#clara bow ttpd

[justcatie07]

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[hellfirenacht]

You look like...

Van Halen

In this light

The hair and lips

[mastermindmp3]

Well, we've finally reached it. The song that made me first start crying on my initial TTPD listen.

There's so much to this song, so much about how we use up and discard the women who make culture. Clara Bow is about the women who get held up as touchstones posthumously / very late into their careers. Swift has stated that she pulled from actual examples used about her, but I can think of so many more that could've been pulled in board rooms.

You look like Gwen Stefani, you look like Brittney Spears, you look like a Spice Girl. I can think of so, so many examples, beyond the ones who are listed in Clara Bow. We, as in the public consciousness, forget the women who shaped the imagery we love. Billie Holiday shaped jazz and pop, Anna May Wong as a pivotal film actress in Hollywood's earliest days, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe for rock and roll. For a very long time, any plus size woman trying to get into music was compared to Adele, and now it's Lizzo.

Young women, especially those in the media industry, are constantly, constantly inundated with women we are supposed to be like, but not entirely. We're supposed to be the better version of them, damned with faint praise. A line that has, in hindsight, stuck out to me was "You look like Stevie Nicks in '75, the hair and lips," because... Why '75?

Obviously, part of it is for the rhyme scheme. But the song is told entirely in quotes, something someone said. Swift looks like Stevie Nicks in '75, because she looks like Stevie when she was young, when she was "new," when she was dazzling.

That's not to say that Stevie Nicks isn't a powerhouse now. She still performs, still writes. She performed this year! In 2024! And yet, she will forever be frozen in '75, when she was with Fleetwood Mac and was releasing their self-titled album, in the throes of writing Rumorus. ( side note: please read the history of Rumours writing process. )

It's an endless cycle: women's ideas are taken, consumed by the public, and when only the bones remain, they're used to compare.

"Promise to be dazzling" is the ending line of the chorus - and it's both a beautiful, poignant reminder that the women listed in the song have captured audience's hearts and minds, and a threat. Promise us that you'll be dazzling, you'll forever be sixteen, forever hold up these ideals and stay the exact same.

I think Swift said it best herself, "There's this thing people say about celebrities, that they're frozen at the age they got famous." The demand is: promise to remain the newest thing, and we will always love you.

The truth is that, well, it's not possible. The promise is designed to not be kept. When public opinion turns on these women, it's to detract from their legacy of art.

Getting older is not a curse, it's a gift. We have so many public figures who didn't get that gift, who are frozen at 18, at 22, at 27. And yet, the societal demand is that women stay young, women can only be beautiful, can only be successful if they are young.

A couple of other songwriting notes.

"Did you know you'd be picked, like a rose?" Another question from imaginary men in meetings; did you know, you would be picked to be the new great thing? Did you know, that you too will begin to wilt under the pressure?

I love the repeats of "I'm not trying to exaggerate, but I think I might die if it happened to me / I might die if I made it." Because it relates back to that idea of how caustic fame is. How everyone around the Narrator (very much Swift, in this case) can see how she's being affected by it, and are indirectly praising her for being so strong. Neverminding that this entire album is a statement, a saying of "fame has drained me so, please let me off this pedestal."

But, didn't you know? "[You're] flesh and blood amongst war machines / You're the new god we're worshiping."

That final verse - You look like Taylor Swift, in this light, we're loving it. You've got edge, she never did. The future's bright, dazzling. Her delivery of the lines is soft, but the intent is clear. It doesn't actually matter who the imaginary board director is addressing - it doesn't matter which of the new generation of pop artists look, sound, act, are like Taylor Swift.

What matters, I think, is the warning. Don't let them do this to you. Do not let them tell you that youth is all you have, do not let them make you follow the mold of women before you, that you may only ever be bejeweled right now.

The future, too, is dazzling.

[jade-efflorescence]

has this been done yet

[funtheysaid]

TTPD is about IWTV

(Part Eight)

This is a thread connecting Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles to Taylor Swift’s most recent album, The Tortured Poet’s Department. Part One will be linked at the bottom, if you want to start from the beginning.

15.) The Alchemy

Executive decision: This one is about Lestat and Louis finally getting their shit together and going back to each other.

“This happens once every few lifetimes”

“These chemicals hit me like white wine”

“What if I told you I'm back?”

“The hospital was a drag”

“Worst sleep that I ever had”

“These blokes warm the benches”

“We been on a winning streak”

“Cause the sign on your heart said it's still reserved for me”

“Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy?”

16.) Clara Bow

This one is for all of ‘em. I like the idea of paralleling “fame” with being chosen to receive the Dark Gift. Just like a small town girl who never thought she’d see the big city, I think the vamps would never have imagined their lives to turn out the way they did.

The allegory of vampirism and fame is really interesting to me. Being chosen to receive a gift that so many desire and, yet, so few receive. A gift that feels more like a curse once you have it. Beauty and aesthetic being a cornerstone to your existence.

Are you seeing the vision?

Also, Lestat’s rockstar era fits nicely into the context of these lyrics as well.

“All your life, did you know you’d be picked like a rose”

“No one in my small town thought I'd see the lights of Manhattan”

“Promise to be dazzling”

“I'm not trying to exaggerate”

“But I think I might die if it happened, die if it happened to me”

"You look like Stevie Nicks in '75, the hair and lips”

“Crowd goes wild at her fingertips”

“You're the new god we're worshipping”

“It's hell on earth to be heavenly”

“... Dazzling”

Part One: https://www.tumblr.com/funtheysaid/749134183115456512/ttpd-is-about-iwtv

fin.

[supercorpandbeyond]

Anyone else notice the 'You look like Taylor Swift' starts at 3:13

[areallycoolanduniqueusername]

My jaw literally dropped when Taylor said "You look like Taylor Swift" Insane way to end the main album tbh

[breathtakinglymiraculous]

Only when your girlish glow, flickers just so, do they let you know: It's hell on earth to be heavenly. Them's the breaks, they don't come gently. Clara Bow - The Tortured Poets Department (2024)

[raisy-archive]

The future’s bright, dazzling

[cametotheshowinsd]

I love you, it's ruining my life.

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT || April 19th, 2024

[stillgotscars]

clara bow - taylor swift

[throughtherosethorns]

crowd goes wild at her fingertips

[lunar-years]

what's so clever about Clara Bow is that when she references her own name at the end, she's not talking about the present but the future, quoting the inevitable way people are going to one day talk about her, imagining it will only be in regards to the woma(e)n who surpass her. because there will be someone who surpasses her, eventually. that's the cycle of fame, isn't it? we're simultaneously captivated by the alluring trick of the past while looking for the next big thing. we compare current stars to the lights that shined before them, "you look like taylor swift." but we're also constantly waiting for someone new and greater to take the crown and captivate us anew, "you've got edge she never did." And half the song is about acknowledging that being revered is hell on earth for the people who are in it, because you're always trapped between what came before and what will come after. you're only safe insofar as you remain shiny. But the real beauty of the song is that it never succumbs to this dichotomy, but embraces it. It's Taylor acknowledging she wouldn't be who she is were it not for the women who came before her, who shared the same dreams, and recognizing her place in the chain of the women who will come after. The future's bright, dazzling.

[jenniferhills]

promise to be dazzling.

[breezeoddity]

you look like Clara Bow

you look like Stevie Nicks

you look like Taylor Swift

[reputayswift]

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT + literary references (part 2)

(sources: loml, I hate it here, the albatross, so high school, thank you aimee, clara bow)