I am going to attempt to untangle a braid of three songs in the following posts. I think in Mine, You Belong with Me, and Dorthea, I mean Tim McGraw, Fearless, and You’re on Your Own Kid are also related, but let’s not go too big all at once here! Anyway, in the trifecta of songs Taylor is talking to another queer (stay with me here, we’ll get into why I think that), alt-girl ex (well, situationship) who moved out of their small town to make it big, but isn’t living authentically.
Mine is from the Speak Now album, a very fanciful, dreamy princess album. The song is part memory and part daydream. I color–coded it so we can tease apart what happened and what is just in Taylor’s mind/wishes.
You were in college working part-time waiting tables
The green happened. Literally in the small town where both Taylor and this other person are located.
Left a small town, and never looked back
I was a flight risk with a fear of falling
I did yellow to denote ‘starry-eyes’ or dreams of bigger things, such as fame.
And there is a comparison here. The person that left the small town to follow bigger dreams left Taylor behind. The lavender color is for Taylor (Lavender Haze, if you will). She wanted to leave also to chase bigger dreams, but was afraid of failing, or floundering, or uncertainty.
Wondering why we bother with love if it never lasts
I used the dark pink to show actual things that happened between these two people. This line has a negative connotation. It seems like present Taylor knows that this relationship didn’t actually play out as she’d hoped.
I say, "Can you believe it?"
As we're lying on the couch
I used a lighter shade of pink to show things between the couple colored by Taylor’s romantic hopes. They might have actually happened, but Taylor read into them more than perhaps reality. Or Taylor wished for more. In this line, Taylor is incredulous she’s laying on the couch with this other person.
The moment I could see it
Yes, yes, I can see it now
For Taylor’s daydream/hopes/romantic thoughts I used peach. After lying on the couch with this other person, Taylor’s mind constructs a whole romantic future of them together.
Do you remember, we were sitting there by the water?
So literally lying on the couch with this special person Taylor’s mind goes back to a time when these two were actually together by the water.
You put your arm around me for the first time
You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter
You are the best thing that's ever been mine
These pink lines did happen, but Taylor might have felt stronger about it then the other person. She did something uncharacteristically displeasing to her parents. After Taylor shares touch with this person (she makes clear her parents would not approve of this) she thinks this person is the best person she’s ever been with. This experience/person is different for Taylor than every person she’s shared touch with before. What could the difference be?
Flash forward and we're taking on the world together
And there's a drawer of my things at your place
Remember the peach is the dreams/wishes in Taylor’s mind about how these two will have a future. This didn’t happen, but Taylor wished it would. It’s a continuation of the fantasy life Taylor’s mind is constructing while lying on the couch.
You learn my secrets and you figure out why I'm guarded
You say we'll never make my parents' mistakes
The red is problems.
Taylor shares secrets with this special person. She tells the person what her walls are. It’s giving baby-gay. Taylor is also cautious of love because her idealized inspo of what love should be was her parents’ relationship, which has now ended badly. She discloses she’s worried about divorce, because if her parents can’t make their marriage work, who could? Remember, Taylor has a fear of falling/flailing/failure and it’s held her back before.
But we got bills to pay
Another problem this couple faces is paying bills. Even Taylor’s daydreams deal with practicalities.
And I highlighted ‘to pay’ in yellow because money might be a big reason for leaving town and working and becoming famous and whatever else is required of celebrity.
I know I said I wouldn’t introduce too many songs into this because it’ll be too complicated, but I promise this is just a couple of lines.
I’m thinking ahead to Dorthea’s starry eyes and You’re on Your Own, Kid when Taylor sings, The jokes weren't funny, I took the money/My friends from home don't know what to say. Which is an exact example of what the bills to pay in Mine is getting at. This couple has to do things they might not like, and their hometown wouldn’t approve of in order to make money.
We got nothing figured out
This line is both literal, as in this couple doesn’t know what to call themselves, how serious this touching is, or where this is going, and in Taylor’s daydream the couple hasn’t figured out the logistics of their arrangement.
When it was hard to take
When Taylor’s life was difficult, when the real life relationship was under fire because people throw rocks at things that shine, [Sorry, there’s a seventh related song, Ours, that we will not discuss further in this post] and when Taylor is daydreaming about the couple’s future, she thought about the good times by the water. The moment the other person finally put their arm around her, and Taylor experienced something completely different then she had before. That is the time Taylor’s mind keeps glorifying and going back to.
Yes, yes, this is what I thought about
It’s in peach again for Tayor’s dreams/wishes. That was the fantasy life Taylor dreamed of while physically lying on the couch with this person who made a rebel of her via their touch.
Do you remember, we were sitting there by the water?
You put your arm around me for the first time
You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter
You are the best thing that's ever been mine
Here, Taylor is reminding the other person of that special moment, trying to persuade them through sentimentality that what they have is special.
Do you remember all the city lights on the water?
This is Taylor trying to further convince the other person to be a part of Taylor’s dream plan. The green is Taylor jogging the person’s memory to an actual time they shared. She is telling the other person they can be a couple in the city (vs. the small town they literally are) and with the fame. The yellow is showing dreams of stardom or bigger things. And she’s trying to share her dream with the other person and show them they can have the special moments, in a bigger town, with the fame/fortune.
You saw me start to believe for the first time
Taylor reminds the other person that their special moment by the water was transformational for her. After being touched by this person Taylor felt real love, even though she knew they’d be dead if they knew about this difficult love [OK, you got me, This Love is also related to this situationship].
You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter
You are the best thing that's ever been mine
Taylor wants the other person to remember that she let down her walls and it led to the beautiful realization that this person was the most special in her life. Taylor wants the other person to feel that way too.
And I remember that fight
Two-thirty AM
As everything was slipping right out of our hands
I ran out crying and you followed me out into the street
Braced myself for the "Goodbye"
'Cause that's all I've ever known
Bad things are threatening this couple’s relationship. Taylor left the other person’s presence, expecting the worst, because that’s what has happened every previous time bad things happened in her relationships.
Then you took me by surprise
You said, "I'll never leave you alone."
You said, "I remember how we felt sitting by the water
And every time I look at you, it's like the first time
I fell in love with a careless man's careful daughter
She is the best thing that's ever been mine."
These lines are tricky because the listener has to decide if they literally occurred or do they take place within Taylor’s daydream? Money problems and a fight? Even Taylor’s daydreams are realistic, I guess hence the whole songwriting career.
I suggest that the second, third, and fourth lines of this song give us the answer: Left a small town, and never looked back/I was a flight risk with a fear of falling/Wondering why we bother with love if it never lasts. Right at the beginning of the song, Taylor talks about the couple going in different directions. The other person literally moves out of their small town to possibly (or figuratively) make money being famous. And Taylor was afraid of failing and disappointing people so she stayed behind in the small town (or figuratively repressed that part of herself).
Because love never lasts.
So these last lines of the song talking about the other person embracing and reciprocating Taylor’s romantic feelings, are part of Taylor’s dream of what she WISHED would have happened. In her daydream the other person said they’ll never leave her alone because Taylor is the best thing that ever happened to them (also).
Hold on, make it last
Hold on, never turn back
The hold ons serve two purposes: Taylor is asking the other person to make their moment lying on the couch last just a little longer. She wants their romance to go on a bit more. Secondly, Taylor is trying very hard to keep the fairytale of the true love and outcome she wished for fresh in her mind. Taylor wants her daydream of a better outcome to last longer.
(Hold on)
You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter
(Hold on)
You are the best thing that's ever been mine
Taylor is saying this touch by the water was a super big deal for her. She really went out on a limb. And the result was falling in love with this other person.
(Hold on)
Yeah, yeah
Do you believe it?
Taylor is still persuading the other person lying on the couch. And in present times, after this song is written, she’s asking herself if she still believes in this dream relationship.
(Hold on)
We're gonna make it now
(Hold on)
And I can see it
(Yes, yes)
I can see it now (see it now, see it now)
These lines in peach are Taylor trying to persuade the other person to also believe in these romantic dreams and strive for the same loving future she is imagining.
She’s also convincing herself to hold on to the hope that she can still have a happily ever after one day. Despite the situationship ending, Taylor ends Mine on a positive note full of hope for her future.
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