The Eras Tour film is out now on Disney+! To prepare for your watch party, here’s some of the best lyrics from the setlist.
Since the start of her career, Taylor Swift’s music has always been authentic and daring, experimental and open, emotional and sincere. What she puts out is a culmination of feelings and ideas translated into careful intent and thought. And what makes her a literary and lyrical genius? The personality, emotion, and rumination imbued in sound and lyric; a page out of her own diary, open for millions to read. For a figure as big as Taylor Swift, speaking candidly on universal emotions is as comforting as a cozy sweater or a warm hug.
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All Too Well
‘Cause there we are again in the middle of the night /
We’re dancing ’round the kitchen in the refrigerator light
Few artists could deliver a 10-minute record, much less keep it engrossing throughout its whole duration, but the goddess of music makes it work splendidly. This sorrowful romantic ballad is rich in its details—a scarf, a refrigerator light—these give the track building power. She sets the scene up so beautifully with these lyrics, and gives an image of grieving a love affair that mattered more to you than the other party, and how this grief is the price of young vulnerability.
Lover
And you’ll save all your dirtiest jokes for me /
At every table, I’ll save you a seat, lover
Despite the simplicity of these lines, they capture the fun, laughter, and beauty of domestic bliss quite well. The title track from Lover is tailor-made for a first-dance song and quite the popular choice for a dedication to a special someone—loved-up and gushing until the end. These simple yet profound lines close the bridge, which closely reference wedding vows, and Taylor forms a seamless litany of both proclamation and promise with these lyrics: I have a permanent place next to you, and you have one next to me.
champagne problems
Your Midas touch on the Chevy door /
November flush and your flannel cure
She could’ve said, “You opened the door for me.” She could’ve said, “I was cold and you gave me your jacket.” But in true Taylor fashion, every song is a story; these lines are far more expressive, so referential to the once-love she sings about in this track. Taylor never fails to weave together a meaningful, rare, yet resonant writing style for listeners.
tolerate it
If it’s all in my head, tell me now /
Tell me I’ve got it wrong somehow /
I know my love should be celebrated /
But you tolerate it
While this track is a melancholic reflection on a relationship’s imbalance, Taylor Swift also crafts a story about acknowledgement, longing, and the quiet despair of I have all this love, why can’t I pour it onto you? This chorus is not only a plea for honesty, a desperate cry for please tell me this isn’t how you feel and it’s just me overthinking and overanalyzing, but also a heartbreaking confession of self-doubt.
I made you my temple, my mural, my sky /
Now I’m begging for footnotes in the story of your life
These lyrics get a lot of praise and rightly so. How could you write the testament to the magnanimity of love so magnetically, so poignantly? It’s not only the simple emotion now, it’s worship, a sanctified and transcendent force, devotion. Yet the second line brings that all down to the feeling of waning significance and the realization that you are no longer more than a footnote, a measly, irrelevant text after the important words, an afterthought, in the saga of someone you held in such high regard.
my tears ricochet
And you can aim for my heart, go for blood /
But you would still miss me in your bones
The haunting reality of this track presents a scorned ghost and their tormentor showing up at the funeral. These lines add weight to the heaviness of loss and betrayal, the lingering feeling of the pain inflicted on someone else. Taylor perfected the craft of self-presentation and the quietness and magnitude of rage. These lyrics express: yes, you’ve done this to me, but in your bones, down to the marrow, to the extent of what makes you solid, what holds you up above the ground, what carries you through your days—you will miss what you’ve killed.
marjorie
I should’ve asked you questions /
I should’ve asked you how to be /
Asked you to write it down for me /
Should’ve kept every grocery store receipt /
‘Cause every scrap of you would be taken from me
This record is a heart-wrenching and soulful ode; Taylor recounts living with the death of her grandmother as she grows older, coming to understand more about her life and learn from what she remembers, and the regret of losing her so young. Taylor takes to songwriting to describe the should’ves and how they can only stay should’ves now, and how grief doesn’t shrink over time, but that you learn to grow around grief. It’s self-presentation, but it’s also a mirror—for everyone who’s experienced loss, the songstress does a wonderful job of capturing the emotion so clearly you begin to grieve with her…and with yourself.
Photos and Featured Image: CHRISTOPHER POLK, KEVIN MAZUR (Via Instagram)
