Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Never Grow Up

Today's Taylor Swift song is "Never Grow Up" from her Speak Now album.

When I first heard this song I did not relate to it as well, but the more I hear it the more I understand.  It made me think of a little baby growing up and the mom not wanting the baby to grow up.  I think it is amazing Taylor has such great insight because she does not have kids, but she really sees how it is from the perspective of a parent.  

Who is this song about?




It is about Taylor! The secret hint is "MOVED OUT IN JULY".  She moved out from her parents house July 2010.

In the first verse she talks about a little baby, "Your little hand's wrapped around my finger".  The second verse, the child is 14, "You're in the car on the way to the movies/And you're mortified your mom's dropping you off/But don't make her drop you off around the block/Remember that she's getting older too".  She then starts talking about herself in the middle part of the song, "Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room/Memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home".  She mentions her little brother, "remember the words said/And all your little brother's favorite songs".  And then mentions herself, "I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone".  The next verse she is "in my new apartment/In a big city, they just dropped me off/It's so much colder that I thought it would be/So I tuck myself in and turn my night light on".  She realizes it is not like home, it is scary, "Oh I don't wanna grow up, wish I'd never grown up/I could still be little/Oh I don't wanna grow up, wish I'd never grown up It could still be simple".  Then she brings the song away from herself again.  "Don't you ever grow up, it could stay this simple/Won't let nobody hurt you/Won't let no one break your heart."

Taylor said on her website, "'Never Grow Up' is a song about the fact that I don't quite know how I feel about growing up. It's tricky. Growing up happens without you knowing it. Growing up is such a crazy concept because a lot of times when you were younger you wish you were older. I look out into a crowd every night and I see a lot of girls that are my age and going through exactly the same things as I'm going through. Every once in a while I look down and I see a little girl who is seven or eight, and I wish I could tell her all of this. There she is becoming who she is going to be and forming her thoughts and dreams and opinions. I wrote this song for those little girls."

What is her home like? 

Taylor told Rolling stone, "It's going to be my fantasy world. The ceiling of my living room is painted like the night sky. There's a pond in the living room ... The pond is a moat around the fireplace and may possibly have koi fish in it. You step on a stepping stone in the pond in order to get on a spiral staircase, which takes you up to the human-sized bird cage observatory. They're delivering a human-size birdcage, which I'll put a brass telescope in."

Rolling Stone was invited into her apartment in 2012 and described it in an article on her. "There is a pond, complete with koi fish, in the middle of Swift's astonishing, many-colored Nashville condo. It sits beneath a wrought-metal spiral staircase leading to a human-size birdcage that faces floor-to-ceiling windows, with a view stretching to the green mountains beyond downtown. ('It's the most comfortable place in the world,' she says of the wooden cage, built from a sketch she made. 'It's just, like, pillows and comfiness.')

Under the previous owner, this was an ultramodern bachelor pad. Over 18 months of remodeling, Swift gave the condo a sex change and a heavy dose of well-funded OCD whimsy. The ceiling is arranged in multiple motifs – billowing curtains here, a painted indigo night sky there. In one corner, under hanging crystalline stars, sits a giant bunny made of moss. He's wearing a hat. 'It's a whole Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland structure here,' she says, welcoming me the next morning. 'It's what the inside of my brain looks like, essentially.' "

She told Jay Leno November 23, 2010 all about her new life, living on her own.

"I moved in the beginning of the summer. I've been working on this condo in Nasvhille about a year, doing construction. When I walked in, it was really trendy, and I eventually fell in love with it. But the inside of it was like a dude's bachelor ... and I was like, we need to change this and make it cozy and pretty and mismatched! So we ripped out everything [and] put in like barn, hardwood floors, old reclaimed brick ... And the kitchen! Oh my God, I love my kitchen! It's got mismatched colored cabinets and mismatched knobs on cabinets and mismatched chairs ... but it's very girly, and they're well-matched mismatched! There's lots of pillows everywhere."

"I love cooking. It's one of my favorite things to do. And now I have my own kitchen -- so now I can! And I make my bed everyday! [laughs] I didn't used to do that, back when I lived at home. My mom comes over now, and she'll walk in and be like, 'Wow ... so you do this now? You didn't do this before, but you do this now. Great.' [laughs]"



"Because that would be dude-like ... so I was contemplating not having any TVs in my place at all. I was like, do I really need a TV? And then at the end, I realized I did. But I put it in this contraption that I found online, where you can have it hidden, and then have it come up when you want to see it. Because it's a very antique kind of apartment, so I thought, I can't have a big TV mounted on the wall! It would ruin everything. So I had to hide it ...and you push a button, so it comes up! Sometimes when I'm alone, I'll push up, down ... up, down! [laughs] You can do that when you're alone-- and nobody's gonna judge you! [laughs]"

Here's a peek inside her house.




It is scary to grow up and move out on your own.  I was 18 when I moved out and my aunt dropped me off at school.  It was for college.  I wondered how I would fit in, how it would be.  It ended up being one of the best experiences of my life.  Taylor's been moved out for a while now and I think she is enjoying it, even if it does come with heartbreak and loneliness sometimes, that's part of growing up.

*On a side note, I have now been to one of her houses, in NYC.  It was a amazing and she was a perfect host. Taylor thanks for being so nice and opening your homes to fans!
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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Hey Stephen

Today's Taylor Swift song is "Hey Stephen" from her Fearless album.




Who is this song about?

Well it's not that hard to guess the first name of the guy, it's STEPHEN (which by the way is the first name of my charming husband, except he spells it with a v.)  His full name is Stephen Barker Liles and he plays in a country music band called, Love and Theft.

Taylor tells Philadelphia magazine November 2008, "This is a guy I had a crush on. I wrote about all these reasons he should be with me instead of other girls."  In the song she says, "Hey Stephen I could give you fifty reasons why I should be the one you choose/All those other girls, well they're beautiful but would they write a song for you".  But she is too shy to tell him how she feels, "Hey Stephen, I know looks can be deceiving but I know I saw a light in you/As we walked we were talking and I didn't say half the things I wanted to."  But she can tell him in the song, " 'cause I can't help it if you look like an angel/Can't help I if I wanna kiss you in the rain so/Come feel this magic I've been feeling since I met you/Can't help it if there's no one else/I'm waiting alone now so come on and come out and pull me near."

Click here for lyrics to the song: "Hey Stephen"

Taylor tells New York Times during "Screen Test:Taylor Swift" December 9, 2009, "When I write songs I don't hesitate to put names in the songs because that's how I deal with life. I had an awesome experience with this last record, with this song called 'Hey Stephen'.  This was a guy who opened up a couple shows for me on tour.  It was just you know, talked to him a couple times, we'd hang out at catering or whatever.  It was never anything, like he would ever know that I liked him.  I don't ever confess that sort in real life, but I really do like to confess it in this fantasy music life that I get to live.  So I wrote this song called 'Hey Stephen' and I sent Stephen a text message and I was like 'Hey, track 5'."

Stephen Barker Liles on left, Taylor Swift on right
What was his reaction to the song?

Stephen tells Planet Verge, “Taylor called me up and was like, ‘Hey I wrote a song about you,’  and I got a little nervous because I didn't know if that was a good or bad thing, But after hearing the song, it was definitely one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me.” 

That is not the end of the story, it seems Stephen had some reciprocal feelings for Taylor.  "You know what’s funny about that whole thing is that I actually wrote a song for Taylor at the same time that she wrote ‘Hey Stephen’ for me. So when Taylor called me [back in 2008] and told me about the song she wrote for me I actually was like ‘ That’s really funny because I wrote a song about you too,' It was a weird moment because I wasn't expecting her to say she wrote a song for me and I think it was a mutual thing on her end too, but she asked me what the words were so I only told her a little bit. I was like, ‘This world is goin’ crazy, but baby what do you say we try to make it anyway?’ And that was that.”

At first he wasn't going to release the song he wrote. He told Planet Verge, "No, but I probably should make one. It’s really one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written. Taylor is such an awesome girl, and I’ve had a lot of family and friends tell me that they think I should put it out for people to hear, so I’ll have to get on that soon.” He finally released it, "Try to Make it Anyway" in 2011, he said, "Planet Verge has been good to us, this whole experience with the song was just fun too. I did the recording in the studio I have in my house and filmed the video in my backyard–in my barn actually, which my buddy Aaron Thomas helped me out with all of that. I really just love songwriting and this song has become one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written.”

Click here to hear his song, "Try to Make it Anyway".

Nothing ever happened between the two, but what a cute story.  They both made songs for each other.
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