kingsofmyheart

Latest Posts by kingsofmyheart

TAYLOR SWIFT Picture To Burn // CMA Music Festival (2008)

swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover

"Tim McGraw" Was Originally Written About A Girl In Stone Harbor, New Jersey

Ever since its release in June 2006, Taylor Swift has claimed that “Tim McGraw” was about her freshman boyfriend, Drew Dunlap.

"I wrote [the song] in my freshman year of high school," Swift explains. "I got the idea in math class. I was just sitting there, and I started humming this melody. I kind of related it to this situation I was in. I was dating a guy who was about to go off to college. I knew we were going to break up. So I started thinking about all the things that I knew would remind him of me. Surprisingly, the first thing that came to mind was that my favorite country artist is Tim McGraw."

Taylor was a freshman during the 2004-2005 school year (age 14-15). Her family moved from Wyomissing, PA to Hendersonville, TN in April of 2004 because of Taylor's country music career. Up until that year, they had spent every summer at their vacation home in Stone Harbor, New Jersey.

“From the time she was 2 until she was 14, when her family left for Nashville, Taylor Swift's parents had a summer house on the bay in Stone Harbor. "I spent my summers at the Jersey Shore from the time I was 2 until we sold the house in Stone Harbor when I was 14. It was a pretty magical place to grow up.""

She says that two songs were inspired by her time in Jersey:

"There was a little demo I made when I was 11, and I think it's floating around the Internet. It's called "Smoky Black Nights," and it's all about being at the Shore. Then there's the song "Invisible," which is about the son of my parents' friends. They were always at my house and their son was my age, and he would always tell me about other girls he liked. I felt, well, invisible. Obviously. So I wrote that song about it, and it was a bonus track on my first album."

I find it interesting that she outright described the meaning and identified the muse of Invisible, but said that Smokey Black Nights is just about "being at the Shore", considering Smokey Black Nights is also about a crush. The fact that she was being cagey about that song and not about Invisible indicates to me that there was something to hide about the muse (like, their gender...)

There are quite a few lyrics in Tim McGraw that don't really fit Drew well, but there's one in particular that couldn't possibly apply to him:

"But in a box beneath my bed Is a letter that you never read From three summers back"

Again, Taylor had only moved to Hendersonville that year. She didn't know Drew three summers back. Even if she had literally written the song the day she released it, she STILL would've only known Drew for two years by that point. But you know what WAS three summers back from Taylor's freshman year? The summer at Stone Harbor when she was 11 that she wrote Smoky Black Nights about.

To be clear, I don't think Taylor was dating anyone at 11. But it's clear that she had a crush on this person, who she presumably continued to spend every summer with until age 14. She may have just been crushing on this friend, or they may have dated later on.

Other lyrics that don't fit:

"And I'm back for the first time since then I'm standing on your street"

Again, this was Taylor's freshman year. She wasn't touring or anything yet. Her and Drew lived in the same town. She can't go "back" to the town they both live in for the "first time", but she can certainly go back to New Jersey.

An original lyric that stands out is:

“When you think happiness

Hope you think that little black dress

The one you always said you liked best

Next to my faded pair of jeans”

The original lyrics specifically state that the little black dress is next to Taylor's own outfit. So, is another person possibly wearing the dress? (It could also just be weird grammar though, lol).

This is the second of three references to this black dress (the third being The Other Side of the Door). The first was in Taylor’s unreleased 2003 song “Live For The Little Things”.

“That black dress, happiness” feels like a clear reference to, “When you think happiness, I hope you think that little black dress”. In which case, some of the details of Tim McGraw are references that pre-date Drew and Tennessee entirely.

It's clear that, by the time it was released, this song was mostly meant for Drew. The references to the Georgia stars, his pickup truck, etc. have distinct Tennessee vibes. But, think back to Taylor's description of the song:

"I got the idea in math class. I was just sitting there, and I started humming this melody. I kind of related it to this situation I was in. I was dating a guy who was about to go off to college. I knew we were going to break up. So I started thinking about all the things that I knew would remind him of me."

She "kind of related it to" this situation she was in. She was thinking about another situation, and she related it to the fact that Drew was about to leave.

Presumably, she was relating it to her parents selling the house in Stone Harbor, and no longer seeing this girl that she had had feelings for every summer- both of them were situations in which she was interested in someone romantically, and then someone moved away.

Keep in mind, when Taylor wrote this song, Drew hadn't moved away yet. Taylor knew they would have to break up when he left for college, but it was still the middle of the school year. However, the song has a very reminiscent tone.

"It's hard not to find it all a little bittersweet And lookin' back on all of that, it's nice to believe..."

"And I was right there beside you all summer long Damn the time we woke up to find...summer gone" (original lyric)

So, it actually makes a lot of sense that this would be about some kind of crush/relationship that had already ended, and the ways that it foreshadowed her situation with Drew. The song is both about her past with Smokey Black Nights girl, and her present/future with him.

so deep into the gaylor rabbithole at this point that seeing people discuss her songs and which man they're about feels like whiplash

little miss popstar!

High Infidelity - full lyrical analysis ✨

I’ve been thinking about Taylor’s recent steps towards coming out on the eras tour all day, especially her reading of Seven (it’s really been sinking in today on a new level). And in light of her making a clear declaration to her fans about hoping they can accept her, about how they might meet a new version of her that doesn’t match their romanticized idea of her…I want to share my full lyrical analysis of “High Infidelity”.

At a glance: I essentially see this song as a metaphor for her fans finding out who she really is and reacting like a spouse who has been cheated on. She equates her closeting to “infidelity” and imagines the aftermath of revealing her truth, grappling with both the part of her that harbors guilt about the “lying” and half-truths she’s engaged with to stay hidden, and with the part of her that is hurt and frustrated with those who have effectively already rejected her by way of refusing to see what’s right in front of them.

This song has a lot going on, so I’m just going to walk you through my thought process:

My understanding of this song hinges on this lyric in the chorus: “your picket fence is sharp as knives/ I was dancing around, dancing around it”

This line, with it’s suggestion of a suburban setting, gives me some context for the two verses, which to me read as two different situations, both in a domestic setting.

The first verse reads to me as being from the perspective of a younger narrator, (not necessarily Taylor, but an allegorical young woman), maybe a memory of being a teen, at her parents’ house. The second verse reads like the same narrator, as an adult, living in her husband’s house/marital home.

The fact that Taylor has made it very very clear that these songs are autobiographical, and this is her most vulnerable album in years, makes the following lyrics that much more intriguing.

Verse 1:

“Lock broken/ slur spoken/wound open/ game token/I didn’t know you were keeping count/ Rain soaking/blind hoping/you said I was freeloading/ I didn’t know you were keeping count”

“Lock broken/slur spoken” = someone barges into a room with a closed door, and swears. I picture a homophobic parent walking in on their daughter making out with/being intimate with her secret girlfriend, and the ensuing fight.

“Game token” sounds like her sexuality was then something that then got played against her, to make her compliant in other parts of her life. “You’ve disappointed us enough haven’t you? You better x” x could be making perfect grades, being a high achiever in some other way, doing this family thing that makes you uncomfortable, but most of all, x equals staying closeted, hiding the family shame.

“Rain soaking/blind hoping/ you said I was freeloading/ I didn’t know you were keeping count” makes me imagine that maybe months later, she has another conversation with her parents, hoping to make them understand, and instead of coming around, the parents continue to hold her sexuality against her, treating her like someone living with them without paying rent, instead of as just their daughter. Again, their expectations on her in every other aspect of life are higher to “make up for” them allowing her to continue living under their roof.

Verse 2:

“Storm coming/good husband/Bad omen/Dragged my feet right down the aisle/at the house lonely/good money/I’d pay if you just know me/Seemed like the right thing at the time”

“storm coming” means the consequences of getting found out/ outed. The same allegorical woman from the first verse married a man that she didn’t love because she was afraid of living her truth and the potential consequences (= the storm). But doing so has left her lonely, isolated, and empty, and she regrets her decision.

I think Taylor is using this narrative arc outlined in the verses to tell her own story.

The first verse represents getting found out by the public, likely referencing kissgate. “Lock broken” then is a metaphor for her secret life being revealed. “Slur spoken,” representing the disapproving party, likely references her homophobic fans. In addition, given the lines about game tokens and keeping count, she may also be referencing her manager/team/record company and their reaction to her “jeopardizing” everything she’s worked for and hundreds of people’s jobs by being so “reckless”, when really they were just interested in continuing to make millions off of her, and found a way to use this guilt to control her.

The second verse would then represent she and Karlie deciding to get into serious bearding contracts in 2015 to avoid the “storm coming”.

“Good husband/Bad omen” acknowledges that the choice to “take a husband” in the form of their beards, set them up for trouble in the future. A bad omen fortells what’s coming, and Taylor and Karlie likely both knew that while their lavender “marriages” would serve them well for the time being, they would also bring with them unknowable complications and inevitable strife, especially if they one day decided to come out. Their bearding up to this point had been shortlived pr stunts, but Karlie marrying someone and Taylor carrying on a beard narrative for 6+ years is a more complicated web to untangle.

Thus, “dragged my feet right down the aisle”.

“At the house lonely/Good money/ I’d pay if you just know me” the well-placed line break allows this lyric to represent both the financial security they get by staying closeted, but also how Taylor would pay good money to be truly known and accepted by her fans.

All of this brings us to the chorus, which steps outside of the allegory established in the verses which provide a backstory for the emotions expressed in the choruses.

The chorus has three parts: two parts that are mostly repeated with each chorus, but with two lines that change with each repeat of the chorus, and a third part that is made up of two longer lines, which sonically contrast well with the short lines in the verses and the first two parts of the chorus, meaning these two longer lines punctuate the song and underscore the content of the two lines.

Chorus Parts 1 & 2:

“High infidelity/put on your records and regret me/ I bent the truth too far tonight/ and I was dancing around/ dancing around it/high infidelity/ put on your headphones and burn my city/ your picket fence is sharp as knives/I was dancing around/dancing around it.”

Chorus Part 3:

“Do you really want to know where I was April 29th?/ Do I really have to chart the constellations in his eyes?”

(In the second chorus, the second line of the third part goes: “Do I really have to tell you how he brought me back to life?”)

“High infidelity/put on your records and regret me/I bent the truth too far tonight/I was dancing around/dancing around it”

The chorus is Taylor imagining fully coming out, and some of her fans reactions.“High infidelity” would be referring to Taylor “lying” to her fans, who have a close parasocial relationship to the person they believe her to be, and who might feel “betrayed” if they found out Taylor was hiding a big part of who she is. “Put on your records and regret me” imagines then either listening to her old albums, hanging on to their idea of her, her use of male pronouns, etc, or maybe hate listening to her music, seething about how “fake” she was the whole time they “supported her”. Or maybe they’ll listen to other music, trying to drown out her songs (which they’ll never be able to do because they’re burned into their memory).

“I was dancing around it” refers to everything we have occupied ourselves with in this corner of the internet for a number of years: all of her signaling, her Easter eggs, her bait and switches, her clever word choices, disgusting her truth in plain sight. She has included bits and pieces of her truth in her lyrics, but not been direct.

I see the coupling of “I bent the truth too far” with “I was dancing around it” as both acknowledging the lies that went too far (Grammy gate, betty gate) but also her saying, “I’ve been trying to tell you” (I gave so many signs)

Part two of the chorus: “High infidelity/put on your headphones and burn my city/your picket fence is sharp as knives/I was dancing around, dancing around it”.

“Burn my city” - Cities typically burn in literature or in real life when the masses riot/are enraged. I think this shows Taylor’s real fear that if she were to plainly come out, her fans would burn her memory/empire, and disown her and their journey together. However, fire also symbolizes cleansing, a new beginning, or a change of power, so while this visual could demonstrate her fear of losing everything and no longer being “on top”, it could also echo the optimistic fire symbols we’ve seen recently (lover house burning, her staring at the lighter with vengeance and excitement in her eyes, and her smiling while her castle burns in bejeweled). This layer offers the song an irreverent tone, one that echoes her spoken performance of Seven, which to me sounded like she has made peace with the fact that she may lose some of her fans when she fully comes out.

“Your picket fence is sharp as knives” sounds like Taylor expressing the pain that others expectations of her have caused her. To me it sounds like her saying “I may have lied, but you were keeping me prisoner in that fantasy of me being the perfect all-American woman”. We have already heard her express this in this album cycle, her exasperation with the marriage rumors, the 1950’s shit.

This dynamic between closeted pop star and fans parallels a narrative of infidelity in a traditionally gendered heterosexual relationship. The wife that has cheated out of a desperation to be seen and appreciated, imprisoned by her picket fence which represents the sexist expectations put on her to perform as a perfect wife. Taylor has lied for the same reasons. Because of the gendered expectations put on her as a woman, that forced her to tell her audience what they wanted to hear, lest she suffer “the storm.”

But what then does the third part of the chorus refer to?

“Do you really wanna know where I was April 29th/ Do I really need to chart the constellations in his eyes?”

Taylor is continuing with the metaphor of infidelity to allegorize a “discussion” with her fans post coming out. With this lyric, a confrontation with the cheated-on spouse, She says, essentially, “do you really need me to spell it out for you? Do you really want me to detail something you clearly want to be in the dark about?”

Taylor is pointing out that this lie has been a two-way street. Anyone closely following her and willfully believing her bearding narrative at this point is consenting to denial and social artifice, both of which we happen to also associate with picket fences and American suburbia.

This allegory of Taylor as the cheating trophy wife, and her fans as the absent or unappreciative husband, goes deep. In both cases, the relationship was doomed from the start, to the fault of both parties, and larger social structures. The wife likely married a man with red flags, and played the part she thought she needed to play to find love and stability. The husband didn’t bother to dig under her performance, by spending time with her and truly getting to know her; he was comfortable with her being the “perfect woman” poised and done up, a good homemaker. Society at large enforced both of these choices.

Taylor played the part she thought she needed to in order to be successful, perhaps past the age she was powerless to do otherwise, and her fans didn’t want to see the real her once she started to reveal it; they were happy with their idea of who she was, partially because it had been fed to them, and partially because once that idea started to loose merit they refused to take notice. Society at large dictated the part Taylor should play, and enforced the heteronormativity that allowed her fans to continue believing her public narrative when it became flimsy at best.

The choice to employ the cheating allegory also seems to suggest that Taylor is underscoring the moral gray area of her situation - not the fact of being closeted, but the extent to which she has gone in some cases to protect her career and her loved ones. (Again, this brings to mind undeserved awards given to certain people, and the collateral damage of her queer fans being targeted by straight fans, etc.) There is no absolute right or wrong, no wholey innocent party. The wife had her reasons to cheat, Taylor had her reasons to lie, but still some regrettable moves were made, which left Taylor feeling regretful - or at least yearning for a life without the hiding and deceit.

This point places this song squarely within the larger themes of this album - namely, Taylor reflecting on the choices she’s made along the way in her closeting journey, and the uncertainty she has over whether she’s made the correct ones. As with other songs like Dear Reader and Anti Hero, her writing here maintains an ambiguity that belies her inner turmoil about her choice to prioritize her career over her personal life. She states again and again that she is, at least in part, the architect of her own misfortune, even if she built it for survival.

This song is an outstanding example of what I love most in Taylor’s writing. When you can’t tell a story outright, you have to tell it in allegory, when you can’t name a feeling, you have to describe it, either viscerally or in elaborate symbolism, which, when executed by someone with her talent, makes for unmatched storytelling.

Uhm, hello?!

I think Taylor often uses summer as a metaphor for coming out like daylight which makes sense since it’s a very sunny season and winter would then be the opposite of this. And it makes sense why folklore (spring/summer) and evermore (fall/winter) would directly follow lover if the failed coming out theories are correct. It was her way of processing these emotions.

I think this is what the transition from august to illicit affairs is supposed to represent. The vibrant sunset and rainbow colors (lover era) drain away and turn into gray (folklore era)—“you showed me colors you know I can’t see with anyone else.” The sunset visuals during august also indicate that summer and daylight are indeed the same thing metaphorically since the sun is going away as she sings “so much for summer love.” She was so close to claiming her sunshine, both the concept and person, but it slipped away from her 💔

I think it’s very poetic that there’s an alternative ending on folklore. Hoax is one possible ending, “my eclipsed sun…this has frozen my ground” and she could’ve stayed frozen in that winter but the lakes offers a bit of hope, “A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground” which indicates spring and summer have returned 🌹☀️ Similarly in the song evermore she decides to go back inside her warm cabin instead of staying out in the cold which she said represents finding hope again (48:00 of this vid). And to tie it all together she chose a cardigan, her “wool to brave the seasons,” as the main motif of folklore since this person kept her warm during that perilous winter.

The gay songs fighting to be the suprise song on the 3rd of August

she must’ve had a sign saying „no straight people allowed” on the door 😭 this whole party still feels like a fever dream to me. taylor really started this year by throwing the gayest party ever. just by looking at the guest list and the way she poses, what other gaylor proof do you need? 🥴

She is a freaking mastermind..

Victoria secret sound in snow on the beach

I'm never going to recover

And it shows🌈

The blog I saw this on got deleted so I’m keeping this alive👆🏻

Happy Lesbian Visibility Week! ❤️🧡🤍🩷💜

Taylor: I don't dress for women

Ok, explain this:

The way she’s once again including herself in the lgbtq community. She’s literally a friend of dorothy (x)

if i was dianna agron i’d wait for 1989 tv to drop, post a throwback thursday pic of my alice in wonderland tattoo and then log out

I totally get not wanting the media or fans to ask invasive questions about your relationship but taylor swift will write music like nobody can EVER find out about our love because it will cross lines it will not fit into 1950s expectations it will be a big conversation because the culture isn't clever enough to confess my truth and they think they know about us but they don't they will put us into cages and boxes and i wear you in an invisible locket because i have deep fears that the world will divide us and i'll fall from grace if they find out .... boy

Taylor never beating the James allegations 🛹

mastermind is such a sad song. it throws back to the whole idea beneath mirrorball. it’s the no one liked me for who i was, so i’ll turn into something else that shines, that gleams, and then you’ll like me. then you’ll want to play with me. this is such a melancholy thought, to feel like you have to morph into something to make others around like you.

i’m never getting over this album.

"I don't dress for women" literally what is this then

„i don’t dress for women” MF WHAT IS IT THEN???

ok I haven't seen the ass slap on tumblr yet and I'm losing my MIND

🍪 love language at 3:08 🍪

I totally get not wanting the media or fans to ask invasive questions about your relationship but taylor swift will write music like nobody can EVER find out about our love because it will cross lines it will not fit into 1950s expectations it will be a big conversation because the culture isn't clever enough to confess my truth and they think they know about us but they don't they will put us into cages and boxes and i wear you in an invisible locket because i have deep fears that the world will divide us and i'll fall from grace if they find out .... boy

Taylor: throws an after party and invites all the 🏳️‍🌈

Us: there goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen

„i don’t dress for women” MF WHAT IS IT THEN???