feel pretty, you just feel used." She talks about how they have known when to disappear, to enjoy their life more.  Then she talks about how she has become "The Lucky One".

Click here for the lyrics to the song, "The Lucky One." 

Taylor says in her Paint the World Red website, "The 'Lucky One' is a song I wrote while I was in Australia.  It kind of talks about some of my fears through telling the story of other people that I was inspired by.  More than their stories being told, I'm pretty much singing about what I'm scared of in that song, ending up kind of caught up in this whole thing and lonely and feeling misunderstood and feeling like when people think you're lucky that you're really not.  It kind of expresses my greatest fear of having this not end up being fun anymore, having it end up being a scary place. Some people get there, some people end up there. It's a story song and its something I'm really proud of because it kind of goes to a place that I'm terrified of."

Being famous can be fun at first, but people have ended up in a scary place over time. Taylor says, "Everybody's got their way of dealing with it. And for me, sometimes it's surrounding myself with my friends and venting, sometimes it's staying up at the piano until four o'clock in the morning, sometimes it's watching TV and forgetting about all of it, sometimes it's calling my mother up and crying. Sometimes you have a really bad day."

Your life is constantly also analyzed.  Taylor said, "There's a lot of trade-offs. There's the microscope that's always on you. The camera flashes, the fear that something you say will be taken the wrong way and you'll let your fans down. There's the fear that you'll be walking down the street and your skirt will blow up and you'll be in the news for three months."

Right now it's worth it for her, right now. Taylor says,  "You're scared of a lot of things for a lot of the time, but the trade-off of being able to get on a big stage and sing your songs — it's worth it."  She hasn't ended up like the girls in the song and she knows when her time is up she is going to leave.

She is wise to know when to get out of it, when it's not fun anymore.  She has a very good head on her shoulders.

Taylor told Katie Couric on the Katie show October 26, 2012 "I just feel like there will be a time when I'll probably kind of step a bit backwards from it.  I think that it's important to really live in the moment while you're here, but I also think it's important to know when it's time to walk off stage."

I for one hope it is not anytime soon, but I'm glad that Taylor has a good head on her shoulders and can see that she needs to be happy to keep doing what she does and not get caught up in it.

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The Story of Us

Today's Taylor Swift song is "The Story of Us" from her "Speak Now" album.

I can really relate to this song.  I have definitely fallen hard for someone and thought there was going to be this huge romantic story of "How we met and the sparks flew instantly", but it just seemed to fizzle. I am usually forced to see them again and it is super awkward.  I stand there "alone in a crowded room and/nervously pulling at my clothes and trying to look busy" while they do their "best to avoid me".   You don't know if you should say something or wait for him to say something.  That is the way Taylor feels in this song.  She knows "The battle's in your hands now/But I would lay my armor down/If you said you'd rather love than fight."

Click here for lyrics to the song, "The Story of Us."

Who is the guy that made Taylor feel so alone?

"The Story of Us" album art, courtesy of taylorswift.com

Taylor told Brian Mansfield of USA Today "The Story of Us is about running into someone I had been in a relationship with at an awards show, and we were seated a few seats away from each other. I just wanted to say to him, 'Is this killing you? Because it's killing me.' But I didn't. Because I couldn't. Because we both had these silent shields up.

I went home and I sat there at the kitchen table and I said to my mom, 'I felt like I was standing alone in a crowded room.' Then I got up and ran into my bedroom, as she's seen me do many times. And she probably assumed I had come up with a line in the song. And I had. And that was actually the last song I wrote on the album, and after I finished that one, I knew I was done."

What was the awards show.  Taylor revels it in her hidden lyrics message, "CMT AWARDS".  And who was there at the June 9, 2010 awards show?  John Mayer! 

He didn't end things properly with Taylor, he probably just quit calling or responding to her, like so many guys do when they are not interested in a girl.  Why can't they just say something and be polite and let the girl know how they feel instead of leading them on and not letting them know "page you're on"?

Click here for the music video to the song, "The Story of Us".

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Ours

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Ours" from her deluxe Target "Speak Now" album.

This song is about people judging relationships. It's kind of like "Love Story" where people didn't like a guy she had a crush on, but this time she goes for it and doesn't listen to them.  I can not even imagine what it is like to be Taylor and have all her dates splashed across the news.  I went on lots of dates with people only once, twice or three times, it didn't  work out, but the whole world didn't know about it.  That is why you date so you can see if you get along with that person and have that special spark.  Taylor doesn't have that luxury.   If she is spotted with a guy it is front page news, and when there are no follow up dates, the news stands make up all sorts of reasons why it didn't.  And when she starts to date a guy they instantly analyze the relationship with harsh opinions.

But Taylor is strong and stands up to the media/friends/family and lets her suitors know,

"Seems like there's always someone who disapproves/They'll judge it like they know about me and you/The jury's out, my choice is you."  It doesn't matter what other people think, she will do what she wants when it comes to love and follow her heart.

In VH1's storytellers 2012 Taylor said, "Its a song about someone that I really liked at the time.  What's kind of happened with my life, which has been interesting is there are like a lot of opinions about who you fall in love with which happens in everybody's life.  You fall in love with someone and all of the sudden your friends start chiming in and in my case its like, 'they don't look cute together', 'he's got tattoos',  'he's too tall for her', 'he's too short for her', 'he's too young for her', 'he's too old for her'.  I think that when two people fall in love it should just be about those two people. When I was dating someone that people didn't think I should've been dating, because I shouldn't have been dating him. When I was dating a guy that people didn't have too much of a good opinion about me dating I wrote this song to let him know that I didn't care what anyone else thought and it's called 'Ours'."

Who is this song about? Who was the guy that Taylor liked at the time?

The hint is in the lines,

"Ghosts from your past gonna jump out at me/Lurking in the shadows with their lip gloss smiles/Cause I love the gap between your teeth/And I love the riddles that you speak/And any snide remarks from my father about your tattoos will be ignored".

Click here for the lyrics to the song, "Ours".

Who has ghosts from his past with lip gloss smiles, ie other women, a gap between his teeth, speaks in riddles, and tattoos?

John Mayer!  If you look at the following picture you can see the gap in his bottom teeth. Too bad it didn't last because Taylor was definitely smitten.

*As a side note, I especially love the music video to the song, I can totally relate to it.  In the video the main character is going to work and works in a cubicle.  She is constantly bored throughout the day and thinking about her boyfriend the whole time. She has a sticky note from her boyfriend with "I love you" on it.  I totally worked in a cubicle and was bored all day and got sticky notes from hubby.  I can also relate to the broken printer, annoying coworkers, the water cooler, and eating lunch alone.  How does she know what it's like, she's never worked in a cubicle?  It's amazing how she can just relate to ordinary people.  At the end of the video we find out he is a service member and my husband is a service member!  I showed this video to my husband and he loved it too.

Click here for the music video, "Ours."

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I Almost Do

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "I Almost Do" from her "Red" album.

In this song Taylor addresses a former flame, one that she wants to get back with, she "dreams you're touching my face."  He tries to get in touch with her, but every time he does "there's no reply".  She can't get back with him, she can't pick up the phone and "say hello to you and risk another goodbye." She has been hurt by this guy before and she doesn't want to get hurt by this guy again.

Taylor says in her Paint the World Red website secret clues, "The song 'I Almost Do' is a song I wrote about the conflict that you feel when you want to take someone back and you want to give it another try, but you know you can't. You can't because it's hurt you so deeply that you know that you couldn't bear to go through that again. So you're sitting there and wondering where they are and hope that they think about you  and that you're almost picking up the phone call, but you just can't. I think I needed to write this song in order to not call that person actually.  I think that writing the song was what I did instead of picking up the phone."

Who is this song about?

 It is about Jake Gyllenhaal!  This song is very similar to "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together".  That song is clearly about Jake.  In "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" she asserts herself and says they are not getting back together because she has finally stopped caring what she thought about him.  "I Almost Do" was probably written before "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", when she still cared what he thought, and she cared about him.  She references him being in the "city" after a "long hard week".  Jake has homes in LA and in New York City.

But in her mind she still hopes that "sometimes you wonder about me".  She still has a piece of her heart connected to him and hope that he does too.

Click here for the lyrics to the song, "I Almost Do."

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Begin Again

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Begin Again" from her "Red" album.

On the Good Morning America preview of the song, Taylor said “It’s actually a song about when you've gotten through a really bad relationship and you finally dust yourself off and go on that first date after a horrible break-up, and the vulnerability that goes along with all of that.”

This song talks about two relationships.  The first one is an ex boyfriend who "didn't like it when I wore high heels", "didn't get this song", and never thought she was funny. The second relationship is her new interest.  It is the first date she goes on after 8 months of getting over her ex-boyfriend. He is very sweet to her "But you got here early/You pulled my chair out and helped me in."

Who are these two guys?

Taylor told Randy Lewis of LA Times, "There were a few track list choices I knew I was going to make way in advance. I knew I wanted to bookend the album with 'State of Grace' and 'Begin Again' because they're inspired by the same person who inspired a few songs on the record. I wanted to start and end the album with the first and last song I ever wrote about that relationship."

We know that "State of Grace" is about Jake Gyllenhaal, so this song must be about him too!  He is the first guy, the exboyfriend, and the second guys is Will Anderson the lead singer of Parachute.  They started hanging out at the end of 2011 and were spotted together in December.  Jake and Taylor's relationship got over sometime in February 2011 (after they had broken up and gotten back together a few times) and her first date with Will must have happened sometime in November 2011, "I've been spending the last 8 months thinking all love ever does/Is break and burn and end." This would fit the time frame of 8 months.

Taylor Swift and Will Anderson, December 2011.  

For whatever reason things didn't work out or progress further with Will, but I'm glad "on a Wednesday in a cafe [Taylor] watched it begin again" and she was finally able to get over Jake and "what's passed is past".

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Begin Again".

Click here for the music video to the song, "Begin Again".

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The Last Time

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "The Last Time" from her new "Red" album.

She wrote this song with Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol.  It is a duet, he starts off by telling his side of the story and Taylor then tells hers.

Who is it about?

courtesy of taylorswift.com

The first clue is a door.  It is a focus of the song.  Taylor says in her Paint the World Red website " 'The Last Song' is a song that I wrote with Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol. This was a song I wrote about something I had been going through where you've got.  I picture a door and you've got on the outside of the door standing outside in the cold is this guy who's left his girlfriend over and over again and come back and asked for a second chance over and over and over again. And on the other side of the door you have this girl standing there with tears in her eyes wondering how she could possibly turn him away when she loves him this much, but she can't get hurt again. It's both of these people swearing that this will be the last time.  She is swearing this is the last time she is going to take him back, he swears its the last time he's going to leave her and hurt her.  It's a really intense song and I'm so proud to have Gary on the record."

It is interesting she uses the word "swear" here too, a word she used in "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" to describe "Then you come around again and say 
'baby, i miss you and i swear i'm gonna change'".  The two are connected.

And we have already established,  "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" is about Jake Gyllenhaal! Further hints come in the music video.

This is a screen shot from "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". The guy appears twice in the video at her door, one time he is leaving and looking confused at the door, the next he is knocking at the door wanting to come back. In this song the guy "find[s] myself at your door/Just like all those times before." He then implies he wants to get back together by saying, "This is the last time i’m asking you this/Put my name at the top of your list."  But it is very hard for Taylor, "You find yourself at my door/Just like all those times before/You wear your best apology/But I was there to watch you leave/And all the times I let you in/Just for you to go again."  He comes to the door, apologizes, but then leaves, breaks up with her, and then asks to come back again.  The use of the word again means he has done this before and what word is in WANEGBT?  The word again,
 "Then you come around again and say
'baby, i miss you and i swear i'm gonna change'".

Click here for lyrics to the song, "The Last Time."

The last hint may be one specifically for Jake to let him know what caused her so much pain, LA ON YOUR BREAK.  In between promoting his film "Love and Other Drugs" he went to his house in LA in December 2010.  Taylor joined him for a while and then went back to New York.  She had a party for her birthday, but he stayed in LA.  From the song The Moment I Knew Taylor says, "You said you’d be here, you said you’d be here".  But her never came for her and she was crushed.  This was the last straw, "the moment I knew".  It was her 21st birthday, a big deal birthday and he wasn't there.

(This is probably my least favorite song on the album.  I like it, but I do not love it like I love the other songs.  I think it is Gary Lightbody's influence.  She wrote it with him and to me it sounds like a Snow Patrol song, not a Taylor Swift song.  I like some Snow Patrol songs, just not their slow songs.)

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State of Grace

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "State of Grace" from her "Red" album.

In the Stories Behind the Red Songs Taylor says, "State of Grace is a song I wrote at the beginning process of making this album, and I think it helps to define what the rest of the record is about, just with one line.  There's a line in the song that says 'Love is a ruthless game/Unless you play it good and right'. That's kind of like a warning, for the rest of the record. This is what's going to happen if you don't play this right. This is what could happen if you do. It almost serves as the perfect kind of warning label for the rest of the record.  As soon as you hear that song, there are two ways this could go, you could be good to people, or you could not play fair, and both the outcomes are reflected on the record."

Who is this song about?

Taylor says in her Good Morning America preview for the song October 15th, "I wrote this song about when you first fall in love with someone the possibilities, kind of thinking about the different ways that it could go. It's a really big sound. To me, this sounds like the feeling of falling in love in an epic way." There are several clues, but one especially telling comes in the line, "Just twin fire signs, four blue eyes". Taylor has blue eyes.  Who has blue eyes that Taylor has dated?  Jake Gyllenhaal has blue eyes!  They also have the same astrological sign, Sagittarius, a fire sign.  His birthday is December 19, 1980 and Taylor's birthday is December 13, 1989.

She includes how they met.  Taylor wasn't expecting to fall in love.  In the first part of the song she talks about how life is so busy, "And all we know is touch and go."  Life is just coming and going.  And then she meets him, "And I never saw you coming/And I’ll never be the same." She feel hard, "But this love is brave and wild."

It didn't last though.  She "loved in shades of wrong".  In the liner notes it references their break up, I LOVE YOU DOESN'T COUNT AFTER GOODBYE.  In We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together she says "We break up, you call me...
i love you."  This I love you doesn't count.  And she could also be referencing the fact that she doesn't love him anymore.  Too bad, it sounds like it was great while it lasted.

Click here for lyrics to the song, "State of Grace."

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Starlight

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Starlight" from her "Red" album.

Who is this song about?

FOR ETHEL is the lyric hint for this song.  It is a tribute to Ethel Kennedy about her marriage to Robert Kennedy.

Taylor says in her stories behind the songs, “Starlight is a song I wrote actually after seeing a picture of, Ethel and Bobby Kennedy when they were seventeen. I saw this picture about a year a half ago, and I didn’t know anything about like, what they were doing or what was going on in the picture, but I just thought ‘They look like they’re having the best night.’ So I wrote this song about what the night might’ve been like. And I ended up meeting Ethel and going and playing it for her and she just loved it. It was such a fun moment when she was just in love with the song and so happy about it. It’s just this adorable picture that to me, it just like brought forth all these potentials for how that night could’ve been.”

In the song Taylor talks about the first time Ethel and Robert met "I met bobby on the boardwalk summer of '45/Picked me up late one night/Out the window we were seventeen."  I think when she refers to having 10 kids "Oooh ooh, we could get married/Have ten kids and teach them how to dream, " she is making up a number, ie lots of kids.  They actually had 11 kids.

Click here for the lyrics to the song, Starlight.

She was able to attend the screening of the HBO special "Ethel" directed by Rory Kennedy in January.

Ethel Skakel Kennedy, center, subject of the documentary film "Ethel," poses with her daughter Rory, the director of the film, and singer Taylor Swift at the premiere of the film at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) AP

In an interview with Vogue in January 2011 Taylor says, “The only time in my life I have ever been starstruck was meeting Caroline and Ethel Kennedy, I got to spend the afternoon with Ethel a couple of weeks ago. She is one of my favorites because you look back at the pictures of her and Bobby and they always look like they are having the most fun out of everybody. You know, eleven kids, all these exotic animals on their property. I’ve read a lot about them.”

I'm glad she got to meet one of her icons!

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Everything Has Changed

Today's Taylor Swift song is "Everything Has Changed" from her "Red" album.

This is one of my other favorite songs on the album.  She collaborated with Ed Sheeran in the writing and on the track.  I love their voices together.  The song reminds of all the times when you first meet someone and you start to like them.  You get butterflies in your stomach and feel so elated and just want to get to know them better.

Taylor and Ed.
This picture was created by a reader of this blog :)  Talent! Please check out his Tumblr page by clicking the following link.
"I converted a photo of Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift into an Impressionist painting based on VanGogh’s Starry Starry Night."

In Stories Behind the Red Songs, Taylor says, " 'Everything Has Changed' is a song that I wrote with Ed Sheeran and he is such a talented person in so many ways. He is such an incredibly talented guitar player, and singer and songwriter and performer.  Writing this song with him was so much fun. We were sitting in my backyard writing this song and he started singing harmony on it and I asked him if he would record it with me as a duet. Because it's about this moment that both people are having when they see each other and all of the sudden the world looks different because everything's changed."

Who is this song about?

Can you spot Taylor?

The hint in the lyric booklet is HYANNIS PORT. Do you know what famous family has a vacation spot in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts? The Kennedy's! Taylor Swift spent the 4th of July weekend with the Kennedy's in Hyannis Port.

Who was there that weekend?  Conor Kennedy! who may or may not be Taylor's current boyfriend.  I am not going to speculate.  It is about when she first met him that weekend.

 "All I know since yesterday/Is everything has changed/And all I’ve seen since 18 hours ago/Is green eyes and freckles/And your smile in the back of my mind making me feel like/I just want to know you better, know you better, know you better now."

Taylor likes to say the eye color of guys in songs, and Conor has green eyes and freckles.

Taylor is elated, and "All I know is pouring rain."  She dreams of getting swept off her feet in the pouring rain and many songs reference rain.  I'm glad she shared this special moment!

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Everything Has Changed."

Click here to see the music video for "Everything Has Changed".

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