#song: dear john

[tayfabe75]

what do you think of wcs x ivy mashup that taylor did? seems like a strange combination

Oh, anon! Much like the rest of the fandom, I'm struggling a bit to understand this particular mash-up, lol (I really would have bet on 'Would've Could've Should've' getting mashed up with 'Mad Woman' due to what sounds like melodic similarities compared here and here, alas…)

Right off the bat, I'm going to have to admit that I'm personally on a different page than most people when it comes to WCS. I was genuinely shocked by just how many sources state, very confidently, that WCS is about John Mayer - not that it could be about him, but that it is. Of course, this stems from its similarity to the song 'Dear John'. Looks like we're going to have to discuss that song first so that we're on the same page! So, what did John, himself, have to say about 'Dear John'?:

"It made me feel terrible because I didn't deserve it. I'm pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do."

And when Glamour revealed John's comments to Taylor, here's what she had to say:

"How presumptuous! I never disclose who my songs are about."

That then got me thinking about this quote:

"If you didn't see a picture of it, it couldn't have happened right?"

And then this quote...

"People think they know the exact narrative of the way my life has gone."

Yes, Taylor was nineteen when she met John Mayer. But is that the only thing that happened to her at that age? I get that the title 'Dear John' seems super transparent, yet the term "Dear John" predates their collaboration or relationship by decades, so I don't think Taylor was necessarily "naming names". A "Dear John letter" is basically shorthand for dumping someone via written correspondence, usually someone who is physically far away (typically deployed) and seems to involve infidelity on the part of the dumper. To potentially support this theory, the lyric video for 'Dear John' looks like a handwritten letter:

Yet, the lyrics kind of sound like Taylor was the dumpee? Anyway, all of that is to say that I do think that WSC is connected to 'Dear John', just that the muse probably isn't who everyone thinks.

Anyway, WCS shares lyrical parallels with 'The Great War' - both referencing banners and tombs/crypts, implying that something that should be dead isn't. Would you believe that the first time I heard WCS, I thought it sounded like pure religious trauma? Obviously, after reading all the matter-of-fact reviews and blog posts about how it's definitely about grooming, I heard it. But I'm still not sure that's the only explanation.

Honest question: Is nineteen a "child"? I'm a few years older than Taylor, and while I would probably answer "yes", it would also feel infantilizing to call a nineteen-year-old a child. So, when I hear the line "years of tearing down our banners", I wonder if it implies a passage of time or aging, or that these banners were torn down for years after "dancing with the devil", an expression meaning to engage in "risky, reckless, or potentially immoral behavior". All of the religious imagery seems to imply some kind of loss of innocence. The line "give me back my girlhood" reminds me a lot of ATW, actually - I forget Taylor's exact quote or where she said it, unfortunately, but something about how the girl in the video is the same person, but the pain changed her, that she no longer approaches the world with the same openness, that it made her more guarded.

Themes of war appear in both 'The Great War' and 'Ivy', which is exactly the part of the song Taylor chose to mash-up with WCS. 'Ivy' describes a meeting in a "faith forgotten land", which is an interesting parallel for WCS - which seems to be, at least metaphorically, about the pain of having lost one's faith. All of this talk of death and tombs and crypts… meanwhile ivy is symbolically "eternal", likely because it can survive even through winters. Interestingly, it seems to symbolize loyalty - making it a rather curious metaphor in a song about infidelity! Though, perhaps the loyalty is not to the "husband" in this story?

Taylor ends the mash-up with "I regret you all the time", perhaps implying the aforementioned "war" had something to do with infidelity. If so, then who is it, in this love triangle, that she regrets?

I have even found myself wondering whether WCS is some kind of metaphor for fame, celebrity, the music industry… I don't have that thought fully fleshed out, though.

Interestingly, as I pondered a bit on your question, there has been a discovery that Taylor changed a few words of WCS for the mash-up, and maybe switched perspectives mid-song (credit to gaypoetsdept on Twitter):

"If I was a child, did it matter if I got to wash MY hands" (at about 1:19) "Would've, could've, should've, if YOU'D only played it safe" (at about 2:32)

I personally hope this was just a flub on Taylor's part because I can't even begin to understand the implication of these changes or what they mean! lol

Thanks for the ask! I don't know how helpful it was, but that's what I got! ♥

[handfetis]

It’s been one of those days

[twinge-of-cosmicangst]

[fu-cough]

adrien agreste + taylor swift lyrics pt. 1

- mirrorball, illicit affairs, the archer

[evermoredeluxe]

Taylor performing Dear John/Sad Beautiful Tragic as the surprise song on piano

- The Eras Tour in London, England (N5) on August 16, 2024 (x)

[alltheswift]

dear john || surprise song #1 || minneapolis night 2 (june 24, 2023)

x

[andichoseyou]

eras tour surprise songs parallels

6/24/23—Minneapolis, Minnesota: Dear John / Daylight

[imgonnagetyoubackk]

taylor swift the comedian that you are

[menlove]

I've seen breakup album polls but songs specifically...

[wildfloweronwheels]

There is a video I found from back when I was three, you’re setting up a paint set in the kitchen and talking to me. I’m five years old, it’s getting cold, I’ve got my big coat on.  She said I was seven and you were nine, I looked at you like the stars that shine in the sky like pretty lights. I hit my peak at seven. I’m thirteen now and don’t know how my friends could be so mean.  At fourteen there’s just so much you can’t do and you can’t wait to move out one day and call your own shots. Cause when you’re fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, you’re gonna believe them. Good thing my daddy made me get a boating licence when I was fifteen.  Well, I was sixteen when suddenly I wasn’t that little girl you used to see. I’m crazier for you then I was at sixteen, lost in a film scene. Secret jokes all alone, sixteen and wild. Seventeen and crazy, running wild, wild. It’s like I’m seventeen, no one understands. I’m only seventeen, I don’t know anything but I know I miss you. How can a person know everything at eighteen but nothing at twenty two? Don’t you think nineteen’s too young to be played by your dark twisted games when I loved you so?  And I damn sure never would’ve danced with the devil at nineteen. It’s supposed to be fun, turning twenty one. I don’t know about you but I’m feeling twenty two. She’s still twenty three inside her fantasy. Oh, twenty five years old, oh how were you to know? Thirty two and still growing up now, who you are is not what you did. She said, I’ll be eighty seven, you’ll be eighty nine, I’ll still look at you like the stars that shine in the sky.

Every time Taylor Swift references an age in a song

[finnickodaiir]

Speak Now or Red this or that. Mine or Everything Has Changed? Sparks Fly or Treacherous? Back to December or The Very First Night? Speak Now or Stay Stay Stay? Dear John or 10 min version of ATW? Mean or I Bet You Think About Me? The Story of Us or Sad Beautiful Tragic? Never Grow Up or Nothing New? Enchanted or Message in a Bottle? Haunted or The Moment I Knew? Last Kiss or 5 min version of All Too Well? Long Live or 22? Ours or Run? If This Was a Movie or Come Back... Be Here? Electric Touch or State of Grace? Castles Crumbling or The Lucky One? Foolish One or IKYWT? Timeless or Starlight? Speak Now or Red?

[shyjusticewarrior]

Taylor Swift lyrics that are Jason towards Bruce

"Never impressed by me acing your tests."

"They'll be happiness after you, but there was happiness because of you. Both of these things can be true."

"After giving you the best I had, tell me what to give after that?"

"I gave you all my best mes, my endless empathy, and all I did was bleed as I tried to be the bravest soldier."

"I got nothing to believe unless you're choosing me."

[ourstaturestouchtheskies]

Illustration of the Martyrdom of Joan of Arc from La Normandie – Alfred Johannot // Dear John – Taylor Swift

[delicatefalice]

LONDON BOY AND DEAR JOHN X SAD BEAUTIFUL TRAGIC

[cookie-kat777]

You know I love a London boy // I'm shining like fireworks over your sad empty town // the girl in the dress wrote you a song, you should've known

AKA I can write you out the way I wrote you in, sucks you have to see me everywhere you'll never escape me, also what was your name again? J something?

[bloodmoonlich]

And now that I know, I wish you'd left me wondering.