Quite frankly, these Taylor Swift lyric parallels are gutting. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most gut wrenching Taylor Swift lyrical callbacks.
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00:00 "There are a lot of songs that reference each other or lyrical parallels and one of
00:03 the ones that I like is is the entire song 'This Is Me Trying'
00:08 then being referenced again in 'Mirrorball.'"
00:11 Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most
00:15 gut-wrenching Taylor Swift lyrical callbacks.
00:17 "I once believed love would be black and white, but it's golden."
00:23 Number 10. 'Lover' and 'Death by a Thousand Cuts'
00:28 "Songs about things not turning out the way you wanted them to or
00:31 songs about what you thought would be love and it turned out to not be that at all or,
00:36 you know, just kind of the struggle of life."
00:39 It feels contradictory that one of Taylor Swift's most gut-wrenching breakup songs would be on an
00:44 album called 'Lover.' Upon release in 2019, 'Death by a Thousand Cuts' quickly became a fan favorite.
00:50 Some may not have noticed that the word "my" plays an important role in two songs on the album.
00:55 "My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my."
01:00 At the start of 'Death by a Thousand Cuts,' a haunting repetition preludes the first verse.
01:05 Later, it returns as Swift lists the part of herself affected by the loss.
01:09 "My heart, my hips, my body, my love, tryna find a part of me that you didn't touch."
01:15 In the album's title track, the same repetition is used,
01:18 but this time to refer to Swift's lover.
01:20 "You're my, my, my, my, my lover."
01:27 The parallel makes the songs even more emotional,
01:30 especially given that they appear on the same album.
01:33 "If someone's gonna take your hand, they'd better take your hand scars and all.
01:37 So this is called 'Lover.'"
01:40 Number nine. 'Last Kiss,' Taylor's version and 'Paper Rings.'
01:44 "So I'll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep."
01:53 Across Swift's discography, there are countless references to being awake in the middle of the
01:58 night. In fact, she even released an entire album devoted to it.
02:01 "It's a concept album and the main question is what keeps you up at night. So it's,
02:05 you know, you could be up at night because you're reeling from just having met someone
02:09 and you're falling for them, or you could be plotting revenge."
02:14 Long before reflecting on sleepless nights, Swift alluded to the idea of watching your
02:18 partner sleeping, but in very different contexts. In 'Paper Rings,' she sings about the lead-up to
02:23 her relationship, and how she finally gets to wake up and see her partner sleeping beside her.
02:28 "Got a mouse for a month or two or three. Now I wake up in the night and watch you breathe."
02:34 However, years earlier, she wrote a similar line in 'Last Kiss,' where the same sentiment is
02:39 expressed as a memory after a breakup. Is it too on the nose to say that the duality of the lyrics
02:44 keeps us up at night? "The most intense times in your life are when you're either falling in love
02:49 or losing it." Number eight. 'You Are In Love,' Taylor's version, and 'Peace.'
02:54 "This song was basically like, 'Is it enough? Is the stuff that I can control
02:59 enough to sort of block out the things that I can't?'"
03:06 Over the years, Swift has spent a lot of time discussing her view on love in interviews and
03:10 messages to fans, but mainly through her lyrics. Two of her love songs that are among the most
03:16 vulnerable are 'You Are In Love,' Taylor's version, and 'Peace.'
03:19 "You can hear it in the silence, silence, you."
03:25 While the albums they originate from are completely different, the messages in both
03:29 tracks are quite similar. She discusses the idea of love being quiet rather than boastful.
03:34 "All these people think love's for show, but I would die for you in secret."
03:39 She identifies silence as being a comforting place to be with your loved one, and much
03:43 louder than any words. In essence, it's the antithesis of her very loud and often chaotic
03:48 professional life. "If you're the silence that only comes when two people understand each other,
03:53 family that I chose, now that I see you, brother, as my brother."
03:57 Number seven. 'The Very First Night,' Taylor's version, from 'The Vault,' and 'Out of the Woods,'
04:02 Taylor's version. "Back then we didn't go, we were built to fall apart. We broke the status quo,
04:09 then we broke each other's hearts." Through the releases of Swift's re-recorded albums and Vault
04:14 tracks, fans have learned more about the lore of her former flames. Particularly, her infamous
04:19 relationship with singer Harry Styles has been featured across multiple albums. The star-crossed
04:24 romance was previously explored in 'Out of the Woods,' where Swift described the relationship as,
04:28 quote, "built to fall apart, then fall back together."
04:31 "That was another song that I feel sounds exactly like that emotion, that frantic anxiety of
04:37 wondering if you're on solid ground yet. And I wrote that about a time in my life where I
04:42 was in a relationship that just kind of, I was always kind of wondering."
04:47 Meanwhile, the Vault track 'The Very First Night' uses a similar line to describe the
04:51 same tragic fate. Fans also noticed that 'Is It Over Now?' references the alleged
04:56 snowmobile accident cited in 'Out of the Woods.'
04:58 "When you lost control, red blood, white snow."
05:05 Whatever the inspiration, Swift has an undeniable knack for disguising her
05:09 most devastating lyrics in the catchiest bops.
05:12 "Remember when we hit the brakes too soon, 20 stitches in a hospital room,
05:17 we just got a car and baby I did too."
05:20 Number 6. Invisible String and Tolerate It
05:23 "Something wrapped all of my past mistakes in barbed wire."
05:28 They don't call folklore and Evermore sister albums for nothing. While the albums share
05:32 many similarities, there are no two songs more different than Invisible String and Tolerate It.
05:37 The enchanting folklore track uses fate to explain how small circumstances lead to
05:42 discovering the one you're destined to be with.
05:44 "I kind of love the romantic idea that every step you're taking, you're taking
05:50 one step closer to where you're supposed to be, you know, guided by this little, like,
05:55 invisible string."
05:56 Meanwhile, its Evermore counterpart is a darker song of disillusionment in a relationship.
06:01 However, both songs are tied together by their use of imagery, particularly barbed wire.
06:06 Invisible String describes how a partner discards the protagonist's past behind barbed wire.
06:11 Tolerate It, on the other hand, wonders where that man has gone.
06:14 "Where's that man who throw blankets over my barbed wire?"
06:18 Just like the edges of barbed wire,
06:20 these lyrical parallels reopen old wounds every time we hear them.
06:24 Number 5. New Romantics, Taylor's version, and Call It What You Want
06:29 Call It What You Want has been linked to multiple songs over the years.
06:34 Whereas Nothing New describes Swift feeling outdated and unwanted,
06:38 "And will you still want me when I'm nothing new?"
06:44 Call It What You Want triumphantly declares that her lover views her as brand new.
06:48 "Fly like a jet stream, higher above the whole scene, loves me like I'm red, ooh."
06:53 Meanwhile, the track Clean uses the imagery of dying flowers to describe a dead relationship,
06:58 a theme the singer also adopted to describe her thorny outlook on life.
07:02 "All my flowers grew back as thorns, windows boarded up after the storm."
07:07 However, the standout parallel is easily between the Reputation track and New Romantics.
07:12 The latter describes building a castle with bricks that her cynics have thrown,
07:16 whereas the former declares that the castle fell apart in the end.
07:19 It's a great way to bridge the two albums with the turbulent period that came between.
07:30 Number 4. Nothing New, Taylor's version, from The Vault and Mirrorball
07:44 Taylor Swift is no stranger to the cost of fame. Throughout her career,
07:47 she's often drawn attention to the negative side effects of celebrity status.
07:51 "We have mirrorballs in the middle of a dance floor because they reflect light,
07:55 they are broken a million times and that's what makes them so shiny.
08:00 We have people like that in society too."
08:03 Mirrorball is a vulnerable track that explores the feelings of isolation associated with stardom.
08:08 She describes being in a solo performance on a tightrope,
08:11 an image that is paralleled in the 1989 Vault track, "Say Don't Go."
08:15 The themes of trying to stay relevant are also closely mirrored on the red Vault track,
08:24 "Nothing New."
08:24 The idea of being a mirrorball in the center of the room,
08:37 cracked and displayed for entertainment, is a strikingly visceral sentiment.
08:41 But what happens when a new, shinier version replaces you above the dance floor?
08:45 This fear is a raw and emotional confession that gets us in our feels every time.
08:54 Number 3. Dear John, Taylor's version, and Would've, Could've, Should've.
09:07 Hours after the release of her tenth album, Midnight's, Swift surprised fans by giving
09:11 them the deluxe version, Midnight's 3AM Edition. Out of seven bonus tracks,
09:16 one in particular stood out as being a callback to an earlier tune.
09:20 "If I was some paint, did it splatter? On a promising grown man?"
09:26 Listeners instantly recognize the similarities between Would've, Could've, Should've and the
09:30 fan-favorite song, "Dear John." Swift looks back on a relationship with an older man from a much
09:35 more mature perspective. In both songs, "paint" is used as a metaphor to literally create a picture
09:41 of the toxic relationship. "You paint me a blue sky, then go back and turn it to rain."
09:50 She also directly references being 19 years old at the time of the relationship,
09:54 leaving very little question as to exactly what, or rather who, she is singing to.
09:59 "And I damn sure never would've danced with the devil at 19."
10:05 Number 2. The Moment I Knew, Taylor's Version and All Too Well,
10:09 10 Minute Version, Taylor's Version, From the Vault.
10:11 "And he said it's supposed to be fun, today and 21."
10:18 There are many red lyrical callbacks we could include for this entry. We love the reference
10:22 to Shakespeare's play, All's Well That Ends Well, in All Too Well, 10 Minute Version.
10:26 "They say all's well that ends well, but I'm in a new hell every time."
10:32 And later, Lover.
10:34 "My heart's been borrowed and yours has been used,
10:37 all's well that ends well to end up with you."
10:40 We also have to mention the twin fire signs and twin flame brews of State of Grace
10:45 and the 10 Minute Opus.
10:46 "And if it's twin flame brews, paint you blue."
10:51 But the best parallel comes from two of Red's most gut-wrenching tracks.
10:55 For years, many suspected that Swift's 21st birthday party was the catalyst for her breakup
10:59 with then 29-year-old Jake Gyllenhaal, as alluded to in The Moment I Knew.
11:04 "And they're all sitting around me singing, happy birthday to you."
11:11 This theory was confirmed in All Too Well, 10 Minute Version when Swift point-blank
11:15 referenced Gyllenhaal's no-show at her party. All we can say is, ouch.
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11:36 Number 1. Red, Taylor's Version and Daylight
11:39 This might just be the most famous lyrical callback in Swift's discography.
11:47 In 2012, the artist released the original version of her album Red with an accompanying title track.
11:53 The lyrics of Red describe the romance at the heart of the album, matching colors to the
11:57 songstress' feelings and ultimately describing her love as "burning red."
12:01 "When I still see it all in my head, I'm burning red."
12:08 Years later, Swift concluded her album Lover with Daylight. Here,
12:12 she reflects on her previous ideas about love, concluding that it's actually golden.
12:16 "I once believed love would be burning red. It's golden. But it's golden."
12:25 Not only is this lyric an Easter egg for Swifties, but it also shows how Swift's perspective on the
12:30 intricate topic has evolved as she has matured. Which lyrical parallel do you
12:35 love to belt out through your tears? Let us know in the comments.
12:38 Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
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