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Hugging Artists 14

This ones called Picture to Burn One, two, three Well, state the obvious, I didnt get my perfect fantasy I realize you love yourself more than you could ever love me So go and tell your friends that Im obsessive and crazy Thats fine, Ill tell mine youre gay And by the way I hate that stupid old pickup truck you never let me drive Youre a redneck heartbreak whos really bad at lying So watch me strike a match on all my wasted time As far as Im concerned, youre just another picture to burn Well, theres no time for tears Im just sitting here planning my revenge Theres nothing stopping me From going out with all of your best friends And if you come around saying sorry to me My daddys gonna show you how sorry youll be I hate that stupid old pickup truck you never let me drive Youre a redneck heartbreak whos really bad at lying So watch me strike a match an all my wasted time As far as Im concerned, youre just another picture to burn And if youre missing me, youd better keep it to yourself Cause coming back around here would be bad for your health Cause I hate that stupid old pickup truck you never let me drive Youre a redneck heartbreak whos really bad at lying So watch me strike a match on all my wasted time In case you havent heard I really really hate that Stupid old pickup truck you never let me drive Youre a redneck heartbreak, whos really bad at lying So watch me strike a match on all my wasted time As far as Im concerned, youre just another picture to burn Burn, burn, burn, baby, burn Youre just another picture to burn Baby, burn Thank you so much! Thank you!

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.. Oh-oh Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.. Oh-oh Been sitting eyes wide open behind these four walls, hoping youd call Its just a cruel existence like theres no point hoping at all Baby, baby, I feel crazy Up all night, all night and every day Give me something, oh, but you say nothing What is happening to me? I dont wanna live forever, cause I know Ill be living in vain And I dont wanna fit wherever I just wanna keep calling your name until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name until you come back home Im sitting eyes wide open and I got one thing stuck in my mind Wondering if I dodged a bullet or just lost the love of my life Baby, baby, I feel crazy Up all night, all night and every day I gave you something, but you gave me nothing What is happening to me? I dont wanna live forever, cause I know Ill be living in vain And I dont wanna fit wherever I just wanna keep calling your name until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name until you come back home Ive been looking sad in all the nicest places Baby, baby, I feel crazy I see you around in all these empty faces Up all night, all night and every day Ive been looking sad in all the nicest places Give me something, oh, but you say nothing Now Im in a cab, I tell em where your place is What is happening to me? I dont wanna live forever, cause I know Ill be living in vain And I dont wanna fit wherever I just wanna keep calling your name until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name until you come back home Until you come back home

No sir Well, I dont wanna be the blame, not anymore Its your turn So take a seat were settling the final score And why do we like to hurt so much? I cant decide You have made it harder just to go on And why? All the possibilities Well, I was wrong Thats what you get when you let your heart win, Thats what you get when you let your heart win, I drowned out all my sense with the sound of its beating And thats what you get when you let your heart win, I wonder How am I supposed to feel when youre not here? Cause I burned every bridge I ever built when you were here I still try holding onto silly things, I never learn Oh, why? All the possibilities Im sure youve heard Thats what you get when you let your heart win, Thats what you get when you let your heart win, I drowned out all my sense with the sound of its beating And thats what you get when you let your heart win, Pain, make your way to me, to me And Ill always be just so inviting If I ever start to think straight This heart will start a riot in me Lets start, start, hey! Why do we like to hurt so much? Oh, why do we like to hurt so much? Thats what you get when you let your heart win, woah Thats what you get when you let your heart win, woah Thats what you get when you let your heart win, woah Now, I cant trust myself with anything but this And thats what you get when you let your heart win, woah

Ive been having a hard time adjusting I had the shiniest wheels, now theyre rusting I didnt know if youd care if I came back I have a lot of regrets about that Pulled the car off the road to the lookout Couldve followed my fears all the way down And maybe I dont quite know what to say But Im here in your doorway I just wanted you to know that this is me trying I just wanted you to know that this is me trying They told me all of my cages were mental So I got wasted like all my potential And my words shoot to kill when Im mad I have a lot of regrets about that I was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere Fell behind all my classmates and I ended up here Pouring out my heart to a stranger But I didnt pour the whiskey I just wanted you to know that this is me trying I just wanted you to know that this is me trying At least Im trying And its hard to be at a party when I feel like an open wound Its hard to be anywhere these days when all I want is you Youre a flashback in a film reel on the one screen in my town And I just wanted you to know that this is me trying I just wanted you to know that this is me trying At least Im trying

I dont like your little games Dont like your tilted stage The role you made me play Of the fool, no, I dont like you I dont like your perfect crime How you laugh when you lie You said the gun was mine Isnt cool, no, I dont like you But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time Ive got a list of names and yours is in red, underlined I check it once, then I check it twice, oh! Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me— Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me do I dont like your kingdom keys They once belonged to me You asked me for a place to sleep Locked me out and threw a feast The world moves on, another day, another drama, drama But not for me, not for me, all I think about is karma And then the world moves on, but one things for sure Maybe I got mine, but youll all get yours But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time Ive got a list of names and yours is in red, underlined I check it once, then I check it twice, oh! Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me— Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me do I dont trust nobody and nobody trusts me Ill be the actress starring in your bad dreams I dont trust nobody and nobody trusts me Ill be the actress starring in your bad dreams I dont trust nobody and nobody trusts me Ill be the actress starring in your bad dreams I dont trust nobody and nobody trusts me Ill be the actress starring in your bad dreams (Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me— Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me—) Im sorry, the old Kenton Chen cant come to the phone right now Why? Oh, cause hes dead! Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me— Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me do Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me— Ooh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me do

I promise that youll never find another like me I know that Im a handful, baby, uh I know I never think before I jump And youre the kind of guy the ladies want I know that I went psycho on the phone I never leave well enough alone And troubles gonna follow where I go But one of these things is not like the others Like a rainbow with all of the colors Baby doll, when it comes to a lover I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e I know I tend to make it about me I know you never get just what you see But I will never bore you, baby And when we had that fight out in the rain You ran after me and called my name I never wanna see you walk away Cause one of these things is not like the others Livin in winter, I am your summer Baby doll, when it comes to a lover I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Let me keep you company Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e Hey, kids! Vegas is fun! I’m Taylor I’m Brendon Welcome to the Billboard Music Awards Yeah! Girl there ain’t no “I” in team But you know there is a me Strike the band up, 1, 2, 3 I promise that youll never find another like me Girl, there aint no I in team But you know there is a me And you cant spell awesome without me I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e , ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e Girl, there aint no I in team But you know there is a me Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Strike the band up, 1, 2, 3 You cant spell awesome without me Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e

Absolutely love this one, right? This is sort of a... its not a short speech, so, just, I dont want this to slip and break, cause its very important to me. Thank you so much. Shes so supportive. We all need someone like that. Im Taylor, good evening. I wanna first thank Billboard from the bottom of my heart for this honor, for - Whoa, this is going great so far. Excellent, okay. I wanna say thank you so much to Billboard for giving me this honor, for naming me as their Woman of the Decade. So, what does it mean to be the Woman of this Decade? Well, it means Ive seen a lot. When this decade began, I was 20 years old, and I had put out my self-titled debut album when I was 16. And then the album that would become my breakthrough album, which was called Fearless, and I saw that there was a world of music and experience beyond country music that I was really curious about. I saw pop stations send my songs Love Story and You Belong With Me to number one for the first time. And I saw that as a female in this industry, some people will always have slight reservations about you. Whether you deserve to be there. Whether your male producer or co-writer is the reason for your success. Or whether it was a savvy record label; it wasnt. I saw that people love to explain away a womans success in the music industry, and I saw something in me change due to this realization. This was the decade when I became a mirror for my detractors. Whatever they decided I couldnt do is exactly what I did. Huh, Ill take it, thanks! Whatever they criticized about me became material for musical satires or inspirational anthems, and the best lyrical examples I can think of are songs like Mean, Shake It Off, and Blank Space. Basically, if people had something to say about me, I usually said something back in my own way. And this reflex dictated more than just my lyrics. When Fearless did win Album of the Year at the Grammys, and I did become the youngest solo artist to ever win the award, with that win, came criticism and backlash in 2010 that Id never experienced before as a young, new artist. All of a sudden, people had doubts about my singing voice. Was it strong enough? Was I a little bit pitchy? All of a sudden, they werent sure if I was the one writing the songs because sometimes in the past I had had co-writers in the room. At that time, I couldnt understand why this wave of harsh criticism had hit me so hard. I believe a popular headline back then was A Swift Backlash, which is clever, you gotta give it to them. And now I realize that this is just what happens to a woman in music if she achieves success or power beyond peoples comfort level. I now have come to expect that with good news, comes some sort of pushback, but I didnt know that then. So then, I decided that I would be the only songwriter on my third album, Speak Now, and that I would tour constantly, work on my vocals every day, and perfect my stamina in a live show. I decided I would be what they said I couldnt be. I didnt know then that, soon enough, people would decide on something else I wasnt quite doing right, and then the circle would keep going on and on, and rolling along, and I would keep accommodating, over-correcting, in an effort to appease my critics. Theyre saying Im dating too much in my twenties? Okay, Ill stop. Ill just be single... for years. Now theyre saying my album Red is filled with too many break-up songs? Okay, Ill make one about moving to New York, and deciding that really my life is more fun with just my friends. Oh, theyre saying my music is changing too much for me to stay in country music? Alright, okay, heres an entire genre shift, and a pop album called 1989. Oh, you heard it? Sick! Now its that Im showing you too many pictures of me with my friends. Okay, I can stop doing that, too. Now Im actually a calculated, manipulator rather than a smart businesswoman? Okay, Ill disappear from public view... for years. Now Im being cast as a villain to you? Okay, heres an album called reputation and there are lots of snakes everywhere. In the last ten years, I have watched as women in this industry are criticized, and measured up to each other, and picked at for their bodies, their romantic lives, their fashion. Or, have you ever heard someone say, about a male artist, I really like his songs, but I dont know what it is, theres just something about him I dont like. No! That criticism is reserved for us. But, you know, Ive learned that the difference between those who can continue to create in that climate usually comes down to this: who lets that scrutiny break them, and who just keeps making art. Ive watched as one of my favorite artists of this decade, Lana Del Rey, was ruthly criticized - Yes! Yeah, thank you. We have similar tastes, I like it. She was ruthlessly criticized in her early career, and then slowly but surely, she turned into, in my opinion, the most influential artist in pop. Her vocal stylings, her lyrics, her aesthetics, theyve been echoed and repurposed in every corner in music. And this year, her incredible album is nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys, because she just kept making art. And that example should inspire all of us. That the only way forward, is forward motion. That we shouldnt let obstacles like criticism slow down the creative forces that drive us. And I see that fire in the newer faces in our music industry, whose work I absolutely love. I see it in Lizzo, Rosalía, Tayla Parx, Hayley Kiyoko, King Princess, Camila Cabello, Halsey, Megan Thee Stallion, Princess Nokia, Nina Nesbitt, Sigrid, Normani, H.E.R., Maggie Rogers, Becky G, Dua Lipa, Ella Mai, Billie Eilish, and so many other amazing women who are making music right now. Female artists in music have dominated this decade in growth, streaming, record and ticket sales, and critical acclaim. So why are we doing so well? Because we have to grow fast, we have to work this hard, we have to prove that we deserve this, and we have to top our last achievements. Women in music, onstage, or behind the scenes, are not allowed to coast. We are held at a higher, sometimes impossible-feeling standard. And it seems that my fellow female artists have taken this challenge, and they have accepted it. It seems like the pressure that couldve crushed us made us into diamonds instead. And what didnt kill us actually did make us stronger. But we need to keep advocating for women in the recording studios, behind the mixing board, in A&R meetings, because rather than fighting to be taken seriously in their fields, these women are still struggling to even have a chance to be in the room. We now find ourselves fully immersed in a vast frontier that wasnt around last decade, and that is the streaming world. In music, were always walking hand-in-hand with technology. And sometimes that is so awesome, like how now were able to just drop a song that we made yesterday. Ive spoken out in the past about the future of revenue flow for creators, and the songwriters and producers who are being left behind due to these rapid shifts and changes. I still dont think that record contracts or producers agreements have fully caught up. And I hope that in the next decade, we can keep searching for the right solution for producers, songwriters, and creators. Dont you? Lately, theres been a new shift that has affected me personally, and that I feel is a potentially harmful force in our industry. And as your resident loud person, I feel the need to bring it up: And that is the unregulated world of private equity coming in, and buying up our music, as if it is real estate. As if its an app, or a shoe line. This just happened to me without my approval, consultation, or consent. After I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalogue was sold to Scooter Brauns Ithaca Holdings in a deal that Im told was funded by the Soros family, 23 Capital and the Carlyle Group. Yet, to this day, none of these investors have ever bothered to contact me or my team directly, to perform their due diligence on their investment, on their investment in me, to ask how I might feel about the new owner of my art. The music I wrote, the videos I created, photos of me, my handwriting, my album designs. And of course, Scooter never contacted me or my team to discuss it prior to the sale, or even when it was announced. Im fairly certain he knew how I would feel about it, though, and let me just say that the definition of the toxic male privilege in our industry is people saying, But hes always been nice to me! when Im raising valid concerns about artists and their right to own their music. And of course hes nice to you. If youre in this room, you have something he needs. The fact is that private equity is what enabled this man to think, according to his own social media post, that he could buy me, but Im obviously not going willingly. Yet, the most amazing thing was to discover that it would be the women in our industry who would have my back and show me the most vocal support at one of the most difficult times, and I will never, ever forget it. Like, ever. But to conclude, I will say that in ten years, Ive seen forward steps in our industry. In our awareness, our inclusion, our ability to start calling out unfairness and misconduct. Ive seen the advent of social media, the way it can boost the breakthrough of emerging artists. And Ive seen fans become more engaged and supportive than ever before. Ive leaned on that support, and it has kept me in a place where, no matter what, I always wanted to keep making music for them. I was up on a stage in New York City in 2014, accepting Billboard Woman of the Year, and I was talking about the future of streaming. How we needed to make sure that the female artists, writers, and producers of the next generation were protected and compensated fairly. This was before my record deal with Universal, last year, that would contractually guarantee that the artists on their roster be paid upon any sale of their Spotify shares, unrecupable. So, thank you for that. This speech Im referring to was on my 25th birthday. Im about to turn thirty tonight, woo! But my exact quote during this speech was, I really just feel like we need to continue to try to offer something to a younger generation of musicians. Because somewhere, right now, your future Woman of the Year is probably sitting in a piano lesson, or in a girls choir. And today, right now, we need to take care of her. Ive since learned that, at that exact moment, an 11-year old girl in California really was taking piano lessons, and really was in a girls choir. And this year, she has been named Woman of the Year at the age of seventeen. Her name is Billie. And those are the stories we need to think about every day as we do our jobs in this industry. The ones where peoples dreams come true and they get to create music and play it for people. The ones where fans feel a connection to music that makes their day easier, makes their night more fun, makes their love feel more sacred, or their heartache feel less isolating. The ones where all of you in this room stand as an example for someone else in the next generation who loves the same thing that we love: music. And no matter what else enters the conversation, we will bring it back to music. And as for me, lately Ive been focusing less on doing what they say I cant do and more on doing whatever the hell I want. Thank you for a magnificent, happy, free, confused, sometimes lonely, but mostly golden decade. Im honored to be here tonight, I feel very lucky to be with you, thank you so much.

Ooooooo-oooh Ooooooo-oooh Im sitting eyes wide open behind these four walls Hoping youll call Its just a cruel existence Like theres no point hoping at all Baby, baby, I feel crazy Up all night, all night and every day Give me something, oh But you say nothing What is happening to me? And I dont wanna live forever Cause I know Ill be living in vain And I dont wanna fit wherever I just wanna keep calling your name Until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name Until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name Until you come back home Im sitting eyes wide open And I got one thing stuck on my mind Wondering if I dodged a bullet Or just lost the love of my life, woah Baby, baby, I feel crazy Up all night, all night and every day I give you something, oh But you give me nothing What is happening to me? And I dont wanna live forever Cause I know Ill be living in vain And I dont wanna fit wherever I just wanna keep calling your name Until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name Until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name Until you come back home Ive been looking sad in all the nicest places I see you around in all these empty faces Ive been looking sad in all the nicest places Now Im in a cab, I show him where your place is What is happening to me? And I dont wanna live forever Cause I know Ill be living in vain And I dont wanna fit wherever I just wanna keep calling your name Until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name Until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name Until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name Until you come back home I said I just wanna keep calling your name Until you come back home I just wanna keep calling your name Until you come back home Until you come back home

Ok, here’s the Westerly one, written in Westerly Im like the water when your ship rolled in that night Rough on the surface, but you cut through like a knife And if it was an open-shut case I never wouldve known from the look on your face Drown in your current like a priceless wine The more that you say, the less I know Wherever you stray, I follow Im begging for you to take my hand Wreck my plans, thats my man Life was a willow and it bent right to your wind Hеad on the pillow, I could feel you sneakin in As if you werе a mythical thing Like you were a trophy or a champion ring And it was only one game Id die to win The more that you say, the less I know Wherever you stray, I follow Im begging for you to take my hand Wreck my plans, thats my man You know that my train could take you home Anywhere else is hollow Begging for you to take my hand Wreck my plans, thats my man And then I was thinking like a choral section like ... Wait for the signal, and Ill meet you after dark Show me the places where the others gave you scars Now this is an open-shut case I guess I shouldve known from the look on your face Every bait-and-switch was a work of art The more that you say, the less I know Wherever you stray, I follow Begging for you to take my hand Wreck my plans, thats my man You know that my train could take you home Anywhere else is hollow Im begging for you to take my hand Wreck my plans, thats my man The more that you say, the less I know Wherever you stray, I follow Begging for you to take my hand Wreck my plans, thats my man You know that my train could take you home Anywhere else is hollow Begging for you to take my hand Wreck my plans, thats my man Hey, thats my man Yeah, thats my man Yeah, thats my man Every bait-and-switch was a work of art Thats my man Hey, thats my man Im begging for you to take my hand Wreck my plans, thats my man

City of Lover♡ 1. ME! 2. Blank Space 3. I Knew You Were Trouble 4. The Archer 5. Love Story 6. Delicate 7. Death By a Thousand Cuts 8. Cornelia Street 9. The Man 10. All Too Well 11. Red 12. Daylight 13. Style 14. You Need to Calm Down 15. Lover 16. Shake It Off

Baby, baby Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh Oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh Oh, oh Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh Oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh Oh, oh Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh Oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh Oh, oh

Lyrics for this song are not yet released

Im five years old, its getting cold, Ive got my big coat on I hear your laugh and look up smiling at you, I run and run Past the pumpkin patch and the tractor rides Look now, the sky is gold I hug your legs and fall asleep on the way home

My favorite kinds of books to read are the ones that do more than just tell you a story. They do more than just set the scene or paint the picture. The writing I love the most places you into that story, that room, that rain soaked kiss. You can smell the air, hear the sounds, and feel your heart race as the characters does. It’s something F. Scott Fitzgerald did so well, to describe a scene so gorgeously interwoven with rich emotional revelations, that you yourself have escaped from your own life for a moment. Im highly biased, but I think that the way music can transport you back to a long-forgotten memory is the closest sensation we have to traveling in time. To this day, when I hear Cowboy Take Me Away by the Dixie Chicks, I instantly recall the feeling of being twelve years old, sitting in a little wood paneled room in my family home in Pennsylvania. Im clutching a guitar and learning to play the chords and sing the words at the same time, rehearsing for a gig at a coffee house. When I hear I Write Sins Not Tragedies by Panic! At The Disco, I’m transported back to being sixteen and driving down the streets of Hendersonville, Tennessee, with my best friend Abigail, euphorically screaming the lyrics. When I hear How to Save a Life by The Fray, Breathe by Anna Nalick, or The Story by Brandi Carlile, I immediately flashback to being seventeen and on tour for months on end. When Id get a day at home in between long stretches on the road sharing a van with my band and crew, I would spend my rare nights off painting alone with candles lit in my room – just being alone with those songs . Im convinced that You Learn by Alanis Morissette, Put Your Records On by Corinne Bailey Rae and Why by Annie Lennox have actually healed my heart after bad breakups or let downs. I love writing songs because I love preserving memories, like putting a picture frame around a feeling you once had. I like to use nostalgia as inspiration when Im writing songs for the same reason I like to take photographs. I like to be able to remember the extremely good and extremely bad times. I want to remember the color of the sweater, the temperature of the air, the creak of the floorboards, the time on the clock when your heart was stolen or shattered or healed or claimed forever. The fun challenge of writing a pop song is squeezing those evocative details into the catchiest melodic cadence you can possibly think of. I thrive on the challenge of sprinkling personal mementos and shreds of reality into a genre of music that is universally known for being, well, universal. Youd think that as pop writers, were supposed to be writing songs that everyone can sing along to, so youd assume they would have to be pretty lyrically generic… AND YET the ones I think cut through the most are actually the most detailed, and I don’t mean in a Shakespearean sonnet type of way, although I love Shakespeare as much as the next girl. Obviously. . In modern pop, songs/bops/chunes including extremely personal details like Kiki, do you love me and Baby pull me closer in the backseat of your rover have been breaking through on the most global cultural level. This year on tour, I got to hear stadium crowds passionately sing along to a young woman from Cuba singing about Havana. I think these days, people are reaching out for connection and comfort in the music they listen to. We like being confided in and hearing someone say, this is what I went through as proof to us that we can get through our own struggles. We actually do NOT want our pop music to be generic. I think a lot of music lovers want some biographical glimpse into the world of our narrator, a hole in the emotional walls people put up around themselves to survive. This glimpse into the artist’s story invites us to connect it to our own, and in the best case scenario, allows us the ability to assign that song to our memories. Its this alliance between a song and our memories of the times it helped us heal, or made us cry, dance, or escape that truly stands the test of time. Just like a great book.

Cause, baby, now we got bad blood You know it used to be mad love So take a look what youve done Cause, baby, now we got bad blood, hey! Now we got problems And I dont think we can solve them So take a look at what youve done And, baby, now we got bad blood, hey! Did you have to do this? I was thinking that you could be trusted Did you have to ruin what was shiny? And now its all rusted Did you have to hurt me when Im weak? Baby, I couldnt breathe And rub it in so deep Salt in the wound like youre laughing right at me Oh, its so sad to Think about the good times You and I Cause, baby, now we got bad blood You know it used to be mad love So take a look what youve done Cause, baby, now we got bad blood, hey! Now we got problems And I dont think we can solve them So take a look at what youve done And, baby, now we got bad blood, hey! Did you think wed be fine? I dont think I want you back in my life So dont think its in the past These kinda wounds they last and they last Now did you think it all through? All these things will catch up to you And time can heal, but this wont So if youre coming my way Just dont Oh, its so sad to Think about the good times You and I Cause, baby, now we got bad blood You know it used to be mad love So take a look what youve done Cause, baby, now we got bad blood, hey! Now we got problems And I dont think we can solve them So take a look at what youve done And, baby, now we got bad blood, hey! Band-aids dont fix dont you know You say sorry just for show If you live like that, you live with ghosts Mhmm If you love like that, blood runs cold! Cause, baby, now we got bad blood You know it used to be mad love So take a look what youve done Cause, baby, now we got bad blood, hey! Now we got problems And I dont think we can solve them So take a look at what youve done And, baby, now we got bad blood, hey!

If someone said three years from now Youd be long gone Id stand up and punch them out Cause theyre all wrong I know better, cause you said forever And ever, who knew? If someone said three years from now Youd be long gone That last kiss, Ill cherish, until we meet again My darling, who knew? Because P!nk is from Philly, ladies and gentlemen! I wish I could tie you up in my shoes Make you feel unpretty too I was told I was beautiful But what does that mean to you? Look into the mirror, whos inside there The one with the long hair Same old me again today, yeah My outsides look cool My insides are blue Every time I think Im through Its because of you I try different ways But its all the same At the end of the day I have myself to blame Im just trippin You can buy your hair if it wont grow You can fix your nose if he says so You can buy all the make-up They can make, but if You cant look inside you Find out who am I to Be in the position that make me feel So Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Make you feel unpretty too Thats another song by an artist from Philly, I wanna see if you know it

June 2019 Update Taylor Swift - You Need to Calm Down Twin Shadow - Saturdays Ciara - Thinkin Bout You AJR - 100 Bad Days Taylor Swift - ME! Mumford & Sons - Woman Shy FX - Rudeboy Lovesong Khalid - Free Spirit Lizzo - Juice Tove Lo - Glad Hes Gone Adam Lambert - New Eyes Katy Perry - Never Really Over Billy Porter - Love Yourself The National - Light Years LANY - Pancakes Johan - Everybodys Cool But Me Doja Cat - Juicy King Princess - Cheap Queen Dermot Kennedy - Lost Bon Iver - Hey, Ma Carlie Hanson - Back in My Arms Maren Morris - The Bones Virginia To Vegas - Just Friends Fitz and the Tantrums - Dont Ever Let Em Lana Del Rey - Venice Bitch Nina Nesbitt - Last December Kiiara - Open My Mouth Jessie Reyez - Great One James Blake - Cant Believe The Way We Flow K. Flay - This Baby Dont Cry Lykke Li - Utopia Julia Michaels - What a Time Sufjan Stevens - Love Yourself Blake Rose - Lost Oliver Tank - I Love You Tayla Parx - I Want You The Japanese House - Follow My Girl Angelo de Augustine - Tomb Bastille - Those Nights Alex Lahey - I Want to Live with You Illenium & Jon Bellion - Good Things Fall Apart Dennis Lloyd - Never Go Back Panic! At The Disco - Hey Look Ma, I Made It Todrick Hall - Chapstick Ryan Hurd - To a T Amy Shark - Mess Her Up The Head and the Heart - Honeybee Eryn Allen Kane - Fragile Gallant - Doesnt Matter Briston Maroney - Fools Gold Carly Rae Jepsen - Want You in My Room The National - Oblivions

My love was as cruel as the cities I lived in Everyone looked worse in the light There are so many lines that Ive crossed unforgiven Ill tell you the truth, but never goodbye I dont wanna look at anything else now that I saw you I dont wanna think of anything else now that I thought of you Been sleeping so long in a twenty-year dark night But now I see daylight I only see daylight Luck of the draw only draws the unlucky So I became the butt of the joke I wounded the good and I trusted the wicked Clearing the air, I breathed in the smoke Maybe you ran with the wolves and refused to settle down Maybe Ive stormed out of every single room in this town Threw out our cloaks and our daggers because its morning now Its brighter now, now I dont wanna look at anything else now that I saw you I dont wanna think of anything else now that I thought of you Been sleeping so long in a twenty-year dark night But now I see daylight I only see daylight I only see daylight, daylight, daylight, daylight I only see daylight, daylight, daylight, daylight And I can still see it all in my mind All of you, all of me intertwined I once believed love would be black and white But its golden golden And I can still see it all in my head Back and forth from New York, sneaking in your bed I once believed love would be burning red But its golden Like daylight, like daylight Like daylight, like daylight I dont wanna look at anything else now that I saw you I dont wanna think of anything else now that I thought of you Been sleeping so long in a twenty-year dark night But now I see daylight I only see daylight I only see daylight, daylight, daylight, daylight I only see daylight, daylight, daylight, daylight I only see daylight, daylight, daylight, daylight I only see daylight, daylight, daylight, daylight You gotta step into the daylight and let it go Just let it go, let it go

Im so sick of running as fast as I can Wondering if Id get there quicker if I was a man And Im so sick of them coming at me again Cause if I was a man, then Id be the man Id be the man, Id be the man yeah Cause Id be the man, Id be the man We were both young when I first saw you I close my eyes, and the flashback starts Im standing there On a balcony in summer air See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns See you make your way through the crowd And say, hello Little did I know That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles And my daddy said, stay away from Juliet And I was crying on the staircase Begging you, please dont go, and I said Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone Ill be waiting, all theres left to do is run Youll be the prince and Ill be the princess Its a love story baby just say yes 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 didnt care, and I guess I liked that And when I fell hard, you took a step back Without me, without me, without me And hes long gone, when hes next to me And I realize the blame is on me Cause I knew you were trouble when you walked in So, shame on me now Flew me to places Id never been Til you put me down, oh I knew you were trouble when you walked in So, shame on me now Flew me to places Id never been Now Im lying on the cold hard ground Oh, oh-oh Trouble, trouble, trouble Oh, oh-oh Trouble, trouble And the saddest fear Comes creeping in That you never loved me Or her, or anyone, or anything, yeah! I knew you were trouble when you walked in So, shame on me now Flew me to places Id never been Til you put me down, oh I knew you were trouble when you walked in So shame on me now Flew me to places Id never been Trouble, trouble, trouble Nice to meet you, where you been? I could show you incredible things Magic, madness, heaven, sin Saw you there, and I thought Oh my God, look at that face You look like my next mistake Loves a game, wanna play? Ayy New money, suit and tie I can read you like a magazine Aint it funny? Rumors fly And I know you heard about me So hey, lets be friends Im dyin to see how this one ends Grab your passport and my hand I can make the bad guys good for a weekend So its gonna be forever Or its gonna go down in flames You can tell me when its over, mm If the high was worth the pain Got a long list of ex-lovers Theyll tell you Im insane Cause you know I love the players And you love the game Cause were young and were reckless Well take this way too far Itll leave you breathless, hmm Or with a nasty scar Got a long list of ex-lovers Theyll tell you Im insane But Ive got a blank space, baby And Ill write your name Boys only want love if its torture Dont say I didnt, say I didnt warn ya Boys only want love if its torture Dont say I didnt, say I didnt warn ya I stay out too late Got nothing in my brain Thats what people say, mm, mm Thats what people say, mm, mm I go on too many dates But I cant make them stay At least thats what people say, mm, mm Thats what people say, mm, mm But I keep cruisin Cant stop, wont stop movin Its like I got this music in my mind Saying its gonna be alright Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I shake it off, I shake it off Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I Shake it off, I shake it off Hey, hey, hey Just think while youve been getting down and out about the liars And the dirty, dirty cheats of the world You couldve been getting down To this sick beat My ex-man brought his new girlfriend Shes like, Oh my God, but Im just gonna shake And to the fella over there with the hella good hair Why dont you come on over, baby? We can shake, shake, shake Yeah, oh, oh, oh Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I Shake it off, I shake it off Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I Shake it off, I shake it off I Shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off We could leave the Christmas lights up til January This is our place, we make the rules And theres a dazzling haze, a mysterious way about you, dear Have I known you 20 seconds or 20 years? Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close? Forever and ever, ah Ah, take me out, and take me home Youre my, my, my, my lover Ladies and gentlemen, will you please stand? With every guitar string scar on my hand I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover My hearts been borrowed and yours has been blue Alls well that ends well to end up with you Swear to be over dramatic and true to my lover And youll save all your dirtiest jokes for me And at every table, Ill save you a seat, lover Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close? Forever and ever, ah Take me out, and take me home Youre my, my, my, my Oh, youre my, my, my, my Darling, youre my, my, my, my lover

I promise that youll never find another like me I know that Im a handful, baby, uh I know I never think before I jump And youre the kind of guy the ladies want I know that I went psycho on the phone I never leave well enough alone And troubles gonna follow where I go But one of these things is not like the others Like a rainbow with all of the colors Baby doll, when it comes to a lover I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e I know I tend to make it about me I know you never get just what you see But I will never bore you, baby And when we had that fight out in the rain You ran after me and called my name I never wanna see you walk away Cause one of these things is not like the others Livin in winter, I am your summer Baby doll, when it comes to a lover I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Let me keep you company Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e Hey, kids! Spelling is fun! Im Taylor Swift Im Brendon Urie Welcome to the Billboard Music Awards, ladies and gentlemen Girl, there aint no I in team But you know there is a me Strike the band up, 1, 2, 3 I promise that youll never find another like me Girl, there aint no I in team But you know there is a me And you cant spell awesome without me I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e , ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e Girl, there aint no I in team But you know there is a me Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Strike the band up, 1, 2, 3 You cant spell awesome without me Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e Well, that was much better except the mic up I also screwed up all the choreography Thats what I did, Im gonna rehearse Im gonna rehearse and rehearse!

Betty, I wont make assumptions About why you switched your homeroom, but I think its cause of me Betty, one time I was riding on my skateboard When I passed your house Its like I couldnt breathe You heard the rumors from Inez You cant believe a word she says Most times, but this time it was true The worst thing that I ever did Was what I did to you But if I just showed up at your party Would you have me? Would you want me? Would you tell me to go fuck myself Or lead me to the garden? In the garden, would you trust mе If I told you it was just a summer thing? Im only seventeen, I dont know anything But I know I miss you Bеtty, I know where it all went wrong Your favorite song was playing From the far side of the gym I was nowhere to be found I hate the crowds, you know that Plus, I saw you dance with him You heard the rumors from Inez You cant believe a word she says Most times, but this time it was true The worst thing that I ever did Was what I did to you But if I just showed up at your party Would you have me? Would you want me? Would you tell me to go fuck myself Or lead me to the garden? In the garden, would you trust me If I told you it was just a summer thing? Im only seventeen, I dont know anything But I know I miss you I was walking home on broken cobblestones Just thinking of you when she pulled up like A figment of my worst intentions She said James, get in, lets drive Those days turned into nights Slept next to her, but I dreamt of you all summer long Betty, Im here on your doorstep And I planned it out for weeks now But its finally sinkin in Betty, right now is the last time I can dream about what happens when You see my face again The only thing I wanna do Is make it up to you So I showed up at your party Yeah, I showed up at your party Yeah, I showed up at your party Will you have me? Will you love me? Will you kiss me on the porch In front of all your stupid friends? If you kiss me, will it be just like I dreamed it? Will it patch your broken wings? Im only seventeen, I dont know anything But I know I miss you Standing in your cardigan Kissin in my car again Stopped at a streetlight You know I miss you

8/20/2019 Upload Welcome Video Dear Lover, I cant talk to you when youre like this Taylor Swift - Lover Benjamin Francis Leftwich - 4AM in London Dixie Chicks - Easy Silence Dermot Kennedy - Outnumbered Lykke Li - bad woman Jimmy Eat World - For Me This Is Heaven Lana Del Rey - Looking For America Donna Lewis - I Love You Always Forever Nicki Minaj - Come See About Me Blondie - Maria Taylor Swift - You Need to Calm Down Clairo - Alewife Phil Collins - Cant Stop Loving You Annie Lennox - No More I Love Yous Taylor Swift - The Archer Liz Phair - Why Cant I? Okay Kaya - Believe James Blake - Into The Red Kesha - Past Lives Taylor Swift - ME!

All is quiet in the world tonight Catching stars and fireflies The summer sings a lullaby With just me and my baby On the hood of his daddys car Pass around his old guitar Bet mamas wondering where we are Its just me and my baby The world is spinning round Cause look just what Ive found Ooh, lifes so sweet right here Ooh, keeping it young and crazy Ooh, just want to stay right here Cause nothings quite like being with my baby Driving home by the river side Wishing I could slow down time Taking pictures in my mind Both me and my baby The car pulls up and Im home too late We didnt take that interstate Back roads was a better way For me and my baby The closer that we get Oh, I cant leave yet Ooh, lifes so sweet right here Ooh, keeping it young and crazy Ooh, just want to stay right here Cause nothings quite like being with my baby Look at what weve found So turn that car around Ooh, lifes so sweet right here Ooh, keeping it young and crazy Ooh, just want to stay right here Ooh, hanging with my baby Hanging with my baby, my baby

All this time, time, time... All this time, time, time... All this time I was wasting hoping you would come around Ive been giving out chances every time and all you do is let me down And its taken me this long, baby, but Ive figured you out And youre thinking well be fine again but not this time around You dont have to call anymore I wont pick up the phone This is the last straw Dont wanna hurt anymore And you can tell me that youre sorry But I dont believe you, baby, like I did before Youre not sorry Youre looking so innocent I might believe you if I didnt know Couldve loved you all my life if you hadnt left me waiting in the cold And youve got your share of secrets And Im tired of being last to know And now youre asking me to listen cause its worked each time before but You dont have to call anymore I wont pick up the phone This is the last straw Dont wanna hurt anymore And you can tell me that youre sorry But I dont believe you, baby, like I did before Youre not sorry Youre not sorry You had me crawling for you, honey, and it never wouldve gone away, no You used to shine so bright but I watched all of it fade so So you dont have to call anymore I wont pick up the phone This is the last straw Theres nothing left to beg for And you can tell me that youre sorry But I dont believe you, baby, like I did before Youre not sorry Youre not sorry Woah, oh, oh oh, oh oh oh

We were both young when I first saw you I close my eyes and the flashback starts Im standing there On a balcony in summer air See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns See you make your way through the crowd And you say hello Little did I know That you were Juliet You were throwing pebbles And my daddy said, Stay away from Romeo, And I was crying on the staircase Begging you, Please dont go, And I said Juliet, take me Somewhere we can be alone Ill be waiting All theres left to do is run Youll be the princess Ill be the prince Its a love story Baby, just say yes So I sneak out to the garden to see you We keep quiet cause were dead if they know So close your eyes Escape this town for a little while Cause you were Juliet I was a scarlet letter And my daddy said, Stay away from Romeo, But you were everything to me I was begging you, Please dont go, And I said And said Juliet, take me Somewhere we can be alone Ill be waiting All theres left to do is run Youll be the princess And Ill be the prince Its a love story Baby, just say yes And I got tired of waiting Wondering if you were ever coming around My faith in you is fading, When I met you on the outskirts of town And I said Juliet, take me Ive been feeling so alone I keep waiting for you But you never come Is this in my head? I dont know what to think I knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring And said Marry me, Juliet Youll never have to be alone I love you and thats all I really know I talked to your dad Youll pick out a white dress Its a love story Baby, just say yes We were both young when I first saw you

Vintage tee, brand new phone High heels on cobblestones When you are young, they assume you know nothing Sequin smile, black lipstick Sensual politics When you are young, they assume you know nothing But I knew you Dancin in your Levis Drunk under a streetlight, I I knew you Hand under my sweatshirt Baby, kiss it better, I And when I felt like I was an old cardigan Under someones bed You put me on and said I was your favorite A friend to all is a friend to none Chase two girls, lose the one When you are young, they assume you know nothing But I knew you Playing hide-and-seek and Giving me your weekends, I I knew you Your heartbeat on the High Line Once in twenty lifetimes, I And when I felt like I was an old cardigan Under someones bed You put me on and said I was your favorite To kiss in cars and downtown bars Was all we needed You drew stars around my scars But now Im bleedin Cause I knew you Steppin on the last train Marked me like a bloodstain, I I knew you Tried to change the ending Peter losing Wendy, I I knew you Leavin like a father Running like water, I Cause when you are young, they assume you know nothing But I knew youd linger like a tattoo kiss I knew youd haunt all of my what-ifs The smell of smoke would hang around this long Cause I knew everything when I was young I knew Id curse you for the longest time Chasin shadows in the grocery line I knew youd miss me once the thrill expired And youd be standin in my front porch light And I knew youd come back to me Youd come back to me And youd come back to me And youd come back And when I felt like I was an old cardigan Under someones bed You put me on and said I was your favorite

Please picture me in the trees I hit my peak at seven Feet in the swing over the creek I was too scared to jump in But I, I was high in the sky With Pennsylvania under me Are there still beautiful things? Sweet tea in the summer Cross your heart, wont tell no other And though I cant recall your face I still got love for you Your braids make a pattern Love you to the Moon and to Saturn Passed down like folk songs The love lasts so long And Ive been meaning to tell you I think your house is haunted Your dad is always mad and that must be why And I think you should come live with me And we can be pirates Then you wont have to cry Or hide in the closet And just like a folk song Our love will be passed on Please picture me in the weeds Before I learned civility I used to scream ferociously Any time I wanted I, I Sweet tea in the summer Cross your heart, wont tell no other And though I cant recall your face I still got love for you Pack your dolls and a sweater Well move to India forever Passed down like folk songs The love lasts so long

Open in gym. TAYLOR SWIFT is bopping her head. She puts her headphones in.TAYLOR: Man, I hate cardio. TAYLOR opens Apple Music. TAYLOR: Activity playlists, running...#GYMFLOW. Drake and Future. Jumpman by Drake and Future starts playing. Taylor starts mouthing the words. She is running on a treadmill. If Young Metro dont trust you Im gon shoot you Yeah, yeah Halloween Im gon shoot you Yeah TAYLOR starts rapping the song out loud. Jumpman, Jumpman, Jumpman, them boys up to something They just spent like two or three weeks out the country Them boys up to something, they just not just bluffing You dont have to call, I hit my dance like Usher, woo I just found my tempo like Im DJ Mustard, woo I hit that Ginobili with my left hand up like wo-- TAYLOR falls face-first onto the treadmill while it is still running. It carries her off and throws her onto the floor, face down. Meanwhile, Jumpman is still playing. Lobster and Céline for all my babies that I miss Chicken fingers, French fries for them that wanna dissCut to black advertising screen. Jumpman is still playing, but it is just Drake rapping now.Distractingly good. All the music you want. Apple Music, get three months free now. Sign-up required. Membership automatically renews monthly after trial.

I remember when we broke up, the first time Saying this is it Ive had enough Because like we hadnt seen each other in a month When you said you needed space, what? Then you come around again and say Baby I miss you and I swear Im gonna change Trust me Remember how that lasted for a day? I say I hate you, we break up, you call me, I love you You called it off again last night But this time Im telling you Im telling you We are never ever ever getting back together We are never ever ever getting back together You go talk to your friends talk to my friends talk to me But we are never ever ever ever getting back together Like ever Im really gonna miss you picking fights And me falling for a screaming that Im right And you hide away And find your piece of mind with some indie record Thats much cooler than mine You called me up again tonight But this time, Im telling you, Im telling you We are never ever ever getting back together We are never ever ever getting back together You go talk to your friends talk to my friends talk to me But we are never ever ever ever getting back together I used to think that we were forever, ever And I used to say never say never So he calls me and hes like I still love you And Im just like this is exhausting We are never getting back together Like ever We are never ever ever getting back together We are never ever ever getting back together You go talk to your friends talk to my friends talk to me But we are never ever ever ever getting back together We are never ever ever getting back together We are never ever ever getting back together You go talk to your friends talk to my friends talk to me But we are never ever ever ever getting back together

We could leave the Christmas lights up til January This is our place, we make the rules And theres a dazzling haze, a mysterious way about you, dear Have I known you 20 seconds or 20 years? Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close forever and ever? And ah, take me out, and take me home Youre my, my, my, my lover We could let our friends crash in the living room This is our place, we make the call And Im highly suspicious that everyone who sees you wants you Ive loved you three summers now, honey, but I want em all Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close forever and ever? And ah, take me out, and take me home Youre my, my, my, my lover Ladies and gentlemen, will you please stand? With every guitar string scar on my hand I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover My hearts been borrowed and yours has been blue Alls well that ends well to end up with you Swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover And youll save all your dirtiest jokes for me And at every table, Ill save you a seat, lover Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close forever and ever? And ah, take me out, and take me home Youre my, my, my, my Oh, youre my, my, my, my Darling, youre my, my, my, my lover

Rebekah rode up on the afternoon train, it was sunny Her saltbox house on the coast took her mind off St. Louis Bill was the heir to the Standard Oil name and money And the town said, How did a middle-class divorcée do it? The wedding was charming, if a little gauche Theres only so far new money goes They picked out a home and called it Holiday House Their parties were tasteful, if a little loud The doctor had told him to settle down It must have been her fault his heart gave out And they said There goes the last great American dynasty Who knows, if she never showed up, what couldve been There goes the maddest woman this town has ever seen She had a marvelous time ruining everything Rebekah gave up on the Rhode Island set forever Flew in all her Bitch Pack friends from the city Filled the pool with champagne and swam with the big names And blew through the money on the boys and the ballet And losing on card game bets with Dalí And they said There goes the last great American dynasty Who knows, if she never showed up, what couldve been There goes the most shameless woman this town has ever seen She had a marvelous time ruining everything They say she was seen on occasion Pacing the rocks, staring out at the midnight sea And in a feud with her neighbor She stole his dog and dyed it key lime green Fifty years is a long time Holiday House sat quietly on that beach Free of women with madness, their men and bad habits And then it was bought by me Who knows, if I never showed up, what couldve been There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen I had a marvelous time ruining everything I had a marvelous time ruining everything A marvelous time ruining everything A marvelous time Ruining everything A marvelous time

I used to rule the world Seas would rise when I gave the word Now in the morning I sleep alone Sweep the streets I used to own I used to roll the dice Feel the fear in my enemys eyes Listen as the crowd would sing “Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!” One minute I held the keys Next the doors were closed on me And I discovered that my castles stand Upon pillars of salt, pillars of sand I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing Roman Cavalry choirs are singing Be my mirror, my sword and shield My missionaries in a foreign field For some reason I cant explain Once you go there was never Never an honest word But that was when I ruled the world It was a wicked and wild wind Blew down the doors to let me in Shattered windows and the sound of drums People couldnt believe what Id become Revolutionaries wait For my head on a silver plate Just a puppet on a lonely string Oh who would ever wanna be king? I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing Roman Cavalry choirs are singing Be my mirror, my sword and shield My missionaries in a foreign field For some reason I cant explain I know Saint Peter wont call my name Never an honest word But that was when I ruled the world For some reason I cant explain I know Saint Peter wont call my name Never an honest word But that was when I ruled the world

The buttons of my coat were tangled in my hair In doctors office lighting, I didnt tell you I was scared That was the first time we were there Holy orange bottles, each night, I pray to you Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too And I say to you... Ooh-ah Soon, youll get better Ooh-ah Soon, youll get better Ooh-ah Youll get better soon Cause you have to I know delusion when I see it in the mirror You like the nicer nurses, you make the best of a bad deal I just pretend it isnt real Ill paint the kitchen neon, Ill brighten up the sky I know Ill never get it, theres not a day that I wont try And I say to you... Ooh-ah Soon, youll get better Ooh-ah Soon, youll get better Ooh-ah Youll get better soon Cause you have to And I hate to make this all about me But who am I supposed to talk to? What am I supposed to do If theres no you? This wont go back to normal, if it ever was Its been years of hoping, and I keep saying it because Cause I have to Ooh Youll get better Ooh Youll get better Ooh-ah Youll get better soon Cause you have to

Fever dream high in the quiet of the night You know that I caught it Bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price You know that I bought it Killing me slow, out the window Im always waiting for you to be waiting below Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes What doesnt kill me makes me want you more And its new, the shape of your body Its blue, the feeling Ive got And its ooh, whoa oh Its a cruel summer Its cool, thats what I tell em No rules in breakable heaven But ooh, whoa oh Its a cruel summer With you Hang your head low in the glow of the vending machine Im not dying We say that well just screw it up in these trying times Were not trying So cut the headlights, summers a knife Im always waiting for you just to cut to the bone Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes And if I bleed, youll be the last to know Oh, its new, the shape of your body Its blue, the feeling Ive got And its ooh, whoa oh Its a cruel summer Its cool, thats what I tell em No rules in breakable heaven But ooh, whoa oh Its a cruel summer With you Im drunk in the back of the car And I cried like a baby coming home from the bar Said, Im fine, but it wasnt true I dont wanna keep secrets just to keep you She looks up, grinning like a devil And I snuck in through the garden gate Every night that summer just to seal my fate And I scream, For whatever its worth I love you, aint that the worst thing you ever heard? Its new, the shape of your body Its blue, the feeling Ive got And its ooh, whoa oh Its a cruel summer Its cool, thats what I tell em No rules in breakable heaven But ooh, whoa oh Its a cruel summer With you With you

I want you to know Im a mirrorball Ill show you every version of yourself tonight Ill get you out on the floor Shimmering beautiful And when I break, its in a million pieces Hush, when no one is around, my dear Youll find me on my tallest tiptoes Spinning in my highest heels, love Shining just for you Hush, I know they said the end is near But Im still on my tallest tiptoes Spinning in my highest heels, love Shining just for you I want you to know Im a mirrorball I can change everything about me to fit in You are not like the regulars The masquerade revelers Drunk as thеy watch my shattered edgеs glisten Hush, when no one is around, my dear Youll find me on my tallest tiptoes Spinning in my highest heels, love Shining just for you Hush, I know they said the end is near But Im still on my tallest tiptoes Spinning in my highest heels, love Shining just for you And they called off the circus, burned the disco down When they sent home the horses and the rodeo clowns Im still on that tightrope Im still tryin everything to get you laughing at me And Im still a believer, but I dont know why Ive never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try Im still on that trapeze Im still trying everything to keep you looking at me Because Im a mirrorball Im a mirrorball And Ill show you every version of yourself tonight

Make sure nobody sees you leave Hood over your head, keep your eyes down Tell your friends youre out for a run Youll be flushed when you return Take the road less traveled by Tell yourself you can always stop What started in beautiful rooms Ends with meetings in parking lots And thats the thing about illicit affairs And clandestine meetings and longing stares Its born from just one single glance But it dies and it dies and it dies A million little times Leave the perfume on the shеlf That you picked out just for him So you leave no tracе behind Like you dont even exist And take the words for what they are A dwindling, mercurial high A drug that only worked The first few hundred times And thats the thing about illicit affairs And clandestine meetings and stolen stares They show their truth one single time But they lie and they lie and they lie A million little times And you wanna scream Dont call me kid, dont call me baby Look at this godforsaken mess that you made me You showed me colors you know I cant see with anyone else Dont call me kid, dont call me baby Look at this idiotic fool that you made me You taught me a secret language I cant speak with anyone else And you know damn well For you, I would ruin myself A million little times

Loving him is like driving a new Maserati Down a dead-end street Faster than the wind, passionate as sin Ending so suddenly Loving him is like trying to change your mind Once youre already flying through the free fall Like the colors in autumn, so bright Just before they lose it all Losing him was blue like Id never known Missing him was dark grey, all alone Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met But loving him was red Touching him was like realizing all you ever wanted Was right there in front of you Memorizing him was as easy as knowing All the words to your old favorite song Fighting with him was like trying to solve a crossword And realizing theres no right answer Regretting him was like wishing you never found out That love could be that strong Losing him was blue like Id never known Missing him was dark grey, all alone Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met But loving him was red Remembering him comes in flashbacks and echoes Tell myself its time now, gotta let go But moving on from him is impossible When I still see it all in my head In burning red Loving him was red Losing him was blue like Id never known Missing him was dark grey, all alone Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met But loving him was red Yeah red Burning red Burning red

Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh Oh, oh We go fast with the game we play Who knows why its gotta be this way? We say nothing more than we need I say your place when we leave Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh Oh, oh Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves Yeah Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh Oh, oh

I promise that youll never find another like me I know that Im a handful, baby, uh I know I never think before I jump And youre the kind of guy the ladies want I know that I went psycho on the phone I never leave well enough alone And troubles gonna follow where I go But one of these things is not like the others Like a rainbow with all of the colors Baby doll, when it comes to a lover I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e I know I tend to make it about me I know you never get just what you see But I will never bore you, baby And when we had that fight out in the rain You ran after me and called my name I never wanna see you walk away Cause one of these things is not like the others Livin in winter, I am your summer Baby doll, when it comes to a lover I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Let me keep you company Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e Girl, there aint no I in team But you know there is a me Strike the band up, 1, 2, 3 I promise that youll never find another like me Girl, there aint no I in team But you know there is a me And you cant spell awesome without me I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e , ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e Girl, there aint no I in team But you know there is a me Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Strike the band up, 1, 2, 3 You cant spell awesome without me Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e

Drew looks at me I fake a smile so he wont see That I want and Im needing Everything that we should be Ill bet shes beautiful, that girl he talks about And shes got everything that I have to live without Drew talks to me I laugh cause its just so funny That I cant even see Anyone when hes with me He says hes so in love, hes finally got it right I wonder if he knows hes all I think about at night Hes the reason for the teardrops on my guitar The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star Hes the song in the car I keep singing, dont know why I do... Drew walks by me Cant he tell that I cant breathe? And there he goes, so perfectly The kind of flawless I wish I could be Shed better hold him tight, give him all her love Look in those beautiful eyes and know shes lucky cause Hes the reason for the teardrops on my guitar The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star Hes the song in the car I keep singing, dont know why I do... So I drive home alone, as I turn off the light Ill put his picture down and maybe get some sleep tonight Cause hes the reason for the teardrops on my guitar The only one who’s got enough of me to break my heart Hes the song in the car I keep singing, dont know why I do... Hes the time taken up, but theres never enough And hes all that I need to fall into Drew looks at me I fake a smile so he wont see

Baby, Im sorry Yeah Payback is a bad chick And baby, Im the baddest You messin with a savage Cant have this, cant have this And itd be nice of me to take it easy on ya, but no This is the part when I say I dont want ya Im stronger than Ive been before This is the part when I break free Cause I cant resist it no more Is it just our bodies? Are we both losing our minds? Is the only reason youre holding me tonight Cause were scared to be lonely? Do we need somebody just to feel like were alright? Is thе only reason youre holding me tonight Causе were scared to be lonely? Scared to be lonely? Nice to meet ya, where ya been? I could show you incredible things Magic, madness, heaven sent Saw you there, and I thought Oh my gosh, look at that face You look like my next mistake Loves a game, wanna play? Woah So its gonna be forever Or its gonna go down in flames You can tell me when its over If the high was worth the pain Got a long list of ex-lovers Theyll tell you Im insane But Ive got a blank space, baby And Ill write your name So you wanna play with magic? Boy, you should know what youre fallin for Baby, do you dare to do this? Cause Im coming at you like a dark horse Are you ready for, ready for A perfect storm, perfect storm? Cause once youre mine, once youre mine Theres no going back We found love in a hopeless place We found love in a hopeless place We found love in a hopeless place We found love in a hopeless place You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing You say I am strong when I think I am weak You say I am held when I am falling short When I don’t belong, You say I am Yours And I believe I can see your halo Oh, I believe I can see your halo What You say of me I can see your halo I believe I can see your halo Everywhere Im lookin now Im surrounded by your embrace Baby, I can see your halo You know youre my savin grace I can see your halo, halo I can see your halo, halo See your halo, halo Halo Halo Ooh

One, two, one My only one My smoking gun My eclipsed sun This has broken me down My twisted knife My sleepless night My winless fight This has frozen my ground Stood on the cliffside screaming, Give me a reason Your faithless loves the only hoax I believe in Dont want no other shade of blue but you No other sadness in the world would do My best laid plan Your sleight of hand My barren land I am ash from your fire Stood on the cliffside screaming, Give me a reason Your faithless loves thе only hoax I believe in Dont want no othеr shade of blue but you No other sadness in the world would do You know I left a part of me back in New York You knew the hero died so whats the movie for? You knew it still hurts underneath my scars From when they pulled me apart You knew the password so I let you in the door You knew you won so whats the point of keeping score? You knew it still hurts underneath my scars From when they pulled me apart But what you did was just as dark Darling, this was just as hard As when they pulled me apart My only one My kingdom come undone My broken drum You have beaten my heart Dont want no other shade of blue but you No other sadness in the world would do

I promise that youll never find another like me I know that Im a handful, baby, uh I know I never think before I jump Youre the kind of guy the ladies want I know that Im a psycho on the phone Never leave well enough alone And troubles gonna follow where I go But one of these things is not like the others Like a rainbow with all of the colors Baby doll, when it comes to a lover I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e I know I tend to make it about me I know you never get just what you see But I will never bore you, baby And when we had that fight out in the rain You ran after me and called my name Never wanna see you walk away Cause one of these things is not like the others Livin in winter, I am your summer Baby doll, when it comes to a lover I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Let me keep you company Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e Hey kids Girl, there aint no I in team But you know there is a me Strike the band up, 1, 2, 3 I promise that youll never find another like me Girl, there aint no I in team But you know there is a me And you cant spell awesome without me I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e , ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e Girl, there aint no I in team But you know there is a me Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Strike the band up, 1, 2, 3 You cant spell awesome without me Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e

This aint for the best My reputations never been worse, so You must like me for me We cant make Any promises now, can we, babe? But you can make me a drink Dark night on the East Side, where you at? Phone lights up my nightstand in the black Come here, you can meet me in the back Dark jeans and your Nikes, look at you Oh never seen that color blue Just think of the fun things we could do Cause I like you This aint for the best My reputations never been worse, so You must like me for me Yeah, I want you We cant make Any promises now, can we, babe? But you can make me a drink Is it cool that I said all that? Is it chill that youre in my head? Cause I know that its delicate Is it cool that I said all that Is it too soon to do this yet? Cause I know that its delicate Isnt it? Isnt it? Isnt it? Isnt it? Isnt it? Isnt it? Isnt it? Isnt it? Delicate Third floor on the West Side, me and you Handsome, your mansion with a view Do the girls back home touch you like I do? Long night, with your hands up in my hair Echoes of your footsteps on the stairs Stay here, honey, I dont wanna share Cause I like you This aint for the best My reputations never been worse, so You must like me for me Yeah, I want you We cant make Any promises now, can we, babe? But you can make me a drink Is it cool that I said all that? Is it chill that youre in my head? Cause I know that its delicate Is it cool that I said all that Is it too soon to do this yet? Cause I know that its delicate Isnt it? Isnt it? Isnt it? Isnt it? Isnt it? Isnt it? Isnt it? Isnt it? Delicate Sometimes I wonder when you sleep Are you ever dreaming of me? Sometimes when I look into your eyes I pretend youre mine, all the time Cause I like you Is it cool that I said all that? Is it chill that youre in my head? Cause I know that its delicate Yeah, I want you Is it cool that I said all that Is it too soon to do this yet? Cause I know that its delicate Cause I like you Is it cool that I said all that? Is it chill that youre in my head? Cause I know that its delicate Yeah, I want you Is it cool that I said all that Is it too soon to do this yet? Cause I know that its delicate Delicate

Dont blame me, love made me crazy If it doesnt, you aint doing it right Lord, save me, my drug is my baby Ill be using for the rest of my life Ive been breaking hearts a long time And toying with them older guys Just playthings for me to use But something happened for the first time In the darkest little paradise Shaking, pacing, I just need you For you, I would cross the line I would waste my time I would lose my mind They say, Shes gone too far this time Dont blame me, love made me crazy If it doesnt, you aint doing it right Lord, save me, my drug is my baby Ill be using for the rest of my life Just dont blame me, your love made me crazy If it doesnt, you aint doing it right Oh, Lord, save me, my drug is my baby Ill be using for the rest of my life My name is whatever you decide And Im just gonna call you mine Im insane, but Im your baby Echoes of your name inside my mind Halo hiding my obsession I once was poison ivy, but now Im your daisy And baby, for you, I would fall from grace Just to touch your face If you walk away, Id beg you on my knees to stay Dont blame me, love made me crazy If it doesnt, you aint doing it right Lord, save me, my drug is my baby Ill be using for the rest of my life Just dont blame me, your love made me crazy If it doesnt, you aint doing it right Oh, Lord, save me, my drug is my baby Ill be using for the rest of my life I get so high, oh! Every time yeah, every time youre lovin me Youre loving me Trip of my life, oh! Every time yeah, every time youre touching me Youre touching me Every time youre, every time youre lovin me Oh, Lord, save me My drug is my baby Ill be using for the rest of my life Oh! Dont blame me, love made me crazy If it doesnt, you aint doing it right Lord, save me, my drug is my baby Ill be using for the rest of my life Just dont blame me, your love made me crazy If it doesnt, you aint doing it right Oh, Lord, save me, my drug is my baby Ill be using for the rest of my life

”Hey it’s me, leave a message: make it hot” Now go stand in the corner and think about what you did The story starts when it was hot and it was summer and I had it all, I had him right there, where I wanted him She came along, got him alone, and lets hear the applause She took him faster than you can say sabotage I never saw it coming, wouldnt have suspected it I underestimated just who I was dealing with She had to know the pain was beating on me like a drum She underestimated just who she was stealing from Shes not a saint and shes not what you think Shes an actress, whoa Shes better known for the things that she does On the mattress, whoa Soon shes gonna find stealing other peoples toys On the playground wont make him any friends She should keep in mind, she should keep in mind There is nothing I do better than revenge, ha! She looks at life like its a party and shes on the list She looks at me like Im a trend and shes so over it I think her ever-present frown is a little troubling And she thinks Im psycho cause I like to rhyme her name with things But sophistication isnt what you wear or who you know Or pushing people down to get you where you wanna go But they didnt teach you that in prep school, so its up to me No amount of vintage dresses gives you dignity Shes not a saint and shes not what you think Shes an actress, whoa Shes better known for the things that she does On the mattress, whoa Soon shes gonna find stealing other peoples toys On the playground wont make him any friends She should keep in mind, she should keep in mind There is nothing I do better than revenge, HA! Im just another thing for you to roll your eyes at, honey You might have him, but havent you heard? Im just another thing for you to roll your eyes at, honey You might have him, but I always get the last word Whoa, whoa-ah-oh Come on, come on Shes not a saint and shes not what you think Shes an actress, whoa Shes better known for the things that she does On the mattress, whoa Soon shes gonna find stealing other peoples toys On the playground wont make him any friends She should keep in mind, she should keep in mind There is nothing I do better than revenge Do you still feel like you know what youre doing? Cause I dont think you do, oh Do you still feel like you know what youre doing? I dont think you do, I dont think you do Lets hear the applause See you deserve some applause Cause youre so much better She took him faster than you could say sabotage

I walked through the door with you, the air was cold But something bout it felt like home somehow And I left my scarf there at your sisters house And you still got it in your drawer even now Oh, your sweet disposition and my wide-eyed gaze Were singing in the car, getting lost Upstate Autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place And I can picture it after all these days And I know its long gone And that magics not here no more And I might be okay But Im not fine at all Cause there we are again on that little town street You almost ran the red cause you were looking over me Wind in my hair, I was there, I remember it all too well Photo album on the counter, your cheeks were turning red You used to be a little kid with glasses in a twin-size bed And your mothers telling stories about you on a tee ball team You tell me bout your past, thinking your future was me And I know its long gone And there was nothing else I could do And I forget about you long enough To forget why I needed to... Cause there we are again in the middle of the night We dance around the kitchen in the refrigerator light Down the stairs, I was there, I remember it all too well, yeah Maybe we got lost in translation, maybe I asked for too much And maybe this thing was a masterpiece before you tore it all up Running scared, I was there, I remember it all too well Hey, you call me up again just to break me like a promise So casually cruel in the name of being honest Im a crumpled up piece of paper lying here Cause I remember it all, all, all too well

You should take it as a compliment That I got drunk and made fun of the way you talk Oh, you should think about the consequence Of your magnetic field being a little too strong And I got a girlfriend, shes older than us Shes in the club doing I dont know what Youre so cool, it makes me hate you so much Whiskey on ice, Sunset and Vine Youve ruined my life by not being mine Youre so gorgeous I cant say anything to your face Cause look at your face And Im so furious At you for making me feel this way But what can I say? Youre gorgeous Oh, you should take it as a compliment That Im talking to everyone here but you Oh, you should think about the consequence Of you touching my hand in a darkened room, the darkened room If youve got a boyfriend, Im jealous of him But if youre single thats honestly worse Cause youre so gorgeous it actually hurts Ocean blue eyes looking in mine I feel like I might sink and drown and die Youre so gorgeous I cant say anything to your face Cause look at your face And Im so furious At you for making me feel this way But what can I say? Youre gorgeous You make me so happy it turns back to sad Theres nothing I hate more than what I cant have And you are so gorgeous it makes me so mad Oh, you make me so happy it turns back to sad, yeah Theres nothing I hate more than what I cant have Guess Ill just stumble on home to my cats Alone, unless you wanna come along Oh, youre so gorgeous I cant say anything to your face Cause look at your face, oh And Im so furious At you for making me feel this way But what can I say? Youre gorgeous

Green was the color of the grass Where I used to read at Centennial Park I used to think I would meet somebody there Teal was the color of your shirt When you were sixteen at the yogurt shop You used to work at to make a little money Time, curious time Gave me no compasses, gave me no signs Were there clues I didnt see? And isnt it just so pretty to think All along there was some Invisible string Tying you to me? Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Bad was the blood of the song in the cab On your first trip to LA You ate at my favorite spot for dinner Bold was the waitress on our three-year trip Getting lunch down by the Lakes She said I looked like an American singer Time, mystical time Cutting me open, then healing me fine Were there clues I didnt see? And isnt it just so pretty to think All along there was some Invisible string Tying you to me? Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh A string that pulled me Out of all the wrong arms, right into that dive bar Something wrapped all of my past mistakes in barbed wire Chains around my demons Wool to brave the seasons One single thread of gold Tied me to you Cold was the steel of my axe to grind For the boys who broke my heart Now I send their babies presents Gold was the color of the leaves When I showed you around Centennial Park Hell was the journey but it brought me heaven Time, wondrous time Gave me the blues and then purple-pink skies And its cool Baby, with me And isnt it just so pretty to think All along there was some Invisible string Tying you to me? Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Me Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh

Here you come again Just when Id begun to get myself together You waltz right in the door Just like youve done before And wrap my heart round your little finger Here you come again Just when Im about to make it work without you You look into my eyes And lie those pretty lies And pretty soon Im wondering how I came to doubt you All you got to do is smile that smile And there go all my defenses Just leave it up to you and in a little while Youre messing up my mind and filling up my senses Here you come again Looking better than a body has a right to And shaking me up so that all I really know Is here you come again And here I go All you got to do is smile that smile And there go all my defenses Just leave it up to you and in a little while Youre messing up my mind and filling up my senses Here you come again Looking better than a body has a right to And shaking me up so That all I really know Is here you come again And here I go Here I go And here I go And here I go Here you come again And here I go Here I go And here I go Here I go

We could leave the Christmas lights up til January This is our place, we make the rules And theres a dazzling haze, a mysterious way about you, dear Have I known you 20 seconds or 20 years? Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close? Forever and ever, ah Take me out, take me home Youre my, my, my, my lover We could let our friends crash in the living room This is our place, we make the call And Im highly suspicious that everyone who sees you wants you Ive loved you three summers now, honey, but I want em all Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close? Forever and ever, ah Take me out, take me home Youre my, my, my, my lover Ladies and gentlemen, will you please stand? With every guitar string scar on my hand I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover My hearts been borrowed and yours has been blue Alls well that ends well to end up with you Swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover And youll save all your dirtiest jokes for me And at every table, Ill save you a seat, lover Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close? Forever and ever, ah Take me out, and take me home Youre my, my, my, my Oh, youre my, my, my, my Darling, youre my, my, my, my lover

I am not the kind of girl Who should be rudely barging in On a white veil occasion But you are not the kind of boy Who should be marrying the wrong girl I sneak in and see your friends And her snotty little family All dressed in pastel And she is yelling at a bridesmaid Somewhere back inside a room Wearing a gown shaped like a pastry This is surely not What you thought it would be I lose myself in a daydream Where I stand and say Dont say yes, run away now Ill meet you when youre out Of the church at the back door Dont wait or say a single vow You need to hear me out And they said speak now Fond gestures are exchanged And the organ starts to play A song that sounds like a death march And I am hiding in the curtains It seems that I was uninvited By your lovely bride-to-be She floats down the aisle Like a pageant queen But I know you wish it was me You wish it was me Dont say yes, run away now Ill meet you when youre out Of the church at the back door Dont wait or say a single vow You need to hear me out And they said speak now Dont say yes, run away now Ill meet you when youre out Of the church at the back door Dont wait or say a single vow Your time is running out And they said speak now Ooh, la-da-da-da, oh Ooh, ooh I hear the preacher say Speak now or forever hold your peace Theres the silence, theres my last chance I stand up with shaking hands, all eyes on me Horrified looks from everyone in the room But Im only looking at you I am not the kind of girl Who should be rudely barging in On a white veil occasion But you are not the kind of boy Who should be marrying the wrong girl Dont say yes, run away now Ill meet you when youre out Of the church at the back door Dont wait or say a single vow You need to hear me out And they said speak now And you’ll say Lets run away now Ill meet you when Im out of my tux at the back door Baby, I didnt say my vows So glad you were around when they said Speak now

Should have been different but It wasnt different, was it Same old story, dear john And so long Should have fit like a glove Should have fit like a ring Like a diamond ring A token of true love Should have all worked out But it didnt She should be here now But she isnt Theres your trouble Theres your trouble You keep seeing double With the wrong one You cant see I love you You cant see she doesnt But you just keep holding on Theres your trouble So now youre thinking bout All youre missing how Deep youre sinking Round and round and dragging down Why dont you cash in your chips Why dont you call it a loss Not such a big loss Chalk it up better luck Could have been true love But it wasnt It should all add up But it doesnt Theres your trouble Theres your trouble You keep seeing double With the wrong one You cant see I love you You cant see she doesnt But you just keep holding on Theres your trouble Should have all worked out But it didnt She should be here now But she isnt Theres your trouble Theres your trouble You keep seeing double With the wrong one You cant see I love you You cant see she doesnt But you just keep holding on Theres your trouble

What did you think Id say to that? Does a scorpion sting when fighting back? They strike to kill, and you know I will You know I will What do you sing on your drive home? Do you see my face in the neighbors lawn? Does she smile? Or does she mouth, Fuck you forever? Every time you call me crazy, I get more crazy What about that? And when you say I seem angry, I get more angry And theres nothing like a mad woman What a shame she went mad No one likes a mad woman You made her like that And youll poke that bear til her claws come out And you find something to wrap your noose around And theres nothing like a mad woman Now I breathe flames each time I talk My cannons all firin at your yacht They say move on, but you know I wont And women like hunting witches too Doing your dirtiest work for you Its obvious that wanting me dead Has really brought you two together Every time you call me crazy, I get more crazy What about that? And when you say I seem angry, I get more angry And theres nothing like a mad woman What a shame she went mad No one likes a mad woman You made her like that And youll poke that bear til her claws come out And you find something to wrap your noose around And theres nothing like a mad woman Im taking my time, taking my time Cause you took everything from me Watching you climb, watching you climb Over people like me The master of spin has a couple side flings Good wives always know She should be mad, should be scathing like me, but No one likes a mad woman What a shame she went mad You made her like that

Keep your helmet, keep your life, son Just a flesh wound, heres your rifle Crawling up the beaches now Sir, I think hes bleeding out And some things you just cant speak about With you I serve, with you I fall down, down Watch you breathe in, watch you breathing out, out Something med school did not cover Someones daughter, someones mother Holds your hand through plastic now Doc, I think shes crashing out And some things you just cant speak about Only twenty minutes to sleep But you dream of some epiphany Just one single glimpse of relief To make some sеnse of what youve seen With you I servе, with you I fall down, down Watch you breathe in, watch you breathing out, out With you I serve, with you I fall down, down Watch you breathe in, watch you breathing out, out Only twenty minutes to sleep But you dream of some epiphany Just one single glimpse of relief To make some sense of what youve seen Make sense of what youve seen

Our coming-of-age has come and gone Suddenly this summer, its clear I never had the courage of my convictions As long as danger is near And its just around the corner, darlin Cause it lives in me No, I could never give you peace But Im a fire and Ill keep your brittle heart warm If your cascade, ocean wave blues come All these people think loves for show But I would die for you in secret The devils in the details, but you got a friеnd in me Would it be enough if I could nеver give you peace? Your integrity makes me seem small You paint dreamscapes on the wall I talk shit with my friends, its like Im wasting your honor And you know that Id swing with you for the fences Sit with you in the trenches Give you my wild, give you a child Give you the silence that only comes when two people understand each other Family that I chose, now that I see your brother as my brother Is it enough? Cause theres robbers to the east, clowns to the west Id give you my sunshine, give you my best But the rain is always gonna come if youre standin with me But Im a fire and Ill keep your brittle heart warm If your cascade, ocean wave blues come All these people think loves for show And I would die for you in secret The devils in the details, but you got a friend in me Would it be enough if I could never give you peace? Would it be enough if I could never give you peace? Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?

Beneath the chandelier of stars and atmosphere Tangled like the roots on the ground The windows opened up The wind is blowing and were both not making a sound It’s like Im melting on into you Give me a reason why we should ever move And Tell me youll never leave me And I’m not crazy and This is really happening That this is really happening Could this be better? You write me letters So you see me every day You tend to treat me like My name is up in lights It really blows me away Lock me up in a dark room And I still cant take my eyes off you Tell me youll never leave me And Im not crazy and This is really happening That this is really happening All those kisses up against your car For all those wishes on planes We thought were stars Memories like photographs Oh, baby, here we are Tell me youll never leave me And Im not crazy and Oh, this is really happening Oh, oh, baby Tell me youll always need me That I drive you crazy And this is really happening Oh, that this is really happening

1. ...Ready For It? 2. Gorgeous 3. Look What You Made Me Do 4. Delicate 5. Blank Space 6. Shake It Off

I remember when we broke up, the first time Saying this is it Ive had enough Because like we hadnt seen each other in a month When you said you needed space, what? Then you come around again and say Baby I miss you and I swear Im gonna change Trust me Remember how that lasted for a day? I say I hate you, we break up, you call me, I love you You called it off again last night But this time Im telling you Im telling you We are never ever ever getting back together We are never ever ever getting back together You go talk to your friends talk to my friends talk to me But we are never ever ever ever getting back together Like ever Im really gonna miss you picking fights And me falling for a screaming that Im right And you hide away And find your piece of mind with some indie record Thats much cooler than mine You called me up again tonight But this time, Im telling you, Im telling you We are never ever ever getting back together We are never ever ever getting back together You go talk to your friends talk to my friends talk to me But we are never ever ever ever getting back together I used to think that we were forever, ever And I used to say never say never So he calls me and hes like I still love you And Im just like this is exhausting We are never getting back together Like ever We are never ever ever getting back together We are never ever ever getting back together You go talk to your friends talk to my friends talk to me But we are never ever ever ever getting back together We are never ever ever getting back together We are never ever ever getting back together You go talk to your friends talk to my friends talk to me But we are never ever ever ever getting back together

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 didnt care and i guess i liked that And when i fell hard you took a step back Without me, without me, without me And hes long gone when hes next to me And i realize the blame is on me I knew you were trouble when you walked in So shame on me now Flew me to places id never been til you put me down Oh, i knew you were trouble when you walked in So shame on me now Flew me to places id never been Now im lying on the cold hard ground Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble No apologies, hell never see you cry Pretends he doesnt know that hes the reason why Youre drowning, youre drowning, youre drowning And i heard you moved on from whispers on the street A new notch in your belt is all ill 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 I knew you were trouble when you walked in So shame on me now Flew me to places id never been til you put me down I knew you were trouble when you walked in So shame on me now Flew me to places id never been Now im lying on the cold hard ground Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble Oh, oh, trouble trouble trouble And the saddest fear comes creepin in That you never loved me or her or anyone or anything, yeah I knew you were trouble when you walked in So shame on me now Flew me to places id never been til you put me down Oh, i knew you were trouble when you walked in So shame on me now Flew me to places id never been Now im lying on the cold hard ground Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble I knew you were trouble when you walked in Trouble, trouble, trouble I knew you were trouble when you walked in Trouble, trouble, trouble

Go! I used to think one day, wed tell the story of us How we met, and the sparks flew instantly And people would say, theyre the lucky ones I used to know my place was a spot next to you Now Im searching the room for an empty seat Lately, I dont even know what page youre on Oh, a simple complication Miscommunications lead to fallout So many things that I wish you knew So many walls up, I cant break through Now Im standing alone in a crowded room And were not speaking And Im dying to know Is it killing you like its killing me? Yeah, I dont know what to say Since the twist of fate when it all broke down And the story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now Next chapter Howd we end up this way? See me nervously pulling at my clothes and trying to look busy And youre doing your best to avoid me Im starting to think one day, Ill tell the story of us Of how I was losing my mind when I saw you here But you held your pride like you shouldve held me Oh, Im scared to see the ending Why are we pretending this is nothing? Id tell you I miss you, but I dont know how Ive never heard silence quite this loud Now Im standing alone in a crowded room And were not speaking And Im dying to know Is it killing you like its killing me? Yeah, and I dont know what to say Since the twist of fate, when it all broke down And the story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now Can I please see you jump? This is looking like a contest Of who can act like they care less But I liked it better when you were on my side The battles in your hands now But I would lay my armor down If you say youd rather love than fight So many things that you wish I knew But the story of us might be ending soon Now Im standing alone in a crowded room And were not speaking And Im dying to know Is it killing you like its killing me? Yeah, I dont know what to say Since the twist of fate, when it all broke down And the story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now, now, now Oh And were not speaking And Im dying to know Is it killing you like its killing me, yeah? I dont know what to say since the twist of fate Cause were going down And the story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now The End

I don’t think you should wait, you speak now Drop everything now The way you move is like a full on rainstorm
And Im a house of cards Youre the kind of reckless
That should send me running
But I kinda know that I wont get far And you stood there in front of me
Just close enough to touch Close enough to hope you couldnt see What I was thinking of Drop everything now
Meet me in the pouring rain Kiss me on the sidewalk Take away the pain Cause I see sparks fly whenever you smile Get me with those green eyes, baby, as the lights go down
Give me something thatll haunt me when youre not around I see sparks fly whenever you smile My mind forgets to remind me
Youre a bad idea You touch me once and its really something
You find Im even better than you imagined I would be Im on my guard for the rest of the world
But with you I know its no good Well I could wait patiently but I really wish you would Drop everything now
Meet me in the pouring rain Kiss me on the sidewalk Take away the pain Cause I see sparks fly whenever you smile Get me with those green eyes, baby, as the lights go down
Give me something thatll haunt me when youre not around I see sparks fly whenever you smile I run my fingers through your hair and watch the lights go wild
Just keep on keeping your eyes on me, its just wrong enough to make it feel right
And lead me up the staircase
Wont you whisper soft and slow?
Im captivated by you, baby, like a firework show Drop everything now Meet me in the pouring rain Drop everything now Take away the pain Drop everything now Meet me in the pouring rain Drop everything now Drop everything now Meet me in the pouring rain Kiss me on the sidewalk, take away the pain Cause I see sparks fly whenever you smile Get me with those green eyes, baby, as the lights go down
Give me something thatll haunt me when youre not around I see sparks fly whenever you smile And the sparks fly

You are somebody that I dont know But youre takin shots at me like its Patrón And Im just like, damn, its 7 AM Say it in the street, thats a knock-out But you say it in a Tweet, thats a cop-out And Im just like, Hey, are you okay? And I aint tryna mess with your self-expression But Ive learned a lesson that stressin and obsessin bout somebody else is no fun And snakes and stones never broke my bones So oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh You need to calm down Youre being too loud And Im just like oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh You need to just stop Like can you just not step on my gown? You need to calm down You are somebody that we dont know But youre comin at my friends like a missile Why are you mad when you could be GLAAD? Sunshine on the street at the parade But you would rather be in the dark ages Makin that sign mustve taken all night You just need to take several seats and then try to restore the peace And control your urges to scream about all the people you hate Cause shade never made anybody less gay So oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh You need to calm down Youre being too loud And Im just like oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh You need to just stop Like can you just not step on his gown? You need to calm down And we see you over there on the internet Comparin all the girls who are killing it But we figured you out We all know now we all got crowns You need to calm down Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh You need to calm down Youre being too loud And Im just like oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh You need to just stop Like can you just not step on our gowns? You need to calm down You need to just stop Like can you just not step on our gowns? You need to calm down

Combat, Im ready for combat I say I dont want that, but what if I do? Cause cruelty wins in the movies Ive got a hundred thrown-out speeches I almost said to you Easy they come, easy they go I jump from the train, I ride off alone I never grew up, its getting so old Help me hold on to you Ive been the archer Ive been the prey Who could ever leave me, darling But who could stay? Dark side, I search for your dark side But what if Im alright, right, right, right here? And I cut off my nose just to spite my face Then I hate my reflection for years and years I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost The room is on fire, invisible smoke And all of my heroes die all alone Help me hold on to you Ive been the archer Ive been the prey Screaming, who could ever leave me, darling But who could stay? Cause they see right through me They see right through me They see right through Can you see right through me? They see right through They see right through me I see right through me I see right through me All the kings horses, all the kings men Couldnt put me together again Cause all of my enemies started out friends Help me hold on to you Ive been the archer Ive been the prey Who could ever leave me, darling But who could stay? But who could stay? Who could stay? Who could stay? Who could stay? Who could stay? You could stay You Combat, Im ready for combat

Your little hands wrapped around my finger And its so quiet in the world tonight Your little eyelids flutter cause youre dreaming So I tuck you in, turn on your favorite night light To you everythings funny, you got nothing to regret Id give all I have, honey If you could stay like that Oh darling, dont you ever grow up Dont you ever grow up, just stay this little Oh darling, dont you ever grow up Dont you ever grow up, it could stay this simple I wont let nobody hurt you, wont let no one break your heart And no one will desert you Just try to never grow up, never grow up Youre in the car on the way to the movies And youre mortified your moms dropping you off At 14 theres just so much you cant do And you cant wait to move out someday and call your own shots But dont make her drop you off around the block Remember that shes getting older too And dont lose the way that you dance around in your pjs getting ready for school Oh darling, dont you ever grow up Dont you ever grow up, just stay this little Oh darling, dont you ever grow up Dont you ever grow up, it could stay this simple No ones ever burned you, nothings ever left you scarred And even though you want to, just try to never grow up Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room Memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home Remember the footsteps, remember the words said And all your little brothers favorite songs I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone So here I am in my new apartment In a big city, they just dropped me off Its so much colder than I thought it would be So I tuck myself in and turn my night light on Wish Id never grown up I wish Id never grown up Oh I dont wanna grow up, wish Id never grown up I could still be little Oh I dont wanna grow up, wish Id never grown up It could still be simple Oh darling, dont you ever grow up Dont you ever grow up, just stay this little Oh darling, dont you ever grow up Dont you ever grow up, it could stay this simple Wont let nobody hurt you Wont let no one break your heart And even though you want to, please try to never grow up Oh, dont you ever grow up Oh, never grow up, just never grow up

We could leave the Christmas lights up til January This is our place, we make the rules Theres a dazzling haze, a mysterious way about you, dear Have I known you twenty seconds or twenty years? Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close? Forever and ever and I Take me out, and take me home Youre my, my, my, my lover We could let our friends crash in the living room This is our place and we make the call And Im highly suspicious that everyone who sees you wants you Ive loved you three summers now, honey, but I want em all Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close? Forever and ever and I Take me out, and take me home Youre my, my, my, my lover Ladies and gentlemen, will you please stand? With every guitar string scar on my hand I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover My hearts been borrowed and yours has been blue Alls well that ends well to end up with you Swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover And youll save all your dirtiest jokes for me And at every table, Ill save you a seat Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close? Forever and ever and I Take me out, and take me home Youre my, my, my, my Oh, Bri, youre my, my, my, my, my Darling, youre my, my, my, my Lover

I stay out too late Got nothing on my brain And thats what people say, ooh Thats what people say I go on too many dates But I cant make them stay And thats what people say, ooh Thats what people say So I keep cruising Cant stop, wont stop moving Its like Ive got this music in my mind Saying its gonna be alright Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake Shake it off Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake Shake it off I never miss a beat Im lightning on my feet And thats what they dont see, ooh Thats what they dont see Im dancing on my own Ill make the rules up as I go And thats what they dont know, mmm Thats what they dont know So I keep cruising Cant stop, wont stop grooving Its like Ive got this music in my mind Saying its gonna be alright Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake Shake it off Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake Shake it off Shake it off, shake it off I, I shake it off, shake it off Oh, I shake it off, shake it off I shake it off Hey, hey, hey Just think when you were getting down and out About all the liars and dirty cheats in the world You couldve been getting down to this sick beat Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake Shake it off Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break And the fakers gonna fake Im just gonna shake Shake it off Shake it off, shake it off I shake it off, shake it off Oh, I shake it off, shake it off I shake it off I shake it off, shake it off I shake it off, shake it off Oh, I shake it off, shake it off I shake it off

He said, Lets get out of this town Drive out of this city, away from the crowds I thought, Heaven cant help me now Nothing lasts forever But this is gonna take me down Hes so tall and handsome as hell Hes so bad, but he does it so well I can see the end as it begins My one condition is Say youll remember me Standing in a nice dress Staring at the sunset, babe Red lips and rosy cheeks Say youll see me again Even if its just in your Wildest dreams, ah-aah, haa Wildest dreams, ah-aah, haa In your Wildest dreams Wildest dreams, ah-aah I said, No one has to know what we do His hands are in my hair, his clothes are in my room And his voice is a familiar sound Nothing lasts forever But this is gettin good now Hes so tall and handsome as hell Hes so bad, but he does it so well And when weve had our very last kiss My last request, it is Say youll remember me Standing in a nice dress Staring at the sunset, babe Red lips and rosy cheeks Say youll see me again Even if its just in your Wildest dreams, ah-aah, haa Wildest dreams, ah-aah, haa In your Wildest dreams Wildest dreams, ah-aah

​藤井風「Shake It Off」の歌詞 I stay out too late Got nothing in my brain Thats what people say, mmm, mmm Thats what people say, mmm, mmm I go on too many dates But I cant make them stay At least thats what people say, mmm, mmm Thats what people say, mmm, mmm But I keep cruisin Cant stop, wont stop movin Its like I got this music in my mind Saying its gonna be alright Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I shake it off, I shake it off Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I shake it off, I shake it off I never miss a beat Im lightning on my feet And thats what they don’t see, mmm, mmm Thats what they don’t see, mmm, mmm Im dancing on my own I make the moves up as I go And thats what they dont know, mmm, mmm That’s what they don’t know, mmm, mmm But I keep cruisin Cant stop, wont stop groovin Its like I got this music in my mind Saying its gonna be alright Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I shake it off, I shake it off Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I shake it off, I shake it off Shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off Hey, hey, hey Just think while youve been getting down and out about the liars And the dirty, dirty cheats of the world You couldve been getting down To this sick beat My ex-man brought his new girlfriend Shes like, “Oh my God,” but Im just gonna shake And to the fella over there with the hella good hair Wont you come on over, baby? We can shake, shake, shake Yeah, oh, oh, oh Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I shake it off, I shake it off Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I shake it off, I shake it off Shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off Shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off Shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I, I shake it off, I shake it off

IT’S A SUNDAY AFTERNOON in Tribeca, and I’m in Taylor Swift’s loft, inside a former printing house that she has restored and fortified into a sanctuary of brick, velvet, and mahogany. The space is warm and cozy and vaguely literary—later, when we pass through her bedroom en route to her garden, 10 percent of my brain will believe her wardrobe might open up to Narnia. Barefoot in a wine-colored floral top and matching flowy pants, Swift is typing passwords into a laptop to show me the video for “You Need to Calm Down,” eight days before she unleashes it on the world. I have a sliver of an idea what to expect. A few weeks earlier, I spent a day at the video shoot, in a dusty field-slash-junkyard north of Los Angeles. Swift had made it a sort of Big Gay Candy Mountain trailer park, a Technicolor happy place. The cast and crew wore heart-shaped sunglasses—living, breathing lovey-eyes emoji—and a mailbox warned, LOVE LETTERS ONLY. Swift and a stream of costars filmed six scenes over about a dozen hours. The singer-songwriter Hayley Kiyoko, known to her fans as “Lesbian Jesus,” shot arrows at a bull’s-eye. The YouTube comedian-chef Hannah Hart danced alongside Dexter Mayfield, the plus-size male model and self-described “big boy in heels.” The Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon served up icy red snow cones. Swift and her close friend Todrick Hall, of Kinky Boots and RuPaul’s Drag Race, sipped tea with the cast of Queer Eye. The mood was joyous and laid-back. But by the end of the day, I wasn’t sure what the vignettes would add up to. There were shoot days and cameos I wouldn’t observe. For security reasons, the song was never played aloud. Even the hero shot, in which Swift and Hall sauntered arm in arm through the dreamscape at golden hour, was filmed in near-total silence. For weeks afterward, I tried to sleuth out a theory. I started casually. There was a “5” on the bull’s-eye, so I did a quick search to figure out what that number might mean. Immediately I was in over my head. Swift has a thing for symbols. I knew she had been embedding secret messages in liner notes and deploying metaphors as refrains since her self-titled debut in 2006—long before her megafame made her into a symbol of pop supremacy. But I hadn’t understood how coded and byzantine her body of work has become; I hadn’t learned, as Swift’s fans have, to see hidden meanings everywhere. For instance: In the 2017 video for “Look What You Made Me Do,” a headstone in a graveyard scene reads NILS SJOBERG, the pseudonym Swift used as her writing credit on Rihanna’s hit “This Is What You Came For,” a Swedish-sounding nod to that country’s pop wizards. After an excessive amount of ad hoc scholarship—a friend joked that I could have learned Mandarin in the time I spent trying to unpack Swift’s oeuvre—I was no closer to a theory. Pop music has become so layered and meta, but the Taylor Swift Universe stands apart. Apprehending it is like grasping quantum physics. My first indication of what her new album, Lover, would be about came just after midnight on June 1, the beginning of Pride Month, when Swift introduced a petition in support of the federal Equality Act. This legislation would amend the Civil Rights Act to outlaw discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Swift also posted a letter to Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, asking him to vote yes. The request, on her personal letterhead , denounced President Trump for not supporting the Equality Act. “I personally reject the president’s stance,” Swift wrote. Back in the kitchen, Swift hits play. “The first verse is about trolls and cancel culture,” she says. “The second verse is about homophobes and the people picketing outside our concerts. The third verse is about successful women being pitted against each other.” The video is, for erudite Swifties, a rich text. I had followed enough clues to correctly guess some of the other cameos—Ellen DeGeneres, RuPaul, Katy Perry. I felt the satisfaction of a gamer who successfully levels up—achievement unlocked! The video’s final frame sends viewers to Swift’s change.org petition in support of the Equality Act, which has acquired more than 400,000 signatures—including those of Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Beto O’Rourke, and Kirsten Gillibrand—or four times the number required to elicit an official response from the White House. “Maybe a year or two ago, Todrick and I are in the car, and he asked me, What would you do if your son was gay?” We are upstairs in Swift’s secret garden, comfortably ensconced in a human-scale basket that is sort of shaped like a cocoon. Swift has brought up an ornate charcuterie board and is happily slathering triple-cream Brie onto sea-salt crackers. “The fact that he had to ask me . . . shocked me and made me realize that I had not made my position clear enough or loud enough,” she says. “If my son was gay, he’d be gay. I don’t understand the question.” I have pressed Swift on this topic, and her answers have been direct, not performative or scripted. I do sense that she enjoys talking to me about as much as she’d enjoy a root canal—but she’s unfailingly polite, and when we turn to music, her face will light up and she will add little melodic phrases to her speech, clearly her preferred language. If he was thinking that, I can’t imagine what my fans in the LGBTQ community might be thinking,” she goes on. “It was kind of devastating to realize that I hadn’t been publicly clear about that.” I understand why she was surprised; she has been sending pro-LGBTQ signals since at least 2011. Many have been subtle, but none insignificant—especially for a young country star coming out of Nashville. In the video for her single “Mean” , we see a boy in a school locker room wearing a lavender sweater and bow tie, surrounded by football players. In “Welcome to New York,” the first track on 1989, she sings, “And you can want who you want. Boys and boys and girls and girls.” Two years later, she donated to a fund for the newly created Stonewall National Monument and presented Ruby Rose with a GLAAD Media Award. Every night of last year’s Reputation tour, she dedicated the song “Dress” to Loie Fuller, the openly gay pioneer of modern dance and theatrical lighting who captured the imagination of fin-de-siècle Paris. Swift, who has been criticized for keeping her politics to herself, first took an explicit stance a month before the 2018 midterms. On Instagram, she endorsed Democrats for the Tennessee Legislature and called out the Republican running for Senate, Marsha Blackburn. “She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples,” Swift wrote. “She also believes they should not have the right to marry. These are not MY Tennessee values.” Swift says the post was partly to help young fans understand that if they wanted to vote, they had to register. To tell them, as she puts it, “Hey, just so you know, you can’t just roll up.” Some 65,000 new voters registered in the first 24 hours after her post, according to Vote.org. Trump came to Blackburn’s defense the following day. “She’s a tremendous woman,” he told reporters. “I’m sure Taylor Swift doesn’t know anything about her. Let’s say I like Taylor’s music about 25 percent less now, OK?” In April, spurred by a raft of anti-LGBTQ bills in Tennessee, Swift donated $113,000 to the Tennessee Equality Project, which advocates for LGBTQ rights. “Horrendous,” she says of the legislation. “They don’t call it ‘Slate of Hate’ for nothing.” Swift especially liked that the Tennessee Equality Project had organized a petition of faith leaders in opposition. “I loved how smart it was to come at it from a religious perspective.” Meanwhile, the “Calm Down” video provoked a Colorado pastor to call Swift “a sinner in desperate need of a savior” and warn that “God will cut her down.” It also revived heated debate within LGBTQ communities about the politics of allyship and corporatization of Pride. Some critics argued Swift’s pro-LGBTQ imagery and lyrics were overdue and out of the blue—a reaction the new Swift scholar in me found bewildering. Had they not been paying attention? Nor did it strike me as out of character for Swift to leverage her power for a cause. She pulled her catalog from Spotify in 2014 over questions of artist compensation. She stared down Apple in 2015, when the company said it would not pay artists during the launch of its music service. As a condition of her record deal with Universal Music Group last year, the company promised that it would distribute proceeds from any sale of its Spotify shares to all of its artists. And this summer, Swift furiously called out Scott Borchetta, founder of Big Machine Label Group, for selling her master recordings to the music manager Scooter Braun. Swift’s blunt testimony during her 2017 sexual-assault case against a radio DJ—months before the #MeToo reckoning blew open—felt deeply political to me and, I imagine, many other women. Swift accused the DJ, David Mueller, of groping her under her skirt at a photo session in 2013. Her camp reported the incident to his employer, who fired him. Mueller denied the allegation, sued Swift for $3 million, and his case was thrown out. Swift countersued for a symbolic $1 and won. In a Colorado courtroom, Swift described the incident: “He stayed latched onto my bare ass cheek” as photos were being snapped. Asked why photos of the front of her skirt didn’t show this, she said, “Because my ass is located at the back of my body.” Asked if she felt bad about the DJ’s losing his job, she said, “I’m not going to let you or your client make me feel in any way that this is my fault. Here we are years later, and I’m being blamed for the unfortunate events of his life that are the product of his decisions—not mine.” When Time included Swift on the cover of its “Silence Breakers” issue that year, the magazine asked how she felt during the testimony. “I was angry,” she said. “In that moment, I decided to forgo any courtroom formalities and just answer the questions the way it happened...I’m told it was the most amount of times the word ass has ever been said in Colorado Federal Court.” Mueller has since paid Swift the dollar—with a Sacagawea coin. “He was trolling me, implying that I was self-righteous and hell-bent on angry, vengeful feminism. That’s what I’m inferring from him giving me a Sacagawea coin,” Swift says. “Hey, maybe he was trying to do it in honor of a powerful Native American woman. I didn’t ask.” Where is the coin now? “My lawyer has it.” I ask her, why get louder about LGBTQ rights now? “Rights are being stripped from basically everyone who isn’t a straight white cisgender male,” she says. “I didn’t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of. It’s hard to know how to do that without being so fearful of making a mistake that you just freeze. Because my mistakes are very loud. When I make a mistake, it echoes through the canyons of the world. It’s clickbait, and it’s a part of my life story, and it’s a part of my career arc.” I’d argue that no heterosexual woman can listen to “You Need to Calm Down” and hear only a gay anthem. “Calm down” is what controlling men tell women who are angry, contrary, or “hysterical,” or, let’s say, fearing for their physical safety. It is what Panic! at the Disco singer Brendon Urie says to Swift in the beginning of the “ME!” music video, prompting her to scream, “Je suis calme!” I cannot believe it is a coincidence that Swift, a numbers geek with an affinity for dates, dropped the single—whose slow, incessant bass is likely to be bumping in stadiums across the world in 2020 if she goes on tour—on June 14, a certain president’s birthday. It’s enlightening to read 13 years of Taylor Swift coverage—all the big reviews, all the big profiles—in one sitting. You notice things. How quickly Swift went from a “prodigy” and a “songwriting savant” to a tabloid fixture, for instance. Or how suspect her ambition is made to seem once she acquires real power. Other plot points simply look different in the light of #MeToo. It is hard to imagine that Swift’s songs about her exes would be reviewed as sensationally today. I wonder if, in 2019, any man would dare grab the microphone out of a young woman’s hands at an awards show. I stared into space for a good long while when I was reminded that Pitchfork did not review Taylor Swift’s 1989 but did review Ryan Adams’s cover album of Taylor Swift’s 1989. I ask Swift if she had always been aware of sexism. “I think about this a lot,” she says. “When I was a teenager, I would hear people talk about sexism in the music industry, and I’d be like, I don’t see it. I don’t understand. Then I realized that was because I was a kid. Men in the industry saw me as a kid. I was a lanky, scrawny, overexcited young girl who reminded them more of their little niece or their daughter than a successful woman in business or a colleague. The second I became a woman, in people’s perception, was when I started seeing it. “It’s fine to infantilize a girl’s success and say, How cute that she’s having some hit songs,” she goes on. “How cute that she’s writing songs. But the second it becomes formidable? As soon as I started playing stadiums—when I started to look like a woman—that wasn’t as cool anymore. It was when I started to have songs from Red come out and cross over, like ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ and ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.’ ” Those songs are also more assertive than the ones that came before, I say. “Yeah, the angle was different when I started saying, I knew you were trouble when you walked in. Basically, you emotionally manipulated me and I didn’t love it. That wasn’t fun for me.” I have to wonder if having her songwriting overlooked as her hits were picked apart and scrutinized wasn’t the biggest bummer of all. Swift: “I wanted to say to people, You realize writing songs is an art and a craft and not, like, an easy thing to do? Or to do well? People would act like it was a weapon I was using. Like a cheap dirty trick. Be careful, bro, she’ll write a song about you. Don’t stand near her. First of all, that’s not how it works. Second of all, find me a time when they say that about a male artist: Be careful, girl, he’ll use his experience with you to get—God forbid—inspiration to make art.” Without question the tenor of the Taylor Swift Narrative changed most dramatically in July 2016, when Kim Kardashian West called her a “snake” on Twitter, and released video clips of Swift and Kanye West discussing the lyrics to his song “Famous.” The posts sparked several hashtags, including #TaylorSwiftIsASnake and #TaylorSwiftIsCanceled, which quickly escalated into a months-long campaign to “cancel” Swift. To this day Swift doesn’t think people grasp the repercussions of that term. “A mass public shaming, with millions of people saying you are quote-unquote canceled, is a very isolating experience,” she says. “I don’t think there are that many people who can actually understand what it’s like to have millions of people hate you very loudly.” She adds: “When you say someone is canceled, it’s not a TV show. It’s a human being. You’re sending mass amounts of messaging to this person to either shut up, disappear, or it could also be perceived as, Kill yourself.” An overhaul was in order. “I realized I needed to restructure my life because it felt completely out of control,” Swift says. “I knew immediately I needed to make music about it because I knew it was the only way I could survive it. It was the only way I could preserve my mental health and also tell the story of what it’s like to go through something so humiliating.” I get a sense of the whiplash Swift experienced when I notice that, a few months into this ordeal, while she was writing the songs that an interpolation of a ’90s camp classic, Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy.”) Nonetheless, most critics read it as a grenade lobbed in the general direction of Calabasas. One longtime Nashville critic, Brian Mansfield, had a more plausible take: She was writing sarcastically as the “Taylor Swift” portrayed in the media in a bid for privacy. “Yeah, this is the character you created for me, let me just hide behind it,” she says now of the persona she created. “I always used this metaphor when I was younger. I’d say that with every reinvention, I never wanted to tear down my house. ’Cause I built this house. This house being, metaphorically, my body of work, my songwriting, my music, my catalog, my library. I just wanted to redecorate. I think a lot of people, with Reputation, would have perceived that I had torn down the house. Actually, I just built a bunker around it.” In March, the snakes started to morph into butterflies, the vampire color palette into Easter pastels. When a superbloom of wildflowers lured a mesmerizing deluge of Painted Lady butterflies to Los Angeles, Swift marked it with an Instagram post. She attended the iHeartRadio Music Awards that night in a sequin romper and stilettos with shimmery wings attached. Swift announced the single “ME!” a month later, with a large butterfly mural in Nashville. In the music video for the bubblegum song, a hissing pastel-pink snake explodes into a kaleidoscope of butterflies. One flutters by the window of an apartment, where Swift is arguing in French with Urie. A record player is playing in the background. “It’s an old-timey, 1940s-sounding instrumental version of ‘You Need to Calm Down,’ ’’ Swift says. Later, in the “Calm Down” video, Swift wears a back tattoo of a snake swarmed by butterflies. We are only two songs in, people. Lover, to be released on August 23, will have a total of 18 songs. “I was compiling ideas for a very long time,” Swift says. “When I started writing, I couldn’t stop.” Swift thinks Lover might be her favorite album yet. “There are so many ways in which this album feels like a new beginning,” she says. “This album is really a love letter to love, in all of its maddening, passionate, exciting, enchanting, horrific, tragic, wonderful glory.” I have to ask Swift, given how genuinely at peace she seems, if part of her isn’t thankful, if not for the Great Cancellation of 2016, then for the person she now is—knowing who her friends are, knowing what’s what. “When you’re going through loss or embarrassment or shame, it’s a grieving process with so many micro emotions in a day. One of the reasons why I didn’t do interviews for Reputation was that I couldn’t figure out how I felt hour to hour. Sometimes I felt like: All these things taught me something that I never could have learned in a way that didn’t hurt as much. Five minutes later, I’d feel like: That was horrible. Why did that have to happen? What am I supposed to take from this other than mass amounts of humiliation? And then five minutes later I’d think: I think I might be happier than I’ve ever been.” She goes on: “It’s so strange trying to be self-aware when you’ve been cast as this always smiling, always happy ‘America’s sweetheart’ thing, and then having that taken away and realizing that it’s actually a great thing that it was taken away, because that’s extremely limiting.” Swift leans back in the cocoon and smiles: “We’re not going to go straight to gratitude with it. Ever. But we’re going to find positive aspects to it. We’re never going to write a thank-you note.” Though people will take the Perry-Swift burger-and-fries embrace in the “You Need to Calm Down” video as a press release that the two have mended fences, Swift says it’s actually a comment on how the media pits female pop stars against one another. After Perry sent Swift an olive branch last year, Swift asked her to be in the video: “She wrote back, This makes me so emotional. I’m so up for this. I want us to be that example. But let’s spend some time together. Because I want it to be real. So she came over and we talked for hours. “We decided the metaphor for what happens in the media,” Swift explains, “is they pick two people and it’s like they’re pouring gasoline all over the floor. All that needs to happen is one false move, one false word, one misunderstanding, and a match is lit and dropped. That’s what happened with us. It was: Who’s better? Katy or Taylor? Katy or Taylor? Katy or Taylor? Katy or Taylor? The tension is so high that it becomes impossible for you to not think that the other person has something against you. Meanwhile, the protesters in the video reference a real-life religious group that pickets outside Swift’s concerts, not the white working class in general, as some have assumed. “So many artists have them at their shows, and it’s such a confounding, confusing, infuriating thing to have outside of joyful concerts,” she tells me. “Obviously I don’t want to mention the actual entity, because they would get excited about that. Giving them press is not on my list of priorities.” At one point, Swift asks if I would like to hear two other songs off the new album. First she plays “Lover,” the title track, coproduced by Jack Antonoff. “This has one of my favorite bridges,” she says. “I love a bridge, and I was really able to go to Bridge City.” It’s a romantic, haunting, waltzy, singer-songwritery nugget: classic Swift. “My heart’s been borrowed and yours has been blue,” she sings. “All’s well that ends well to end up with you.” Next, Swift cues up a track that “plays with the idea of perception.” She has often wondered how she would be written and spoken about if she were a man, “so I wrote a song called ‘The Man.’ ” It’s a thought experiment of sorts: “If I had made all the same choices, all the same mistakes, all the same accomplishments, how would it read?” Seconds later, Swift’s earpods are pumping a synth-pop earworm into my head: “I’d be a fearless leader. I’d be an alpha type. When everyone believes ya: What’s that like?” Swift wrote the first two singles with Joel Little, best known as one of Lorde’s go-to producers. The album is likely to include more marquee names. A portrait of the Dixie Chicks in the background of the “ME!” video almost certainly portends a collaboration. If fans are correctly reading a button affixed to her denim jacket in a recent magazine cover, we can expect one with Drake, too. Speaking of: Inquiring fans will want to know if Swift dropped any more clues about how to decode Lover during this interview. For you I reviewed the audio again, and there were a few things that made my newly acquired Swifty sense tingle. At one point she compared superstardom in the digital age to life in a dollhouse, one where voyeurs “can ‘ship’ you with who they want to ‘ship’ you with, and they can ‘favorite’ friends that you have, and they can know where you are all the time.” The metaphor was precise and vivid and, well, a little too intricately rendered to be off the cuff. Then there was the balloon—a giant gold balloon in the shape of a numeral seven that happened to float by while we were on her roof, on this, the occasion of her seventh album. “Is it an L’?” I say. “No, because look, the string is hanging from the bottom,” she says. It might seem an obvious symbolic gesture, deployed for this interview, except for how impossible that seems. Swift let me control the timing of nearly everything. Moreover, the gold seven wasn’t floating up from the sidewalk below. It was already high in the sky, drifting slowly toward us from down the street. She would have had to control the wind, or at least to have studied it. Would Taylor Swift really go to such elaborate lengths for her fans? This much I know: Yes, she would.

Knew he was a killer First time that I saw him Wonder how many girls he had loved and left haunted But if hes a ghost then I can be a phantom Holdin him for ransom Some, some boys are tryin too hard He dont try at all though Younger than my exes but he act like such a man, so I see nothing better, I keep him forever Like a vendetta-ta I-I-I see how this is gonna go Love me, and youll never be alone I-I know we wont never let this go No one has to know In the middle of the night, in my dreams All I ever see is you, baby, hm In the middle of the night, in my dreams I know Im gonna be with you So I take my time Are you ready for it? Knew I was a robber First time that he saw me Stealing hearts and running off and never saying sorry But if Im a thief then He can join the heist And well move to an island and And we can be like jailers Burton to this Taylor Every love Ive known in comparison is a failure I forget their names now Im so very tame now Never be the same now, now I-I-I see how this is gonna go Love me me and youll never be alone I-I know we wont never let this go No one has to know In the middle of the night, in my dreams All I ever see is you, baby, hm In the middle of the night, in my dreams I know Im gonna be with you So I take my time Are you ready for it? Baby, let the games begin Let the games begin Let the games begin Baby, let the games begin Let the games begin Let the games begin I-I-I see how this is gonna go Love me me and youll never be alone I-I know we wont never let this go No one has to know In the middle of the night, in my dreams All I ever see is you , baby , hm In the middle of the night, in my dreams I know Im gonna be with you So I take my time In the middle of the night Baby, let the games begin Let the games begin Let the games begin Baby, let the games begin Let the games begin Let the games begin In the middle of the night, in my dreams I know Im gonna be with you So I take my time Are you ready for it? Baby, let the games begin Let the games begin Let the games begin Baby, let the games begin Let the games begin Let the games begin

We were crazy to think Crazy to think that this could work Remember how I said Id die for you? We were stupid to jump In the ocean separating us Remember how Id fly to you? And I cant talk to you when youre like this Staring out the window like Im not your favorite town Im New York City I still do it for you, babe And they all warned us about times like this They say the road gets hard and you get lost When youre led by blind faith, blind faith But we might just get away with it Religions in your lips Even if its a false god Wed still worship We might just get away with it The altar is your hips Even if its a false god Wed still worship this love Wed still worship this love Wed still worship this love I know heavens a thing I go there when you touch me, honey Hell is when I fight with you But we can patch it up good Make confessions and were begging for forgiveness Got the wine for you, yeah And you cant talk to me when Im like this Daring you to leave me just so I can try and scare you Youre the West Village You still do it for me, babe They all warned us about times like this They say the road gets hard and you get lost When youre led by blind faith, blind faith But we might just get away with it Religions in your lips Even if its a false god Wed still worship We might just get away with it The altar is your hips Even if its a false god Wed still worship this love Wed still worship this love Wed still worship this love, mmm Still worship this love Even if its a false god Oh, mmm

All I knew this morning when I woke Is I know something now Know something now I didnt before And all Ive 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 wanna know you better Know you better, know you better now I just wanna know you better Know you better, know you better now I just wanna know you better Know you better, know you better now I just wanna know you, know you, know you Cause all I know is we said, Hello And your eyes look like coming home All I know is a simple name Everything has changed All I know is you held the door Youll be mine and Ill be yours All I know since yesterday Is everything has changed And all my walls stood tall, painted blue Well Ill take em down, take em down And open up the door for you And all I feel in my stomach is butterflies The beautiful kind, making up for lost time Taking flight, making me feel right-like I just wanna know you better Know you better, know you better now I just wanna know you better Know you better, know you better now I just wanna know you better Know you better, know you better now I just wanna know you, know you, know you Cause all I know is we said, Hello And your eyes look like coming home All I know is a simple name And everything has changed All I know is you held the door Youll be mine and Ill be yours All I know since yesterday Is everything has changed Come back and tell me why Im feeling like Ive missed you all this time And meet me there tonight And let me know that its not all in my mind I just wanna know you better Know you better, know you better now I just wanna know you, know you, know you Cause all I know is we said, Hello And your eyes look like coming home All I know is a simple name And everything has changed All I know is you held the door Youll be mine and Ill be yours All I know since yesterday Is everything has changed All I know is we said, Hello So dust off your highest hopes All I know is pouring rain And everything has changed All I know is a new found grace All my days, Ill know your face All I know since yesterday Is everything has changed

You, with your words like knives And swords and weapons that you use against me You have knocked me off my feet again Got me feeling like Im nothing You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard Calling me out when Im wounded You, picking on the weaker man Well, you can take me down With just one single blow But you dont know what you dont know Someday, Ill be living in a big old city And all youre ever gonna be is mean Someday, Ill be big enough so you cant hit me And all youre ever gonna be is mean Why you gotta be so mean? You, with your switching sides And your wildfire lies and your humiliation You have pointed out my flaws again As if I dont already see them I walk with my head down, trying to block you out Cause Ill never impress you I just wanna feel okay again I bet you got pushed around Somebody made you cold But the cycle ends right now Cause you cant lead me down that road And you dont know what you dont know Someday, Ill be living in a big old city And all youre ever gonna be is mean Someday, Ill be big enough so you cant hit me And all youre ever gonna be is mean Why you gotta be so mean? And I can see you years from now in a bar Talking over a football game With that same big loud opinion But nobodys listening Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things Drunk and grumbling on about how I cant sing But all you are is mean All you are is mean And a liar, and pathetic, and alone in life And mean, and mean, and mean, and mean But someday, Ill be living in a big old city And all youre ever gonna be is mean, yeah Someday, Ill be big enough so you cant hit me And all youre ever gonna be is mean Why you gotta be so mean? Someday, Ill be living in a big old city And all youre ever gonna be is mean Someday, Ill be big enough so you cant hit me And all youre ever gonna be is mean Why you gotta be so mean?

I promise that youll never find another like me I know that Im a handful, baby, uh I know I never think before I jump And youre the kind of guy the ladies want I know that I went psycho on the phone I never leave well enough alone And troubles gonna follow where I go But one of these things is not like the others Like a rainbow with all of the colors Baby doll, when it comes to a lover I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e I know I tend to make it about me I know you never get just what you see But I will never bore you, baby And when we had that fight out in the rain You ran after me and called my name I never wanna see you walk away Cause one of these things is not like the others Livin in winter, I am your summer Baby doll, when it comes to a lover I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Let me keep you company Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e Wassup? Spelling is fun! Girl, there aint no I in team But you know there is a me Strike the band up, 1, 2, 3 I promise that youll never find another like me Girl, there aint no I in team But you know there is a me And you cant spell awesome without me I promise that youll never find another like Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Eeh-eeh-eeh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e Girl, there aint no I in team But you know there is a me Im the only one of me Baby, thats the fun of me Strike the band up, 1, 2, 3 You cant spell awesome without me Youre the only one of you Baby, thats the fun of you And I promise that nobodys gonna love you like me-e-e

Everybodys waiting Everybodys watching Even when youre sleeping Keep your ey-eyes open The tricky thing Is yesterday we were just children Playing soldiers Just pretending Dreaming dreams with happy endings In backyards, winning battles with our wooden swords But now weve stepped into a cruel world Where everybody stands and keeps score Keep your eyes open Everybodys waiting for you to break down Everybodys watching to see the fallout Even when youre sleeping, sleeping Keep your ey-eyes open Keep your ey-eyes open Keep your ey-eyes open So here you are, two steps ahead and staying on guard Every lesson forms a new scar They never thought youd make it this far But turn around Oh, theyve surrounded you Its a showdown And nobody comes to save you now But youve got something they dont Yeah youve got something they dont Youve just got to keep your eyes open Everybodys waiting for you to break down Everybodys watching to see the fallout Even when youre sleeping, sleeping Keep your ey-eyes open Keep your ey-eyes open Keep your ey-eyes Keep your feet ready Heartbeat steady Keep your eyes open Keep your aim locked The night goes dark Keep your eyes open Keep your eyes open Keep your eyes open Keep your eyes open Everybodys waiting for you to break down Everybodys watching to see the fallout Even when youre sleeping, sleeping Keep your ey-eyes open Keep your ey-eyes open Keep your ey-eyes open Keep your ey-eyes open Keep your ey-eyes open

Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh Oh, oh We go fast with the game we play Who knows why its gotta be this way? We say nothing more than we need I say your place when we leave Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh Oh, oh

I write this to explain why I’ll be holding back my album, 1989, from the new streaming service, Apple Music. I feel this deserves an explanation because Apple has been and will continue to be one of my best partners in selling music and creating ways for me to connect with my fans. I respect the company and the truly ingenious minds that have created a legacy based on innovation and pushing the right boundaries. I’m sure you are aware that Apple Music will be offering a free 3 month trial to anyone who signs up for the service. I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company. This is not about me. Thankfully I am on my fifth album and can support myself, my band, crew, and entire management team by playing live shows. This is about the new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be paid for its success. This is about the young songwriter who just got his or her first cut and thought that the royalties from that would get them out of debt. This is about the producer who works tirelessly to innovate and create, just like the innovators and creators at Apple are pioneering in their field…but will not get paid for a quarter of a year’s worth of plays on his or her songs. These are not the complaints of a spoiled, petulant child. These are the echoed sentiments of every artist, writer and producer in my social circles who are afraid to speak up publicly because we admire and respect Apple so much. We simply do not respect this particular call. I realize that Apple is working towards a goal of paid streaming. I think that is beautiful progress. We know how astronomically successful Apple has been and we know that this incredible company has the money to pay artists, writers and producers for the 3 month trial period… even if it is free for the fans trying it out. Three months is a long time to go unpaid, and it is unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing. I say this with love, reverence, and admiration for everything else Apple has done. I hope that soon I can join them in the progression towards a streaming model that seems fair to those who create this music. I think this could be the platform that gets it right. But I say to Apple with all due respect, it’s not too late to change this policy and change the minds of those in the music industry who will be deeply and gravely affected by this. We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation. Taylor

I stay up too late Got nothing in my brain Thats what people say Thats what people say I go on too many dates But I cant make them stay At least thats what people say Thats what people say But I keep cruising Cant stop, wont stop moving Its like I got this music in my mind Sayin its gonna be alright Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I shake it off, I shake it off Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I shake it off, I shake it off Ill never miss a beat, Im lightning on my feet And thats what they dont see, thats what they dont see Im dancing on my own, Ill make the moves up as I go (hum Hum) And thats what they dont know, thats what they dont know But I keep cruising Cant stop, wont stop grooving Its like I got this music in my mind Sayin its gonna be alright Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I shake it off, I shake it off Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I shake it off, I shake it off I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I shake it off, I shake it off Hey, hey, hey Just think while you been getting down and out about the Liars And the dirty dirty cheats of the world You could have been getting down to this sick beat My ex-man bought his new girlfriend Shes like Oh my God, but Im just gonna shake it And to the fella over there with the hella good hair Wont you come on over, baby, we can shake, shake, shake Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I shake it off, I shake it off Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake Baby, Im just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I shake it off, I shake it off I shake it off, I shake it off I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I shake it off, I shake it off I, I shake it off, I shake it off Shake it off, shake it off I, I shake it off, I shake it off Shake it off, I shake it off I, I shake it off, I shake it off

Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh We go fast with the game we play Who knows why its gotta be this way? We say nothing more than we need I say your place when we leave Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh But shes looking at Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh

Long were the nights when My days once revolved around you Counting my footsteps Praying the floor wont fall through... again And my mother accused me of losing my mind But I swore I was fine You paint me a blue sky Then go back and turn it to rain And I lived in your chess game But you changed your rules everyday Wonderin which version of you I might get on the phone, tonight Well I stopped pickin up and this song is to let you know why Dear John, I see it all now that youre gone Dont you think I was too young to be messed with? The girl in the dress cried the whole way home I shoulda known Well maybe its me And my blind optimism to blame Or maybe its you and your sick need To give love and take it away And youll add my name to your long list of traitors Who dont understand And I look back in regret how I ignored when they said Run as fast as you can Dear John, I see it all now that youre gone Dont you think I was too young to be messed with? The girl in the dress cried the whole way home Dear John, I see it all now, it was wrong Dont you think nineteens too young To be played by your dark, twisted games When I loved you so? I shoulda known You are an expert at sorry And keeping the lines blurry Never impressed by me acing your tests All the girls that youve run dry have tired lifeless eyes Cause you burned them out But I took your matches Before fire could catch me So dont look now Im shining like fireworks Over your sad empty town, yeah-yeah Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Dear John, I see it all now that youre gone Dont you think I was too young to be messed with? The girl in the dress cried the whole way home I see it all now that youre gone Dont you think I was too young to be messed with? The girl in the dress Wrote you a song, you shoulda known Dont you think I was too young? You shoulda known

Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at You, you, you You, you, you You, you, you You, you, you You, you, you You, you, you But shes looking at But shes looking at you You We go fast with the game we play Who knows why its gotta be this way? We say nothing more than we need I say your place when we leave Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at You, you, you You, you, you You, you, you You, you, you You, you, you You, you, you But shes looking at But shes looking at you You

I can see you standing, honey With his arms around your body Laughin but the jokes not funny at all And it took you five whole minutes To pack us up and leave me with it Holdin all this love out here in the hall I think Ive seen this film before And I didnt like the ending Youre not my homeland anymore So what am I defendin now? You were my town Now Im in exile seein you out I think Ive seen this film before Hoo, hoo-ooh Hoo, hoo-ooh Hoo, hoo-ooh I can see you starin, honey Like hes just your understudy Like youd get your knuckles bloody for me Second, third and hundredth chances Balancin on breaking branches Those eyes add insult to injury I think Ive seen this film before And I didnt like the ending Im not your problem anymore So who am I offending now? You were my crown Now Im in exile seein you out I think Ive seen this film before So Im leavin out the side door So step right out There is no amount Of cryin, I can do for you All this time We always walked a very thin line You didnt even hear me out You never gave a warning sign All this time I never learned to read your mind I couldnt turn things around cause you never gave a warning sign So many signs So many signs I think Ive seen this film before And I didnt like the ending Youre not my homeland anymore So what am I defending now? You were my town Now Im in exile seein you out I think Ive seen this film before So Im leavin out the side door So step right out There is no amount Of cryin, I can do for you All this time We always walked a very thin line You didnt even hear me out You never gave a warning sign All this time I never learned to read your mind I couldnt turn things around cause you never gave a warning sign All this time I never learned to read your mind I couldnt turn things around cause you never gave a warning sign Never gave a warning sign

I said, remember this moment, in the back of my mind The time we stood with our shaking hands The crowds in stands went wild We were the kings and the queens And they read off our names The night you danced like you knew our lives Would never be the same You held your head like a hero On a history book page It was the end of a decade But the start of an age Long live the walls we crashed through All the kingdom lights shined just for me and you I was screaming, long live all the magic we made And bring on all the pretenders One day, we will be remembered I said, remember this feeling I passed the pictures around Of all the years that we stood there On the side-lines wishing for right now We are the kings and the queens You traded your baseball cap for a crown When they gave us our trophies And we held them up for our town And the cynics were outraged Screaming, This is absurd Cause for a moment, a band of thieves In ripped up jeans got to rule the world Long live the walls we crashed through All the kingdom lights shined just for me and you I was screaming, long live all the magic we made And bring on all the pretenders Im not afraid Long live all the mountains we moved I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you I was screaming, long live that look on your face And bring on all the pretenders One day, we will be remembered Hold on to spinning around Confetti falls to the ground May these memories break our fall We have absolutely loved spending time in your town , and you have been so amazing to us I mean, you guys know every single word and you’ve danced this entire night and it means the world to me and every single person you see on stage Thank you Will you take a moment? And Promise me this That youll stand by me forever But if, God forbid, fate should step in And force us into a goodbye If you have children some day When they point to the pictures Please tell ‘em my name Tell them how the crowds went wild Tell them how I hope they shine Long live the walls we crashed through I had the time of my life, with you Long, long live the walls we crashed through All the kingdom lights shined just for me and you I was screaming, long live all the magic we made And bring on all the pretenders Im not afraid Singing, long live all the mountains we moved I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you Long, long live that look on your face And bring on all the pretenders One day, we will be remembered

Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh Oh, oh But shes looking at you You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh We go fast with the game we play Who knows why its gotta be this way? We say nothing more than we need I say your place when we leave Baby, this is what you came for Lightning strikes every time she moves And everybodys watching her But shes looking at you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh Everybodys watching her But shes looking at Everybodys watching her But shes looking at You, oh, oh, you, oh, oh

Put your lips close to mine As long as they dont touch Out of focus, eye to eye Till the gravitys too much And Ill do anything you say If you say it with your hands And Id be smart to walk away But youre quick sand This slope is treacherous This path is reckless This slope is treacherous And I I I like it I cant decide if its a choice Getting swept away I hear the sound of my own voice Asking you to stay And all we are is skin and bone trained to get along Forever going with the flow but youre friction This slope is treacherous This path is reckless This slope is treacherous And I I I like it Two headlights shine through the sleepless night And I will get you get you alone Your name has echoed through my mind And I just think you should think you should know That nothing safe is worth the drive And I will follow you follow you home, follow you follow you home This hope is treacherous This daydream is dangerous This slope is treacherous And I-I-I, I-I-I, I-I-I Two headlights shine through the sleepless night And I will get you get you alone Your name has echoed through my mind And I just think you should think you should know That nothing safe is worth the drive And I will follow you follow you home, follow you follow you home This hope is treacherous This daydream is dangerous This hope is treacherous I-I-I, I-I-I, I-I-I ... Two headlights shine through the sleepless night And I will get you get you alone Your name has echoed through my mind And I just think you should think you should know That nothing safe is worth the drive And I will follow you follow you home, follow you follow you home Ill follow you follow you home, follow you follow you home This slope is treacherous And I-I-I like it

THE PALM TREES ARRIVED IN FEBRUARY, seven in all, set against a pastel blue backdrop with superimposed stars. It appeared that a new Taylor Swift era was upon us — that the old happy-go-lucky Taylor was not, in fact, dead. Or did it? It was only an Instagram photo, just one more picture in an infinite content scroll. But it also came from a pop star known for prodigious hint-dropping, whose fans turn every piece of info into an online archaeological dig. As expected, the summery post sent Swifties sifting through each detail with a fine-tooth comb. What did the trees symbolize? An overdue vacation? A recently purchased beach house? A secret palm-frond collection? Or maybe, as many surmised, it was new music. One Twitter user predicted that the number of stars in the background of the photo hinted at a single drop: “There’s about 60/61 ️. There’s 61 days until April 26, FRIDAY, a SINGLE RELEASE day!” Another said it was the unofficial announcement of her next LP: “Okay so in this picture there are 4 palm trees on the left . There are two palm trees on the right . There is one large palm tree in the middle. This represents her new album.” These may sound like ludicrous conspiracy theories — for the record, they were mostly correct — but they fit firmly within the Taylor Swift Musical Universe . “I posted that the day that I finished the seventh album,” says Swift about the photo. “I couldn’t expect to know that. I figured they’d figure it out later, but a lot of their theories were actually correct. Those Easter eggs were just trying to establish that tone, which I foreshadowed ages ago in a Spotify vertical video for ‘Delicate’ by painting my nails those colors.” It’s now April, and the 29-year-old pop star is in a Los Angeles photo studio, giving her first sit-down magazine interview in three years. She wants to discuss the art of placing hints inside her work, as well as the upcoming record, which she recorded as soon as she finished the Reputation Tour. She’s also keen on detailing her own obsessions, talking up the TV shows, books, and songs that help shape her outlook on life. Over the past 13 years, Swift has perfected the pop culture feedback loop: She shares updates about her life and drops hints about new music, which fans then gobble up and re-promote with their own theories, which Swift then re-shares on her Tumblr or incorporates into future clues. It’s like a T-Swift-built Escher staircase of personal memories and moments that tease what’s next. “I’ve trained them to be that way,” she says of her fans’ astute detective work. Swift is a pop culture fanatic herself and has an innate understanding of the lengths her audience will go to be a part of the original creation. “I love that they like the cryptic hint-dropping. Because as long as they like it, I’ll keep doing it. It’s fun. It feels mischievous and playful.” Through this approach, Swift has designed the ultimate artistic scavenger hunt — and it’s easy to get swept up in its drama, even if you don’t listen to her music. Her moments aren’t always hidden, either. Sometimes Swift highlights aspects of her world just so fans feel like they’re on the journey with her. Like the time in March 2018 when pop singer Hayley Kiyoko was accused of shading Swift after mentioning her name during an interview. On Tumblr, Swift re-shared a fan’s post, adding commentary that defended Kiyoko, which immediately dispelled any conflicts between the two artists; Swift’s post subsequently received more than 29,000 notes. Four months later, she invited Kiyoko on stage during the Reputation Tour to sing her hit “Curious.” Kiyoko returned the favor when she had Swift join her that December at a benefit on behalf of the LGBTQ organization the Ally Coalition to perform “Delicate.” Fans of both artists were elated by the mutual support. The feedback loop also extends outside of music. In October 2018, Swift broke her silence about politics by publicly endorsing two candidates for office in her adopted state of Tennessee, while encouraging her followers to register to vote. She kept up the civic momentum through Election Day when she asked fans to post selfies after voting; Swift then eagerly re-promoted her favorites on Instagram stories. This practice of sharing and re-sharing and sharing again is why listeners consider Swift one of the world’s most accessible pop stars, someone willing to not only interact with her audience but invite them to secret listening sessions, or make the occasional surprise visit to their wedding or prom. It’s a symbiotic relationship, one that, as Swift tells EW, helped her dig out of the darker era of reputation. “It’s definitely the fans that made that tonal shift in the way I was feeling,” she says. “Songwriters need to communicate, and part of communicating correctly is when you put out a message that is understood the way you meant it. reputation was interesting because I’d never before had an album that wasn’t fully understood until it was seen live. When it first came out everyone thought it was just going to be angry; upon listening to the whole thing they realized it’s actually about love and friendship, and finding out what your priorities are.” Then, during the Reputation Tour, she had an epiphany: that despite the caricature that she thought had been created of her, there were many people who saw what others had simply refused to. “I would look out into the audience and I’d see these amazing, thoughtful, caring, wonderful, empathetic people,” she says. “So often with our takedown culture, talking s— about a celebrity is basically the same as talking s— about the new iPhone. So when I go and I meet fans, I see that they actually see me as a flesh-and-blood human being. That — as contrived as it may sound — changed completely, assigning humanity to my life.” At tour’s end, she channeled that positive energy into the studio, recording the new album in just under three months. But the fast pace won’t mean a short LP. Swift confirmed that her seventh record will include more songs than any of her previous releases. “I try not to go into making an album with any expectation,” she says. “I started to write so much that I knew immediately it would probably be bigger.” The project will also feature a mix of old and new collaborators , but she is unsurprisingly coy about doling out much more information, as if doing so would break the carefully honed T-Swiftian feedback loop. “There’s a lot of a lot on this album,” she says. “I’m trying to convey an emotional spectrum. I definitely don’t wanna have too much of one thing…. You get some joyful songs and you get the bops, as they say.” There’s also, she adds, some “really, really, really, really sad songs,” but “not enough to where you need to worry about me.” She gives us one more clue: The true distinction between TS7 and reputation is in the delivery. “This time around I feel more comfortable being brave enough to be vulnerable, because my fans are brave enough to be vulnerable with me. Once people delve into the album, it’ll become pretty clear that that’s more of the fingerprint of this — that it’s much more of a singer-songwriter, personal journey than the last one.” The past month has seen a deluge of Swift activity, from the release of the new single to dropping more hints in interviews about the record and its title, which is apparently hidden somewhere inside the “ME!” music video . But if the Easter eggs from the pop star seem like a business-as-usual routine, she says this album does indeed mark a new era of her life, where she’s been better able to prioritize what’s important to her. “Our priorities can get messed up existing in a society that puts a currency on curating the way people see your life,” she says. “Social media has given people a way to express their art. I use it to connect with fans. But on the downside you feel like there are 3 trillion new invisible hoops that you have to jump through, and you feel like you’ll never be able to jump through them all correctly. I — along with a lot of my friends and fans — am trying to figure out how to navigate living my life and not just curating what I want people to think living my life is. I’m not always able to maintain a balance, and I think that’s important for everyone to know about. We’re always learning, and that’s something that I also had to learn — that I’ve got to be brave enough to learn. Learning in public is so humiliating sometimes…. Do I feel more balanced in my life than I ever have before? Um, probably yeah. But is that permanent? No. And I think being okay with that has put me in a bit of a better position.” Strong words to live by, to quote, to re-share, to tweet back to her, and see if she’ll respond.