Faster singing conveys fast-living, being in over your head, frantic, anxiety, trying to keep up.
[Intro]
Eyes like sinking ships on waters
Sinking ships are ominous. This line is foreshadowing trouble. More than that, Taylor is tying this song to “This Love” [1989]. Now that we’ve seen the new timeline of Karlie and Jo$h, and how Karlie was essentially always technically with him, “This Love” becomes more clear to us outsiders:
Clear blue water, high tide came and brought you in, Skies grew darker, currents swept you out again, This love is good, this love is bad, This love is alive back from the dead, These hands had to let it go free, And this love came back to me, Been losing grip, On sinking ships, our kiss, my cheek, I watched you leave, Your smile, my ghost, I fell to my knees, When you’re young you just run, But you come back to what you need
All of these (cherry picked) lines convey how Karlie would be with Taylor, but only briefly. My underlines show how Karlie would go to Taylor than leave over and over. And Taylor longed for more time and more stability. This song is telling the listener that Taylor almost settled for such an arrangement, but she didn’t quite jump in.
[Chorus]
Think of the 2014 VS Fashion Show, where Taylor was in the pink. Section 1 of that show (a section that Karlie Kloss walked) was called Gilded Angels.
gild·ed /ˈɡildəd/ adjective
- covered thinly with gold leaf or gold paint.
“an elegant gilded birdcage”- wealthy and privileged.
Wow, does the title of this VS Fashion Show section feel relevant to me. I think the song was named after it. And I think Taylor is showing us through her lyrics, that like the section title, the gold of Karlie, of their relationship was actually gilded. A thin veneer. And it’s creepy that a birdcage was right on the first definition in Google, bc it’s so Taylor. And the wealthy and privileged example in the definition also comes into play in this song (we’ll get to that later).
But I don’t like a gold rush, gold rush
I don’t like anticipatin’ my face in a red flush
Taylor probably felt self-conscious about wearing lingerie–which we really hadn’t seen her bare so much skin up to that point. In Miss Americana, Taylor disclosed she suffered from disordered eating during that time so the body dysmorphia would weigh on her. And anyone in their right mind would feel out of place next to a bunch of Victoria’s Secret Angels.
I don’t like that anyone would die to feel your touch
VS Angels are sexulized. And during the fashion show the models flirt and blow kisses to seem more sexy and available to consumers
Everybody wonders what it would be like to love you
These last 3 lines might speak to Karlie having her own fan base. She is popular and successful even without the Taylor-brand’s influence. Karlie has her own career, money, fans, and suitors. I think this might be Taylor’s first relationship where she wasn’t the obvious more publically desired partner. And Taylor might be just a teeny bit jealous of all the attention Karlie gets as a supermodel.
This line makes me think of modeling. Walking down a runway, brushing past the model going the opposite direction. Maybe brushing the shoulder of another model, brushing hand quickly through hair on the end of the runway, brushing an item of clothing as a flair. Could be all the Victoria’s secret shows where Taylor was a featured singer and the Angels walked the runway around her. Notable flirtiness between Taylor and Karlie.
I don’t like slow motion, double vision in rose blush
Here are a couple examples of advertisements Karlie participated in:
Good Girl Fantastic Pink fragrance campaign. Karlie Kloss
Watch Karlie Kloss Play a ‘Beauty Boss’ in New Estée Lauder Campaign: … Rebellious Rose, a universally-flattering pink hue,
Discover the new ensemble campaign from L’Oreal Paris… in shades of pink for ‘Color Riche’ – the new lip-colour line… The team of L’Oreal Paris ambassadors stun in a romantic campaign with (more than) a touch of pink…Karlie Kloss…look rosy in pink gowns… The pink-posse posed… with a pink background, around a grand piano. The campaign celebrates the new ‘Color Riche’ line of lipsticks, which the band of beauties wear to finish their blush looks.
I don’t like that falling feels like flying ’til the bone crush
This line is thick with meanings. Taylor is referencing the beginning of the song (which references “This Love”) but also actually jumping off something high. Falling could be falling in love, or falling off something. At first the falling was exciting and like flying, a positive thing. But then the falling was more like losing control and about to smash into the ground/consequences.
[Verse 1]
What must it be like to grow up that beautiful?
With your hair falling into place like dominoes
Karlie grows up beautiful–and the hair falling into place shows Taylor’s opinion that Karlie is pretty without even trying. It’s kind of an envious thought, I think. Hair fallin’ into place like dominoes is a very cleaver line, packed with meaning. Dominos fall by one knocking into the next, influencing it to fall, then that one pushing the third over, until a whole line has taken the action of the first domino. Karlie’s beauty acts in the same manner. People see her and emulate her look. Fans are influenced to buy products when they see how good Karlie looks in them. Karlie’s looks start trends and generate sales.
I see me padding across your wooden floors
With my Eagles t-shirt hanging from the door
This verse contrasts Karlie and her easy beauty with Taylors more down-to-Earth look. Taylor observes Karlie’s obvious beauty and charisma, but she herself is a musical gal that has to try very hard.
[Refrain]
At dinner parties, I call you out on your contrarian shit
The “at dinner parties” line makes me think of this viral moment from Project Runway:
As the judges critiqued the completed looks, designer Brandon Maxwell told Neasloney that he couldn’t see Kloss wearing the 29-year-old’s outfit “anywhere.” [The designer responded] “Not even to dinner with the Kushners?”
Kloss is married to venture capitalist Josh Kushner, whose brother Jared is married to Ivanka Trump. Jared currently works as a senior adviser to Donald Trump in the White House.
Jan 17, 2020 — Last year, while speaking to British Vogue, Kloss said being part of the Kushner family was sometimes “hard.” “But I choose to focus on the values that I share with my husband, and those are the same liberal values that I was raised with and that have guided me throughout my life,” she said.
con·trar·i·an /kənˈtre(ə)rēən/ noun
- a person who opposes or rejects popular opinion, especially in stock exchange dealing.
Taylor is showing us that she thinks Karlie is two-faced. Karlie will attend dinners with Trump-adjacent people, yet she says she has liberal politics. The fact these lines are here at all shows Taylor disapproves of Karlie being with a Kushner, and also looks down on Karlie playing both sides, kinda like, “A friend to all is a friend to none.” [“Cardigan”, folklore]
And the coastal town we wandered ’round had nеver seen a love as pure as it
Mar 5, 2014 — Taylor Swift and her model pal Karlie Kloss took a dreamy vacation to Big Sur, CA, this week.
And thеn it fades into the gray of my day-old tea
This line accomplishes 2 things: Tells us this song is Taylor daydreaming about a time in her past that she thought she liked at the time, but now realizes made her feel out of control. Secondly, it’s a very British reference (American’s like coffee)–and red herring, in my opinion, trying to tell us Taylor is currently living a more British lifestyle with her UK “boyfriend.”
‘Cause it could never be
For many reasons this time in the past that Taylor is thinking about was just a moment in time, and not sustainable.
[Chorus repeats]
[Verse 2]
What must it be like to grow up that beautiful?
With your hair falling into place like dominoes
My mind turns your life into folklore
I can’t dare to dream about you anymore
Taylor reminds the listener this is a daydream. The line might also reference “Wildest Dreams” [1989] you know the one with the video that featured gold and a giraffe? Both Karlie symbols.
Say you’ll remember me, Standing in a nice dress, Staring at the sunset, babe, Red lips and rosy cheeks, Say you’ll see me again, Even if it’s just in your (just pretend, just pretend), Wildest dreams
In Gold Rush Taylor says she can’t dare to dream anymore, and in “Wildest Dreams” Taylor acknowledges that the dreamy relationship was “just pretend” to the subject of the song.
[Refrain repeats]
The Outro is the same as the intro. But the “Cause it can never be” line of the refrain immediately precedes the “gleaming, “twinkling” of the outro. Taylor ends her daydream by thinking that past time and relationship were not real gold, it was gilded. Then, musically, the sudden ending of the song may symbolize the sudden ending of that relationship/daydream about it.
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Catty Remarks