Why isn’t this song on the main album when it’s one of the best ones? Great question. I actually visited the black dog in England when I went in June. Taylor’s song really put this quaint bar on the map because it was reservations only, and they had a ton of decorated signs up with Taylor’s lyrics on it. It was quite hoppin’ for a Friday mid-afternoon.
Lyrical Breakdown
I am someone who, until recent events
You shared your secrets with
And your location
You forgot to turn it off
I didn’t know Taylor also used ‘find my location’
And so I watch as you walk
Into some bar called The Black Dog
And pierce new holes in my heart
You forgot to turn it off
Maybe nothing metaphoric, but I think everyone can relate to this feeling of missing someone – watching them pursue their daily lives, while you are unable to move, depressed, and alone at home. I wish she’d almost make a music video of this song, because I can see the cinematic scenes of a girl on her bed in the dim light, staring at her phone, wondering how someone can keep going when you are hurting so bad.
And it hits me
I just don’t understand
How you don’t miss me
And I dont understand how you dont miss me..
In The Black Dog
When someone plays The Starting Line and you jump up
Ok so this punctuation is very important, the first 3 lines go together, I dont understand how you dont miss me, and then – In the black dog when someone plays The Starting Line – which is a pop band.
But she’s too young to know this song
The band The Starting Line was created in 1999. So It’s def a millennial vibe – it sounds like a mix of blink 182, and the Maine.
So there is a girl Taylor is imagining, who jumps up to dance to this song playing, but she’s too young to actually know it, but the song was something that connected Taylor to him and connected with the dreams they have planned for the future.
That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming
Old habits die screaming
Old habits die screaming is an idiom that means it is hard to stop doing things that one has been doing for a long time. How long? I think this is part of their back and forth journey. Maybe they were friends who sent each other music back and forth for the longest time – it turned into ‘their thing’ and eventually they claimed ‘their song’ together.
I move through the world with the heartbroken
My longings stay unspoken
And I may never open up the way I did for you
She continues on in the world, not saying anything to him that she really wants, and she’s worried that she wont find her twin again. I do love how on this album each song refers to other parts of the album. She references this idea of twin, connection, so much. The album is completely filled with constant references to down bad, fortnight, and high infidelity. She mentions this being the relationship she felt the most comfortable in to be herself, because they are two weirdos.
And all of those best laid plans
or the magic fabric of our dreaming
You said I needed a brave man
Then proceeded to play him
The lion turned out to be a coward
Until I believed it too
Mr. steal your girl and then make her cry
And it kills me
I just don’t understand
How you don’t miss me
In the shower
And remember
How my rain-soaked body was shaking
So shower can be a real thing – However I feel like she never actually slept with him – and he got frustrated at that – just from lyrical references in the album. BUT, he did attend a rain – shower – Eras tour concert which was freezing rain.
Do you hate me?
Was it hazing?
For a cruel fraternity I pledged
Was it hazing for a cruel fraternity… oof. This definitely refers back to the smallest man who ever lived, and her asking him what was the point of this? Were you sent a spy? will this all be decoded later? Why lead me on and then run?
And I still mean it
I actually read these lines as was it hazing for a cruel fraternity? I pledged and I still mean it – So although it was cruel, she meant every word she said, she meant the promises she had laid down – and it’s hard to let him go.
Old habits die screaming
Six weeks of breathing clean air
I still miss the smoke
God this reminds me of clean so much. 10 months sober, I can’t pretend, just because I’m clean don’t mean I don’t miss it. The smoke could be the hazing, it also could be him chain smoking across the bar when I tell em that’s my man. Because with her he smoked and then ate 7 bars of chocolate.
Were you making fun of me with some esoteric joke?
esoteric: intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.
This feels related to the sleeper spy quote. Like an inside Joke to his small group of friends that he could get her, and leave her.
Now I want to sell my house and set fire to all my clothes
And hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons
She wants to rid literally everything that reminds her of him, get rid of everything she was with him, and quite literally maybe if her clothes smell like him and his smoke she’d want to rid those too. Starting new and forgetting any of it happened.
Even if I die screaming
And I hope you hear it
What a visual! Going through an exorcism, screaming, which is extremely painful… it looks like from TV [lol]. However this also makes me think about My Tears Ricochet
But you would still miss me in your bones
And I still talk to you (when I’m screaming at the sky)
And when you can’t sleep at night (you hear my stolen lullabies)
This idea of haunting continuously –
And I hope it’s shitty
In The Black Dog
Baby girl grew up.
And I’ll keep up with our old friends just to ask them how you are
Hope it’s nice where you are
And I hope the sun shines and it’s a beautiful day
And something reminds you you wish you had stayed – Last Kiss
No more miss nice Taylor – she hopes you’re doing as shitty as she is.
Fun fact as I was writing this I was listening to My Tears Ricochet while reading the lyrics to Last Kiss, and literally as she says ‘drunk on this pain, wish you had stayed’ I was reading ‘reminds you you wish you had stayed’ and that was a weird moment for me [lol]. Same Lyrics… different song.
When someone plays The Starting Line and you jump up
But she’s too young to know this song
That was intertwined in the tragic fabric of our dreaming
‘Cause tail between your legs, you’re leaving
I still can’t believe it
‘Cause old habits die screaming
CAUSE TAIL BETWEEN YOUR LEGS YOU’RE LEAVING. GIRL. again, the lion turned out to be a coward.
Later on we get the song Imgonnagetyouback and she states
Did your research, you knew the price goin’ in
He knew the price of being with her and her fame. He probably told her he could handle it.. and then he simply couldn’t.
If you read all of my blogs from 1st song up until now, you will definitely see the threads of each song, how they tell similar stories in referential feeling, but each song gives us a bit more insight to the relationship as a total story. He’s a coward – he promised her he could handle the scrutiny – he didn’t like that it was public and it stopped being fun because they had to stop ‘sneaking around’ and be in the limelight – he promised her a future and mentioned a ‘forever’ and then he ran. Taking back all of his promises. And now she has to learn how to actually cut him off instead of continuing this habit of back and forth, because it should have stayed buried.
Visual Representation
I visualized this scene outside of the black dog – the world moving on – while someone being transfixed with their phone – following someone – feeling underdressed and overwhelmed. Going to the bar but waiting outside to see if they hear or see anything. Everyone else is in conversation, the world continues on while one person is on pause.