“Marjorie” Song Meaning

Todays Taylor Swift song is the meaning of her song song “Marjorie” from her album “Evermore”. Taylor performs this song as part of her “Evermore” set at The Eras Tour. It is a deeply personal song for her. It is all about learning lessons from someone who has died. It is 13th track on the album and a sister song to “Epiphany” from the “Folklore” album which is also track 13. Who is this song about?

It is about her Grandmother Marjorie Finlay. Taylor’s Grandma was an opera singer and entertainer. She had a decent career, but never made it big. Taylor says in her song that Marjorie had “closets of backlogged dreams and how you left them all to me.” She left her dreams to Taylor.

Taylor was very close to her Grandmother. She spent time with her. She recalls in the song Marjorie loved the “amber skies so much” and would go for “frozen swims” and would “go past where our feet could touch.”

She learned so many life lessons from her Grandma. She learned how to be “polite” while maintaining “power” and to be “kind” but also be “clever.” I think those are amazing lessons and ones hard to achieve in life. Balance is so hard and that is one thing that makes Taylor so great and successful. I would also add never be so famous you forget to be approachable while maintaining never be so approachable you forget that you’re famous (because some fans take advantage of this and stalk her). That is the secret sauce to Taylor’s success she relates to her fans, meets them, invites them to her home, writes music they can understand and relate to, but she also maintains her own private life. 

As always after someone dies many regrets happen. Taylor regrets not asking more “questions”. Taylor “should have asked her how to be” “cause every scrap of you would be taken from me.” That is so common after someone dies. I have felt it when my loved ones have died. They are there one day and then suddenly they are gone and everything they owned is gone too. I treasure the few things I have from my dad and grandparents. 

But all this aside Taylor describes the most important lesson she learned from her Grandmothers passing,  “you’re so alive, so alive in my head.” Her Grandmother’s memory lives on through Taylor. Marjorie is “still around” and “singing to me now.” Taylor then included the opera tracks from her Grandmother. She is singing the song with Taylor. She says the whole song “What died didn’t stay dead, what died didn’t stay dead.” “If I didn’t know better I’d think you were still around.” In the last phrase Taylor changes it to “I know better/But I still feel you all around/But I know better/But you’re still around.” This illustrates what she has learned. She knows her Grandma is there with her and can feel her presence all around her. This a a great concept to think about  I miss my loved ones but thinking about them being with me still is such a comforting feeling.

What a beautiful tribute to her Grandmother. It must be amazing singing it on her Eras tour and seeing her Grandmother alive in all the eyes of her fans too. Now her fans feel her Grandmother and are honoring her. It had become a tradition for fans to hold up their phone lights during this song, like a candle vigil. It has brought Taylor to tears but she loves and appreciates her fans for remembering her Grandmother. 

Taylor said in Nashville after the song Marjorie “What are you trying to do to me? Oh my god, that was so beautiful. So that song, Marjorie, that was a song that I wrote about my mom’s mom, my grandmother. She was a singer too. And she passed away when I was 13.”

Taylor thank you for being vulnerable and sharing your grandmother Marjorie with us and thank you Marjorie for being such a strong example for Taylor.