"Sad Beautiful Tragic" Song Meaning

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Sad Beautiful Tragic" from her Red album.

At first I thought this song might have been about Jake Gyllenhaal, the hint in the song was WHILE YOU WERE ON A TRAIN.  Over the last few weeks I've gained some more insight to this song, specifically from Taylor.

She didn't perform this song until September 8th, the last month of her Red USA tour.  And then she performed it the very last night of her Red tour.  The reason she didn't perform it before and performed it the last night is it is a song that is REALLY special to her.  She even tweeted about performing it live, and she doesn't normally do that.  If it was a song about Jake, she wouldn't have had so much reservation about performing it and she wouldn't have saved it til the last night of her tour when her fans were begging her to perform, "Tied Together With A Smile".

"What a sad, beautiful, tragic love affair..." Live in St. Paul, MN: http://t.co/6UR6OezRga
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) September 9, 2013

Taylor said in her stories behind the red songs, "Sad Beautiful Tragic is a song that wrote while I was on tour. It was just reflecting on something that was lost, and you can't get it back."

What was lost?

Taylor and Austin Swift

Her parents love, her parents have separated and/or divorced.  I don't really know all the details, and don't need to know, but this song is about their love..

That's why it means so much to her, why she had hesitations about performing it, and why she performed it at her finale concert.

On September 8th in St. Paul Minnesota she said, "This is a song that I wrote about how just because something is over doesn't mean it wasn't incredibly beautiful.  Cause another lesson I've learned is that not all stories have a happy ending and you have to learn how to deal with that. This is a song about a story that didn't end so happily, but it was still supposed to happen.  This is called, Sad Beautiful Tragic."

She has had to learn how to deal with her parents not being together.

On September 21, 2013 Taylor said in her introduction to this song, "It's [Red] an album I'm really proud of and I'm so glad you welcomed it into your life. On the last night of the Red tour I kind of want to play a song from Red that I never really play, but it's a song that really means a lot to me because a lot of the time when you think about love you think about how it has to have a happy ending for it to count but this is a song that I wrote about a love that didn't have a happy ending, but it was still worth writing about, and it's worth singing about. This is called Sad Beautiful Tragic."

Like Taylor said, her parents marriage was supposed to happen.  Taylor and Austin would not have been born, and Taylor still loves both her parents.  This song means alot to me too.  My parents are divorced and things were not always amicable between them, but I love them both dearly.  My dad passed away and there is a giant hole in my heart.  I don't regret that they got together, but rather celebrate it like Taylor does. I am both of them, both of them are part of me.

"distance, timIng, breakdowN, fighting
silence, the train runs off its tracks
kiss me, try to fix it
could you just try to listen?
hang up, give up and for the life of us
we can't get back..."

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Sad Beautiful Tragic."

Distance, timing, breakdown, fighting, silence.  They were the driving factors in her parents split.  They couldn't make up.  But in spite of that they had "a beautiful magic love". You can't always get happily ever after back, but the journey of love and what it brings is worth it.

Austin, Scott, Andrea and Taylor

"Highway Don't Care" Music Video

"Highway Don't Care" Music Video

Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban

A touching music video about love and the dangers of being a distracted driver.

 

"Sweeter Than Fiction" Song Meaning

Today's Taylor Swift song is "Sweeter Than Fiction", a song that she wrote for the movie "One Chance" about Britain's Got Talent winner Paul Potts.  It debuted at the Toronto Film Festival September 9th, 2013.

I just heard a snippet of this song. Love it! Here's hoping it will be released tomorrow.  If not we have to wait til October.

Why did she write this song?

                                               

Taylor told City News, "I'm very inspired by the concept of love, and this movie is in a lot of ways a love story. You're expecting to go in and see a story of someone who makes his dreams come true, but what you don't realize is you're actually being told a story of this unconditional love that his wife has for him, his girlfriend has for him. That was the story that hit me and really affected me, so I wanted to tell a story musically from that perspective."

Here are some of the lyrics, “There you stand, take me down, I will say I knew it all along Your eyes are wider than distance, this love is sweeter than fiction."

Can't wait to hear the whole song Taylor!!

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Sweeter Than Fiction". 

"Stay Beautiful" Song Meaning

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Stay Beautiful" from her Taylor Swift album.

Who is this song about?

Taylor says his name in the song, CORY.  The song begins by saying "Cory's eyes are like a jungle", his "smiles are like the radio".  "There's pretty girls on every corner/That watch him as he's walking home/Saying, does he know/Will you ever know/You're beautiful". This guy is amazing.  What I really love about this song is Taylor's faith in him, "You're really gonna be someone".  She hopes that "your life leads you back to my door".  What an amazing song for her to write about a boy she knew when she was so young.  She knew him in the 4th grade.  I don't know if I had that kind of insight or faith about people in the 4th grade.

In her 2011 target commercial for her Speak Now album Taylor says,  "So I suppose it all started with my first crush in 4th grade. Cory Robertson. Yeah, he liked the cool girl. She had straight hair. Little did he know, I was writing songs about him after school. Dreaming of one day becoming a country singer. Or, maybe a poet. Or, a professional basketball player. Well, eventually I found my way. For me, 'Speak Now' is the next chapter in my story, and I'm naming names."

Cory Robertson, one of Taylor Swift's first crushes

Cory was one of Taylor's first crushes, but he didn't know and didn't like her back.  Too bad for him. This story reminds me of the time when I was in 4th grade and a boy name Cory Jackson had the hugest crush on me.  He was crazy, he followed me home one day just to see where I lived, and I lived a mile from the school in the opposite direction of him. Then one time he threw a pencil at my neck.  He tortured me relentlessly, but alas that is how 10 year old boys show their affection.

Even though nothing happened because of this crush a wonderful song came out of it. On her website Taylor says "After hearing my songs, a lot of people ask me, `How many boyfriends have you HAD?' And I always tell them that more of my songs come from observation than actual experience. In other words, you don't have to date someone to write a song about them. This is a song I wrote about a guy I never dated! Wow, right? Haha. This song is about a guy I thought was cute, and never really talked to him much. But something about him inspired this song, just watching him."

What a fun song about an elementary school crush!

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Stay Beautiful".