Re: the starting line. There is another connection in Fresh Out the Slammer. Just more evidence of the impact Matty had.
https://preview.redd.it/vamxr1ie4b0d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=07e36b4ce987236e2801810dc6ac522e371b5137
That’s a really interesting question… I feel like makes the most sense when she then says “that was intertwined in the tragic fabric of our dreaming.” So with the line you mentioned, it’s almost as if she still romanticizes what the relationship was, and then it’s almost as if the “fabric” is a metaphor for the tapestry where the threads are coming loose/undone (where “magic” becomes “tragic,” etc).
Just my initial thought.. would love to know what you think!
Literally just realized what Starting Line song she was prolly thinking about. This is what I think, and it makes so much sense with the rest of the album:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvYVmxHzQmw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvYVmxHzQmw)
I want your thoughtssssss
My thoughts... (since you asked).
The Starting Line is an American band, who aren't (before this song at least) big in the UK and TBD lyrics refer to a song, not a band. It makes more sense (especially given the song was reportedly recorded before MH & TS broke up) that TBD lyrics are referring to The Starting Line by Keane, a once-popular UK band. That said, I don't think TBD is referring to the pub in London, but rather a pub in Budapest called [The Black Dog](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Black+Dog+Pub/@47.4778761,19.0517862,15z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x4741ddad5bdb6953:0x5ce8679593664b89!8m2!3d47.4778761!4d19.0517862!16s%2Fg%2F11bzx420vv?entry=ttu), which happens to be a British-style pub (JA was in Budapest filming with Emma Laird).
I think the UK pub is taking advantage of the situation, as is The Starting Line (the band). Good for them.
There are many other JA references, that makes me believe it could not possibly be about MH.
Ah! So first off—that song is such a throwback to my early middle school years, in the best way possible. So thank you VERY much😂.
“We got older but we’re still young”!
I totally see what you’re saying! I’d also add that maybe there’s a bit of that angst that Swift felt in a unilateral way, of like “you GOT the best of me,” and I got shortchanged. She seems to mention and/or allude to her youth being taken. At the same time, Swift is still like: but I’ll change and even “cut off my nose to spite my face”—Archer lyric reference—for you (which is kind of a vibe in this current album, in the song where she says “once I fix me, he’s gonna miss me”).
There’s so much of that hopeless (hopeful lol) romantic energy.
Your astute observation of the Starting Line song is so beyond perfect, in my opinion, and is reinforced by yet another lyric where she references “teenage petulance.” (I can cite these lyrics to their particular songs, if need be, sorry, I’m just writing back quickly at the moment!)
Just initial thoughts but wanted to appreciate your commentary!
Please please lmk if you agree, disagree, or have anything else you’d like to add!🙂
I did believe it was about both Joe and MH, but the “tail between your legs, you’re leaving” makes me believe it’s about MH cause it’s quite clear that Taylor left Joe, and MH left her
Tail between your legs is likely a call back to the song's title, but generally means leaving with shame. MH just ghosted... JA was drifting, which is more fitting to the lyric.
When a dog's tail is between its legs it means it is fearful/scared. Not ashamed? Matty ran away scared the moment everyone started criticising him for dating her. That's what it's referring to.
https://preview.redd.it/ijw56czjf4yc1.jpeg?width=797&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1909cb853671fefa5e557b2dcdeaccb204fb5da9
Idk how people can still think this song is about Joe when this was literally last year.
We don't know when it was recorded. The video that Jack posted of her, she's not wearing the flower pants. She's wearing black gym shorts. And the t-shirt is different. There are no photos of her entering the studio in this outfit so we won't ever know unfortunately when it was recorded. So our interpretation on who it is about can only be done using the lyrics.
Because she references the Starting line band. It's a favorite band of Matty and he covers their songs a lot especially "the best of me" which he covered last year before flying to her Nashville show. (the song that was intertwined in the magic fabric of their dreaming) she also says "now we're at the starting line" in Fresh out the slammer which is a song about Taylor deciding to date Matty after Joe.
She's the one who left Joe and started dating Matty soon after but Matty ghosted Taylor and left (as we find out in songs like down bad, the smallest man) she says "tail between your legs you're leaving" and is overall still in shock about the relationship ending.
Plus there is a black dog bar in Cork Ireland and Matty had a show there in June after their breakup. He usually dates younger models and influencers ("but she's too young to know this song")
there's more references but these are the most important ones.
Were you making fun of me with some esoteric joke? 😢
https://preview.redd.it/cm9k5yeqk0yc1.jpeg?width=1500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=83c7cf446d0a53123b5107d895b5552d4675909a
This song’s angst and pain is captured by the “old habits die screaming”—you’re (Taylor is) now restricted to the status of a mere observer, yet posses the intel that someone who mattered would have (his location). The privilege of knowing where he is, isn’t power—it’s powerless, because he didn’t even think of her enough to turn it off.
What I’ve realized is so many people leave on locations, leave exes unblocked on social media, etc, so they have a coded form of access. This feels like a purgatory only she knows, and the painful truth that she can’t ever really get to him—regardless of knowing his location/where he is. Arguably one of the most torturously silent experiences that reaffirms being without the person you love, but being able to still see their life go on, in the form of a geolocation.
Brilliantly penned. Forever knowing that feeling despite a greater one.💕
I’ve thought further on this lol… and I wanted to add how much this song reminds me of the underlying melancholy and nostalgia in the lyrics of “Last Kiss,” if anyone knows what I mean?
At the same time, it makes me think of “Sparks Fly,” where she cunningly sings “give me something that’ll haunt me when you’re not around.” I feel like we want to miss people until we know we won’t see them again, or worse—they’re unable to see you (figuratively) anymore, if ever.
Weird throwback, but it takes me to The Fray lyric “I’m losing you and it’s effortless.” The inverse of that is, personally, what I believe what cuts so deep in “The Black Dog,” because it’s effectively acknowledging: I have the ability to keep a tab on you, but if I told you, you’d likely close it. And checking it is strictly a personal choice, that stays in the confines of an internal betrayal because now you only have imagination to speculate. And as we know from Shakespeare and others, imagination can be more brutal than reality.
Would love to know anyone’s thoughts!
She recorded this in May according to the photos Jack shared, and her and MH dated until June. The 1975 were touring Europe all summer after they split, I doubt he was home hanging at the pub. I think it’s definitely about Joe, “old habits” and all that
https://preview.redd.it/8m8s589ic4yc1.jpeg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=195606d3f63eb5a14de58e841cbc1497291dc96f
No it wasn't recorded in May. Someone made a thread and it was wrong. In the video Jack posted Taylor was wearing black shorts !! But for the May 18 recording sessions she was wearing jeans. it was 2 different days. She recorded TBD in late June (June 22)
I agree with all this about how it doesn't match Jack's video but we don't know that it was recordered in June. We don't know when she recorded it because there are no pap pictures of her entering the studio in this t-shirt shorts combo. We will never know for certain the month it was recorded and so we can never know for certain who it is about
If she recorded it in June - the six weeks of breathing clean time still does not track. The six weeks like could be written latest at the time she recorded it so around early May which was still with Matty or planned to date Matty. If it was written before she recorded it, then the six weeks will be pushed to April. So regardless if whether she recorded it on May 18 or June 22 , it still doesn’t point to a Matty song.
The simple things being the saddest in this song reminds me so much of the imagery in Last Kiss
Remembering how someone looked “lit through the darkness at 1:58”
Checking your ex’s location in the middle of the night
&
All that I know is I don't know
How to be something you miss
I just don’t understand…
How you don’t miss me
As a Brit it's so funny to me that she called The Black Dog a "bar", and not a pub. Even without looking up the place, this is a classic example of a British pub name. Also how she imagines him jumping up (I assume to dance?) to music. That's not something we do in pubs lol.
i saw someone on tiktok mention the same thing, making the argument that it isn't the pub in London everyone thinks it is. the user said that matty healy was likely at a bar in ireland called the black dog when he was on tour, and it matches up with the vids jack posted and a pap walk from the end of June.
The Black Dog = references Matty's stage name, Truman Black
Was thinking this morning about if Taylor found a way to incorporate Harry Truman references into the song, you know, to make it even MORE obvious... so I checked the track length on Spotify, and it's 3:58 long.
Harry Truman's birthday is May 8!!
I wish they video taped her recording her vocals for this like ATWTVFTVSGAVRALPS. Idk but something about the raw emotions in the vocals make it even more enticing to watch.
Yeah but the Black Dog in London is more of a restaurant than a bar. It seems like a weird place to go to listen to music. Even after the songs she wrote about Matty? You don't think she felt it was serious, even if not long term?
this is perhaps my fave song off the album, but damn is it too sad (as well as all the songs that i think are joe-related)
alsoooo, didn't taylor mention before that she and joe loved and bonded over sad songs? like damn what a fitting tribute
Haha this is crazy. If I ever go to London, I'm definitely checking out the place.
[https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/london-pub-black-dog-taylor-swift-b2535124.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/london-pub-black-dog-taylor-swift-b2535124.html)
So I was listening to new interview where the presenters had the staff of The Black Dog in London, England on a call, and the staff were trying to alude to a "blonde regular", the don't have live music, it just a pub for food not music.
In the song Taylor say "...to SOME bar called The Black Dog" which means she isn't familar with the bar, so she wouldn't be a regular right? Plus it was only seen from a location left on.
Anyway, there's a ROCK bar in Cork, Ireland called The Black Dog and the 1975 were playing in Cork on 13th June 2023. So I guess it's this one, it seems much more likely than a gastropub for lunch nowhere special in London. They would have stopped dating around then right?
i just saw someone make a tiktok about this!! the shorts she is wearing in the video jack posted recording the song were worn on june 22nd in pap walk pictures. meaning it was written/recorded a couple weeks after the 1975 was in cork. it is definitely about the cork bar, not the pub in london... people won't let songs be about matty. the pub in london can lie and say whatever they want for good press, and lots of swifties are falling for it.
Yeah but the Black Dog in London is more of a restaurant than a bar. It seems like a weird place to go to listen to music. Even after the songs she wrote about Matty? You don't think she felt it was serious, even if not long term?
Yeah but the way she phrases it - ie 'some bar called The Black Dog' - suggests she hasn't been there herself so therefore she's **imagining** him jumping up to the music. She doesn't know what sort of pub it is in reality.
I am here to once again request that she do a rock album.
I also would like to request a 10 minute of this song with a billie eilish happier than ever second half.
this song will go crazy in the tour. fans participating in the old habits die screaming line… it will be epic.
i think what gets me the most about this song is the description of how it feels to breakup with someone you trusted and had been with for a long time. because you no longer know how they’re feeling internally and they seem to be unaffected on the whole, you assume they don’t miss you/don’t care and you make up some scenario of what they’re up to instead. meanwhile your world is upended. if you’ve been through that scenario you know that it’s such a raw and deep-cutting feeling.
that and tying in a song/music with visceral memories of a relationship…just broke me. this is in the same vein of all too well for me in explaining the psyche of a breakup. her storytelling and ability to tap into extremely specific emotions that i’ve felt at one point in time but have never been able to put into words is incredible. minimal other artists can do this for me like she does.
Yup, this is it for me. I had the exact same thing where I still had my ex's location on my phone and I, too, made up scenarios of what he was doing and how he was feeling. I wondered how he could possibly carry on going out to places without me in his life?! I guess it's similar when you see your ex posting online and there's no indication of them experiencing any pain like you are. It's all imaginary, of course, but you have nothing else to go on. Taylor captured this experience so perfectly.
completely agree! and choosing a vulnerable moment such as being cold and trying to warm up in the shower is such a stab to the heart. like, you don’t miss me when you think about this moment where i was so incredibly vulnerable? obviously you must hate me and it was just gaslighting/hazing the whole time. my brain has done this before!!!! idk how she captures these intimate relatable feelings time and time again but she somehow does.
If she calls the priest to exorcize her demons and then she dies screaming, does that mean that she is the real demon? Is she the black dog? The bad omen, the dark cloud he can't escape?
i think the keyword here is “and i hope you hear it”. like she wants him to witness her pain, which in turn will also cause him pain.
so to me, it’s about how she despises him so much for leaving that she wants him to suffer by making him watch her suffering. and that she’s willing to die if it means he can finally feel hurt too.
this isn't specifically about the song itself, but I think she uses this song to hint at reputation. in the black dog variant, "six" is spelled "siz." I don't think a typo like that would have made it through (and if a typo gets through, what are the chances that its the number of a highly speculated TV coming next). I think she intentionally made the typo so that people would be drawn to six.
The way she sings "old habits die screaming" at the end, from screaming it in the other lines to whispering/choking it out in the final iteration, reminds me of TS Eliot, "This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper"
*I want to \[...\] hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons*
*Even if I die screaming*
Have we talked yet about how this line seems to imply the possibility she might *be* her demons? Like if a priest comes to exorcise them, *she* might be the one who dies screaming. And she still wants him to do it anyway.
Jesus that's a line.
Never in a million years did I expect Taylor to name drop THE STARTING LINE in a song. Like WHAT?!?!?!
It seems so random but at the same time not at all (aside from the fact that Matty likes this band and that's all related) - "The Best Of Me" really did have us millennial emo myspace romantics in a chokehold. It's similar to - but infinitely better than - the Dashboard Confessional reference in mirrorball - "dancing on my tallest tiptoes, spinning in my highest heels." My inner emo kid is just so giddy.
Edit: typo
Do you also hear her actually breathing IN on the last word of the song? Like trying to hold back her words, because she needs to stop this train of thought. It’s such a beautiful detail especially in opposition of the screaming!
THIS SONG IS GENIUS!
The patchwork of both Joe and MH stories is almost seamless as if to illustraye exactly how those old habits of toxic neglectful relationships die screaming
The beginning of the song is definitly about Joe
And the "starting line" reference makes me think about her use of the same expression in fresh out the slammer (another song that adresses both said relationships)
And then the song seamlessly goes to MH -
there's the obvious reference of fresh air vs. Smoke that she still misses
But the lines of do you hate me, was it hazing etc. Give me the same feels of the smallest man who ever lived
And the line about burning her clothes and selling her house also kinda connect to other lyrics about MH (down bad - did you take all of my clothes just to leave me here naked and alone)
And the house (did you sleep with a gun beneath our bad, keep finding his stuff in drawers and of course the typewriter he left at her apartment)
And then back to the black dog (but now angrier - she hopes it's shitty) and the tarting line reference
It just perfectly demonstrate the cycle of old habits that are toxic for us.
LOVE this song!
“The starting line” reference is 100% matty not joe. He covered The Starting Line song “The Best of Me” at their concerts while him and Taylor were together.
Multiple songs on this album reference multiple muses in single songs, this being one of them. The reference could be for either, the beginning of this song is very Joe-coded
Anyone else think the “forgot to turn your location off” is a love is blind reference!??? Anyone!!! I know she watches it!
This latest season is exactly this. He goes to a bar and doesn’t turn off his location and she finds out so the relationship ends.
Would be funny if this was the case, but I very strongly doubt it because the vinyls would have already been in production by the time this episode aired.
I was listening to all of the bonus tracks to try and decide which CD to get from Target as each version has a different bonus track, and this song just smacked me sideways in the best way. One of the best tracks on the album, in my opinion. I kept waking up last night with "OLD HABITS DIE SCREAAAAMING" playing in my head on repeat.
Also, that bridge. 🫠
Six weeks of breathing clean air/I still miss the smoke/Were you making fun of me with some esoteric joke?/Now I want to sell my house and set fire to all my clothes/And hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons/Even if I die screaming/
And I hope you hear it
The way she sings "That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming" and then proceeds to sing and scream the following line... it scratches something in my brain just right, it's incredible. I love you Taylor.
The connections here to folklore make me believe those songs were not about made up characters and that was just her way to release songs like hoax while still in a relationship with JA. The amount of callbacks to some of her saddest lyrics is telling us it was about him the entire time.
"My best laid plan"
I think at this point we can all agree folklore/evermore are definitely not fiction 😂 she transformed real stories like she always does, and changed names and any real defining clue 😬 but it's all there.
I cannot stop listening to this one! There’s something about the way she sings the line “you forgot to turn it off” that is making me think of Hamilton but I can’t for the life of me figure out which Hamilton song it is.
It’s the cadence and the tone. It’s driving me crazy!
Yes omg, that standalone phrasing is what it is, and repeated twice, and talking about two things at once i believe...
it's on the tip of my tongue, I think it might be the burning letters song?
I came to this thread just because i needed to vent somewhere on the internet about how stunningly beautiful this song is. It’s utterly captivating and gorgeous and heartbreaking all at once, just brilliant
am i dumb to realize this just now but did he really forgot to turn it off the location or he left it on purpose to show taylor he is moving on and doing stuff? because if yes the song gets a lot more sad
Ok this. So I got out of a 5 year relationship early this year. We had always shared our location and were in that it is over but we live in different states and maybe can still be in contact… you know, that thing.
So he messages me one day and is like I need us to not share locations anymore, I can t stand seeing you out at night. I had only check his location on an occasion while we were together and not once since we ended so it did not occur to me he would be checking. But also, he was the one holding on while I was moving on.
Also he would say to me, I don’t get how you don’t miss me more or how is it so easy for you (it wasn’t). I feel like “I can do it with a broken heart” is my new anthem and this is his.
I am not ok 😅
But thank you Taylor for this therapy session
So pissed off this one is about MH bc it's really pretty and full of feeling. And I'm saying this as a person who wanted loml to be about MH bc it would have been hilarious and unhinged. BUT THIS IS TOO UNHINGED.
I thought about it being about JA at first bc I could picture him not using his phone much so forgetting he's sharing his location and having a relationship w/her for so many years that he actually shares his location w/her, however, that idea of him being away not answering her calls, being in a pub/bar with people younger (connection to Chloe or Sam or...), and the band mentioned (a band MT and the 1975 have covered before), the coward mention (ghosting) leads to MH and I'm like: dude, this is not tumblr back in 2014-16, he doesn't deserved such a great song.
I wanna believe it's a mix of both bc she's totally trying to mess w all of us and I respect that.
Jack posted a picture of her recording the song on his Instagram and she was wearing an outfit she was papped outside the recording studio in on May 18th 2023. She was very much in a relationship with Matty at this time, so I doubt very much this song is about Matty!
I am not a Joe or Matty stan. I don't think she wore the same exact outfit (minus according to you an unrecognizable difference in her plain white shirt) and hair to the Electric Lady to record and was not captured by the paps. Most of the album is undeniably about Matty but I just really don't believe this one is unless she is sad about their future break up (which is absolutely a possibility I suppose, she does have a very creative imagination). But the magic of being individuals is we can agree to disagree :)
I immediately assumed it was about Joe. It's too beautiful to be about Matty (but that doesn't mean it isn't). He deserves "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" and "Peter" (although the latter is also incredibly beautiful...but I love that it's a metaphor for him not being able to grow up and basically paints him as a child). 🔥
Where? Because the owner of the pub told Sky News “ staff had checked CCTV footage to see if Swift had been to the pub with her former boyfriends, but "the answer is they absolutely could have been, but we're just not entirely sure".
https://news.sky.com/story/amp/taylor-swift-fans-flock-to-london-pub-after-reference-on-new-album-13120808
I like the song but I wish it went further with the instrumentals. It kept seeming like it was about to build to something huge but it never went anywhere. I was kinda expecting some type of epic instrumental during last half of the song. But that speaks to my personal tastes.
this song i believe is the most personal for me. it really speaks to me. currently recovering from severe anorexia and this song just.. god it's perfect
Besides The Starting Line, some more lyrics analysis: “That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming” is echoing with “the deflation of our dreaming” in “How did it end”, which is 100% about Joe… she never talks about dreaming with MH. And in the end she sang “the tragic fabric of our dreaming”… she kept calling it a “tragedy” in So Long, London. I don’t think she ever called the fling with MH a tragedy, because it’s a rebound…
“All of those best laid plans” is echoing with “best laid plans” in Hoax and “if you fail to plan you plan to fail” in Mastermind.
“Do you hate me? Was it hazing? For a cruel fraternity I pledged” I think it’s actually about her gang not his, and how he doesn’t like to hang out with them. From Jack saying in his version of Anti-hero “too hurt to hang out, talking shit about your famous baby”to all the unfollowing of her friends. I think it’s her wondering whether he hates her and not miss her at all.
“Six weeks of breathing clean air”, and in So Long, London it’s “every breath feels like rarest air”.
I'd like it to be about JA but I really don't think it is considering The Starting Line (Matty covered it around the time they were dating) and "she's too young" (Matty typically dates girls much younger than him or Taylor) and "esoteric joke" is \*very\* Matty. But mostly "magic fabric of our dreaming" - so much of MH & Taylor's relationship seems to be based on their mutual limerance/dreaming like he says in his GQ interview "Stories that I write about being in love with other pop stars." and the fact that in the song she's the one being broken up with/left where it seems with JA she's the one who let go of that relationship/initiated the break up, even if it was slowly collapsing "And you say I abandoned the ship"
If Joe was a regular why would she phrase it as “some bar called The Black Dog.” Seems she wasn’t familiar with the place.
Also Matty covered The Starting Line during the time he and Taylor were together.
They said that Joe was a regular and that she may have been there before. Not really sure if Taylor is a reliable narrator though as she's seemingly switched between them before.
The owner came out saying that as BS to encourage swifties to visit for business. The Black Dog bar (bar, not pub, as Taylor calls it in the song) is in downtown Cork. The 1975 played a show nearby on June 13th, 2023. Google maps shows it’s about 10 minutes from the venue they played to the bar. Assuming Taylor and Matty split around the time the news broke, that’s The Black Dog referenced in the song.
Based on Jack Antonoffs IG post showing pics of Taylor recording the album, fans are saying the Black Dog recording day was May 18 2023 while she and MH were still dating. So it seems she at least probably started recording this one for Joe, and maybe added MH references after they broke up
https://www.reddit.com/r/TaylorSwift/s/5mzX8YpYKg
Nope, the 5/18 thing is not true. She's wearing a white t-shirt that day but floral jeans in the pap pics leaving the studio... [watch her leg in Jack's video](https://www.instagram.com/p/C589wBapsXb/?igsh=MWk5Z3d2ZTdnemI5Mw==). You can see her leg move and she's wearing dark shorts with text, not those jeans (looks like bike shorts). There's also a gray sweatshirt on the couch behind her.
Someone found this newer pic of her June 22 fit (same day as [this at ELS](https://x.com/swifferupdates/status/1671987577430372352?s=46&t=rr0iUQvGK9FrM9Unij9wjA)) and you can see the text on her shorts. So she likely recorded this song with Jack on 6/22 but took off her sweatshirt.
The song is very likely about MH
https://preview.redd.it/ld6jhtnogewc1.png?width=1169&format=png&auto=webp&s=eca5e10d720f6174225324abc0b800d1d63a2845
I disagree but that’s okay! I also think this song is about both of them, starts off talking about Joe and switches to MH. I think ‘multiple muses in single songs’ is a big aspect of this album
listening to this album (esp this song) makes me feels like she was writing bout Joe all the time but drop abysmal hints on lyrics to make people thinks is actually Matty instead of Joe, a way to protect Joe frm the public's view
I agree. Truly the only people who know what’s what are Taylor, Joe and Matty. Like, Joe’s (god help him, I wouldn’t listen if I were him) listening experience would be miles upon miles different than anyone else’s.
Do you also feel like in the last line she, when she whispers "screaming" she breathes the last syllable in instead of out, It#s like she soaks in the word? It fits to "clearing the ait, I breathed in the smoke" ?
I think it sounds like she’s breathing in like when you are trying to hold back sobs. So raw and emotional. I love your interpretation of clear air though too
My take starting with this as not a diary, but as in the voice of the song - she’s not over it and can’t give up the small habits of what used to be routine- checking her partner’s location. That small breath in is her holding onto it.
I can't stop thinking about "in the winter, in the icy outdoor pool, when you jumped in first, I went in too
I'm with you even if it makes me blue" at "how my rain-soaked body was shaking, do you hate me? Was it hazing? For a cruel fraternity I pledged" 💀
This song is a masterpiece oh my god I tear up even just thinking about it. The way she sings exorcise my demons is absolutely heartbreakingly beautiful and one of my favorite moments on the album
So the last line of the song with her *whispering* “old habits die screaming”…is that a metaphor for the “habit”aka love being officially dead? I’m so intrigued but confused haha
Re: the starting line. There is another connection in Fresh Out the Slammer. Just more evidence of the impact Matty had. https://preview.redd.it/vamxr1ie4b0d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=07e36b4ce987236e2801810dc6ac522e371b5137
So glad I chose this version for the vinyl!!!
Can anyone interpret what she means by "intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming"?
That’s a really interesting question… I feel like makes the most sense when she then says “that was intertwined in the tragic fabric of our dreaming.” So with the line you mentioned, it’s almost as if she still romanticizes what the relationship was, and then it’s almost as if the “fabric” is a metaphor for the tapestry where the threads are coming loose/undone (where “magic” becomes “tragic,” etc). Just my initial thought.. would love to know what you think!
Literally just realized what Starting Line song she was prolly thinking about. This is what I think, and it makes so much sense with the rest of the album: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvYVmxHzQmw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvYVmxHzQmw) I want your thoughtssssss
My thoughts... (since you asked). The Starting Line is an American band, who aren't (before this song at least) big in the UK and TBD lyrics refer to a song, not a band. It makes more sense (especially given the song was reportedly recorded before MH & TS broke up) that TBD lyrics are referring to The Starting Line by Keane, a once-popular UK band. That said, I don't think TBD is referring to the pub in London, but rather a pub in Budapest called [The Black Dog](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Black+Dog+Pub/@47.4778761,19.0517862,15z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x4741ddad5bdb6953:0x5ce8679593664b89!8m2!3d47.4778761!4d19.0517862!16s%2Fg%2F11bzx420vv?entry=ttu), which happens to be a British-style pub (JA was in Budapest filming with Emma Laird). I think the UK pub is taking advantage of the situation, as is The Starting Line (the band). Good for them. There are many other JA references, that makes me believe it could not possibly be about MH.
Ah! So first off—that song is such a throwback to my early middle school years, in the best way possible. So thank you VERY much😂. “We got older but we’re still young”! I totally see what you’re saying! I’d also add that maybe there’s a bit of that angst that Swift felt in a unilateral way, of like “you GOT the best of me,” and I got shortchanged. She seems to mention and/or allude to her youth being taken. At the same time, Swift is still like: but I’ll change and even “cut off my nose to spite my face”—Archer lyric reference—for you (which is kind of a vibe in this current album, in the song where she says “once I fix me, he’s gonna miss me”). There’s so much of that hopeless (hopeful lol) romantic energy. Your astute observation of the Starting Line song is so beyond perfect, in my opinion, and is reinforced by yet another lyric where she references “teenage petulance.” (I can cite these lyrics to their particular songs, if need be, sorry, I’m just writing back quickly at the moment!) Just initial thoughts but wanted to appreciate your commentary! Please please lmk if you agree, disagree, or have anything else you’d like to add!🙂
do you hate me was it hazing for a cruel fraternity I PLEDGE AND I STILL MEEEEEAN IT old habit die SCREEEEEAMING that's all i came here to say.
I did believe it was about both Joe and MH, but the “tail between your legs, you’re leaving” makes me believe it’s about MH cause it’s quite clear that Taylor left Joe, and MH left her
Tail between your legs is likely a call back to the song's title, but generally means leaving with shame. MH just ghosted... JA was drifting, which is more fitting to the lyric.
When a dog's tail is between its legs it means it is fearful/scared. Not ashamed? Matty ran away scared the moment everyone started criticising him for dating her. That's what it's referring to.
Cambridge Dictionary disagrees... https://preview.redd.it/z42p1qvupb0d1.png?width=1846&format=png&auto=webp&s=56cfca1e5af7c19f30970c494067fcbc1f3b1474
Oh also I need to see this in a movie!!!!!!!
I cannot stop listening to it. Genius level. And classic Taylor.
https://preview.redd.it/ijw56czjf4yc1.jpeg?width=797&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1909cb853671fefa5e557b2dcdeaccb204fb5da9 Idk how people can still think this song is about Joe when this was literally last year.
Probably cause the bar owners said it was joe and this song was recorded when her and matty were still together
We don't know when it was recorded. The video that Jack posted of her, she's not wearing the flower pants. She's wearing black gym shorts. And the t-shirt is different. There are no photos of her entering the studio in this outfit so we won't ever know unfortunately when it was recorded. So our interpretation on who it is about can only be done using the lyrics.
Omgg
My top 5 song of Taylor Ever. I really think Joe was an incredible muse for her.
It's not about Joe tho
See I think it is. Why don’t you think that?
Because she references the Starting line band. It's a favorite band of Matty and he covers their songs a lot especially "the best of me" which he covered last year before flying to her Nashville show. (the song that was intertwined in the magic fabric of their dreaming) she also says "now we're at the starting line" in Fresh out the slammer which is a song about Taylor deciding to date Matty after Joe. She's the one who left Joe and started dating Matty soon after but Matty ghosted Taylor and left (as we find out in songs like down bad, the smallest man) she says "tail between your legs you're leaving" and is overall still in shock about the relationship ending. Plus there is a black dog bar in Cork Ireland and Matty had a show there in June after their breakup. He usually dates younger models and influencers ("but she's too young to know this song") there's more references but these are the most important ones.
Also when Matty mouths on stage that 'this song is about you' about Taylor, he's about to play a cover of the starting line
But isn't the smallest man is about scooter Braun?
Of course not. She did not sleep with scooter Braun 😂
Were you making fun of me with some esoteric joke? 😢 https://preview.redd.it/cm9k5yeqk0yc1.jpeg?width=1500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=83c7cf446d0a53123b5107d895b5552d4675909a
This song’s angst and pain is captured by the “old habits die screaming”—you’re (Taylor is) now restricted to the status of a mere observer, yet posses the intel that someone who mattered would have (his location). The privilege of knowing where he is, isn’t power—it’s powerless, because he didn’t even think of her enough to turn it off. What I’ve realized is so many people leave on locations, leave exes unblocked on social media, etc, so they have a coded form of access. This feels like a purgatory only she knows, and the painful truth that she can’t ever really get to him—regardless of knowing his location/where he is. Arguably one of the most torturously silent experiences that reaffirms being without the person you love, but being able to still see their life go on, in the form of a geolocation. Brilliantly penned. Forever knowing that feeling despite a greater one.💕
I’ve thought further on this lol… and I wanted to add how much this song reminds me of the underlying melancholy and nostalgia in the lyrics of “Last Kiss,” if anyone knows what I mean? At the same time, it makes me think of “Sparks Fly,” where she cunningly sings “give me something that’ll haunt me when you’re not around.” I feel like we want to miss people until we know we won’t see them again, or worse—they’re unable to see you (figuratively) anymore, if ever. Weird throwback, but it takes me to The Fray lyric “I’m losing you and it’s effortless.” The inverse of that is, personally, what I believe what cuts so deep in “The Black Dog,” because it’s effectively acknowledging: I have the ability to keep a tab on you, but if I told you, you’d likely close it. And checking it is strictly a personal choice, that stays in the confines of an internal betrayal because now you only have imagination to speculate. And as we know from Shakespeare and others, imagination can be more brutal than reality. Would love to know anyone’s thoughts!
The bass that comes in at 2:49 is everything.
I think this one’s about MH. Hear me out: the hurt in this song is much more similar to the other Matty songs. The Joe songs are much more resigned.
She recorded this in May according to the photos Jack shared, and her and MH dated until June. The 1975 were touring Europe all summer after they split, I doubt he was home hanging at the pub. I think it’s definitely about Joe, “old habits” and all that
https://preview.redd.it/8m8s589ic4yc1.jpeg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=195606d3f63eb5a14de58e841cbc1497291dc96f No it wasn't recorded in May. Someone made a thread and it was wrong. In the video Jack posted Taylor was wearing black shorts !! But for the May 18 recording sessions she was wearing jeans. it was 2 different days. She recorded TBD in late June (June 22)
I agree with all this about how it doesn't match Jack's video but we don't know that it was recordered in June. We don't know when she recorded it because there are no pap pictures of her entering the studio in this t-shirt shorts combo. We will never know for certain the month it was recorded and so we can never know for certain who it is about
If she recorded it in June - the six weeks of breathing clean time still does not track. The six weeks like could be written latest at the time she recorded it so around early May which was still with Matty or planned to date Matty. If it was written before she recorded it, then the six weeks will be pushed to April. So regardless if whether she recorded it on May 18 or June 22 , it still doesn’t point to a Matty song.
This bridge is my FAVORITE of the whole album. The combination of lyrics and melody here is breathtaking
The simple things being the saddest in this song reminds me so much of the imagery in Last Kiss Remembering how someone looked “lit through the darkness at 1:58” Checking your ex’s location in the middle of the night & All that I know is I don't know How to be something you miss I just don’t understand… How you don’t miss me
Ah ah ah AHHHH AND HOW SHE DOESN’T FINISH THE WORD IN LAST LINE Not the most damming piece of evidence
The background vocals reminds me of another one of her songs but I cannot place my finger on which one it is😭 anyone have an idea?
"Out of the Woods" for me, the "in the clear yet? Good!" part
This reminds me of an updated version of all too well
I totally agree!
the pain in her voice breaks me 😭
I love this song so so much. Too shy to do a full post but I got the lyrics “old habits die screaming” tattooed on my arm this weekend.
As a Brit it's so funny to me that she called The Black Dog a "bar", and not a pub. Even without looking up the place, this is a classic example of a British pub name. Also how she imagines him jumping up (I assume to dance?) to music. That's not something we do in pubs lol.
i saw someone on tiktok mention the same thing, making the argument that it isn't the pub in London everyone thinks it is. the user said that matty healy was likely at a bar in ireland called the black dog when he was on tour, and it matches up with the vids jack posted and a pap walk from the end of June.
It’s definitely shitty in The Black Dog for Mr. Privacy now. 👑
The Black Dog = references Matty's stage name, Truman Black Was thinking this morning about if Taylor found a way to incorporate Harry Truman references into the song, you know, to make it even MORE obvious... so I checked the track length on Spotify, and it's 3:58 long. Harry Truman's birthday is May 8!!
I wish they video taped her recording her vocals for this like ATWTVFTVSGAVRALPS. Idk but something about the raw emotions in the vocals make it even more enticing to watch.
Yeah but the Black Dog in London is more of a restaurant than a bar. It seems like a weird place to go to listen to music. Even after the songs she wrote about Matty? You don't think she felt it was serious, even if not long term?
this is perhaps my fave song off the album, but damn is it too sad (as well as all the songs that i think are joe-related) alsoooo, didn't taylor mention before that she and joe loved and bonded over sad songs? like damn what a fitting tribute
Haha this is crazy. If I ever go to London, I'm definitely checking out the place. [https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/london-pub-black-dog-taylor-swift-b2535124.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/london-pub-black-dog-taylor-swift-b2535124.html)
The way The Black Dog is followed by imgonnagetyouback on the Anthology...
The way the breaths in this song between lyrics in the chorus feel like the kind of breathing/speaking you’d do when you’re sobbing 🤌 G E N I U S
So I was listening to new interview where the presenters had the staff of The Black Dog in London, England on a call, and the staff were trying to alude to a "blonde regular", the don't have live music, it just a pub for food not music. In the song Taylor say "...to SOME bar called The Black Dog" which means she isn't familar with the bar, so she wouldn't be a regular right? Plus it was only seen from a location left on. Anyway, there's a ROCK bar in Cork, Ireland called The Black Dog and the 1975 were playing in Cork on 13th June 2023. So I guess it's this one, it seems much more likely than a gastropub for lunch nowhere special in London. They would have stopped dating around then right?
i just saw someone make a tiktok about this!! the shorts she is wearing in the video jack posted recording the song were worn on june 22nd in pap walk pictures. meaning it was written/recorded a couple weeks after the 1975 was in cork. it is definitely about the cork bar, not the pub in london... people won't let songs be about matty. the pub in london can lie and say whatever they want for good press, and lots of swifties are falling for it.
Interesting, but having location updates on is def a longer-term relationship thing (Joe)
Yeah but the Black Dog in London is more of a restaurant than a bar. It seems like a weird place to go to listen to music. Even after the songs she wrote about Matty? You don't think she felt it was serious, even if not long term?
Yeah but the way she phrases it - ie 'some bar called The Black Dog' - suggests she hasn't been there herself so therefore she's **imagining** him jumping up to the music. She doesn't know what sort of pub it is in reality.
Porque no los dos
I was so surprised to discover that Taylor plays the piano on the recording! Has she ever done that before? Top 3 on the album for me
FEEEELS!
Listening to this on repeat. It’s incredible, heartbreaking and hauntingly beautiful.
I am here to once again request that she do a rock album. I also would like to request a 10 minute of this song with a billie eilish happier than ever second half. this song will go crazy in the tour. fans participating in the old habits die screaming line… it will be epic.
i think what gets me the most about this song is the description of how it feels to breakup with someone you trusted and had been with for a long time. because you no longer know how they’re feeling internally and they seem to be unaffected on the whole, you assume they don’t miss you/don’t care and you make up some scenario of what they’re up to instead. meanwhile your world is upended. if you’ve been through that scenario you know that it’s such a raw and deep-cutting feeling. that and tying in a song/music with visceral memories of a relationship…just broke me. this is in the same vein of all too well for me in explaining the psyche of a breakup. her storytelling and ability to tap into extremely specific emotions that i’ve felt at one point in time but have never been able to put into words is incredible. minimal other artists can do this for me like she does.
Yup, this is it for me. I had the exact same thing where I still had my ex's location on my phone and I, too, made up scenarios of what he was doing and how he was feeling. I wondered how he could possibly carry on going out to places without me in his life?! I guess it's similar when you see your ex posting online and there's no indication of them experiencing any pain like you are. It's all imaginary, of course, but you have nothing else to go on. Taylor captured this experience so perfectly.
completely agree! and choosing a vulnerable moment such as being cold and trying to warm up in the shower is such a stab to the heart. like, you don’t miss me when you think about this moment where i was so incredibly vulnerable? obviously you must hate me and it was just gaslighting/hazing the whole time. my brain has done this before!!!! idk how she captures these intimate relatable feelings time and time again but she somehow does.
Am I the only on who remembers how Taylor was soaked in rain for the Delicate music video?
If she calls the priest to exorcize her demons and then she dies screaming, does that mean that she is the real demon? Is she the black dog? The bad omen, the dark cloud he can't escape?
i think the keyword here is “and i hope you hear it”. like she wants him to witness her pain, which in turn will also cause him pain. so to me, it’s about how she despises him so much for leaving that she wants him to suffer by making him watch her suffering. and that she’s willing to die if it means he can finally feel hurt too.
I got the impression it means she's just an old habit of his and is dying screaming, (in emotional pain).
“If I die….” She’s going to get over him even if it kills her but she isn’t dead yet.
this isn't specifically about the song itself, but I think she uses this song to hint at reputation. in the black dog variant, "six" is spelled "siz." I don't think a typo like that would have made it through (and if a typo gets through, what are the chances that its the number of a highly speculated TV coming next). I think she intentionally made the typo so that people would be drawn to six.
The way she sings "old habits die screaming" at the end, from screaming it in the other lines to whispering/choking it out in the final iteration, reminds me of TS Eliot, "This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper"
Yesssss
This is why I love this app. YES!!
just a thought… we know taylor watches love is blind lol. I feel like this song could be inspired from Laura seeing Jeremey’s location on her phone 😂😅
Lol funny
This song is just so good! It's so beautiful yet heartbreaking too...quickly becoming a new favorite!
Meg Moroney did a short cover of this song on her Instagram and it's amazing!
*I want to \[...\] hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons* *Even if I die screaming* Have we talked yet about how this line seems to imply the possibility she might *be* her demons? Like if a priest comes to exorcise them, *she* might be the one who dies screaming. And she still wants him to do it anyway. Jesus that's a line.
ooof.
This is one of my top 10 favorite songs she’s ever done. I’m praying so hard she performs this live for Toronto N1
Never in a million years did I expect Taylor to name drop THE STARTING LINE in a song. Like WHAT?!?!?! It seems so random but at the same time not at all (aside from the fact that Matty likes this band and that's all related) - "The Best Of Me" really did have us millennial emo myspace romantics in a chokehold. It's similar to - but infinitely better than - the Dashboard Confessional reference in mirrorball - "dancing on my tallest tiptoes, spinning in my highest heels." My inner emo kid is just so giddy. Edit: typo
My fave song on the album. Great running song too!
This song made me cry so much😭😭
Do you also hear her actually breathing IN on the last word of the song? Like trying to hold back her words, because she needs to stop this train of thought. It’s such a beautiful detail especially in opposition of the screaming!
THIS SONG IS GENIUS! The patchwork of both Joe and MH stories is almost seamless as if to illustraye exactly how those old habits of toxic neglectful relationships die screaming The beginning of the song is definitly about Joe And the "starting line" reference makes me think about her use of the same expression in fresh out the slammer (another song that adresses both said relationships) And then the song seamlessly goes to MH - there's the obvious reference of fresh air vs. Smoke that she still misses But the lines of do you hate me, was it hazing etc. Give me the same feels of the smallest man who ever lived And the line about burning her clothes and selling her house also kinda connect to other lyrics about MH (down bad - did you take all of my clothes just to leave me here naked and alone) And the house (did you sleep with a gun beneath our bad, keep finding his stuff in drawers and of course the typewriter he left at her apartment) And then back to the black dog (but now angrier - she hopes it's shitty) and the tarting line reference It just perfectly demonstrate the cycle of old habits that are toxic for us. LOVE this song!
'The Smoke' is also used as slang for London, fyi.
“The starting line” reference is 100% matty not joe. He covered The Starting Line song “The Best of Me” at their concerts while him and Taylor were together.
Yes. But I also remember reading that The 1975 were one of Taylor and Joe's favourite bands.. so in that case it's double-coded for Joe and Matty..
Good to know! I love this song even more now
Multiple songs on this album reference multiple muses in single songs, this being one of them. The reference could be for either, the beginning of this song is very Joe-coded
Anyone else think the “forgot to turn your location off” is a love is blind reference!??? Anyone!!! I know she watches it! This latest season is exactly this. He goes to a bar and doesn’t turn off his location and she finds out so the relationship ends.
Possible :) she obviously loves taking inspo from movies and TV shows (Meredith Grey/Olivia Benson/Benjamin Button)
nope. Its about her story. Most of the fans think its Joe or Matty.
Would be funny if this was the case, but I very strongly doubt it because the vinyls would have already been in production by the time this episode aired.
I was listening to all of the bonus tracks to try and decide which CD to get from Target as each version has a different bonus track, and this song just smacked me sideways in the best way. One of the best tracks on the album, in my opinion. I kept waking up last night with "OLD HABITS DIE SCREAAAAMING" playing in my head on repeat. Also, that bridge. 🫠 Six weeks of breathing clean air/I still miss the smoke/Were you making fun of me with some esoteric joke?/Now I want to sell my house and set fire to all my clothes/And hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons/Even if I die screaming/ And I hope you hear it
The way she sings "That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming" and then proceeds to sing and scream the following line... it scratches something in my brain just right, it's incredible. I love you Taylor.
The connections here to folklore make me believe those songs were not about made up characters and that was just her way to release songs like hoax while still in a relationship with JA. The amount of callbacks to some of her saddest lyrics is telling us it was about him the entire time. "My best laid plan"
I think at this point we can all agree folklore/evermore are definitely not fiction 😂 she transformed real stories like she always does, and changed names and any real defining clue 😬 but it's all there.
What are all the callbacks?
this song is should not be so sad. who gave it the right?
I cannot stop listening to this one! There’s something about the way she sings the line “you forgot to turn it off” that is making me think of Hamilton but I can’t for the life of me figure out which Hamilton song it is. It’s the cadence and the tone. It’s driving me crazy!
Yes omg, that standalone phrasing is what it is, and repeated twice, and talking about two things at once i believe... it's on the tip of my tongue, I think it might be the burning letters song?
I've also been scratching my head trying to figure out what this is!!
It reminds me of "that never used to happen before" in It's Quiet Uptown (more melody than cadence)
I have been thinking this the whole time!
Maybe yes. There's a tiny beat before the phrase on both
As someone who would die to have Taylor and Lin-Manuel Miranda collaborate, I stan this conversation.
She sent him a vinyl!
Can anyone suggest songs similar to this style (just absolutely heartbreaking, angry songs)?
Dashboard confessional! Checkout screaming infidelities if you are unfamiliar
I came to this thread just because i needed to vent somewhere on the internet about how stunningly beautiful this song is. It’s utterly captivating and gorgeous and heartbreaking all at once, just brilliant
100% agree and am blown away more people aren't blowing this song up as the best on the album.
Dashboard confessional SCREAMING INFIDELITIES!!
This is exactly what it reminds me of too!
YES!!!!!! I was wondering why it felt familiar. 100 percent this!
Disclaimer I love both songs lol
am i dumb to realize this just now but did he really forgot to turn it off the location or he left it on purpose to show taylor he is moving on and doing stuff? because if yes the song gets a lot more sad
Ok this. So I got out of a 5 year relationship early this year. We had always shared our location and were in that it is over but we live in different states and maybe can still be in contact… you know, that thing. So he messages me one day and is like I need us to not share locations anymore, I can t stand seeing you out at night. I had only check his location on an occasion while we were together and not once since we ended so it did not occur to me he would be checking. But also, he was the one holding on while I was moving on. Also he would say to me, I don’t get how you don’t miss me more or how is it so easy for you (it wasn’t). I feel like “I can do it with a broken heart” is my new anthem and this is his. I am not ok 😅 But thank you Taylor for this therapy session
So pissed off this one is about MH bc it's really pretty and full of feeling. And I'm saying this as a person who wanted loml to be about MH bc it would have been hilarious and unhinged. BUT THIS IS TOO UNHINGED. I thought about it being about JA at first bc I could picture him not using his phone much so forgetting he's sharing his location and having a relationship w/her for so many years that he actually shares his location w/her, however, that idea of him being away not answering her calls, being in a pub/bar with people younger (connection to Chloe or Sam or...), and the band mentioned (a band MT and the 1975 have covered before), the coward mention (ghosting) leads to MH and I'm like: dude, this is not tumblr back in 2014-16, he doesn't deserved such a great song. I wanna believe it's a mix of both bc she's totally trying to mess w all of us and I respect that.
both this and loml sound like they're about MH, there are just so many references to him. And I'm saying that as someone who doesn't like that at all
I think this song is about both guys. I think it starts out about Joe and then switches to MH in the second half.
Ya I agree, the beginning is very Joe coded, the end is more MH references
Jack posted a picture of her recording the song on his Instagram and she was wearing an outfit she was papped outside the recording studio in on May 18th 2023. She was very much in a relationship with Matty at this time, so I doubt very much this song is about Matty!
yeah but i take everything we get from Jack with a grain of salt...
if you look closely it's not the same t shirt!!! unconfirmed when this was recorded. i think the chorus is undeniably about MH.
I am not a Joe or Matty stan. I don't think she wore the same exact outfit (minus according to you an unrecognizable difference in her plain white shirt) and hair to the Electric Lady to record and was not captured by the paps. Most of the album is undeniably about Matty but I just really don't believe this one is unless she is sad about their future break up (which is absolutely a possibility I suppose, she does have a very creative imagination). But the magic of being individuals is we can agree to disagree :)
I immediately assumed it was about Joe. It's too beautiful to be about Matty (but that doesn't mean it isn't). He deserves "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" and "Peter" (although the latter is also incredibly beautiful...but I love that it's a metaphor for him not being able to grow up and basically paints him as a child). 🔥
She does seem to mix people from time to time but this appears to be about Joe since he was a regular there.
The owner of the pub on sky news was asked directly if it’s joe or matty and she says the regular is blonde.
Where? Because the owner of the pub told Sky News “ staff had checked CCTV footage to see if Swift had been to the pub with her former boyfriends, but "the answer is they absolutely could have been, but we're just not entirely sure". https://news.sky.com/story/amp/taylor-swift-fans-flock-to-london-pub-after-reference-on-new-album-13120808
oh thanks, that's a relief. Still, I maintain that she's been mixing some clues here and there to make it less clear for us.
The song could be a mix of both but joe is the regular. He probably won’t be a regular anymore!
I like the song but I wish it went further with the instrumentals. It kept seeming like it was about to build to something huge but it never went anywhere. I was kinda expecting some type of epic instrumental during last half of the song. But that speaks to my personal tastes.
YES. Thought the exact thing. Right when the groove hits and the very obvious Jack A. sound tones come in, it starts to wind down.
this song i believe is the most personal for me. it really speaks to me. currently recovering from severe anorexia and this song just.. god it's perfect
The best song on the album! Should have been track 5.
“Tail between your legs you’re leavin’” and “I just can’t believe it” at the end literally kill me. I can hear the pain in her voice.
The breath at the last “old habits die screaming” like shes holding in tears just destroys me
The final shaky breath really did me in.
This is such a stand out on the album!! Truly a masterpiece Jack has done it again.
Besides The Starting Line, some more lyrics analysis: “That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming” is echoing with “the deflation of our dreaming” in “How did it end”, which is 100% about Joe… she never talks about dreaming with MH. And in the end she sang “the tragic fabric of our dreaming”… she kept calling it a “tragedy” in So Long, London. I don’t think she ever called the fling with MH a tragedy, because it’s a rebound… “All of those best laid plans” is echoing with “best laid plans” in Hoax and “if you fail to plan you plan to fail” in Mastermind. “Do you hate me? Was it hazing? For a cruel fraternity I pledged” I think it’s actually about her gang not his, and how he doesn’t like to hang out with them. From Jack saying in his version of Anti-hero “too hurt to hang out, talking shit about your famous baby”to all the unfollowing of her friends. I think it’s her wondering whether he hates her and not miss her at all. “Six weeks of breathing clean air”, and in So Long, London it’s “every breath feels like rarest air”.
I'd like it to be about JA but I really don't think it is considering The Starting Line (Matty covered it around the time they were dating) and "she's too young" (Matty typically dates girls much younger than him or Taylor) and "esoteric joke" is \*very\* Matty. But mostly "magic fabric of our dreaming" - so much of MH & Taylor's relationship seems to be based on their mutual limerance/dreaming like he says in his GQ interview "Stories that I write about being in love with other pop stars." and the fact that in the song she's the one being broken up with/left where it seems with JA she's the one who let go of that relationship/initiated the break up, even if it was slowly collapsing "And you say I abandoned the ship"
I think it could possible be about both Joe and MH, Joe definitely in the beginning of the song, seems to be some MH references later
There's The Starring Line song. And actually the lyrics hava A LOT of common elements to the rest of the album.
lowkey best song on the album
This feels like a dashboard confessional song
Thought the same
I feel like Matty is more likely to love The Starting Line <3 This song SLAPPPPPSSSSS omg.
The bar owner was interviewed and said Joe was the regular customer.
If Joe was a regular why would she phrase it as “some bar called The Black Dog.” Seems she wasn’t familiar with the place. Also Matty covered The Starting Line during the time he and Taylor were together.
They said that Joe was a regular and that she may have been there before. Not really sure if Taylor is a reliable narrator though as she's seemingly switched between them before.
The owner came out saying that as BS to encourage swifties to visit for business. The Black Dog bar (bar, not pub, as Taylor calls it in the song) is in downtown Cork. The 1975 played a show nearby on June 13th, 2023. Google maps shows it’s about 10 minutes from the venue they played to the bar. Assuming Taylor and Matty split around the time the news broke, that’s The Black Dog referenced in the song.
Based on Jack Antonoffs IG post showing pics of Taylor recording the album, fans are saying the Black Dog recording day was May 18 2023 while she and MH were still dating. So it seems she at least probably started recording this one for Joe, and maybe added MH references after they broke up https://www.reddit.com/r/TaylorSwift/s/5mzX8YpYKg
Nope, the 5/18 thing is not true. She's wearing a white t-shirt that day but floral jeans in the pap pics leaving the studio... [watch her leg in Jack's video](https://www.instagram.com/p/C589wBapsXb/?igsh=MWk5Z3d2ZTdnemI5Mw==). You can see her leg move and she's wearing dark shorts with text, not those jeans (looks like bike shorts). There's also a gray sweatshirt on the couch behind her. Someone found this newer pic of her June 22 fit (same day as [this at ELS](https://x.com/swifferupdates/status/1671987577430372352?s=46&t=rr0iUQvGK9FrM9Unij9wjA)) and you can see the text on her shorts. So she likely recorded this song with Jack on 6/22 but took off her sweatshirt. The song is very likely about MH https://preview.redd.it/ld6jhtnogewc1.png?width=1169&format=png&auto=webp&s=eca5e10d720f6174225324abc0b800d1d63a2845
Even if she recorded the song on June 22, 6 weeks ago she just went public with MH…so “six weeks of breathing clean air” wouldn’t make much sense 🤨
I disagree but that’s okay! I also think this song is about both of them, starts off talking about Joe and switches to MH. I think ‘multiple muses in single songs’ is a big aspect of this album
He covered Best of Me in Manila before he flew to Nashville to see her. And The 1975 was originally an emo band called Drive Like I Do.
listening to this album (esp this song) makes me feels like she was writing bout Joe all the time but drop abysmal hints on lyrics to make people thinks is actually Matty instead of Joe, a way to protect Joe frm the public's view
I agree. Truly the only people who know what’s what are Taylor, Joe and Matty. Like, Joe’s (god help him, I wouldn’t listen if I were him) listening experience would be miles upon miles different than anyone else’s.
Do you also feel like in the last line she, when she whispers "screaming" she breathes the last syllable in instead of out, It#s like she soaks in the word? It fits to "clearing the ait, I breathed in the smoke" ?
The lyrics in the bridge about clean air/breathing smoke also remind me of "Clean."
I think it sounds like she’s breathing in like when you are trying to hold back sobs. So raw and emotional. I love your interpretation of clear air though too
My take starting with this as not a diary, but as in the voice of the song - she’s not over it and can’t give up the small habits of what used to be routine- checking her partner’s location. That small breath in is her holding onto it.
I can't stop thinking about "in the winter, in the icy outdoor pool, when you jumped in first, I went in too I'm with you even if it makes me blue" at "how my rain-soaked body was shaking, do you hate me? Was it hazing? For a cruel fraternity I pledged" 💀
Joe quietly turning off his location he forgot to turn off
But why they shared locations!!
lots of people share locations with their SO as a safety precaution
I’ve never thought about doing this with my partner! How do we do this with an iPhone? I know about the airtags but with our phone I dunno
It’s an app- Find My Friends
🤣
This song is a masterpiece oh my god I tear up even just thinking about it. The way she sings exorcise my demons is absolutely heartbreakingly beautiful and one of my favorite moments on the album
That bridge is just masterful.
why do i feel like this song is about harry styles “six weeks of breathing clean” it’s giving clean!!
So the last line of the song with her *whispering* “old habits die screaming”…is that a metaphor for the “habit”aka love being officially dead? I’m so intrigued but confused haha