I simply cannot believe how good Taylor’s re-recording of “Red” is. I wasn’t totally convinced with “Fearless” but here she takes an already blistering album and makes it even better. Genius, genius,. Also including a full ten minute long unexpurgated version of “All Too Well” – venom, regret, poetry.
And then this ..Saturday Night Live.
Bow down and worship.
Bow down, ye mortals!
by 126 Comments
Played it six times already (a certain lady of my acquaintance will testify to this. If she ever returns to the château, that is).
Too overwhelmed for a ‘proper’ Tigg-like review but who knows …
The new version of All Too Well is amazing. Takes the whole thing up to an entire new level; what a lyric, what a fabulous extended outro.
🔥 🔥 🔥
I don’t think she needs any praise from me, but I think she’s absolutely one of the greats. The last two years have seen her step up and properly assert herself. That performance above is full of emotion and authority.
I’ve been glued to the re-recorded album all weekend. I didn’t think I could like it more than I did already, but wrongo. There’s a wallop to the production that was smoothed out on the original and the vault songs are almost absurdly good for outtakes. I love the extended All Too Well – she’s a hell of a lyricist, and always has been (“in the middle of the night / we’re dancing round the kitchen in the refrigerator light” is such a perfect vignette of heartbroken nostalgia) and the added context and new lyrics just make the original bits so much richer.
She’s 31 years old and I feel like, even with all of that remarkable work under her belt already, she just getting started.
Thanks for posting the SNL performance, Lodey – I hadn’t seen it. Brilliant stuff.
She’s wearing a peacoat.
I may have misunderstood – she’s not covering King Crimson, then?
No – Black Uhuru.
Arf!
I think she has considerable talent, but unfortunately her vocals are pretty ordinary
And she needs to learn to be a tad more ruthless in the edit, particularly if the song is going to chug the same few chords for 10 minutes straight. Yeah, I know, Sad Eyed Lady and all that, but the imagery lets him get away with it. This one grinds on a bit like a long ‘poor me’ letter to Cosmo. But she certainly has considerable talent.
You can apply that to many lauded male artists – Dylan, Springsteen, the sainted Thompson. Some even find Joni’s trilling an acquired taste. It’s about the passion and integrity of the performance, not always the ‘quality’ of the voice. Compare and contrast Taylor and Adele; I know who speaks to my sensibilities. And I think her voice is just fine, particularly at its best on her softer and more mature recent work, where it is rich and resonant.
Yes not necessarily talking about intrinsic voice quality more that of putting over the song which Dylan and Springsteen certainly can do. I am not familiar with much of her work, but I just find her voice rather generic and bland
Foxy – the song was written by a very young lady (her beau was much older). Hurt and anger poured out. Her producer persuaded her that ten minutes was just a tad too long for the original album (the record that turned her from a country girl into a megastar) and she cut it back to the standard 3.30 minutes.
Taylor took the opportunity of this re-recording to give us its full glory.
Dai – must admit that sometimes, just sometimes, her singing voice can grate – can’t think of any major artist who sings everything perfectly – this ain’t opera! As for bland and generic – she is an effing genius. Simples.
Well, setting aside the fact that having considerable songwriting talent doesn’t confer genius status, I’d still maintain that her producer was correct, as – for my money at least – the musical scaffolding for this song just doesn’t stand up to 10 minutes’ exposure! I can understand why she wanted to get the whole thing out there now she’s had the opportunity to do so, but I’d categorise the result as ‘for completists only’.
Yes. It’s a good song but it’s much too long.
The outtakes and Vault songs would have been worthy as an official, standalone release, they’re that good. And the. extended ATW is a song for the ages, a righteous, visceral, purging break-up song to rank up there with Idiot Wind (if we’re using Dylan as a comparison).
I thought of comparing ATW to Idiot Wind but chickened out.
I wish I had written what you wrote
I don’t think it’s too late. You’re still relatively young, with occassional bouts of lucidity.
And the extended ATW is a song for the ages, a righteous, visceral, purging break-up song to rank up there with Idiot Wind (if we’re using Dylan as a comparison).
Marvellous writing, Lodey!
Wow, this is almost as good as something from the 70s by an old white bloke?
Haha yeah. I think she is better at making songs that are both poetic AND understandable.
Is Idiot Wind really all that great?
Two or three (truly) great lyrical moments, and a lot of padding in between, in my view. Horribly mean-spirited too.
Trust you to bring some sense into this discussion
It’s utterly monstrous, which is why it’s so brilliant! It’s also a completely different beast to this song.
I’m probably being harsh in that I’m partly comparing it to other Dylan lyrics. He’s written some of the greatest kiss-offs in music history, I’m just never really convinced that Idiot Wind is one of them.
It is a very different beast to All Too Well, although it could so easily be its counterpart.
Huh? Every fucking word is torn from his soul. A masterpiece from start to finish. Taylor’s song doesn’t quite hit me in the same way
Someone’s got it in for me
They’re planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they’d cut it out quick
But when they will I can only guess
They say I shot a man named Gray
And took his wife to Italy
She inherited a million bucks
And when she died it came to me
I can’t help it if I’m lucky
People see me all the time
And they just can’t remember how to act
Their minds are filled with big ideas
Images and distorted facts
Even you, yesterday
You had to ask me where it was at
I couldn’t believe after all these years
You didn’t know me better than that
Sweet lady
Idiot wind
Blowing every time you move your mouth
Blowing down the back roads headin’ south
Idiot wind
Blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot, babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe
I ran into the fortune-teller
Who said, “beware of lightning that might strike”
I haven’t known peace and quiet
For so long I can’t remember what it’s like
There’s a lone soldier on the cross
Smoke pourin’ out of a boxcar door
You didn’t know it, you didn’t think it could be done
In the final end he won the wars
After losin’ every battle
I woke up on the roadside
Daydreamin’ ’bout the way things sometimes are
Visions of your chestnut mare
Shoot through my head and are makin’ me see stars
You hurt the ones that I love best
And cover up the truth with lies
One day you’ll be in the ditch
Flies buzzin’ around your eyes
Blood on your saddle
Idiot wind
Blowing through the flowers on your tomb
Blowing through the curtains in your room
Idiot wind
Blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot, babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe
It was gravity which pulled us down
And destiny which broke us apart
You tamed the lion in my cage
But it just wasn’t enough to change my heart
Now everything’s a little upside down
As a matter of fact the wheels have stopped
What’s good is bad, what’s bad is good
You’ll find out when you reach the top
You’re on the bottom
I noticed at the ceremony
Your corrupt ways had finally made you blind
I can’t remember your face anymore
Your mouth has changed
Your eyes don’t look into mine
The priest wore black on the seventh day
And sat stone-faced while the building burned
I waited for you on the running boards
Near the cypress trees, while the springtime turned
Slowly into autumn
Idiot wind
Blowing like a circle around my skull
From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol
Idiot wind
Blowing every time you move your teeth
You’re an idiot, babe
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe
I can’t feel you anymore
I can’t even touch the books you’ve read
Every time I crawl past your door
I been wishin’ I was somebody else instead
Down the highway, down the tracks
Down the road to ecstasy
I followed you beneath the stars
Hounded by your memory
And all your ragin’ glory
I been double-crossed now
For the very last time and now I’m finally free
I kissed goodbye the howling beast
On the borderline which separated you from me
You’ll never know the hurt I suffered
Nor the pain I rise above
And I’ll never know the same about you
Your holiness or your kind of love
And it makes me feel so sorry
Idiot wind
Blowing through the buttons of our coats
Blowing through the letters that we wrote
Idiot wind
Blowing through the dust upon our shelves
We’re idiots, babe
It’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves
Some bits of it are truly amazing: the first verse, “Down the highway, down the tracks/Down the road to ecstasy, I followed you beneath the stars/Hounded by your memory, And all your ragin’ glory”.
But then other bits… not so much. This is pretty rotten, isn’t it?
“Visions of your chestnut mare
Shoot through my head and are makin’ me see stars
You hurt the ones that I love best
And cover up the truth with lies
One day you’ll be in the ditch
Flies buzzin’ around your eyes”
I don’t think the whole thing is torn from his soul any more than All Too Well is torn from Taylor’s.
I always wondered if the chestnut mare was an oblique reference to Roger McGuinn
I think those lines are great.
Cilla Black for the 21st century.
Your Number is 457. The next Game commences in ten minutes.
Well they are still looking for a new host for “Jeopardy” over there, so keep ’em crossed.
Chugs along in a very pedestrian way, to my ears anyway. The only Taylor Swift I like is Ryan Adams’s recording of her 1989 album.
Ooh, you’re edgy.
“Shake It Off” is all kinds of wonderful. One of the great 3 minute pop songs. Radio nectar. I haven’t tried serious Taylor and this performance makes me think I should. It sounds deeply personal and open. Right up my street in fact. Thanks for posting
Like that one too
Swifty is wonderful but this one isn’t one of my favourites. I still think that a 10-minute Italian House remix of “Out Of The Woods” would have been the way to go, but I’m still waiting for her to reply to my email.
Would’ve been a slightly weird decision to include a song off 1989 for the re-record of the album before it.
Anyway, I’m delighted to discover that all the four-chord pop music about breakups loved by men on the Afterword is so radically different from and superior to the four-chord pop music about breakups loved by younger people who may or may not be girls. I’ll keep the reasons on file for whenever some whippersnapper tries to claim otherwise.
Sorry, I realise I forgot to ground my throwaway gag within the strict framework of her release schedule. 😉
That also explains why she’s not replied yet. That’s a load off!
You should be ashamed. 😉
Paging Moosey.
Taking a leaf from the UK Government, I set up a completely independent commission and tasked it with re-looking at the Rules & Regulations of the AfterWord Annual Album Of The Year poll. I’m sure you will agree that it was only fair and proper for me to guide and oversee their deliberations. Independence can only go so far after all.
One area of particular concern was the thorny problem of re-releases. I quote verbatim from the report:
“Whilst box sets and, shudder, “remasters”, aimed at old people with more money than sense, are obviously banned from consideration, the panel are pleased to announce that Ms Swift’s triumphant reimagining of “Red” is hereby declared to eligible for inclusion in this most prestigious of events”.
Well done, panel, well done!
The thing is it isn’t a re-release. Isn’t it ‘new’ recordings albeit of old songs? No need for your Independent Commission Lodey.
I was prepared to give this a go, but I must admit my heart sank when I heard that dreaded I-V-vi-IV chord progression start up. Ten minutes of that…
I’ve asked the Mods to remove your post on the grounds I don’t understand it
When this video is made broadly available for public consumption there are going to be riots.
It’s one thing to discover that you haven’t actually been enjoying the music you like because it uses insufficient variation in chords, another still to learn that – in addition – pop is, in fact, dead. People won’t stand for it.
I remember the intro to Ian McDonald’s Revolution in the Head where says in that hip-hop records are all in one chord.
Oh dear…
Just as well he never heard Tomorrow Never Knows.
Arf!
Objection! I won’t hear a word said against my man Mr McDonald.
You’re misquoting and taking that out of context. He said (correctly) that funk > soul > hip hop is generally based around “repetition” and “minimal harmonic movement” (or something like that). But he also said that rap at its best was like an exhilarating “verbal drum solo” – he had respect for it as an art form and wasn’t being sniffy about it.
Besides, Tomorrow Never Knows actually has TWO chords, I’ll have you know.
(Blows raspberry).
Okay, a slight shift to to a semi tone lower ( I have just looked this up). Eleanor Rigby has only two, as Paul McCartney pointed out recently. Anyone learning music will quickly found that there’s only a handful of chords, even when you get into the augmented and diminished and all that jazz stuff.It’s what you do with them, that counts, along with the melody, instrumentation, rhythm and so on. And I now feel a bit bad because, yes, Ian McDonald, was a fascinating writer and I have made a cheap and inaccurate joke. I hope you’re happy.
The clickbaity title IS a bit stupid, as is the case with most of Rick’s video’s, but as is also often the case, he has some interesting things to say…
A couple of interesting things buried within about 40 minutes of waffle and self-promotion! I find him quite tiring.
Hint: other Youtubers are available.
Exactamundo.
This is creating some divisive opinions, isn’t it? I always like it when that happens, as it demonstrates how passionate we are about music we feel is GOOD or BAD.
I’m not going to listen to it, sorry. I’ve been burned before with Taylor Swift when some lunatic on here was raving about some album she did that was apparently a nu-folk masterpiece comparable to Goldfrapp’s mighty Seventh Tree or Nick Drake or something, and got me all excited about listening to it. It was nothing of the sort – it was the usual shiny bland faceless airbrushed pop nonsense, and youse guys were all just deluding yourselves (or playing some elaborate private joke).
So, sorry Taylor, this isn’t for me, whatever it is. Shake it Off is still a nice wee pop song, but I’m not inclined to listen to any more.
May it always rain in Scotland. Oh ..
Haway Arthur! Let’s you an’ me slip off and listen to some Jackie Leven, that’ll clear our heids oot frae this awfa polished nonsense!
*apols for tasteless attempt at Scot-speak or something.
Well, I love Seventh Tree as much as the next man (providing the next man isn’t A. Cowslip), but I think folklore is superior. The only song which is definitely shiny is mirrorball (geddit?).
In the face of this light-hearted (but pointed) joshing, I have decided to submit and give this a listen, in case I’m missing something. I’ll even listen back to Folklore again (‘cos that’s the album I was talking about) to give it a second chance. I’ll report back!
I listened. I was unmoved, and I think I’ll leave it there. I’m glad that many of you seem to get so much out of her music, but it’s just beyond me. Each to his own!
I’ll get some t-shirts made up saying: “I’m sorry, but I’m just not a Taylor Swift fan”. With a big picture of Kate Bush looking sad. If anyone wants one, send a postal order for £15 to Cowslip Mansions.
Here’s the last big Word thread about TS that I started just over two years ago. Since then she has…
Put out two double albums of new material
A live lockdown record The Long Pond Studio Sessions – live sessions album from Folklore
Plus a documentary on those sessions on Disney+
Another documentary on Netflix called Miss Americana covering the pre-Covid TS era
Put out two re-recorded albums with extras [56 tracks] – the Red reissue is quadruple vinyl – Take that Chicago!
…that’s a lot in two years.
No touring
Yeah, lazy little so-and-so.
Wow, that’s a lot of material. Does she write all her own material, or does she have a writing team, or what? Genuine question.
I’ve always wondered the same about Bob Dylan. Three albums in a little over two years; one a double. Who was helping him?
See, with Dylan in that ’65-’66 period I can believe it. Just because of the style of his songs and the nature in which he recorded them. The lyrics were (much of the time) stream of consciousness, Kerouac stuff, and he used and re-used similar (and rudimentary) melodies and chord sequences. His recordings in that period were all live, no overdubs, as well.
Makes sense. It probably would have been simpler to record a load of music with recycled chord structures, rudimentary melodies and without much real thought given to the lyrics.
… and a spine-tingling aura of poetic expression and transcendence. You forgot to add a spine-tingling aura of poetic expression and transcendence.
That and a pair of testicles.
Bit of both – many of her songs are totally hers, but the more recent projects have been more collaborative efforts with Aaron Dessner of The National (they have a really strong creative affinity developing), Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver) and the ubiquitous Jack Antonoff. Their roles are fluid, focused in various degrees on co-writing the music and/or production.
It’s worth remembering as well that collabs/co-writers is how it’s always worked, but nowadays with actual credit where it’s due. Dylan or whoever didn’t write the basslines or the drum grooves. He didn’t compose every note of his songs. He probably only had a very collaborative hand in their arrangement. But one guy has by convention always got to take sole “writer” credit when what he actually probably did was the guitar chords and the vocal/lyrics. Obviously that stuff is the core of the song, but it’s not *the song*.
That’s always struck me as being very key to the auteur myth of songwriting. Edit out all the people who actually made it happen; pretend it was all one or two guys.
Taylor Swift has been writing songs and playing guitar since her pre-teens. She was signed at, like, 15. Some people seem to have difficulty in believing a woman whose music is bought by girls might actually be able to do things for herself, which… well. Ask yourself, as Bingo does above if you’ve ever ”just asked” who might’ve helped a male songwriter.
I think this comment is directed at me? Just to be clear, I’m absolutely not saying Dylan is some magical auteur who is solely responsible for his own recordings – and I’m definitely not giving him a free pass just because he is a man!
Dylan wrote songs in a very specific way. He wrote quick and hot, almost auto-typing at times, as I say. His songs across all three of those big albums, much as I love them, are generally speaking very same-y: he strums very similar chord sequences and relies on repetition and folky intensity rather than any particularly strong sense of traditional pop craftsmanship. Production-wise, he just gathers together a group of crack session musicians and generally knocks out the tunes in a few takes – live, no overdubs, as I say. And yes, those musicians, and the producer, are very much responsible for helping a great deal with the overall sound.
That writing/recording style was demonstrably a lot less fuss and hassle than, say, the Beatles or the Beach Boys crafting complicated multi-track recordings. And about a million miles away from modern production standards which are infinitely more complex. Songs take a lot longer to “build” these days than songs in the sixties (in general).
So that’s why I was asking that about Taylor Swift. From dipping my toe in the stuff of hers that has been recommended on these boards, I hear complex, crafted pop/country production. and “finished” songs (unlike Dylan’s mid-60s songs, many of which sound “unfinished” – which actually helps add to the thrilling ramshackle atmosphere). Which, getting to my point, is why I was surprised at the volume of material Taylor Swift has produced, and why I asked the question.
Phew. I feel like now I am protesting too much. I like female singer-songwriters, I promise! Many of my best friends are female singer-songwriters! etc etc
Mazzy Star appear to have written quite a lot of the title track from the Lover album
In a shameless attempt at getting Lodey a festive hamper (full of CORSAIR TINNED TURKEY), I’d just like to state on the record that I like Mazzy Star.
I will have no truck with such behaviour. I will win my hamper by fair means and fair means only….oh
Quite agree. Adding superfluous comments just to up the numbers is totally
reprehensible.
Obviously much of the material was written a long time ago
“The new edition Red clocks in precisely 131 minutes, and if you think that number might be a coincidence, catch up.”
Anyone care to enlighten me?
13 is her lucky number, and she’s currently 31 years old. Obvs.
https://taylorswift.fandom.com/wiki/13
Obvs
13 is significant because it’s her birthdate. December 13, 1989, since you’re asking).
I really, really enjoyed that – thanks Lodey. I think the visuals helped a lot to be honest, with the film behind her reflecting the storyline and she is quite the performer. The 10 mins running time seems perfect to me.
Obviously I know of her and have heard her on the radio, but nothing has ever really grabbed me before – can someone suggest a way in to her work please..?
1989. So good it had to be mansplained.
I think there’s no doubt that 1989 is the nearly-flawless masterpiece so far, but there’s a great deal to love on “Red”, and that record is also more connected to her pop-country origins.
The new re-record (“Red: Taylor’s Version”) is so good, so @nigelt, maybe start there if All Too Well has grabbed you.
Depends on your mood and preferences – she has moved from, and between, country, countryfied pop/rock, pure pop, harder electropop with r’n’b ‘stylings’, and indie-folk ‘cottage core’.
A quick guide to each:
Fearless/Speak Now – country
Speak Now/Red – countryfied pop/rock
Red – transitions into pure pop
1989 – pure pop/electropop
Reputation – electropop/r’n’b/elements of trap
Lover – a smorgasbord of all the above
folklore/evermore – indie folk/cottagecore, retaining elements of pure pop.
1989 is the correct answer. And once you’re ready try making a playlist using Taylor and Ryan Adams’ near perfect copy. Track 1 Taylor, Track 1 Ryan, Track 2 repeat – heaven! I’d personally skip Reputation and Lover where our heroine lost her way for a year or two.
Evermore is one of the Top 5 records ever, ever made.
Evermore is great, but is either not quite as great, or suffers from its proximity, to folklore.
Ask me tomorrow – Ever or Folk, both are epically magnificent
I havent listened to Evermore, because it is so close in time to Folklore which I love. Thinking of getting it for Christmas.
Not the zeitgeist, but I think too much of a good thing can be too much.
I must be getting old.
No, you have a very valid point, Paul. Evermore is an astounding album, one to be cherished, but as I suggested earlier, I don’t appreciate it as fulsomely as I would expect of myself, because folklore.
Cottagecore. Never, ever ever ever ever say that again. I’m shuddering so hard here it’s like I’m on a vibroplate.
Cottagecore.
*Runs away*
*contracts white-finger, closely followed by white-everything*
My 17 year old nearly exploded when she heard this was coming out. She normally spends her time at the emo end of the musical spectrum but is more open-minded than me (how is that even possible…?) and has recently started obsessing over Ms Swift. After walking home listening to this on repeat through headphones she said she felt like she was walking on air. She then insisted I sat down and listened to it. And…it’s very good isn’t it? But way too long.
I’m not that bothered with the track in the OP, but I watched this video last night and really like it – the song and the video. If I’ve understood it correctly, this song got cut from the original album and has been put back in this time around (correct me if I’m wrong). If this is one they cut, it makes me think that the rest must be very strong indeed, so I may just take the plunge and buy it this time around…
So many good lines in that one, some nice slightly unhinged vitriol towards the end (organic shoes and million dollar couch…)
Phew, Locust! Taking the plunge with a 131 minute long album is brave, to say the least…
worth it, though
I have, in the past, taken the plunge with career-spanning box sets…to find out that the artist in question wasn’t for me! So one – albeit long – album is nothing. 😀
And the song you like is “Old” Taylor getting back to her country roots (ably assisted by Mr Stapleton of course).
Having listened to this quite a bit since release I can’t believe how much the longer version improves the lyric, or that she sat on this stuff all these years.
Virtually all the best lines in the 10 minute version are new:
“And you were tossing me the car keys, “Fuck the patriarchy”
Keychain on the ground, we were always skippin’ town“
“You kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath”
“The idea you had of me, who was she?
A never-needy, ever-lovely jewel whose shine reflects on you
Not weepin’ in a party bathroom
Some actress askin’ me what happened, you
That’s what happened, you
You who charmed my dad with self-effacing jokes
Sippin’ coffee like you’re on a late-night show
But then he watched me watch the front door all night, willin’ you to come
And he said, “It’s supposed to be fun turning twenty-one””
“And I was never good at tellin’ jokes, but the punch line goes
“I’ll get older, but your lovers stay my age”
From when your Brooklyn broke my skin and bones
I’m a soldier who’s returning half her weight
And did the twin flame bruise paint you blue?
Just between us, did the love affair maim you too?
‘Cause in this city’s barren cold
I still remember the first fall of snow
And how it glistened as it fell
I remember it all too well”
I like the original, but the 10 minute version is a monumental improvement in my book. The arrangement is heaps better too.
Overall it makes you realise how much she pulled her punches. Just imagine being Jake Gyllenhaal this week…. she’s absolutely bodied him.
I agree about the extension of great lyrics, but I don’t think they surpass the humdingers in the original version…
‘Cause there we are again in the middle of the night
We’re dancing ’round the kitchen in the refrigerator light’
‘But you keep my old scarf from that very first week
‘Cause it reminds you of innocence
And it smells like me’
And of course, ‘And you call me up again just to break me like a promise
So casually cruel in the name of being honest’
I wonder who helped her write those. Bless.
The consensus is of course that Mr Gyllenhaal will be wounded and embarrassed by all this publicity, but imagine having shared that experience and being the source of the passionate intensity that wrought this magnificent song…I think I’d feel quite proud.
I did like Joe Jonas’s reaction to the question of whether he’s like his own 10-minute version – “Er…no, I’m good”
Seriously, who in their right mind would date a songwriter? Have they not noticed that they always end up being crucified/gelded in song?
That’s exactly why that night in LA when Taylor walked over and said “Hi there, handsome” I like totally blanked her. I’ve been down that rocky road before…
…but she’ll write a bloody song about that and all!
As Sleater-Kinney once said, “ Don’t tell me your name if you don’t want it sung”.
Just getting over that performance, then this comes along…
The Cilla Black of the 21st Century.
That is phenomenal!! Those Longpond Sessions produced her best work methinks. However brilliant the SNL version was this surpasses it. I wonder if she dropped all the showy showbiz stuff that pervades most of her videos ( which are, obviously, not aimed at old blokes like me) whether or not some of the naysayers on here would take her more seriously?
Taylor Swift is the most important popular-music female artist of all time. Keep your Joni, keep your Lana, keep your Laura, keep your Kate. Bow down, ye mortals!
Keep your Lana….? Oh fickle heart…
PS Why is it not keep your Bob, keep your Steven, keep your….Ryan?
I was riding along a clear road but somehow drove the car into a ditch. Mea Culpa.
In my shabby defence I had Tiggs review of GTTAM in mind when I wrote what I wrote. Taylor is clearly the most important popular singer, male or female, of popular music in the entire history of the universe.
To my knowledge, I’ve never reviewed Get Thee To A Monastery.
😉
Tee and hee
I case anybody is thinking that that was unusually tasteless even by my standards given today’s news , I was referring to the Beautiful Sorta Hitmaker.
That performance completely wipes the floor with the SNL one. It’s still a bit too long for the music to carry it without the listener getting early-onset chord sequence fatigue, but the delivery is so much better in this quiet reflective mode where the lyric – finally very clearly heard – carries the thing forward on its own. I find this a much better listening experience, and as I said before, she is clearly considerably talented.
Lodes – I believe it is possible these days to seek professional help when one is suffering from military grade hyperbole.
Hyperbole? How dareth you! I am, after all, The Chosen One, The Light, The One True Lodestone. Consider thyself smoten.
Smit.
So mote it be.
I love this, but there’s still a place for the fury she belts out, particularly in the original iteration.
SNL version vastly superior, and indeed definitive, in my book. Much more interesting (and thematically congruent with the lyrics) to watch a confident, fully mature artist at the seeming peak of her powers repeatedly drive a metaphorical steamroller over her target on national TV, as opposed to the gentler, more vulnerable version above.
A musical moment people will still be talking about years from now.
Very entertaining thread, Lodey.
The New Yorker has an article about TS by Carrie Battan which may interest you.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/11/29/taylor-swifts-quest-for-justice?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_Control_111821&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_term=tny_daily_recirc&bxid=60db012fb69d4c18c21488fa&cndid=65537219&hasha=2625e84bb1ddce5d8e8835038b42b03c&hashb=f0ed764340d103b38489e09717d20f15778eee06&hashc=5c7b4e64d21c443f1208d2557d313a89552bea940d44a7a65afd39af05d0a6ef&esrc=growl2-regGate-0521&mbid=CRMNYR012019
Cheers
I’m on the sixth listen now and it’s just starting to click.
Music is magic.