The Swiftie and The Scholar - The Christian Tendrils of But Daddy I Love Him

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Buckle up for a long one! We are flooring it through the fences today with But Daddy I Love Him from Taylor Swift’s 2024 album, The Tortured Poets Department. We discuss common movie tropes, conservative small towns, and the lyrics Angela wants to have tattooed from this song.Works Cited:Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell – Susanna Clarke – Aff LinkEast of Eden – John Steinbeck – Aff LinkRebel With a Cause (1955)The Notebook (2004)Inside Daisy Clover (1965)How The West Was Won (1962)AnaphoraEpiphora (or epistrophe)the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls – e.e. cummingsFootloose (1984)The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading MatrixFollow Us:Patreon⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠Threads⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

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Wayfair, every style, every home. Welcome to The Swiftie and The Scholar, the podcast where we examine the lyrics, lore, and literary legacy of Taylor Swift. I am Angela McDowell. And I am Dr. Jerry Cox, the scholar. How you doing Uncle Jerry? Um, you know, I'm doing really well. today. Thank you. Good. Yeah, I know. I have lots of notes here. I know. I'm very excited. Yeah.

I love this song. Apparently you do because she's already forewarned me that if I don't like it, she's got other ways to defend it. So it's like, wow. I know. I think this is the first time, aside from like all too well that have come in being like, here is how I feel. I don't know. This song has really been a lot for me lately. Like the past few weeks, I just like can't stop listening to it. I am wrapped with anticipation. But first. Yes. One of the people asked me if I had ever read this book.

So I had to respond by saying, let me think, yes. Yeah. That's from the prophecy episode, yes, the comments. Yeah. Yeah. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Nora. This is my, this is a copy I bought in the airport at Heathrow in England. I know.

Is that not appropriate when I was waiting for a point? plane. I thought, I need to read something. And I had heard about this book, and it's several years ago. It's a big fat book. It is. So if you're going to do it, it's like over 800 pages. But it is well worth the read. Yes, I think it's great. Okay. I'll link it for anybody. I'm just making an endorsement. I have a quick question for you. Okay. Like, no spoilers, but who do you think Daddy is in this, in this song? Oh, it's written in 2024. I don't know. I'm not speculating. It's not my job. You're going to tell me, though, aren't you? We'll get into it. I cannot wait to me. Okay. Today we're doing, but Daddy, I love him. This is a super long song. It is. Not 10 minutes, but

it's almost six. Three pages and I was going, wow, did you add an extra page here? Yeah, this is one of those, I think they're calling them one of Taylor's and another thing song, you know, which is like, and then another thing and one more thing. You know, she's kind of keeps going. We got a third, we got a third, third verse. We've got a extra chorus. Like, there's a lot of stuff going on in here. Um, this is from the tortured poets department. This was written by Taylor and Aaron Dessner, but produced by Taylor, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, um, similar to Ivy. Okay. Um, and one of the folklore, Betty, maybe, one of the folklore love triangles. Anyway, um, that's kind of all I've got. I'm excited to hear what you have to say.

That's not all you've got. The rest of it is... You've forewarned me. I know. I've got plenty to say, but it's in here. Okay, so you started off by asking me a question. Let me ask you a question. Yes.

I mean, I obviously got the allusion to Little Mermaid for the title. Mm-hmm. And, you know, Little Mermaid was released in 1989. Nice. I didn't really know that. Remember that. Do you think that she uses that because it's her birth year? Maybe.

At biographical criticism. Look at you. You're breaking your own rules. I know, my own rules. But yes, obviously the, you know, but Daddy, I love him is something that Ariel, which is generally a guy's name, by the way. Yeah, I don't know. Ariel is an angel's name. It's also in Shakespeare's Last Play, The Tempest, 16-10.

Okay. But, yeah, it's the Little Mermaid. And how aware was I of that when this started? Well, of course, since my granddaughter was just in her middle school production of Little Mermaid. And she played, I don't know whether it's Flotsam or Jepsen. Yeah, one of the eels. Yeah, she was real good. Yeah, this is like weird timing.

I didn't plan that. You know, I mean, get the first read-through of this poem, not just Little Mermaid came to my mind, but a number of movies came to my mind. Same. You know, so I don't know if you have seen East of Eden. No. Or read the book.

It's a book, people. Steinbeck. Oh, yes, yes, yes, okay. Yeah. And it's about a girl who falls in love with the bad boy. and, you know, she's actually a kind of adopted daughter of his father, you know, and she finally comes around to saying, but she loves him. You know, so I thought of East of Eden.

I also thought of another James Dean movie. So when you ask me, who do I think the guy is? I think it's James Dean. Rebel Without a Cause, 1995 was a movie that was released about a month after James Dean died in a car wreck. Okay. And if you'd never seen Rebel Without a Cause, it's about a guy who falls in love with Natalie Wood, and who wouldn't. And, you know, he's a bad guy, and she doesn't want to love him, but she has to. And then there's the notebook, right?

And if you've seen that, you know, we have Noah and Ali, and Noah's from literally the wrong side of the tax. And Ali is the rich guy's daughter. And I don't know. You know, I also thought of another Natalie Wood movie, and now I can't remember the title. But, oh, Daisy Clover, where she plays the poor girl, and it's the rich guy that she's pursuing. So it's kind of...

Like a gender flip. Yeah, gender flipping. But... So what I'm going to say is that this is a common trope in romance storytelling. The guy or the girl. from the wrong side of tracks who falls in love with the rich guy or girl's daughter, son, you know, and it does or doesn't work out, generally does work out because we want it to, right? I mean, in a romance story, we want that to work.

Right. Taylor always wants it too. And so I really did wonder in constructing this trope, did she have all these movies in mind, you know, did she have one or two of them in mind? And, you know, it's in, it's literally in The Little Mermaid. It's in The Notebook. It's in East of Eden. And all you have to do is turn on the Hallmark Channel and every third movie.

It's going to be this story. It's going to be, you know, the wrong girl or the wrong guy falling in love with the opposite. Yes. It seems to be a common trope. And then we start reading the poem itself. Yes. And it starts off with I, forget. how the West was won.

Okay. This is an illusion, right? There is a movie, people, how the West was won. It is, I think, one of the most interesting movies, if you can ever go see it in the movie theater. Okay. Okay, because it was filmed in three lens, Cinerama, so 1962.

Okay. And so it literally has three different cameras filming this incredibly wide screen panorama. And so when they showed it in old movie theaters, and I'm just here to admit that I saw it. I was going to ask. I felt like you were speaking from personal experience. I was.

I saw it when it came out. Yeah, I went to the movie theater. I guess my parents took me when I was a little kid. I was going to say, I feel like you would have been really young in 1962. But I remember. remember the spectacle of it because it was just amazing. The movie theater had to install

additional screens. Oh. So when it was originally screened, it was intended to be shown on a kind of curved screen. But a lot of movie theaters weren't equipped with that, so they showed it on three paneled

screens. Interesting. Yeah, so you could see. And if you watch it today, you know, when it comes on television, if you watch it today, sometimes like in a war scene or an Indian chase scene or that kind of thing, you can still see the little lines where the different panels or where the three-lens cinematography was filmed. It's really like ahead of its time.

Yeah, it was really cool. So why am I spending time on this? First of all, everybody in Hollywood was in it. I mean, I couldn't, I can't begin to list the people who were in this movie. I mean, everybody. And one of the reasons why it's interesting, I think it may be used here, is because the central story focuses on the daughter of a highly religious man

who falls in love with a frontiersman. Okay. And the frontiersman, although he admires the guy, who, by the way, is played by Jimmy Stewart, although he admires the guy, he doesn't really, he's not excited about his daughter marrying him or going off with him, because he doesn't really trust him.

He comes around to that trust in the end of the story. But, I mean, I think that it works as an illusion here because it's about this love relationship that should not be. And on her side, the father is highly religious, right? So I think it works here. Yeah. Okay, that was a lot on the first. That's okay.

Okay, so allusion. And then the second line, I forget if this was ever fun, I just learned these people who only raise you to cage you. You got to like the rhyme, raised cage. I think that's kind of fun. So they build you up to breed you like an animal for display, which sounds a little Harry Potterish.

But also one of the things that I noticed is the repetition of the word I, at the start of each sentence, I forget, I forget, I just, and then a little bit later on in the stanza, I just. Okay, so we've covered this a little bit, but repetition of words at the start of lines is called anaphora. Okay. And that should lead you to look at the end of the lines.

So you see how you only raise you to cage you and save you and hate you. Okay. So we've got the same word ending the lines, and that's epiphora. So anaphora, epiphera. Okay. I feel like we just had this in a different. Yeah, we did. Yeah, okay.

Exactly the same thing. Yeah. What I'm really interested in is that the fact that you have four I's starting sentences and four U's ending lines. Huh. Right? So you get this separation, this balance contrasting between the I and the you. Interesting. Isn't that great?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it's, I keep using the word fun. Someone called me on that. I know. They were like, why? Y'all keep talking about how fun this is. But that is a real thing

Somebody else asked This is a cat Like a side bar But somebody else asked Like how like you say you love the sad ones And like you love to listen to the sad ones But how does it not make you sad? And I'm like well I don't know

It just like I think it's It's like a connection It's like I feel like seen in it You know like because we've all felt certain feelings You know and it just like makes you feel validated So it doesn't ever make me sad This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you.

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Yeah, yeah. And so I was just like, I don't know how. She was like, do you have any like tips for how to do that? And I'm like, no, I think it's just like how I was created, I guess. I don't know. Well, and I know the person who wrote in about the word fun was was having fun with me. Yes. You know, honestly, I think it is fun when I see, when I see a literary device employed in a meaningful way, it delights me. Yeah. Yeah. Because this is art. Right. It's art. And like it might be a sad story, but like it's good art. So it's. That's what's so fun to me. Yeah. I mean, literally, sometimes when I noticed the I, I, I, I, I, and the you, you, you, you, I thought, oh, that's so clever. I mean, literally kind of chuckled out loud because I thought that's so clever because she's setting up this, there is a desperate space between the two of us, right?

We're being pulled apart, but like a rubber band, we're always going to snap back together, you know? And so I thought it was, it was very clever the way that she kind of built this first stanza. Yeah, that's interesting. But we're not done with it yet. No. She says to cage, only raise you to cage you. Well, to cage you as a metaphor, right? To capture your spirit, to keep you enclosed in the space that I've built for you

that we call your childhood and adolescence. And then we get to Sarah's and Hannah's in their Sunday best, clutching their pearls, sighing, what a miss. And so I like the rhyme. best and mess. I, you know, Sarah's and Hannas are obviously references to biblical

women. Yeah. He's a church going ladies. Church going ladies. Wearing their pearls in their Sunday outfit. You know, and you do have to remember that the Sunday clothes may may not entirely represent what

lies within. Right? That the it may just be a veneer. an exterior. You might say vipers dressed in impats clothing. Yes, that's

where we're going to go. I also thought of a fun poem by E.Cumings when I read through the Sarahs and Hanna's. It's called Cambridge Ladies. And the first line is something like Cambridge Ladies

who live in furnished souls. Yeah, I love that line because it's like they... Interesting. Yeah, they live in their nice little houses and they live in their furnished souls. So every piece of

furniture is something that the pastor has said is just right. You know, one of the other ladies is self-affirming. Yes, that's a godly choice. And I just, I think that's kind of fun. So, yeah, if you don't know E. Cummings, Cambridge Ladies, it's a fun poem. They, you know, they wind up. We see them stitching up clothing for, is it the Polish children? You know, they literally ask the question.

Oh, like, they're like, we're doing this for some people, but I'm not sure who. Something, but yeah. So I just learn these people try and save you because they hate you. And now you want to say something. Well, I was just going to say, I just love this whole verse. Like, I think, like, I feel like this is a song that I just like instantly saw the movie playing out, which maybe plays into what you're talking about. It's a common trope, you know.

But I saw like Taylor, Taylor in that, Taylor's life in that story. Like I could instantly see what she was talking about Like I forget how the West was one like to me that's her talking about like I won the West I forget how I got this famous where people have all these opinions I don't even I don't even remember if this was ever fun because it's certainly not fun now Because all of these women and all of these people are like you have to be exactly what you were when you were introduced to us At 16 years old you know and the caging is like reminiscent of

you know, who's afraid of little me, she says, like, you cage me and then you call me crazy, you know, you're making me like be this certain thing. You're only I'm only allowed to be in this little box, you know? And then if she's putting it into like this small town

churchy metaphor to me. Yeah, I mean, that's where we are, right? She lives in this religious family, in a religious community, in this small town caged environment, a closed sphere. Yeah, it feels very relatable. Yeah. And I do love the way that she says, I forget, I forget, you know.

It's, you know, there are certain things about our childhood and our adolescence that we just, we never learned to question because we were little kids. Exactly. Right. And this is just the way it is. This is your furnished soul, right? Yeah. Which is why I thought of that poem. Yeah.

You know, we're handing it over to you in mass whole already built for you. Here's your life. Here's what it's going to be. you go off and live it. It is written. Right. Oh, that's great. Yeah.

It is written. Right. Okay, so I have to go back one more time. I mean, when I read Sarah's and Hanna's, I thought, okay, you have biblical characters. She's, you know, she's living in this constricted space. But I really, like on my A3, I thought, well, wait, why Sarah and Hannah? Why not? Deborah and Naomi?

You know, why not other female characters from the Old Testament? Okay. And so I began thinking about them, and I wrote a couple of my little notes. Okay. I do, these are obviously both allusions. Uh-huh. And I began realizing, oh, that's right, these two women have a number of elements in common. Okay.

Okay. Sarah's the wife of Abraham, who she is the mother of Isaac. she is competitive with Abraham's consort, Hagar, who has Ishmael. Okay, so Ishmael becomes the father of the Muslim religion. Ishmael Muhammad is supposed to be a child related to Ishmael. You know, so Sarah's highly competitive with this woman and wants a child of her own. She becomes very old.

and an angel comes to her and says, all right, we'll give you a child. And she laughs out loud, which becomes in Hebrew the name of the child. Her name means princess or mother of nations. And she is, she essentially is going to offer this child up as the leader of what would become the Hebrews.

So Hannah is in First Samuel. Hannah is married to this old man. She becomes very old. She's competitive with his other wife. Okay. She is barren. She's never had a child. She prays about having this child.

And finally her prayer is answered when she promises to give the child up to the temple. And that's when she gives birth to Samuel. Okay. Okay. So why these two in particular? Yeah. Well, I mean, they're both women. I mean, if you're going to do a feminist reading here, right, we've got women couched in a particular role.

And they're both the same role. Interesting. We've got women who are yearning all their lives to fulfill this one role, mother, right? I am no one if I don't have a child or if I'm not a mother. And that's like so many women from our small towns. That's right. That's right. Yeah, I really think that these are our terrific choices.

If you're going to pull allusions out of the Bible, you know, I mean, would you do Ruth and Naomi? Yeah, it's like totally different. Right. It would give a totally different allusive meaning, a totally different, if you will, metaphorical vibe. These are women who were seen as desirable sex objects. As a matter of fact, Sarah is given away twice. by Abraham in making bargains with other kings and they have to give her up when someone when God essentially says, hey, by the way, she's married and they all go, whoa, wait a minute,

you know. So she, I mean, they're women who are seen as sexual objects. They're women who are seen, who are validated only in their roles as mothers and are validated only by their ability to reproduce. Oh my God. Okay. This is like blowing my mind a little bit. Right.

So if I'm a feminist reader, I am, you know, I'm going to say, these are well chosen to represent that furnished soul persona that I think everyone expected our narrator here to fulfill. The eye in this poem. The eye in this poem should marry a nice boy and have babies. Right. Yeah. And that's it.

She would be the conduit for the next generation, or she would create the next priest. Uh-huh. Right. You know, both of those work really well. One had the generational father and one had the priestly advisor. Either one of those would go well in this tiny town. Yeah.

Right. So I really think that they're chosen point. Just blew my mind wide open. Oh, I'm so bad. I just assumed, I was like, oh, these are names from the Bible. And they're also like common millennial woman names. And so that's what she chose them. Right.

As deep as I got. And because they're only validated by their body and their ability to reproduce. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that a lot of women look for validation in other ways. Clearly the narrator of this story. Yeah.

And that's like as a person who got married at the, you know, super young age of 37. It's like very relatable to me, you know. Yeah. I mean, you had other things to do. One of my best friends, a former department chair of fine arts I worked with, you know, a scholar whom I highly respected. I mean, she wasn't married in her mid-40s. Yeah, she just, her parents worried about it.

She talked about how she used to, you know, meet with friends. And friends would say, so, when is it going to happen for you? So, are you thinking about having a baby anyway? Yeah. It's like, how many times do you have to say, this is not how I validate my life? Yeah, this is just not what I'm doing right now. Right. I'll let you know, though.

Yes. Yeah. If you really need to be that person. And then maybe you can call your cousin. Yeah, I know. They all just picked up on that. Every single person knows what you're doing. Okay. So yes, I had to go back and talk about the really nice choice of allusion for both Sarah and Hannah.

Yeah. And how they are, you know, foil characters. They reflect on one another. Right? Because they serve the same role. that same purpose. Okay, the pre-chorus. Yes.

Too high a horse. You know, to ride your high horse or to be on a high horse is actually a 19th century Victorian saying. It obviously means to be self-righteous, to be superior, arrogant for a simple girl. And I think that she's being a little ironic with the word simple. For sure. It's also, I'll take a drink of my tea now. Ambiguous. Right. Simple could mean ordinary, but simple can also mean foolish or stupid.

Right. Okay. I think she means ordinary, but I think that the people in the town are just as happy if girls are stupid. Just a little dumb, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, because you know what their role is just to get married, pop out the baby, move the next generation along. Be quiet. Don't have thoughts. That's right. Don't speak them aloud. Yeah.

Don't do that. And whatever happens, you know, get off the high horse. It's too simple, too much for a simple girl to rise above it. They slammed the door. Really nice word choice slammed on my whole world. The one thing I wanted. Okay. I think I like the choice of the last line because the one thing I wanted,

this is like a teen. Yes, very. I'm so focused on him. Yes. This is the one thing I want. You know, don't worry, honey, you're going to want something else later. Yeah, which is just the same as like love story. You know, in that she has a line where she says, what does she say?

It's like he was everything to me or you were every. It's just like that hyperbole of like my life is over if I don't get to be with this one boy. Yeah. And I think what she's doing is exploring the character of the narrator. Right. So I think she is being hyperbolic. So again, you know, we have another literary advice here hyperbole. So, you know, it's nice to round up the pre-course that way.

Yeah, I love too high a horse for a simple girl to rise above it. Like, I just think that's such a fun way to be like, y'all's expectations are insane. The expectations of the world of in this, you know, in this narrative, in this small town, the expectations you have for women. Like, there's no way anybody can ever live up to that. Right. Yeah. Yeah, it is fun.

Yeah. When you put, oh, fun. Maybe we'll have to start taking a drink every time to say fun. I'm going to go back to the top of the verse one and point out the rhythmic pattern. I forget how the West was one. I forget if this was ever fun. I just learned these people only raise you. Yeah, so it's very rhythmical.

Yeah, bum, ba-bub, ba-bub. So what you've got is you've got a mixture of trokeys and dactyls or trokeys and anapest, depending on how you scan it. So for those of you who forgot. I know I feel like we talk about trokeys and dactals a lot. I know it's something with stressed and unstressed, but I don't know exactly what. Yeah, it's a stress syllable. A trokey is a stress syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.

So my name, Jerry. Oh, it's a trokey. Is a trokey. Yes. You wouldn't say it as an I am, an I am inverses that pattern with an unstressed stress syllable, right? No one says... Jury? Jury.

It's kind of fun, though. Yeah. So yours is Angela, right? Uh-huh. It's dactylic. Stress. Stress, unstressed, unstressed, unstressed. Okay.

Yeah. No one would stress the middle syllable, Angela, except for me, maybe. Yeah, you probably would. Or Angela. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, stress patterns create the music of language. And so I don't know how this is going to sound when we play it, but I am kind of interested. It's just such a fun. Like, I don't want to spoil it, but the way that it builds and we go running around, it's just like so fun. We do have an ERA's tour performance to watch of this.

Oh, boy. So for those of you who are just listening to us and not watching us, Angel began swaying and popping her head back and forth. I just like can't. Like this makes it like when I was just listening to it on the way here to prepare. And like it makes someone drive really fast, you know, like I want to start breaking rules. Is that right? Is that how you like prepare?

You psych up by listening to the song? Yeah. I don't have that advantage. Sorry. Yeah. You're just reading your books. I know. I'm reading books.

looking at Cummings Poetry. Okay, back to the scanning the... Yes. So if you look at the pre-chorus, to high a horse for a simple girl to rise above it, so it's ba-b-b-p-p-p-p-p-b, right? So, yeah, we're still working that rhythmic power. It's not a consistent rhythm.

Like, I tried to scan it consistently. You can't. But still, I'm thinking it's going to sing well because of the rhythmic patterns. Yeah. So, chorus. Yes. Now I'm running with my dress unbuttoned.

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It's how we're making banking more human. Sorry, he paused to laugh. It's unbuttoned. She's brazen. She's embarrassing. She is eliciting a loose image. She doesn't care. Yeah.

Yeah. Especially because of the next couple of lines. Yes. So I think that's metaphorical. Screaming. But, Daddy, I love him. So I can just hear Ariel talking to the king. And then she says, I'm having his baby.

Well, shades of hunger games. Oh, my gosh, yeah. Yeah, the two of you were pregnant. The baby. Yes, the baby. Well, then we can't have the 75th quarter quill. Yeah. What did you, what was your first thought when you saw that?

Did it make you, like, stop and go, what? Yeah, I thought, oh, this is a teenager, trying to say the most startling thing she can to her mom or dad, in this case, dad, since we're addressing, but daddy, I love it. Uh-huh. And I really did think of Hunger Games. Uh-huh. Yes, I've read all those novels too.

But I've told that story. Yes, for sure. Yeah, one of your colleagues told you to read it. Yeah, she told me, and she said that I'll enjoy it if I can tap into my inner 14-year-old girl. Yeah, I think we talked about on the first episode because I'm like, we've got to, or one of the first. Like, you've got to put your teen girl hat on for some of these. Apparently, I have an inner 14-year-old girl. You do.

We all do. Yeah. Okay. Okay, so another first thought is I began. I'm thinking, wait, is this just the movie Footloose? That's what I always picture is Footloose. Like you're not allowed to dance, you know, you're getting in trouble because you're dancing. See, that's what I started thinking is, oh, wait, is Ariel actually Lori Singer?

You know, is this Kevin Bacon, Wren? Is the Reverend Moore John Lithgow? Yeah, yeah. So I really did think of the movie. Yeah. That's where my brain always. has gone straight to like a movie like that, like an 80s, 90s movie, you know, like. It is such a common trope.

I mean, you ought to be able, if you really think about it, or again, watch the Hallmark Channel, you will find almost any number of movies that follow this sort of plotline. So yeah, she cries out, I'm having his baby. And then it's almost like she breaks that fourth wall, right, in a movie when they turn to you and say. Yeah, look straight at the camera. I look straight at the camera. Or it's like in Dear Reader, right? Not just her poem, but also the 18th century novel, Dear, you know, Dear Reader, I know what you're thinking here, you know.

So she says, no, I'm not, but you should see their faces. You know, again, we do have to remember that she's a teen. I'm telling them to floor it through the fences, which is nice alliteration, right, the FF, F. That also feels it obviously metaphorical. Yes. So there's a metaphor for burst through any obstacles. And I have to admit, because we've been doing this, I thought of getaway cars. Same because it's a car again.

Yeah. Yeah. There's always cars. Somebody needs to do something with those cars. So no, I'm not coming to my senses. I know he's crazy, but he's the one I want. Okay, so you have to go back through and look at the anaphora, the use of the word, I'm, I'm running, I'm having, no, I'm not, I'm telling, no, I'm not.

Okay. So again, like a teen narrative, she's very self-focused. You know, that's okay, it's what we would expect of teens. And don't forget to look at the N-Rime with faces, fences, senses. I think those are really nice rhymes. And you notice that faces and fences, you know, have different initial vowels, but they're both alliterative and the CES, CES, are, you know, not only sound rhyme, but also sight rhyme. Right, right.

Right. So in many ways, I think that's a terrific rhyme. So I do want to point out when she has a really good rhyme. Yeah. Okay, page one down. Of seven. Yeah. First two.

Yes. Dutiful daughter. all my plans were laid. So now who's the speaker? She still is. Is she still? Right. Yeah, it felt like the first couple of times I read it, it felt like it was the dad.

Oh, she, oh, okay, okay. Yeah, saying, oh, dutiful daughter. Yeah, I mean, all four of those, those first lines. I have plans. I tucked those tendrils into your woven braid, you know, but growing up precociously sometimes means you're not growing up. at all. So he's accusing her of not growing up. But then I'm reading it like, she's the narrator and saying he tried to turn me into a dutiful daughter. Yeah. He tried to make all my plans. That's right. He tried to tuck those tendrils in. But I was always precocious and I, you know,

I didn't grow up the way that he wanted me to. So which is it? It's ambiguous. I've never thought of it as like being from the dad. but that totally could be. And then the second half of the verse would be. Right. Well, I guess the whole thing could be. Yeah, I mean, I think that it's more when we get to bedroom eyes like a remedy. Yeah, I mean, that feels very.

Yeah, that feels like it's heard. I do think in those first four lines, what interested me was the embedded double entendre with the word laid. You know, so laid could mean the plans were set but ruined. Or my plans were, I mean, she got laid. Oh, my God. Right? Because she has sex and she claims to have a baby. Which she turns to us and says, no, I'm not.

But you should see their face. No, I'm not. Yeah, so she's playing with double meanings. So I wondered if she was playing with double narrators. Interesting. Yeah, that's really fun insight. I think it is fun that she is writing it so that you could read it both ways. Uh-huh.

Yeah, and I kept going back and forth and back and forth trying to make up my mind, and I still don't know. I kind of, so I always, obviously I was always only reading it from like this was Taylor talking, but it almost, it could be Taylor talking about, like Taylor parroting the words that were always said to her by her parents. Yeah, that's kind of where in my own head I went. Yeah. I kept thinking, well, is this the narrator, you know, speaking. the words that she supposes her dad would say. Right. Yeah.

Right. And, you know, I like that interpretation. So now we have a third way of looking at the narrative. Look at us go. I know. So is it him? Is it her? Is it?

Him. His words through her, like, through her voice. Yeah. Interesting. I think it works all three ways. I do kind of like the last interpretation. Yeah. It's in her head.

She's parodying his, his words, his advice, his lifelong goals for her. Right. Okay. I love tendrils tucked into a woven braid. Yeah. You know, I always do. You know how I look for that one word or that one line? This is one of those lines that I think is really... It just says so much to me. Like, I've always been this picture perfect. Everything is in its place. My hair is put back like an innocent little girl's braid and, like, like, like, an innocent little girl's braid.

and like everything is just as it's supposed to be. Yeah. And those holy tendrils, those things, you know what, you know, interestingly enough, religion itself, it, you know, comes from a word, you know, ligio means to bind, right? It's where we get ligament. Okay, okay. Oh, wow. It's your Latin lesson for the day. Look at you.

I know. So it is like a tendament. to allow religion to bind you up. You know, I mean, I grew up, I was raised in the Salvation Army, and in order to be a member, you have to swear never to drink alcohol. And it's a funny thing. I mean, yes, I do occasionally drink alcohol, but I still, when I see people doing it, it's like I go, ooh, is that bad?

Okay, yes. Because those tendrils, that religio is always in us. They're bound in there in there. Yeah, that's what, that's kind of what I think this whole thing is. Like, I think this whole, I think this whole song was inspired by Taylor's real life of people, you know, telling her what she needs to do and how she should live her life because we all have opinions on that. And, and as a young girl, she was, you know, she first started her career. Her parents were, like, very in charge of her image and the things that she was allowed to do because she was a teenager. And, you know, they didn't want her to get taken advantage of, so it makes sense.

Right. But it's like everything just had to be exactly. She's said before, you know, I always just thought I had to be the good girl. I always just wanted to be good. And whatever that meant, you know, what she was taught that that meant. I just wanted to be that. And I think in her 30s, she's still trying to get rid of those tendrils, you know, where it's like, no, actually I am allowed to just, like, be a grown-up woman and, like, make the decisions I want to make.

That doesn't make me less good of a person. And I don't have to pop out a baby just because my fans are waiting for it. Yeah, yeah. And it's, I don't know. It's just like, it just blows my mind because this whole song just blows my mind. I also think that I feel like I don't even want to say this yet, but I think that this whole song is her talking to us. I think we are daddy. I wonder, so now you're jumping to the end here.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I wondered the same thing. I really did. You know, fans, and I think this is just as lively in 2026 as it was in 2024. You know, as soon as we hear that Travis, Kelsey, and she are engaged, you know what kept popping up on my newsfeed is, when are they going to have a baby? What are they going to name the baby? And it's like, Lord, people, am I, am I Sarah? Am I Hannah? Yeah.

Is that my total value to you? I'm supposed to now produce progeny. Right. And what is it going to be? If it's a, if it's a guy, does he become a singer and a girl? Maybe a tight end. Sure. Yeah.

I mean, it's so, it was funny to me when I read this through several times. I had that exact same thought. Yeah. I'll never forget. It was so funny to me. The week this song came out, Chase and I were driving somewhere and this song was on. And I could tell he was like, really? you know, like taking it in.

And he asked something like, who is this? Who's she's singing to here? And I was like, well, I think she's singing to us. And he stopped for a second. And he goes, we're daddy. I was like, yeah, I think we are daddy. I think all the people who have opinions on what she does with her life and, you know, ride her off for specific choices that she makes, like certain boys she dates, whatever.

Right. You know, she's saying, like, I get to be who I want to. be. Yeah, you know, and I like that you mentioned earlier that controlling her image is something that she has gradually come to. And I mean, I don't know that much about it, but I know you have, from what you have told me, you know, I really did think of M&M again. Yeah. Because, you know, he's got, he's got the name his mother and father gave him. He's got the name that he chose. He's got another name of the record company tried to give him. It's like, people, you know, how many times do I get to be pushed around before I get to decide what kind of artist I want to be.

Yeah. Yeah. So, okay, should we go back to the song or are we done today? Yeah, sorry, I just have a lot of thoughts. No, I agree completely. I went there myself. It took me a few readings. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, so, yeah, it says he was chaos. He was revelry. So chaos sounds bad, uncontrolled. revelry or as the British say revelry do they really well it's a number of poems it's a kind of archaic pronunciation

that actually has a positive connotation to revel in something is to be more playful and then he has bedroom eyes like a remedy well okay so that's a simile right so he is a tonic he is a cure for

that culture in which she developed yeah like he's chaotic but all of her tendrils are tucked right in where they're supposed to be. Yeah, well, and meeting him, drinking him in, you know, provides that remedy for those tendrils. It helps to begin to dissolve them. And then he says, she says, soon enough,

the elders had convened down at the city hall. Oh, no. You know, so I don't know. Maybe I think of movies too much, but I remembered when, if you ever seen Pleasantville, which is a really fun Toby McGuire movie. You know, when he begins to introduce new ideas, when he begins to cut those tendrils loose,

they not only have a meeting in the city hall, but all the men get together in a bowling alley. And there's this great line when things start going wrong. The mayor says, thank God we're in a bowling alley. Oh, my gosh. It's like the bastion of manhood. Yeah, only boys allow us. That's right.

So, yes, it's a terrific scene. It's a cliche, a little bit of a cliché, a little bit of a cliché scene where elders get together. The use of the word elder also reminded me of a book. It's a biblical illusion, right? The elders get together. I thought about an apocryphal chapter of the book of Daniel when the elders get together over Susanna. And they view Susanna nude. She's running unbuttoned.

Okay. Yes. and they just can't control their lust for her. The elders get together. And then we get to the pre-course. Okay, yeah. Stay away from her. So I think this is voiced by the father, by the elders.

All the saboteurs. All the saboteurs. People who want to sabotage her relationship. Protested too much, obviously from Hamlet, Act 3. This is Gertrude reacting to the queen in the play. the play is the thing we're in to catch the conscience of the king so in Hamlet if you haven't read

or seen it Hamlet puts on this play to try to catch who the murderer of his father was and he has the actors act out the way his father was murdered and Queen Gertrude reacts to it and says you know I think that

she's protesting too much which implies there must be a level of guilt here okay the lady doth protests too much. That's right. Yeah. So I think the saboteurs who protest too much, the elders who protest too much, there is a level of duplicity in them. Interesting. There's a level of dishonesty in them. So another illusion. Lord knows, I love that irony. Lord knows the words we never heard, just screeching tires and true love. So the lovers didn't care what the elders or the dead or the saboteurs had to say,

They're just in the car and they're tearing out. Yeah. Or as Cartman says, we're out of here. Not Cartman. Could be. Could be, Cartman. Rees knows a thing or two about great combinations. Chocolate and peanut butter, obviously.

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hilarious. Yeah. I mean, I'm having his baby. No, I'm not, but you should see your faces, like, insane. Yes. There's actually like really funny compilations of people like music reactors that were reacting to this. So they're hearing it for the first time and hearing her say that. And everybody's faces are like exactly the same. She's like, I'm having his baby and they're all like. And then she's like, no, I'm not.

And they're all like, die. Like it's just so funny. We used to see your face. Yes, exactly. Their faces did exactly what she knew they were going to do. Yeah. Okay. post chorus in the longest song ever.

Yes. Yeah, because the chorus is exactly the same. I know, right? So, yeah, we've got the chorus. She's still running with that unbuttoned dress, screaming. You know, she does say that I'm not coming to my senses. I know he's crazy, but he's the one I want. She wants crazy.

I don't know if it's because she wants him or because she just wants to cut those tendrils loose, get the heck out of there and, you know, and make an obscene gesture toward the elders. Okay, two things on that. Are you going to tell me who it is? Well, okay, so, yes, I think I will, because this song, what I think is when you're saying, like, you don't know if she just wants crazy because that's not, that's the opposite of what she has. That's kind of exactly what I think it is. this was this song we think was written

after she ended her six year long relationship and then she went back to this Maddie Healy from 10 years ago and he is a controversial man I'm gonna have to remember these names Maddie Healy Yeah I remember a grown man named Maddie

We don't love it He's controversial He's said a lot of weird controversial things but then he swears and his fans swear it's just performance art. I don't know. I think he is a mess of a man. But I also think that she was in this six-year-long relationship.

She thought that was going to be it forever. But then she was so, like, bored and, like, dragged down by it. She lost the color from her face. She turned gray. This is what we learned about in so long, London. And then she goes to this other man, and he's so controversial that everyone is, like, You are a good girl.

You're supposed to be good. And you told us you were good. So why would you align yourself with this man? And but I think part of it is just like, she's like, I need the opposite of whatever just happened to me. You know? Yes. I just want to jump at the car and hear the entire scream. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's like this was like she, it's almost like she had to do that to like break out of, she had to like teach herself that it's okay to like break out of these break away. from these like tendrils of religion or the tendrils of how she was raised that like a girl has to be this certain one thing, you know? Right. Yeah.

She has to be a Hannah. She has to be a Sarah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

So maybe the biographical criticism is important at this point. I kind of feel like it is for this one. I see. I would agree. I just I just think it's such a fun metaphor and maybe because it kind of mirrors how I grew up, you know, and it's like the, you know, what we've already said, the small town, kind of conservative leaning. There's, there's just, you know, you, you graduate from high school, you marry your high school sweetheart, you have babies when your 20s, like you, you know,

it's your, your, your prophecy is written. And some of us don't want that prophecy. I like that back to prophecy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the song. Oh, we have to do the rest. We haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet. I know. Pressing ahead to the post-chorus? Yes. I'll tell you something right now.

I'd rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitch-in-and-money. I'll tell you something about my good name. It's mine alone to disgrace. I don't cater to all those vipers dressed in empathy's clothing. That is an angry. So angry. Angry post-corrhose. So angry.

That's why I read it. that way. I'm kind of anxious to hear how she sings it. But yeah, I know how I read it. This is the daughter talking, yes, within the context of our narrative. But this is Taylor Swift. Yeah. It's just pure Taylor Swift talking to her fans, her critics, her vipers, you know, anyone out there who wants to give her advice on how to live her life. And I think the vipers dressed in empaths clothing, like that is because most of the, most of the heat that she was getting, most of the, you know, canceling of herself that she was getting was coming from her supposed fans, like people that say they like her and say they're her fan. Are empathic to her plight, you know, listen dear, let me just give you some advice.

Yeah, like this isn't good for you. It's not. And like I didn't love that she was dating. him, but mostly because I was like, a home girl deserves better. I never posted anything about it. You know, it was just like, but I also understood why she did it. Like, I understood why she went directly into that relationship because it made sense to me.

Yeah. I was happily ignorant, but now I'm angry about it. Yeah. Yeah, so that's just, sorry, go ahead. No, I was just going to say, so, you know what I thought it was, again, I'm hoping to impress you. Okay. Cassandra, they filled my cell with snakes. Absolutely.

Right. And you remember in the first stanza, she is caged. Right? She's in a cage. Yeah, her cell. Yeah. And so they filled her cell with snakes. Oh, wow, that's nice.

So all these people, vipers, dressed in empaths clothing. You know, we can't forget to do the poetics. I'd rather burn my whole life down. that's some metaphorical phrasing you can't really burn a life so you do it metaphorically Bichin and Monen is almost bereft of

other than the fact it has alliteration in it pretty bereft of Yeah she's just telling it like exactly how it is There's no poetry there At this point that yeah that whole veil of poetics has just dropped away She's like y'all are annoying

And let me tell you something about my good name And again, I see very few poetics here. I don't see, although it is an aphoristic, right? The I, I, I. So many eyes. Yeah. But now she's speaking out of her own voice, right? So the anapra, I think, is something we have to notice and we have to analyze, wait, is she speaking out of the character?

Is she speaking out of her own voice? Okay, that's interesting. Yeah. Literally, it's supposed to be both, figuratively it's supposed to be both, but literally it's her. It's just, this is Taylor sneaking her way in again like she didn't. Yeah. And Betty. Uh, the bridge.

God save the most judgmental creeps. Okay, so the word creeps. Um, you know, it's, it's assonance. It rhymes with me and C, and beat. Creep me, C, beat. Uh-huh. Nice rhyme. But, um, as a word choice, creep is, uh, it's a harsh word.

It starts with a harsh sound, the K sound of the C, the P sound at the end of the word. Uh-huh. It's a well-chosen word. And again, we have irony the way she keeps invoking God. You know, Lord knows. I just love it. God save. Yeah.

Right. So, you know, it's like people have been preaching to her all her life. And she's done with the preaching. So God save those people who say they want what's best for me. Want what's best. Okay. W's, nice alliterative feeling. sanctimoniously performing soliloquies

I'll never see so you know echoes of Hamlet was soliloquies because we've already heard one Hamlet quote but also sanctimoniously performing soliloquies is a great phrase so good right yes this is one of my faves

why is this phrase in a pop song you know it really does feel good it's great to say I do read these poems out loud because there's no other way to hear the sonic qualities. So when I hit sanctimoniously performing soliloquies,

yeah, all the S's and the B and the L's, and the fact that it sounds beautiful, but she is describing something she really finds creepy. Yeah, it's horrible, but it sounds pretty. But it sounds pretty. Yeah, I think it's more of that verbal irony. Okay, yeah. Yeah.

This line, I think, is another that's directly tied to her real life. This same guy that I'm talking about, this whole situation that we're talking about. It was when during the Eros tour, when Speak Now, Taylor's version was about to come out. Some fans, I don't know who they were or why they were, but they literally put out an open letter to Taylor. Oh, nice, yeah. telling her that that they're speaking up now because it was like when speak now was about to come out

telling her like how horrible it is that she's dating this man and this is not what she needs to do like this is like literally happened. Wow. Okay. Yeah. I have it pulled up here. I'll put it on the screen but it's like this man is

controversial and he says racist things and makes offensive jokes and you have the right to make your own choices but we believe that you need to, you know, take a stand against discrimination. You need to hold themselves and their associates accountable. Yeah, when you read the line, you have the right to make your own choices. You just stop there. But?

Yes, I do. And shut the laptop. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, who knows if this exact thing, if she saw it. But, I mean, I'm sure there was just a ton of that at that time. I know there was. And so it's just like, and it's just saying that I'll never see.

Like, yeah, y'all are, you're just. talking, you're saying all of this in like a, and even if we take the metaphor of like, you know, the church women in the small town, like you're saying all of this in like a performative way. Like you don't really care. You don't care what I do. You just want to be able to like judge me and like be on your high horse and like feel better. You're so passionate about this. Sorry.

I think it's great. It's why we love music or literature. Exactly. I mean, how passionate am I when I get going about it? I know. Yeah, I did, I got that, you know, this is one of those moments where I see, you know, kind of concretely. And I just imagine a thousand households across dozens of countries where her fans are going, oh, she shouldn't be with this guy.

And, you know, they're making their speeches. And she's not there to hear. And none of the rest of us are. Yeah. Or you're saying it like to your Facebook friends, you know, or like to your 200 Instagram followers, you know, like it's just like silly. Like just this is an adult woman who's allowed to do whatever she wants and you don't get to control It's her name that she is she wants to disgrace it. She's allowed She's you know, that's why I say you just close your laptop after you say you can make your own choices

You say oh, thank you Yeah, exactly and then even even when she started dating Travis One of those it was like a Playoff game a couple of seasons ago where he he got really into like he got really into like he got really like angry and he like kind of pushed himself into Andy Reid. Do you remember that? Oh yeah. On the sidelines he was like yelling in his face and he kind of like chest bumped in. That never happens on a football field. And then all of a sudden everybody turns that into like Taylor can't date this man. No. He's clearly a terrible man. Or she was the cause of it. I think that being. Right.

Yeah. In a difficult love relationship probably led him to blow up on the field. Uh-huh. Yeah. And this is as as the Taylor Swift, like, as the Swifty in all of my areas of my life. She is the Swift. People, you know, at work and stuff, like, come up to me and they're like, did you see that? That was pretty bad. Taylor can't. And I'm like, I don't, I do not want you in my family business.

So please stop talking to me about Taylor. Because people just have opinions. And like, they just, you know, they're just always wanted to spout them out wherever they, wherever they can. So I have to tell you that last week. at church. Uh-oh. A very well-meaning member of my Sunday school class came up and asked me,

so do you think that they're going to have a child right away? And I went, who? Like, who are you talking about? Taylor and Travis. And I said, I'm not the Swifty. I'm the scholar. That is so funny. I know, but she thought, like, maybe I had insight information.

Yeah, like we chat with her every week when we do these. Yeah, well. Oh, has she not been talking to you? Oh, my gosh. Are you chatting with Taylor? Well, I mean, I can't say, but. Oh, gosh. Okay.

That's hilarious. This is the Eternal song. Sorry. That's okay. It's a long one. It's fine. It's long. Okay, but it's good.

Yes. Thinking it can change the beat, and now I'm hearing hairspray. The beat of my heart when he touches me. and counteract the chemistry and undo the destiny. You ain't got to pray for me, me and my wild boy and all of his wild joy. And again, that kind of goes back to the connects for me to the word revelry. Exactly, yes. Right.

So that has a positive connotation. So wild joy. I think that reaffirms it. And then she says, if all you want as gray for me, she's talking right to her readers. or I'm sorry, write to her fans, critics, Vipers. Yeah. If all you want for me is gray for me, then it's just white noise and it's just my choice.

Yeah, you know, we can talk about the metaphors, the metaphorical use of chemistry, or connect destiny to reading those tarot cards or the praying to, you know, the phrase the consistent religious imagery or wording like, Lord knows God save. You know, you got to pray. But the message here is pretty clear and direct. It's very, like, this is, like, she's literally just calling people out straight to their faces. Well, and it's funny, too, because in my notes, I kind of stopped making a lot of notes because I, I mean, I saw the metaphors and the internal rhyme and the wild boy, wild joy, the rhyme, their repetition link, all of which are nice poetics. but for me what was most powerful is the message. Yes.

Okay. We're done with the bridge? Yes, except I do have to say one thing. Please do. This is like the first song with lyrics that aren't sad. So I really want to get some sort of Taylor lyrics tattoo. But all the lyrics I like the best are like super sad lyrics and I don't want like I don't need like you kept me like a secret. I kept you like an oath on my like on my arm somewhere.

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luxury. You don't want to wake up and look at it every day. Yeah, exactly. But no line has ever described a member of my family more than my wild boy and all this wild joy, and that is my

dog Luke. I thought she was going to say someone else. I know that's why I said it that way, because I knew you were going to think about Chase. But I want a picture of his face. Luke's face, I'll put a picture up on the screen with my wild boy and all this wild joy.

Oh. I don't know that I'll ever do it, but I really want it. You can get the little face of the dog tattooed underneath it? Yeah, yeah. Okay. I still think you should be Chase, but I don't know. Chase does listen to these, right? Yeah.

We have tattooed. We got soup dumpling tattoos. No, okay. That's great. Me and Chase. Because we like soup dumplings in New York City. So we got soup dumpling tattoos in New York City I thought you were going.

I'm going back to this poem. Verse three. I think this time I'm the one that's had some sleep instead of you. There's a lot of people in town that I bestow upon my fake a smiles. So yeah, she has to go through town and she has to just grin and say, you know, I hear your advice and you're an idiot, leave me alone. Scandal does funny things to pride, but brings lovers close. It's kind of like in the movies where no one wants them to dance together,

but those footloose kids, you can't stop dancing. You can't stop the beat. We came back when the heat died down, went to my parents, and they came around, and the wine moms are still holding out, but... She got angry again. She got angry again. Um, f um, it's over. Uh, so I have to pause.

I mean, lots of stuff here, politically. Heat died down. Um, that's a cliche, but, um, also kind of metaphorical language. Um, she uses wine moms and wine can be spelled two different ways. Oh, yeah. Right. So they're, they're, they sit at home drinking their wine like the Cambridge ladies, you know, knitting socks for the Polish kids or whatever.

Yeah. And, but also wine, like they're whining. Yeah, they're complaining moms. They're dissatisfied with their own lives. What else do they have to do but complain about her? Yeah, talk about somebody else's. Yes. I'm going to move right on to the chorus.

Okay. Now I'm dancing in my dress in the sun and even my daddy just loves him. I'm his lady and, oh, my God. So we have another, you know, we're pulling God in again. You should see their faces. And again, we go back to the faces that looked shocked when she said, I'm having his baby. We also are using the dress now as a metaphor, right? You know what that is?

What is that? Dancing in my dress in the sun, that's another of your... Oh, she's dancing in light. Yeah. Yes, you're right. Oh, that's great. I had gone by that and forgot. Yeah.

Oh, that's great. That's dancing by the refrigerator light or dancing in the lightning. And the lightning strikes, yeah. Yeah. Oh, she loves dancing in the light. She does. This is a joyful scene for her. So, yes, her parents have come around.

She's out there having fun. And then she says, oh, time. Doesn't it give some perspective? So she's personifying time. And no, you can't come to the wedding. So it's like, I'm glad you all see it my way now. You know, I'm glad you've had time to work it out. Yeah.

So you're okay with my life. Yeah, you got some perspective on the choices. that I'm making for myself. And thank you. You're not coming to the wedding. I know it's crazy, but he's the one I want. She said earlier she wants crazy.

She acknowledges again. I know it's crazy. But, you know, a little revelry, a wild boy is something that she wants at this point. I'm rolling downhill now. Yeah, let's do it. Post chorus.

I'll tell you something right now. Again, nearly devoid. of poetics. You ain't got to pray for me. We're back to praying again. So again, if you're counting, that's five direct religious references. Me and my wild boy and all of his wild joy, he was chaos. He was revelry.

So now we're directly linking the revelry with wild joy. If all you want is gray for me, then it's just white noise. And it's my choice. Pointedly chooses to end the stanza on my choice. and then she is out with screaming, Daddy, I love him. I'm having his baby, no, I'm not, but you see their faces. But, oh, my God, that's number six. You should see their faces.

He was chaos. He was revelry. Notice the was shifts the tense to past tense. And I felt like the, oh my God, you should see their faces. He was chaos. He was revelry. He was almost like a prayer. You know, this is, I think,

Closer is she's moving away from the irony, the satire that she's been using up to now. And it's more of a prayer, you know, for her future. Yeah. And that's the end of our song. Themes. Yes. I wrote down rebellious freedom, reckless joy and passion, disregarding public opinion, disregarding the judgment of society.

And I wrote down defying a good girl image, which you brought up. earlier. Yeah. Yeah. She's like, I don't have to live by your rules. Yeah. So she's moving on and creating her own. Anything else you'd like to say about this song?

A little bit. I kind of want to talk about two different opinions on the muses of this song. So there's a lot of conversation. And I think I fall on one side more than the other, but maybe not. Maybe I'm convincing myself. but so there's a theory, there's a theory, we'll say two theories. So theory one is that this was written, this song was written before she knew that the relationship with Maddie was going to be over. And she was just writing herself a happy ending.

As we know she does. She loves to change. Yeah, Romeo and Juliet get together. Uh-huh. Yeah. You know, Ophelia doesn't, doesn't end up. the fate of Ophelia. We know she likes to change endings to be happier.

And so I'm wondering if she was writing herself a happy ending for that and saying all these people are going to come around. Like they are going to back off, stay out of it, and let me just live my life that I want to live. I thought, and I do have to admit it was almost unsatisfactory for me as a reader, you know, just saying, now I'm dancing in the sign and daddy loves him. It just felt almost gratuitous.

Yes. another thought that I have subscribed to up until like literally today is that we literally switch muses after verse three so in verse three when she changes she says all the wine moms are still holding out but it's over and that's I think the end of one relationship and then she finds then months later she finds she finds Travis Oh, this is the entry of Travis. Yeah. Oh, I'm liking that.

Okay, so then she meets Travis, and now all of a sudden, everyone is back on Taylor's side. Oh. They became like this, like, you know, this like America's sweetheart, like our royal family type thing, you know, like they became like such a huge big deal that everyone was loving. And so I'm thinking like after verse three and then we go into now I'm dancing in the dress and dancing in my dress in the sun and my dad. Daddy just loves him and I'm his lady. That just kind of, to me, flips the whole thing and it's like I'm talking about a different person now. Right. And this is a different situation.

And y'all all got perspective on me as a human being, just giving me a little time to, like, work through what I needed to work through. But I don't know. I'm still, I'm still, I'm not set on either one of those. I do find that interesting. I mean, it goes against my new criticism. It does. brain. Very much.

Yeah. Because it's not in the text. Right. Although we do have the shift to past tense for the last line. Yeah. That that one is over. Yeah. Which would seem to add a little validation to that theory number two.

Yeah. Hmm. But maybe it's ambiguous. Maybe, you know. I'll be interested to see what people say about that. Yeah, me too. Yeah. I want to know, like, what y'all think.

Do you fall on one of those or, or a different one or, you know, where do you land on that? Because that's like such an interesting conversation. I don't always love the muse conversations, but for this one, I really was like really struggling with why we're saying, okay, it's over. And then we suddenly switch to like this like happy dancing in my dress and the sun. Right. So can I just remind everyone that although my level of very addition in poetic exegesis is very high. Indeed. I didn't even really understand any of those words.

I'm real smart. Can read good. Gotcha. Okay. Nevertheless, I do not have all the right answers. And although Angela is steeped in the lore of Swiftian ways, she is very speculative. Yeah. And so I think it would be interested to hear what you guys have to say. Yeah.

I mean, we honestly, to be straight, we don't have all the right answers. No, we have no clue. Oh, we have clues. We're just sanctimoniously performing soliloquies. That's right. I was excited for you to hear that line. That is, or see that line, the sanctimoniously performing soliloquies. Okay, so I do have one other thing to say about the song, and that is it did leave me to think more holistically about the common romantic tropes that she employs.

Okay, yeah. Right? Because I started off saying that the. girl who's in love with the bad boy and the girl has a strict father, a religious father, or something like that, you know, is a common trope in romance writing. And I began thinking about her other works. Okay. That create common romance tropes.

Okay. I just like that you can do that now. Yeah, it is fun, right? So, okay, so I went to champagne problems. this is the left at the altar trope. Uh-huh. Right? I mean, how many different movies have we seen where she's left at the altar? Uh-huh. Or August Betty Cardigan is the summer love trope.

Okay, yeah. Right. It's that summer love. Grease, yeah. Right, it's that Greece story. It's, you know, how many different songs can you think of? How many different movies, you know, I think there's a Tuesday Weld movie about that. getaway car, the escape on the rebound trope, right?

You know, how many times have we seen? Oh, she's, you know, she's trying to get away from the guy that she's falling out of love with and bump, here comes this person and she just, on a whim, you know, on the extravagance of the moment, she jumps in the car and leaves. Enchanted, love story. Enchanted is certainly the love at first sight, right? trope. Love story is that... It's basically this story. It's basically this story. It's the love happy ending story.

Tis the damn season is the girl goes home and the old beau is still there. Trope. It's that sweet home Alabama. Right. I mean again, how many movies, how many songs can you think of it? I'm going home to my little country town and oops, he's working at the gas station. And so I began to wonder if we could look at all the different romance songs that she writes and slide them into these common tropes because I've come up with one, two, three, four, five, well, including this one six, different, fairly common hallmark romance movie tropes that she employs in writing her music. Interesting. Well, you know, and again, I'm not saying that she used the trope because she's not.

creative. I'm not saying that it's not valid. I'm simply identifying the trope and saying, essentially, I'm validating the use of the trope. Because she's essentially putting her own spin on what is otherwise fragments and facets of love stories. Yeah. So, I don't know. Yeah, it is fun. It's fun to have a

repertoire, a group of songs that I can go back on and now think about how can I group and categorize them. Right. So, yeah, I think I could write a thesis or a dissertation on the use of romance tropes in the songs of Taylor Swift. Yeah, that's fun. Okay. Let's do it. Get busy, people.

Yeah, tell us your tropes. I'm retired. Oh, no, he doesn't want to write it. I need to write it. Somebody did say that on Patreon. They were like, Angela, he wants you to do all this writing. Amen. And I was like, oh, wait, really?

Yeah, whoever wrote it? You are right. You are very smart. Like, oh, no. Let me just quit my job and start writing. That's right. That does sound fun, actually. Let's do it.

Okay. Okay. Is that all? That's all. That's all I got. I just had to throw out my trope analysis, you know, because I thought it was interesting that she relies on what are otherwise things. And again, I don't mean to trivialize at all because I say it's on the Hallmark

Movie Channel. Yeah, but these are stories that exist that are like a, the tropes exist for a reason because they're a thing that we're all familiar with, and then, you know, we like different versions of those stories. And they touch us, right? I mean, you know, the most commonly told story in all of world storytelling is a Cinderella story. It's told in almost every world culture. It has hundreds of variations.

Look at the Arne Thompson Index or look at Stith Thompson's morphology of the fairy tale. And you'll see that Cinderella is told hundreds of different ways. And it's because it touches us. Yeah. Right? And so I'm not saying it's invalid. Not at all. As a matter of fact, it makes it, I believe, more valid that she uses these.

Yeah. Yeah, and it's fun to see the little spin that she does on them. Right. Okay. Listen to the song. You ready to hear this song? I'm ready. Okay, we're going to watch the lyric video and then watch the Ares Tour performance.

Okay. From the official movie. Oh, yeah. So it's good. Okay, we'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by L'Oreal Group. Beauty is a powerful force that moves us. That's why L'Oreal Group has built a business that is inclusive at its heart with 100% of its brands, championing diversity.

With 25,000 professional opportunities for people under 30 worldwide and 54% of leading positions held by women, diversity is a strength that helps L'Oreal Group create the best beauty products for all people. Visit L'Oreal.com to learn more. Spotify, it's J. Shetty. Are you one of those media strategy people? scrolling through spreadsheets, searching for an audience that pays twice as much attention to your ads than they do on social, let me introduce you to fans. And they're here with me on Spotify. Trust me, I know fans.

They don't skip, they stay for hours. They don't move on, they manifest. They're not a demographic group, they're fans. Spotify advertising. You're among fans. That was going into another song. This. That's a

Travis Kelsey being a chief. Oh, that's right. Okay. That's going into a Travis song. I see. What I'm not privileged to hear yet. Yeah. Which is another reason

that I think that the two muse conversation is kind of valid because she immediately takes that song into a happy Travis song on this set list. Yeah, you know, that was one thing I did have a little trouble getting a hold of was what's the tone

because it felt like it was condemnatory of religious ideas or structured society, but then it was angry at people from speculating on the nature of her life, but then it was joyful when she was with her wild boy, you know, so that if I were trying to establish the tone, I'd have to say there were tones. Agreed. You know, that modulate throughout the song. Yeah, totally.

Okay. You ready? Exit strategy? What? This is our... Our outro. Our outro. That's right.

Okay. Grade four, but Daddy I Love Him from the tortured poets department. Lyrical Strengths. You know, I was a little put off by how long it was. Okay. Not that I'm against reading a long poem, but there were some redundancy elements, but, you know, you've got to forgive that. That's a song, right?

The choruses, yeah. Yeah, you've got to sing the choruses. I really enjoyed seeing the, um, the vigilance. from the movie. Me too. Yeah, that's fun. I like to see her interpret with her body the joy of going with the wild boy. It was fun.

I really like the choice of Sarah and Hannah to represent that side. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, and the way that they do create foil characteristics, whereupon you're predicated on just popping babies. I mean, again, you know, nothing wrong with that. I'm just saying that was not her goal. that was not her goal at the time. So I really enjoyed the lyricism of it.

Use of literary devices 98. Okay. Narrative and structure. You know, it was funny because I had to read it several times to try to figure out, okay, who's the speaker, who's it addressed, you know, is it addressing the fictive daddy, are we daddy? Is it the elders?

Is there, because I began to see it's like a collective soul. Um, 95. Okay. Production and atmosphere. Oh, man, the ERIS Tour version. I would go and see that. Yeah, so good. I never got to see that in real life because that was added on later.

Oh, yeah? Yeah. Yeah. That was really fun. That's a 99. I love watching her. Yeah, I agree. Wait, that sounded a little lyric.

I like watching. Oh, no. Judgmental creep. Yeah, I know. Lore and literary references. Yeah, you know, biblical references Hamlet, that's good, 97. Okay. And emotional impact.

Oh, you know, I mean, it was a kind of romantic trope that I haven't necessarily experienced, and I have not had that experience of being so famous that other people are judgmental about my life choices, and I just want them to get the heck out. Yeah. But I understood, you know, so on 92. Okay. That gives us 96. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. fun song. It's good. Yeah. I have the feeling you're feeding me the good ones right now. Yeah. You know. We've got to keep things interesting for you. I know. Thank you very much. Okay. Is that all? That's all I got. Okay. Swifty and Scholar Pod is where you can find us on social. On Instagram and TikTok. You can follow Uncle Jerry on Instagram at Dr. Uncle Jerry. And you can follow me at Angela Wyatt McDow. And yeah, we will see you here next week for something different. Sounds fun. Okay. Bye.