When "The Life of a Showgirl" came out, fans on social media rushed to rank their favorite songs; I resisted this because I insisted that as a "no skips" album, all the songs were my favorite. I could no more rank them than I could rank my favorite pets or kids.
I can totally rank my favorite current pets: 1) Oscar (dog), 2) Loki (cat), 3) Bernie (cat), 4) Archie (dog), 5) Bailey (dog), 6) Penny (cat).
No, I'm not ranking the kids.
But I am going to rank the songs on Showgirl with the caveat that I maintain that each song is worth listening to. These are indications of personal preference and not any sort of qualitative value judgment, which is why I'm not numbering them. If they deviate from yours, it's a subjective assessment only, and I invite you to share your own list if you wish.
Ruin the Friendship CANCELLED! The Fate of Ophelia Opalite Wood Elizabeth Taylor Actually Romantic Eldest Daughter Father Figure Wi$h Li$t Honey The Life of a Showgirl
A friend I mentioned in the opening post of this series, Steve Lewis, has been ranking his Top 100 favorite songs since he was a teen, and he updates them every few years. If you go back to May 2019 on this blog, you'll see my one-and-only Top 100 post. I've been thinking it's time to update my list, but I have a problem.
I'm going to have too many Taylor Swift songs. If it's a Top 100, at least 25 songs, if not more, are going to be Taylor's. Let's take a look in reverse chronology, and I'm only listing my essential favorites:
The Tortured Poets Department Down Bad, But Daddy I Love Him, Guilty as Sin?, The Black Dog, Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus, So High School, thanK you aIMee (7)
Midnights Anti-Hero, You're on Your Own, Kid, Vigilante Shit, Bejeweled, Karma, Hits Different (6)
evermore 'tis the damn season, no body, no crime (2)
folklore the 1, cardigan, the last great american dynasty, august, betty (5)
Lover Cruel Summer, Lover, The Man, You Need to Calm Down, ME! (5)
Reputation ...Ready For It?, Don't Blame Me, Delicate, Look What You Made Me Do (4)
1989 Blank Space, Style, Shake It Off, New Romantics (4)
Red 22, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (2)
Speak Now Mine, Back to December, Long Live (3)
Fearless Fearless, Fifteen, Love Story, White Horse, You Belong With Me, Forever & Always (6)
Nothing on Debut...sorry. But even if you cut "Showgirl" down to my top six songs, that leaves me with—OMG is that right?—50 songs. Fifty songs? So half of my top 100 will be Taylor songs? But I have way more than 50 non-Taylor songs that I want in my top 100?
3. Key Lyric: "I'm married to the hustle / And now I know the life of a showgirl, babe ... Wouldn't have it any other way"
4. Favorite Lyric: "And all the headshots on the walls of the dance hall are of the bitches who wish I'd hurry up and die / But I'm immortal now, baby dolls / I couldn't if I tried"
5. Taylor's Callback: "Look What You Made Me Do"
6. TL/DR: "Sequins are forever"
7. Previous Track 12s: I'm Only Me When I'm With You, The Best Day, Haunted, Sad Beautiful Tragic, I Know Places, Dress, Soon You'll Get Better, mad woman, long story short, Sweet Nothing, loml
The title track of the album is the perfect ending to a nearly flawless album, and she illustrates the lyrical narrative of a jaded performer telling a starstruck ingenue "you don't want this life" by dueting with her own protege, Sabrina Carpenter.
I'll admit I didn't connect with the music on this song the first time I heard it. It's out of place in terms of the Martin/Shellback rhythmic foundation of most of the rest of the songs here, and it's something new and unusual for Taylor, as well, as it's straight out of the score of a Broadway musical.
The best part musically is the bridge, which as usual, is also the best part of Taylor's lyrics, in which she and Sabrina tell the story of all the sacrifices they made to make it in the business. Sabrina sings the most telling of the lyric, singing "Do you wanna take a skate on the ice inside my veins? They ripped me off like false lashes and then threw me away."
Taylor ends the bridge with her callback to "Look What You Made Me Do" of resurrection, singing that "the bitches who wish I'd hurry up and die" are completely out of luck: "I'm immortal now, baby dolls, I couldn't if I tried."
What a triumphant coda to a magnificent album. Taylor and Sabrina take a cautionary tale of hardship, obstacles, and rejection and through their talent and determination, come out not only as heroes but as women who have surpassed their role model in terms of satisfaction: "Now I know the life of a showgirl, babe / Wouldn't have it any other way."
Taylor breaks through the fourth wall in the outro with actual audio from the end of one of her Eras Tour shows featuring Sabrina on stage with her. In doing so, Taylor emerges from the confines of the stage into the real world, having made her own showgirl dreams come true.
But that's not the only thing she's accomplished. She's also found a life partner who understands, accepts, and celebrates her fame and talent, who encourages her to grow and achieve in her own life, who blooms under the bright lights that always surround her—Travis is a showman himself, and this album is a celebration of Taylor's past and present, not a final encore but a definitive statement that the best is still yet to come.
3. Key Lyric: "You can call me 'Honey" if you want because I'm the one you want"
4. Favorite Lyric: "Buy the paint in the color of your eyes / And graffiti my whole damn life / Honey"
5. Taylor's Callback: none specifically
6. TL/DR: Travis is my Honey!
7. Previous Track 11s: Our Song, Forever & Always, Innocent, Holy Ground, This Love, Dancing with Our Hands Tied, London Boy, invisible string, cowboy like me, Karma, I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
"Honey" is the pretty girl at the dance who sits alone at a table, overlooked, hoping the right person will come along and ask her to dance. It's the most overlooked track on the album while also being a favorite on social media lists, usually in the form of, "Who else loves 'Honey'?"
Unlike most of the rest of the songs on the album, this one needs no deep analysis. There are no literary references to speak of, and no direct callbacks except for a thematic association with the Eras Tour-created lyric addition to "Karma": "Karma is the guy on the Chiefs, coming straight home to me."
The first time I listened to this album, my initial reaction was, "This is her Travis Kelce album." Multiple listens haven't changed my mind any; in fact, it's deepened that conviction. Sure, not every track relates directly to Travis, but if most of her past albums were about heartbreak and longing, this one is about happiness and fulfillment.
"Honey" juxtaposes both those ideas, the before and the after, the bitches at the bar telling her to back off, the white-teethed girls mocking her skirt, the guys who called her up and night and forgot about her in the morning...
Travis is the after—playing house as her "forever night stand"; calling her "lovely" because he's in awe of her (look at his face at the Eras Tour); his love "redefines all of those blues" of her past, her insecurities and disappointments.
She uses three pet names in particular: honey, sweetheart, and lovely, and contrasts their past usage in a negative and condescending sense with his use of them in love and sincerity. In her past, hearing those words was always associated with someone putting her down. When Travis uses them, they lift her up.
The music is straight out of a classic Mariah Carey love song in every way—instrumentation, rhythm, beat, tone...everything except Taylor trying to sing way too high out of her register. But her vocal tone here is sweet and innocent, much as Carey's was at the beginning of her career.
This song won't blow you away with complex lyrics or innovative musicality. It's as familiar and comfortable as your favorite pair of slippers and sweatpants. But like that girl at the dance, if you take her for a spin, she'll stick in your mind long afterward.
2. Literary References: "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare (Something wicked this way comes); "Underworld" relates to Hades, either the Greek Mythology version or James Woods's masterclass Disney villain performance.
3. Key Lyric: "Can't you see my infamy loves company / Now they've broken you like they've broken me / But a shattered glass is a lot more sharp"
4. Favorite Lyric: "Tone deaf and hot, let's fuckin' OFF HER!"
5. Taylor's Callback: "Look What You Made Me Do" x "The Man" x "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?"
6. TL/DR: Fuck the Patriarchy!
7. Previous Track 10s: Mary's Song, The Way I Loved You, Better Than Revenge, The Last Time, How You Get the Girl, King of My Heart, Death By a Thousand Cuts, illicit affairs, ivy, Labyrinth, Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?
If I had to pick my favorite song on Showgirl, "CANCELLED!" would be my top choice right now. I adore this song, mainly because it's Petty Taylor at her best.
I've heard some critics and fans denigrate this song because they think it has something to do with "cancel culture," or they try to decode whether she's singing about Blake Lively or Brittany Mahomes. They're all wrong on both accounts.
If you listen to the lyrics, it's obvious that this song is two things. First, it's "The Man" if it had been a track on "Reputation." She's singing about the patriarchy, and it's clearly stated in the first two verses.
In verse one, she sings, "Did you girl-boss too close to the sun? / Did they catch you having far too much fun?" The sun references the myth of Icarus, who died because he flew too high, and the sun melted the wax off his wings, and he fell into the ocean. In the song, a woman was in charge but exceeded her limits and was having more fun that the men who run the world allotted for her.
In verse two, the lyrics are, "Did you make a joke only a man could? / Were you just too smug for your own good? / Or bring a tiny violin to a knife fight?" These are all condemnations of women's behavior and attitudes on the part of a patriarchal society. The punishment is, of course, cancellation.
The beginning of the second verse is an indictment of the music business, where she says a woman's popularity is celebrated because "everyone prospers." But one mistake spells disaster: "One single drop, you're off the roster / Tone deaf and hot, let's fuckin' OFF HER!"
The second meaning of the song is a further development of "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" The image of the woman/witch she created on TTPD extends here with the line from Macbeth (Something wicked this way comes), spoken by the three witches.
Furthermore, the answer to the question, "Who's afraid?" is "You should be." That's even more true here. Like she said in "Look What You Made Me Do," the old Taylor can't come to the phone...because she's dead. But in "CANCELLED!", the new Taylor has already been to the Underworld and come back as an indestructible force.
So the Kanyes and Kims of the world can do their worst; she's already been cancelled and come back from the dead. Her friends—the ones with the matching scars—have experienced the same thing, and now she, like Hermes, is their guide to emerging back to Earth, scarred but powerful.
The music and the lyrics are straight out of the very best of Disney villain songs, with the very best of these being Ursula's "Poor, Unfortunate Souls" from "The Little Mermaid." Taylor sings with the same confidence, and the music is as theatrical as the lyrics demand.
The most memorable part musically, for me at least, is in verse three, where the music is a repeating series of dark chords in a minor key that build toward the dramatic final chorus. The song has the same structure, dynamics, and drama as the most memorable Disney villain songs (I'll add Scar's "Be Prepared" here as another example, because "The Lion King" is based on "Hamlet" by Shakespeare, and now you see why Swifties get lost in rabbit holes chasing Easter eggs...).
The final chorus brings all these elements together both musically and lyrically, with the full instrumentation of a film score, the underlying backup vocals and call-outs, and the lyrical theme, with the first meaning expressed in the line, "I salute you if you're much too much to handle," directed at the women who don't submit to male expectations.
The second meaning comes out in what I identified as the key verse: "Can't you see my infamy loves company / Now they've broken you like they've broken me / But a shattered glass is a lot more sharp." The men in power think they've broken them, but they've only exposed the sharp edges of their defiance, making them stronger than they were before.
I'm begging the universe for a video for this song with Taylor dressed as an evil queen and her celebrity friends (Selena Gomez and Sabrina Carpenter for starters) being transformed from princesses to villains as the song goes along. She's already done the fairy tale twist with "Bejeweled"; this would be the final jewel in her crown.
2. Literary References: "Dancing in the Dark" by Bruce Springsteen; "Superstitious" by Stevie Wonder; every dick joke ever made by Shakespeare
3. Key Lyric: "Redwood tree, it ain't hard to see, his love was the key that opened my thighs"
4. Favorite Lyric: "Girls, I don't need to catch the bouquet to know a hard rock is on the way"
5. Taylor's Callback: Daisy from "Don't Blame Me" and "You're On Your Own, Kid"; "Wi$h Li$t"
6. TL/DR: Yeah, it's big...
7. Previous Track 9s: Should've Said No, You're Not Sorry, Enchanted, Stay Stay Stay, Wildest Dreams, Getaway Car, Cornelia Street, this is me trying, coney island, Bejeweled, Guilty as Sin?
First of all, let's dispense with all the giggly junior high-level sexual references, okay? Yes, she's singing about Travis's junk. Yeah, she's definitely enjoying all the sex. Redwood tree? He's six-foot-five, you do the math.
God forbid a 35-year-old woman enjoys having sex with her fiancé. We've never heard of such a thing! How dare she sing about such things in such an open and vulgar way!
Sit down, Gladys Kravitz!
My generation was raised on Prince singing about Trojans and some of them used in "Little Red Corvette." We listened to Madonna sing "Justify My Love" and George Michael sing "I Want Your Sex." Everybody just calm down!
"Wood" is so much fun to listen to. If you listen to the beginning of the track with headphones, you will hear the song open with the sound effect of someone pressing "play" on a cassette tape player. What follows is directly reminiscent of the Jackson Five's "I Want You Back," with a funky guitar-bass-drum beat that draws you right into the song.
She opens her lyrics with a series of superstitious images—picking petals from a daisy (he loves me not), an unlucky penny, stepping on a crack, a black cat—that leads to the pre-chorus, in which the beat levels out into a groove that literally sounds "Superstitious," the Stevie Wonder classic.
More sound effects here, with two wooden knocks preceding the "knock on wood" line, another superstition, along with crossing fingers for luck, and as the chorus begins, wishing on a falling star, which is itself a callback to "Wi$h Li$t."
More superstitions in the second verse/pre-chorus, including catching a wedding bouquet (heh-heh-heh she said "hard rock" heh-heh-heh) and a magic wand (What? Is that dirty?). In case all of this has gone over anyone's head, she declares "you and me, we make our own luck" and then calls out Travis's "New Heights" podcast with his brother, Jason, where Taylor first announced this album.
Don't think that Travis wasn't just about to burst trying to contain his glee during that announcement. The NFL is a hyper-macho culture, and having your fiancé sing the joys of your "manhood" is gold medal-level hype.
So what's the point? First, as your favorite "English teacher," she's going to point out Shakespeare's dirty little secret that never got pointed out in your high school class but was the best part about taking the class in college: Will filled his plays with dick jokes. They're everywhere in both his comedies and tragedies.
Here's another Shakespeare link I forgot to mention in track two: Elizabeth Taylor played Kate opposite two-time hubby Richard Burton's Petruchio in a film version of "The Taming of the Shrew," which features this classic exchange:
PETRUCHIO: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail. KATHARINA: In his tongue. PETRUCHIO: Whose tongue? KATHARINA: Yours, if you talk of tails: and so farewell. PETRUCHIO: What, with my tongue in your tail?
Much has been made of the lyric, "Redwood tree, it ain't hard to see, his love was the key to open my thighs." The sexual imagery is as obvious as Kate and Petruchio, but in order for a double-entendre to work, there has to be a double meaning, and this is the bit I think most critics are overlooking.
Redwood trees are tall, and Taylor's a tall girl, 5'-11" barefoot, and she likes to wear high heels. Many of her past boyfriends were shorter than her, and it's not unusual for some men to feel intimidated by a tall woman. Travis is much taller than Taylor, and quite broad-shouldered as well with his pro football physique.
She feels safe with him. Standing next to him, he's much bigger than she is, and I think she's saying that his love makes her feel safe. Yeah, the "opened my thighs" line is outwardly sexual, but metaphorically, it's opening oneself up in the most intimate way, not only sexual but mentally and emotionally as well.
Anyone who is a fan of 1970s-era funk-infused R&B is going to dig the music here. As usual, the bass line is fantastic, especially the upward run right at the "New Heights" lyric; it's a virtuoso performance.
I love that she's so openly celebrating the joy of sex in this song. It's a perfect track nine counterpart to my favorite song from TTPD, "Guilty As Sin?" in which she layers the same level of double-entendres to sing about the joys of female self-pleasure. It's both a clever and beautiful song that questions the religious-based sexual hang-ups that plague our culture, and her voice is as sensuous as it's ever sounded.
There was a question then whether the object of her desire in "Guilty As Sin?" was Travis, but lyrically, it didn't even really have to be about anyone in particular, just a woman with a vivid imagination. There's no question at all about "Wood," however.
Any man who recorded a song like this, such as Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake, or The Weeknd (who all have, incidentally) wouldn't have raised so much as an eyebrow. But God forbid any woman sings about how much she enjoys the physical pleasures of sex! This may have been the point of including this song: she's tacitly making the point that she gets criticized for doing something for which a man would be celebrated.
Plus, and I can't emphasize this point enough, this song is my JAM!
3. Key Lyric: "Please, God, bring me a best friend who I think is hot"
4. Favorite Lyric: "We tell the world to leave us the fuck alone, and they do...Wow!"
5. Taylor's Callback: Thematically, "The Alchemy" and "So High School" along with a line from "Elizabeth Taylor"
6. TL/DR: I'm gonna have Travis's babies!
7. Previous Track 8s: Stay Beautiful, Tell Me Why, Never Grow Up, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, I Know Places, Gorgeous, Paper Rings, this is me trying, tolerate it, Sweet Nothing, loml
I have less to say about this song than probably any other track on the album because of its simplicity. She's in love and dreaming about her future life with Travis Kelce, and that chorus contrasts with a list of wishes that she indexes in the verses.
The other wishes are the standard fare of fame, fortune, and success, all things that she has achieved one hundred-fold. All she wants now is a couple of kids and a basketball hoop in the driveway.
How very dare she!
The criticism that the trolls and bots dropped on social media about this track was just absurd. She was accused of promoting the "trad-wife" lifestyle (which is bullshit in the first place; it's performative nonsense from rich, privileged conservatives) and even white supremacist eugenics in the line "got the whole block looking like you."
As a father of seven kids (plus nine grandkids and counting), I can assure you that one of the biggest topics of conversation before and after the birth of a new baby is, "Who do you think he/she is going to look like?" Putting a nefarious meaning where it doesn't belong is nothing more than internet-based fuckery.
As far as the trad-wife stereotype, it's like none of you have ever listened to "But Daddy I Love Him," where she tells all the wine moms, "Fuck 'em, it's over." That was her strongest indictment against traditional religious hypocrisy and control. She's not going to turn around and champion it here.
What she's doing is answering her own question from "Elizabeth Taylor": "What do you get for the girl who has everything and nothing all at once?" All the trappings of fame are the nothing that she happily grants to all the others ("They deserve what they want / I hope they get what they want") in favor of a life of love, family, and happiness.
Anyone who thinks this idea is new or some kind of betrayal of her girl-power fuck-the-patriarchy feminism has someone missed every single love song she's ever written. Regardless of our political views, most of us want a romantic, intimate partner to share our lives with. Why would Taylor, who has written so many songs about her desire for love, not sing about the one who didn't get away?
She's also openly expressing her own wish for some measure of privacy ("We tell the world to leave us the fuck alone, and they do...wow!"), something that really is a wish that isn't going to come true. Just in the past week, she's been out with Travis twice in NYC, and the paparazzi is as thick as flies on a picnic potato salad wherever they go. Sometimes you have to trade one wish for another, and everything comes at a price.
Taylor's always been open that her fame and lack of privacy was something that she signed up for, the result of her own desire for success in the music industry. That's not going to diminish when she's engaged to one of the best-known players in the NFL, either. Not all her wishes can or will come true.
The music here is a stripped-down trip-hop kind of beat, and her falsetto singing on the chorus gave me Prince vibes from the first listen. If I were to rank my favorite songs on the album, this would probably be in my bottom three, but like I said from the outset, there are no skips on this album, and this track has already been named by many (including future sister-in-law Kylie Kelce) as their favorite.
Perhaps the best contrast comes from the track eight listings. Number eight on Tortured Poets Department was "loml," which may be the most depressing song that Taylor has ever recorded. Compare that to "Wi$h Li$t," where she is quite giddy about marriage and motherhood. Who wouldn't want that kind of happiness for someone who has finally found it?
2. Literary References: Literally every insult Shakespeare ever wrote into his plays
3. Key Lyric: "And I know you think it comes off vicious / But it's precious, adorable / Like a toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse / That's how much it hurts"
5. Taylor's Callback: "Reputation." All of it. Also, "thanK you, aIMee"
6. TL/DR: I love living rent-free in your head
7. Previous Track 7s: Tied Together with a Smile, Breathe, The Story of Us, I Almost Do, I Wish You Would, So It Goes..., Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince, seven, happiness, Question...?, Fresh Out the Slammer
Honestly, I just love petty Taylor; she writes the best songs. And I think her petty songs are probably when we get the closest to knowing anything at all about the real Taylor Allison Swift.
Before we go any farther, however, please remember that in poetry, the lines don't always have a singular, literal meaning, and we should never confuse the poetic speaker (in these cases, the singer) with the poet (or the songwriter).
Having said that, is this song directed specifically at Charlie XCX? Maybe, but that's actually not important. All of Taylor's petty/revenge songs are targeted at one person: Kanye MFing West, and by extension, his duplicitous ex-wife Kim Kardashian.
Hang in there with me; this is a curvy road, but I have a map.
Taylor revealed something insightful during her most recent interview with Seth Meyers, in which she said that baking sourdough bread is something that keeps her mind distracted from writing songs. I suspect her time with Travis is much the same; not that it's not genuine, but it's something else to do with her life other than writing songs and hanging out with her cats.
Because let's get something very specific out of the way regarding Taylor Swift: she's an absolute genius at songwriting, and as so, she is very much a freaky outlier to the rest of the human race. She was born to write songs, and because of that, her singular focus in her life was to become famous singer and songwriter. It's been the only thing she's ever wanted since she was a little kid.
Her parents moved the whole family to Nashville to help her chase her dream. She got signed to a record label when she was still in high school. She won her first Album of the Year Grammy for her second album at age 21. And who came the closest to destroying her dream? Kanye West? Who forced her to go in exile in England based on a series of lies and deceptions? Kanye and Kim.
Anyone who doubts this may not have experienced what it was like to be bullied as a child. Taylor did. Artists always are. Today's rock stars were nerds, freaks, and outcasts in high school; why do you think they spent all that time in their room learning how to play a guitar? To try to be seen as cool, which they definitely were not.
Taylor was not popular in high school; that much comes through in so many of her songs. Her romantic insecurities are deeply rooted in the heartbreak of past failed relationships. But that pales in comparison to the two people who tried to, in her mind, end her life by ending her ability to make a living as a writer and performer. Every revenge song starts with Kanye and Kim.
That's why "Actually Romantic" is the best revenge song of them all, because it illustrates the concept of someone "living rent-free in your head" and turns it into a biting, condescending retort: "And I know you think it comes off vicious / But it's precious, adorable / Like a toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse / That's how much it hurts."
Ouch.
Now, she certainly can be saying the same thing to Charlie XCX, but she's also saying it to the legions of haters on the Internet who literally live for the chance to cut her down. She's saying that it not only fuels her creativity but that it makes her sexually excited. Given the number of incels who hate her and spend all their time online making it known, that must really hit below the belt.
(See what I did there?)
She does all of this with a phony-sweet voice over distorted indie-rock guitars, the most guitar-driven track on the album. As usual, the bridge is the best part of the song, both lyrically and musically, with the "Stop talking dirty to me!" shouted out like the chorus of a rock anthem.
As to the literary allusions, books have, quite literally, been written about Shakespeare's play-based insults. Here's an appropriately nasty one for this song: "This woman's an easy glove, my lord, she goes off and on at pleasure." (All's Well That End's Well)
This is a nasty song, both sexually and civilly, and it's the kind of clapback that only someone who has been bullied would really understand. It's often been said that living well is the best revenge, but in reality, living well and telling the former bullies how wonderfully it's all going is actually the best revenge.
"thanK you, aIMee" on Tortured Poets was the light side of the story, with Taylor recognizing how her drive to come back from exile is what drove her to new heights of creativity and success. "Actually Romantic" is the petty dark side that reminds us that while Taylor may someday forgive, she's never going to forget.
If you've never listened to this song before, please watch the video before you read today's blog.
1. Musical Style: '90s/'00s Alt-Pop Female
2. Literary References: Alfred, Lord Tennyson; 50Cent
3. Key Lyric: "My advice is always ruin the friendship / Better that than regret it for all time"
4. Favorite Lyric: "But I whispered at the grave / Should've kissed you anyway"
5. Taylor's Callback: "Fifteen," "You Belong With Me"
6. TL/DR: I wish I'd kissed that boy who died.
7. Previous Track 6s: The Outside, You Belong With Me, Mean, 22, Shake It Off, Look What You Made Me Do, I Think He Knows, mirrorball, no body no crime, Midnight Rain, But Daddy I Love Him.
Maybe the best song on the album, "Ruin the Friendship" is the tear-jerker, the song that will make Swifties cry every time they listen, and if you haven't heard the song yet, I've just spoiled it for you. Sorry about that. On the other hand, if you're this far into this blog series, you've probably heard the album as much as I have.
This song is most directly linked with her Fearless album in terms of both music and lyrics. The tune is dominated by jangly acoustic guitar, bringing back memories of her early career, with Martin and Shellback returning with their catchy drum-and-bass line that sounds like songs from that decade.
Taylor's voice is also a callback in itself, with her imitating the breathy, plaintive tone of her first three albums, which is genius, because she is going back to high school in the lyrics with a surprising and heartbreaking twist.
The story is simple, a variation of Fearless's track six, "You Belong With Me," with the object of her affection a boy who's dating the wrong girl, so she chooses not to kiss him when she had her chance. Later, he's available, but she's worried about the ex-girlfriend ("Don't make it awkward in second period / Might piss your ex off / Lately we've been good / Staying friends is safe / Doesn't mean we should"), and so they miss their chance.
We know it's a "Fifteen" song because her legendary BFF Abigail shows up with "the bad news," and we discover that the unkissed boy has passed away after Taylor left to pursue her dreams. I'm choking up with tears just typing the lyric, "But I whispered at the grave / Should've kissed you anyway."
I wonder what my neighbors think when I'm running and crying at the same time when I listen to this album on my morning run? It's a weird vibe!
Two interesting things happen in this song for me. The music is happy as hell, with a super-catchy melody and the aforementioned backbeat rhythm that gives the song an upbeat vibe. In this sense, it reminds me of the Everclear classic "Wonderful," which sounds like an upbeat alt-rock single, but the lyrics are a teenage boy screaming with rage at his parents' divorce.
In the same way, Taylor's heartbreak at this unexpected loss—a loss of teenage innocence, no less, since they never kissed—juxtaposed against a happy, upbeat musical arrangement only intensifies the emotion of his death and her reaction.
The other thing she does that I love in this song is how she plays with the syllables of the words "invitation" and "convenient" in the chorus. It's hard to reproduce in writing, but she stresses and elongates the "tay" sound in invitation (an-in-vi-TAY-shuun) and stretches out convenient into a triplet (cuuun-veeen-uunt). The way she changes the rhythm of those words makes them sound so interesting.
The final chorus is backtracked with about four levels of background vocals, probably all Taylor herself, but her lead track jumps out with the lesson learned: "My advice is always ruin the friendship / Better that than regret it for all time." The literary allusion is from Tennyson—"Better to have loved, and lost, than never loved at all," from his poem "In Memorium A.H.H.," in which someone he loved also died.
When you survey the brilliance of her former track sixes, it's easy to see why she placed this song at six on Showgirl. While this song will probably not scale the same heights as "22" or "Shake It Off" in terms of worldwide popularity, it's alignment with "You Belong With Me" and "But Daddy I Love Him" will almost certainly elevate this song to a fan favorite.
2. Literary References: "Lamb to the Slaughter," a 1953 short story by Roald Dahl; "Smooth Operators" links up with the '80s classic single by Sade. Oh, and she uses another line that you might recognize: "Never gonna let you down."
3. Key Lyric: "When I said I don't believe in marriage, that was a lie."
4. Favorite Lyric: "I have been afflicted by a terminal uniqueness / I've been dying just from trying to seem cool"
5. Taylor's Callback: The brilliant chorus of "Mine," and the line, "You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter" is foreshadowed with the new lyric in the bridge, "Pretty soon I learned cautious discretion / When your first crush crushes something kind."
6. TL/DR: Travis makes me feel young, innocent, and hopeful.
7. Previous Track 5s: Cold as You, White Horse, Dear John, All Too Well, All You Had to Do Was Stay, Delicate, The Archer, My Tears Ricochet, Tolerate It, You're on Your Own, Kid, So Long London.
In Swiftie lore, every track five is the emotionally devastating breakup song, and the list above bears out that belief. The only songs not directly negative are Delicate (Reputation), in which the singer is suspicious of her new love and unsure if it's real, and The Archer (Lover), ambiguous in its lyrics, doubtful of the future of the romance, and definitely not a love song.
Ironically, Travis Kelce's trademark celebration move is "the archer," miming shooting a bow-and-arrow, and Taylor mimicked his move on stage during the Eras Tour, particularly when Travis was in attendance. Sometimes the universe just aligns itself.
"Eldest Daughter" has the same tone of fear and doubt about herself and the possibility of love, but instead of putting the blame on the faithless lover, she indicts her own insecurities about love and overcomes them with a pledge of devotion and faithfulness.
It's an amazing departure from what track five has always meant for Taylor, and it's the clearest indication of how her songwriting has changed as a result of a relationship nearing the apex of its fulfillment. This is her way of completing The Beatles' declaration of "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah!" in her own unique way.
The opening verse is an indictment of Internet culture, that digital monster that has both celebrated and reviled her since its inception. The concluding lines, "I have been afflicted by a terminal uniqueness, I've been dying just from trying to seem cool" resonates as the deepest truth. We all wear masks online, we all want to go viral and get all those likes, but it's all an act.
She goes on in the chorus to disavow the expected trends; she's not a "bad bitch," her words aren't "savage." In fact, they're as vanilla and trite as you might expect from a lovesick girl to write: "I'm never gonna let you down / I'm never gonna leave you out."
Did Taylor just fucking Rickroll us?
At the heart of Taylor's lyrics is always that insecure, needy teenage girl who just wants to find love and a feeling of belonging. It resonates through the lyrics of all her track five songs. People who have found her lyrics "cringe" in this album have missed the point of it all.
Love and acceptance, in its purest form, feels this simple. "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah!" She doesn't need to ornament it with poetry this time because it's the real thing.
This song compares the feelings of an adult woman in love to moments of sadness and joy in childhood. The second verse includes a marvelous callback to the "careful daughter" of "Mine" when she sings, "Pretty soon I learned cautious discretion." The physical injury of the broken arm aligns with "When your first crush crushes something kind."
The lyrics of the verses and bridge are complicated in juxtaposition to the simplicity of her lovestruck vows in the chorus. Again, Taylor doesn't do anything unintentionally in her writing. None of this is an accident for the "Mastermind."
The bridge is one of the most gorgeous bits of writing and singing she's ever done, bringing the past and the present together with the lines, "'Cause I thought that I'd never find that beautiful, beautiful life that / Shimmers that innocent light back / Like when we were young."
The final pre-chorus tells us the rest of the story: "Every youngest child felt / They were raised up in the wild / But now you're home."
Travis is the youngest child, both literally in his family and musically for this lyric. In the past, Taylor's track fives exposed the pain that resulted from her vulnerable insecurities; this closes the book on all that heartache for her to make the honest declaration that had always been a lie told to her in the past: "I'm never gonna leave you now."
It's also significant that the music for this song is nothing more than a piano and acoustic guitar. All the rhythmic mastery that informs the rest of the album is stripped away, going back to Taylor's own musical beginnings, playing piano and guitar on her own.
"Eldest Daughter" stands out as unique on this album as well as in the Swiftie pantheon of track fives by upending all our expectations about what this song was going to be and what she had imagined true love would be like.
1. Musical Style: 1960s Jazz fused with late-Eighties George Michael
2. Literary References: "A Star Is Born" (1937, 1954, 1976, 2018), "Don't You Want Me?" by the Human League, "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo
3. Key Lyric: "This Empire belongs to me"
4. Favorite Lyric: "You'll be sleeping with the fishes before you know you're drowning"
5. Taylor's Callback: "All Too Well," particularly the famous line, "Fuck the Patriarchy!" Also, thematically, "The Man."
6. TL/DR: He said loyalty; he meant servitude.
7. Previous Track 4s: A Place in This World, Hey Stephen, Speak Now, I Knew You Were Trouble, Out of the Woods, Don't Blame Me, The Man, exile, 'tis the damn season, Snow on the Beach, Down Bad.
First things first: Look at those previous track fours...there was no way "Father Figure" was going to be anywhere else on the Showgirl playlist. Almost all of these songs deal with some kind of conflict, either within the persona of the singer or with an outside force.
I had an epiphany yesterday while thinking about this song and what I wanted to write today: nowhere in the lyrics does she ever mention the music industry! The first time I heard this, I thought it was a diss track to Scott Borchetta, the CEO of Big Machine Records, Taylor's first music label.
It may be that, but it's much more than that. It's natural to associate this song with the music industry because of its connection with George Michael, another singer with a famous feud with record executives who wanted him to look and sing in a particular way.
He broke away from this (and finally came out as gay) in the single "Freedom 90" from his brilliant album "Listen Without Prejudice." Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol to get out of his record contract with Warner Brothers. Taylor, of course, fought for years to regain ownership of her original master recordings.
All this background, combined with the general knowledge of how the music industry treats new acts, makes the song seem obviously linked to the classic story, "A Star is Born," in which an older man brings a young woman from obscurity to stardom, only to see her surpass him both professionally and personally.
But that's not what we find in the lyrics. It's "The Godfather" (Taylor's Version).
Look at all the Mafia-influenced images: "I protect the family," "made a deal with the devil," "sleeping with the fishes," the emphasis on loyalty above all else, the flaunting of wealth (the Jag, the chateau, paying the check, pure profit, portrait on the mantel) all evoke images of the Mafia Don outraged that his protege has the balls to try to rise up and break away from him.
The crude line "Because my dick's bigger" is not simply for shock value; it's another callback to "The Man" where she insists that the things she does for which she's criticized would be praised coming from a male singer, and this line is another example.
It's also linked to the idea of "Fuck the Patriarchy" from "All Too Well" because it covers the hyper-masculine world of all businesses, but particularly the music industry, in which machismo and bravado is celebrated in men but wholly unacceptable for its women.
Taylor is at the peak of her narrative skills with this song. It took me several listens to determine the voice of the lyrics and conclude it's the same persona throughout the song. On first listen, I thought the protege might have taken control of the narrative, but the point-of-view remains consistent throughout.
What we don't know, what is only implied and inferred, is whether the speaker is victorious or defeated at the end of the song. The final lyric, an echo of the first verse, "You remind me of a younger me, I saw potential," could be either an epitaph of dominance or a cry of remorse in defeat. Which one is it?
Musically, the song is intentionally evocative of Michael's original "Father Figure," for which Taylor received permission from his estate to create, a fitting tribute to a talent who left us far too soon. Taylor and her collaborators also create a jazz-influenced bridge that carries us to the climactic final verse where the speaker boldly declares, "This Empire belongs to me," even though the wealth of that empire is owed to the talent of the protege.
"Father Figure" is a triumph of musical and lyrical complexity, and it's no surprise that Swifties are citing this newest Track Four as their favorite on the album. This Empire clearly belongs to Taylor.
2. Literary References: "Storm Inside a Teacup" goes all the way back to Cicero; often used in American idiom as "tempest in a teacup."
3. Key Lyric: "This is just / A storm inside a teacup / But shelter here with me, my love / This life will beat you up"
4. Favorite Lyric: "I had a bad habit / Of missing lovers past / My brother used to call it / 'Eating out of the trash'"
5. Taylor's Callback: "I thought my house was haunted / I used to live with ghosts" calls back to "Haunted" from "Speak Now" as well as the "Anti-Hero" video, in which this idea is literally portrayed. Also...
6. TL/DR: "It's not that big of a deal...shake it off!"
7. Previous Track 3s: Teardrops on My Guitar, Love Story, Back to December, Treacherous, Style, I Did Something Bad, Lover, the last great american dynasty, gold rush, Anti-Hero, My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys.
If you're looking for the perfect pop confection, look no further than Taylor's track threes, and "Opalite" is the most unapologetically catchy pop tune on the entire album.
The lyrics are simple: both the characters in the narrative lived in the dark night of sadness until they found each other; now they've emerged together into the sunlight of happiness. The Beatles said it a bit more simply: "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah!" Taylor echoes this simplicity with "Now the sky is Opalite, oh, oh, oh, oh!"
For the third song in a row, give credit to Max Martin and Shellback for their drum and bass composition, which drives the song forward, especially on the bridge, which is where the song quite literally takes flight.
Taylor's vocals soar upward as she sings, "This is just / A storm inside a teacup," and the emotional effect is like soaring into the air. The rhythm intensifies this feeling, leading up to the climax of the bridge in which she builds four layers of harmony with the word love, once again echoing what The Beatles did with the bridge of their version of "Twist and Shout."
Someone on social media posted recently that "Taylor's honorary doctorate should have been in engineering because she's so good a building bridges." I wish I could give that person proper credit, because the bridge is always my most anticipated section of all her songs, and the bridge on "Opalite" elevates the song from catchy to classic.
This is the most infectiously memorable song on the album, the track that I loved the most upon my first listen. The link to Travis Kelce is also undeniable, as opal is his birthstone, and critics have praised its upbeat mood and lyrics, describing it as one of Taylor's most happy and optimistic songs of her career.
"Opalite" is certain to join the pantheon of legendary Taylor track threes, most notably "Anti-Hero," "Love Story," "Style," "Back to December," and "the last great american dynasty," all of which feature memorable narratives within brilliant melodies.
This is also probably the most danceable track on the album, and Internet creators, particularly in the Philippines, have already created viral Tik Tok videos choreographing the song. If Taylor makes her own video featuring more of Mandy Moore's dance moves, it might turn out to be her biggest hit of all time.
2. Literary References: "Antony and Cleopatra" by William Shakespeare
3. Key Lyric: "Hey, what could possibly get for the girl who has everything and nothing all at once?"
4. Favorite Lyric: "Babe, I would trade the Cartier for someone to trust (just kidding)."
5. Taylor's Callback: "...Ready for It?" from "Reputation"—"He can be my jailer, Burton to this Taylor, every love I've known in comparison is a failure."
6. TL/DR: "I wonder if I'll find the love that Liz Taylor couldn't?"
7. Previous Track 2s: Picture to Burn, Fifteen, Sparks Fly, Red, Blank Space, End Game, Cruel Summer, cardigan, champagne problems, Maroon, The Tortured Poets Department.
When I saw the track listings for Taylor's new album, which rolled out after her announcement on the "New Heights" podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce, I was most excited for her second track, "Elizabeth Taylor."
Shortly after, I got into an exchange with a young woman on Threads who had no idea who Liz Taylor even was. One of the most beautiful, talented, and celebrated actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Liz was also the most scandalous, going through seven husbands (eight, if you count Richard Burton twice, which she did) and enduring decades of tabloid journalism devoted to exposing every last detail of her private and public life.
Hmmm...that sounds awfully familiar, doesn't it?
It's no wonder Taylor chose another Taylor to write about. Hounded by the press for the entirety of her career, every relationship, big or small, detailed in every corner of the Internet, getting cancelled and moving to England, and performing under the brightest lights imaginable—the parallels of their life and fame are obvious.
The song is about that dynamic and how the right man overcomes it for her: "All the right guys / Promised they'd stay / Under bright lights / They withered away / But you bloom."
The first verse spells out one of the reasons why Travis is different for her: he's used to the brightest lights, and he blooms under them. Before that previous quote, she sings, "Oftentimes it doesn't feel so glamorous to be me."
One of the most important factors in understanding Taylor's life and art is that she willingly sacrificed having a "normal" life of privacy in exchange for fame as a singer. She asked for this life, so she doesn't have regrets, but she is a human being with emotions and desires, as was Elizabeth Taylor, and this tension between the famous life and the desire for love and security is the theme of this song.
The key verse and my favorite verse illustrate this tension perfectly. She is "the girl who has everything (fame) and nothing (love) all at once," but when she says she would trade one (Cartier) for the other (trust), she inserts, as an aside, "Just kidding."
Asides were a common technique for Shakespeare, who used the technique to allow his characters to speak the truth directly to the audience. The other Shakespeare connection, of course, is Liz Taylor's starring role as Cleopatra (no, I'm serious...this happened) beside perhaps her greatest love, Richard Burton.
Taylor and Burton also starred in the film version of the play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," about a married couple fighting as their relationship circles the drain of divorce. Both on screen and in the tabloids, Taylor and Burton lived their relationship within that tension of public and private lives.
For anyone too young to remember Elizabeth Taylor as a person, she was famous for her violet-colored eyes, which Taylor Swift uses as the hook for her chorus: "I'd cry my eyes violet / Elizabeth Taylor / Tell me for real / Do you think it's forever?"
Very few people know what it's like to be as famous as either of these Taylors, which is what I think makes the song so interesting. The bridge is lyrically complex as well, saying "All my white diamonds and lovers are forever," which references Liz's "White Diamonds" perfume brand as well as the classic James Bond film, "Diamonds Are Forever," another tie-in to Hollywood, which she also references in the chorus ("Be my N.Y. when Hollywood hates me / You're only as hot as your last hit, baby").
Swiftie lore takes the track number into serious account, and by placing "Elizabeth Taylor" at track two ("Been number one / but I never had two"), she places it among some of her best songs, including "Fifteen" (Fearless), "Blank Space" (1989), and "cardigan" (folklore).
The music uses lush Hollywood string arrangements underneath a modern rhythm that emphasizes bass and drums in the way that the first track establishes. The bass drop followed by the string hit at the beginning of the chorus is the most memorable hook, but I love the swell of strings in the bridge, which also serves as the outro.
Judging my social media reaction, many fans already credit this song as their favorite on the album, which is no surprise, as her past track twos have generated some of her most popular hits.
The song is basically a question: Travis is different from all her past romances, but can she be sure that it will last? She wrote this song before their famous proposal, but while diamonds are forever, not every love lasts as long, as she is well aware. She leaves us with the last line, "Don't you ever end up anything but mine..."
"Mine" was track one from "Speak Now," in which a young romance turns out to be the real thing, the one that lasts forever. Yeah, she's that clever and that specific. None of her lyrics are accidental.
2. Literary References: "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare
3. Key Lyric: "Keep it 100 on the land, the sea, the sky, pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibe"
4. Favorite Lyric: "Tis locked inside my memory, and only you possess the key, no longer drowning and deceived, all because you came for me."
5. Taylor's Callback: "The Alchemy" and "So High School" from "The Tortured Poets Department"; "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" (video)
6. TL/DR: "Travis saved me from drowning in my sadness"
The most amazing thing about Taylor's first track, first single, first video from "The Life of a Showgirl" is what a bop it is, given the subject matter. Ophelia is one of the most tragic characters in Shakespeare's plays, a young woman whose love for Hamlet is used as a political weapon that backfires on her, resulting in madness and suicide. Fun times!
Give credit on this song and the whole album to Taylor and her musical collaborators, Max Martin and Shellback, who crafted twelve songs that use drums and bass so effectively. The rhythms on these songs are the stars of the show, and they are front and center for Ophelia right from the get-go.
Taylor said she wanted the album to be a journey through different eras and styles of music, and the Sixties Girl-group vibe is revealed through the first chorus in the video, where she is part of a three-girl group performing the song in a club.
Others have pointed out the irony of Taylor's reputation for being a, how should I say it, less than masterful dancer against the fact that the chorus of Ophelia resulted in the biggest viral dance craze of 2025 on the Internet. Musically, the girl-group influence is found in the layered harmonies the trio of songwriters create throughout the track.
The key to my key lyric is the number 100, which is the sum of 13 (Taylor's birthday and favorite number) and 87 (Travis Kelce's jersey number). Credit goes to the "Switched on Pop" podcast for pointing this out.
There's no doubt that she's singing about her relationship with Travis here, but in a more allegorical style, reversing the tragic fate of Ophelia with the image of him saving her: "You dug me out of my grave; No longer drowning and deceived."
Many have pointed out, including Taylor herself, that her lyrics are not a direct revelation of her personal life. This is true for all poets; the poetic speaker should never be confused with the poet herself. However, the obviousness of the clues ("Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes") cannot be confused for anything else.
Taylor loves to do callbacks to her previous songs, something that many skilled songwriters do quite often (Sting is a master at this). Here the callback is not directly musical or lyrical but rather, once again, a "vibe," namely her two songs about Travis from "The Tortured Poets Department," "The Alchemy" and "So High School," both of which describe the vibe she has with Kelce.
She also does a wonderful callback in her video, where the next-to-last scene in a hotel room (#87, of course) features a band playing on the bed and a crowd of friends dancing happily, a direct homage to the same next-to-last scene of the video for "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" from her "Red" album.
In the final analysis, this may be her best opening track of any album (my favorites include "Mine," "...Ready for It?" and "The 1.") The melody is infectious without being annoying, the lyrics are insanely catchy, and the viral dance craze speaks for itself. Ophelia sets the bar ridiculously high for the rest of the album; watch as she keeps jumping right over it.
Exactly one month ago today was Friday, October 3. I was fortunate enough to be in Destin, FL, with my wife, Amy, celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. I woke up at dawn to take a walk along the white sand beach beside the Gulf of Mexico and listened to Taylor Swift's new album, "The Life of a Showgirl."
Now at this point, if you don't like her music or if you are turned off by all the attention she garners as a celebrity, you're not going to like this new blog series. That's fine with me. Feel free to navigate away and ignore this blog for the next couple of weeks.
But before you go, remember this: there's no such thing as bad music. Before you respond, just know this—Nickleback, the butt of so many "bad music" jokes, has sold 50 million albums worldwide. Somebody really likes their music.
Two of my best friends, Steve Lewis and Mike Tucker, have wildly divergent tastes in music from me. We often converse about new songs and older artists, but despite our friendship, we don't have much in common musically, and that's totally okay. Music is subjective, and it's okay to dislike someone else's taste in music without making it a character flaw in the other person.
I haven't posted here at Blogger in a long time. The last series I posted here was in 2019 about "No-Skip Albums." (If you don't like Taylor Swift, maybe browse through those posts before you go.) That series is appropriate, because "The Life of a Showgirl" is a total no-skip for me. In fact, I can't create a ranked list of songs because they are all individually so amazing.
That's what I'm going to be writing about for at least the next 12 posts. I'm going to do a deep dive into each of the tracks from her new album. I'll talk about the musical influences, the literary allusions, the pop culture connections, and my own thoughts about each song.
My daughter Tori introduced me to Taylor way back in her career with the "Fearless" album, which will be an important touchstone for her new work. I was a casual fan of 1989, and incidentally, so was Steve at the time. I did not pay attention to her again until FB friend Shenandoah Lynd (another friend with divergent musical tastes) recruited me into the Swiftie life.
At this point, I went back and consumed "Midnights," which is one of my favorite Taylor albums (more of that one later as well). Following that, I encountered "Folklore" through the Long Pond Sessions documentary on Disney Plus. Shortly after that, she released "The Tortured Poets Department," and I've been a full-blown Swiftie ever since.
That morning one month ago on the Destin beach was a revelation for me, an experience with an artist I already loved unlike many others. Probably the one that comes closest is with my favorite band, Tears for Fears, and their 2022 release "The Tipping Point."
However, it took me several listens to TFF's most recent album to really fall in love with the songs, and at this point, at least two of them are regular skips. Each song on Taylor's new album was amazing to my ears on the first listen, and each subsequent hearing only deepens my love for the album. I would have to think for a long time whether any album comes close to that.
Maybe "Wish" by The Cure or Kate Bush's "The Sensual World" are candidates for first-listen love, but those came out more than 30 years ago. This is new and fresh pop music, something that hasn't resonated with me for more than 20 years.
Final word: I like pop music, and I like popular pop music. I like hit singles. I like catchy melodies and infectious rhythms. MTV was always on when they only played music. I listened to Kasey Casem's "American Top 40" every week. This is my taste in music—it's very "vanilla old white dude," and I'm totally okay with that. I don't do edgy or avant-garde; I like what I like.
If you're still with me at this point, here's what's next. We'll go through the tracks, one by one, in album order. First up tomorrow is her first single, "The Fate of Ophelia." I hope that some of you will come along for the ride.
Photo credit: By Swift, Taylor (October 3, 2025). "The Life of a Showgirl". United States: Apple Music. Archived from the original on August 19, 2025. Retrieved August 19, 2025., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80734644
“I’m confused,” Siannon said. “Asha said you had crossed
over and couldn’t return. If that’s true, why are you here?”
He smiled and kissed her, and then he said, “My soul crossed
over because I had no unfinished business. This is the part of me that will
always be with you. Our life together, our love, our family, it’s all bound up
in your memories, and it’s as real as the image of me you see right now.”
“Remembering you is not the same as having you with me,” she
said.
“I know, my love,” Dylan said. “I would feel the same in
your place. But you’ve always been stronger than me. You have many years of
life ahead of you. I don’t want you to miss out on your next adventure out of grief.
I’ll be with you in every moment. I won’t be able to talk to you after this,
but you can talk to me, and I’ll always be listening.”
“Promise me one thing,” she said. “When it’s my time,
promise you’ll come for me.”
“I promise,” he said. “When you see me again, we’ll be
together for eternity.”
“That is worth living for,” she said. “I love you, Dylan.”
“I love you, Siannon,” he said. “You have mourned me well.
Now live for me, my darling.”
They embraced one last time, and then the light from the
amulet faded, and Dylan disappeared along with it. Siannon saw a man standing
at the top of the chamber.
