I’m starting a new project where I take a song, then find keywords in other lyrics in the catalog. Then using a snippet or artistic rendering to include a little context. It’s visually appealing, but also, helps make connections between the songs and lyrics, and helps see muses and subtext better.
Fever dream high in the quiet of the night
You know that I caught it (oh yeah, you're right, I want it)
Bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price
You know that I bought it (oh yeah, you're right, I want it)
Killing me slow, out the window
I'm always waiting for you to be waiting below
Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes
What doesn't kill me makes me want you more
And it's new, the shape of your body
It's blue, the feeling I've got
And it's ooh, whoa-oh
It's a cruel summer
"It's cool, " that's what I tell 'em
No rules in breakable heaven
But ooh, whoa-oh
It's a cruel summer with you (yeah, yeah)
Hang your head low in the glow of the vending machine
I'm not dying (oh yeah, you're right, I want it)
You say that we'll just screw it up in these trying times
We're not trying (oh yeah, you're right, I want it)
So cut the headlights, summer's a knife
I'm always waiting for you just to cut to the bone
Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes
And if I bleed, you'll be the last to know, oh
It's new, the shape of your body
It's blue, the feeling I've got
And it's ooh, whoa-oh
It's a cruel summer
"It's cool, " that's what I tell 'em
No rules in breakable heaven
But ooh, whoa-oh
It's a cruel summer with you
I'm drunk in the back of the car
And I cried like a baby coming home from the bar (oh)
Said, "I'm fine, " but it wasn't true
I don't wanna keep secrets just to keep you
And I snuck in through the garden gate
Every night that summer, just to seal my fate (oh)
And I screamed, "For whatever it's worth
I love you, ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?"
He looks up, grinnin' like a devil
It's new, the shape of your body
It's blue, the feeling I've got
And it's ooh, whoa-oh
It's a cruel summer
"It's cool, " that's what I tell 'em
No rules in breakable heaven
But ooh, whoa-oh
It's a cruel summer with you
I'm drunk in the back of the car
And I cried like a baby coming home from the bar (oh)
Said, "I'm fine, " but it wasn't true
I don't wanna keep secrets just to keep you
And I snuck in through the garden gate
Every night that summer, just to seal my fate (oh)
And I screamed, "For whatever it's worth
I love you, ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?"
(Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
***********************************************************
Interesting Notes and Summation:
Taylor compares her sexual desire to a drug and talks about boys being toys and “buying them” (code for bearding).
“Window” appears to be an important word with metaphorical meaning to Taylor. I’m looking into doing a Swiftionary series to define it more completely. In addition to comparing her sexual attraction to a drug, Taylor brings up politics, connecting her love to the election. Taylor talks about her lover in terms of shape-it’s new, then it’s jagged and broken. Heaven, devil, and ghosts are brought up as comparisons to Taylor’s love. Why are such fraught, negative connotations related to LOVE? What could Taylor be worried about?
Answer: The vending machine reference is a very specific call-back to Karlie Kloss’ whereabouts before and after The Met Gala that occurred post-marriage to Jo$h Ku$hner. Immediately after the vending machine there’s knives and cutting to bones. Taylor is saying that Karlie has a power over her, and is able to hurt her. Gold Rush, additions to All Too Well (10 min), and Closure all talk about this same situation. Blood is mentioned, and throughout Taylor’s catalog shows how she’s hurt or in pain. Bloodshed has happened across lovers and bad situations.
“Drunk in the back of the car” gets to the source of this deep pain that Karlie has caused Taylor. In Getaway car, Taylor was drinkin’ and shared an epiphany, feeling freedom and elation afterwards. But when she did, there were sirens in the beat of Karlie’s heart. Karlie wasn’t on the same wavelength and this new information caused her panic. Taylor ends the situationship, the game with no rules, because a circus ain’t a love story.
The Kaylor relationship was surrounded in secrecy (KOMH, Dress, DWOHT, Peace) and Taylor is tired of working so hard to stay closeted. Though the garden is Kaylor-coded on account of Taylor literally being seen coming and going from Karlie’s NY garden in the summer, the word appeared earlier in her catalog (Love Story). Another Swiftionary term to define: Garden. A third word to look closer at is “scream/ing” as it seems to be mentioned in terms of freedom to be herself as a child, frustration at closeting, and wanting to be out.
The line “‘I love you, ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?’” is the crux of this song. It’s the exact Getaway Car situation. That subsequent Met Gala (after Karlie’s marriage) as well. Taylor loves-loves Karlie Kloss, but this was not received well by Karlie. This breakup feels worse to Taylor (Afterglow, Coney Island, Hits Different) because she actually cares about Karlie–unlike all those replaceable [possible showmances and beards] Kens.
Here’s my biggest takeaway from this exercise: In The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived (which I speculate has 3-4 subjects, one for each line of each verse/stanza/chorus-whatever. Anyway, in that song Taylor primes us to think of jail/prison by saying ‘you deserve prison, but you won’t get time.’ As I was finding related lyrics to Cruel Summer, I realized the next line in TSMWEL is not talking about prison–the bars are dive bars, gay bars, from Delicate, So it Goes, Cardigan, etc… Taylor is saying Karlie slid into inboxes and slipped through the bars, as in quietly/covertly patronized drinking establishments as an underground sapphic. So that makes Karlie for sure one of the subjects of TSMWEL, as well as someone who deserves a felony for their crimes.
Taylor’s sexuality is hidden for the sake of the TS brand. Karlie is OK, with funsy times, but when it’s time to choose a life partner is going with the Ku$hner. This breaks Taylor’s heart because she’s actually in love for real. And she doesn’t want to closet and hide and lose relationships anymore.
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