Why is Prince always undervalued on all the “greatest” lists?

This is a rhetorical question. While there’ll be plenty of speculation as to the reasons why, my aim isn’t to provide an answer. Only to invite and encourage discussion. And this discussion goes in a bunch of different directions, as per usual.

The sense I get from the online Prince community…
Their biggest concern regarding internal affairs is when all the music is going to be released from the vault and whether or not the people in charge are running things into the ground.
But externally, there’s always some list of music greats or people who are the best at something and Prince is always overlooked. Which is what brings me to do this post.

A recent list about “best” guitar players from the past 20 years- aka this current century- put Taylor swift in the top 10 and Prince wasn’t mentioned at all.
I only recognized 4 names total so it’s not like I can put together an adequate dispute.
John Mayer and Ed Sheeran, I can testify have a unique style and is part of why I like listening to them. Although John Mayer will always have that caveat of “yeah, but he and Taylor have bad history so I’ll downgrade him out of principle”.
Then there’s Keith urban, who’s great, but I don’t know him well enough to make a proper judgement.
And to be fair, Taylor is probably only on this list cuz she plays guitar- period- and she’s commercially relevant. Even as a HUGE fan I’d never consider her an excellent guitar player. But the fact she plays an instrument and writes her own songs automatically makes her better than a lot of other people in music right now. Not that I know who am of them are but that’s beside the point I’m trying to make.

It’s always going to bother me that Prince is constantly overlooked on these stupid lists, whether it’s the last 20 years or 100.
It’s easy to say anyone who doesn’t recognize his talent by now is a fucking idiot and doesn’t know any better. But that’s not true. It also isn’t fair to the people who outrank Prince. I’m not about to take anything away from them.
The only explanation I really give for why these lists always include the same people… laziness and lack of imagination.
And maybe race has a bit to do with it too.
I don’t read as many “greatest band leaders” or “greatest frontmen” lists but there’s a good chance James Brown (who HUGELY influenced Prince as a band leader) won’t be in the top 10 for that reason alone. The only exception to this is most likely Michael Jackson- for best dancer, performer and all around entertainer.

Another major reason probably comes down to his record label dispute in the 90s. He parted ways with Warner bros and became independent and all the bigwigs running the industry convinced people he was no longer relevant.
So he’d come back into the spotlight and people call it a comeback cuz they don’t know any better. But go to princevault.com and you’ll see that Prince never stopped recording music. Releasing albums is another matter entirely.

At the end of the day, Prince never did all this for awards and rankings. He did it because he always had music in him and he had a multitude of ways to express himself with it.
I also feel like the older I get, the less I really care.
Prince is always going to be undervalued and overlooked. There’s nothing I can do or say I hadn’t already done several times over that’ll change that.

Another thing I also sort of wondered- do any other fans get annoyed about their favorites from being overlooked?
Do Paul McCartney fans care he’s not a top ranked guitar or piano player? Probably not. Or Bon Jovi or Springsteen fans? Probably not.

It’d be funny to think of all the music fans campaigning for their favorite artists getting together to write lists the best album of all time isn’t a Beatles album or that the best guitar player isn’t Jimi Hendrix or best songwriter isn’t Bob Dylan… just to give some rough examples.
But wait for them to compile a “proper” list and they’ll spend ages locked in disputes until THEIR favorite artist ranks number one. It’d be hilarious and would prove these lists aren’t just subjective but they’re stupid. They only serve to stir people and drive them apart instead of bringing them together. And music is a universal medium designed to bring people together.

For me personally, I don’t want to pit my favorite music people against each other. Not to be overdramatic, but I’d give all of myself to stand up for Prince and Taylor because they’ve brought me so much joy. I already went in depth on another post how much the two of them have in common and I still stand by that.
All this nonsense also makes me think of her song “Clara Bow” and how there’s this constant need to bolster up the next great thing in music and comparing artists to each other.
In the end, all of them have their unique place and should be celebrated equally. The worst is when headlines try to create rivalries and we’re all like “dude, they’re friends. Knock it off with the bullshit.” Back in the day it was Prince vs Michael Jackson. Nowadays it’s Taylor and whoever journalists want to throw into the ring- last year it was Beyonce. More recently, Stevie Nicks. Comparing how Taylor writes about her exes and Fleetwood Mac did that with one album. Even so, both are super talented on their own and if anything, that comparison cheapens their efforts. There’s more to both than their most spiteful moments. And seriously, what more does Taylor have to do for people to stop making her entire brand about attacking ex boyfriends? I’m so sick of having to make this point. Maybe that’ll be a future blog post so I can stop bringing it up.

I guess a good way to end things is to mention some names of people in music I consider great.
Taylor swift will probably go down as the best artist from MY generation.
But for the others- these are their most outstanding qualities in my opinion or at least the ones that jump to mind-

Freddie Mercury-songwriter, band leader, vocalist, entertainer
Springsteen- songwriter, band leader
The Beatles- band and all brilliant songwriters
Bob Dylan- songwriter
Jimi Hendrix- guitarist
Eric Clapton- guitarist
Jim Morrison- bandleader
Elvis-entertainer
Michael Jackson- dancer, vocalist, entertainer
Prince- bandleader, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist
Don Henley- songwriter
Phil Collins- songwriter, drummer
James Brown- bandleader
Marvin Gaye- vocalist and songwriter
Stevie wonder- multi-instrumentalist, songwriter
David Bowie- entertainer
Whitney Houston- vocalist
Steve Perry- bandleader, songwriter, vocalist
Carlos Santana- guitarist
Elton John- pianist, songwriter

There’s plenty more but you get the point by now.
Music is a lot of things. Competition shouldn’t be one of them. You’re allowed to love more than one music artist at the same time.

My “tortured poets” thoughts

If listening to this album and fully processing it was a marathon, I’d probably the last person to cross the finish line. But it’s not how you start but how you finish. Nearly 2 months after its release, I’ve finally done it.

Note- the following derives from the “albatross” edition. So there won’t be any anthology commentary.
I haven’t bought or listened to any of those songs yet but maybe in the next month, I’ll find the time.

As of writing this post, I’ve heard it from start to finish 6-7 times. Some songs more than that either because they got stuck in my head or they didn’t fully penetrate my brain a listen earlier that day.
It’s still too early to say where I’d rank it in her discography. I also can’t quite say “on any given day it could be my favorite” with full confidence. However, I’m not only out of the woods but I’m finally in the clear and I can safely say I like it. Sometimes I even love it. I can also say for sure that there isn’t one skip and I can now play through it all at once without zoning out or feeling overwhelmed by how much material there is.

In summation, this album is Taylor being cynical and sarcastic but also arguably more brutally honest than she’d ever been. Unapologetic would be an even better description.
But it still has a lot of the same trademarks. Bridges that take you in several directions and end with a gut punch. Fairytale imagery laden with interesting new metaphors she’s using for the first time. And some wicked burns on people who’d wronged her.

Yes, some songs (and their titles) do run a little too long and overstay their welcome by 30-60 seconds. But it’s not a deal breaker like it was in the beginning.
And yeah, I wish there were fewer curse words. Not because I don’t like Taylor resorting to that language. It’s just a personal pet peeve. I don’t use the f word that much in my everyday life and I don’t like singing them in songs so I’m spending a bunch of these songs not singing along… and I hate the awkward silence left in their wake. “Down bad”, as much as I like it, is the only song this becomes a problem because it’s literally a third of the chorus. What the hell am I supposed to do with that? (Seriously, what are my options?)
And maybe LOML and smallest man are too close together on the album… otherwise I don’t have too much else to criticize.

For the first week or so, Swifties were up in arms about several reviews of the album. The cynical part of me chalked it up to “they refuse to accept the possibility Taylor may have finally put out a bad album.” Not that I thought it was bad. I just didn’t think it stood up to her previous works and I certainly didn’t enjoy it as much as some of my other favorites from her. But one sentiment I kept seeing- and would eventually ring true for me- was the fact it’s a hard album to fully comprehend in one listen and it isn’t fair to judge an album by first impressions alone.

I hate it but it’s been a fact for me for years that albums almost never make a strong first impression on me. Even if it’s someone I’d been following for a long time. The only home run first listens I’ve had with Taylor were Fearless, Red and Lover. It should provide me some comfort that the albums I’ve worked hardest to understand often wind up becoming favorites. I’ve also had multiple instances where I’ll come back to one by chance and something finally *clicks* in that moment. I’ve had that click moment happen with reputation, folklore, the new version of speak now and now this one.

Actually I think my feelings about this album could be summed up by the title track. I was enjoying it for a while but I hit a point where fear took over. I was afraid that something would go wrong or I’d fall out of love and not find my way back.
Florida was sort of the start of it, I can fix him hit the nail and alchemy was the aftermath. There were still hints of brilliance but I was feeling too low and thinking too much to appreciate them if I noticed them at all.
To give an update on that, I’ve come around on the others. But “I can fix him” would probably rank at the bottom of the tracklist for me. I don’t skip it the way I’ve done “cowboy like me” but it occupies a similar space in the album for me. It’s a country themed song with a story I don’t ascribe to. At least not with as much gusto as the others.

It’s interesting to see Taylor go back to her country roots sometimes because it’s never the same thing twice. The images she conjures are more mature or feel like they have higher stakes. It isn’t just breakups and muddy pickup trucks or any of those typical cliches in 21st century country music.
With “I can fix him” and “daddy I love him,” it’s all about societal conventions and peer pressure. Being judged about who she was with at the time and her reassuring all the cynics that she knows what she’s doing. Sometimes that comes with being forced to admit when she doesn’t.

While it’s impossible to escape from news stories about anyone she’d been hanging out with, I don’t waste hours of my time reading every detail about her relationships. As long as they’re going well, the rest doesn’t interest me. Everything going on with her and Travis- I’ve heard 99% of them from my dad reading articles compared to what I’ve read myself. That’s a pretty good summation of my approach to her personal life.
However, despite taking this approach, it was impossible not to notice how often Matt Healey’s name was coming up after her breakup with Joe and how much Swifties did not approve of him. I never took a deep dive to figure out why (apparently he’d done or said some questionable things they didn’t appreciate) but I also wasn’t fully convinced they were officially a couple. If these songs are any indication, apparently they were and the pressure from the fans is what drove them apart.
The one thing possibly more shocking than this being a breakup album about him and not Joe- it was the fact she actually used her music to call out her fans. Particularly the toxic ones. “Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see.” I can only imagine the triumphant look on her face when she read that line for the first time.

Florida! is sorta country too but in a different way. It’s similar to “no body no crime” where it’s about escaping justice for doing something you felt was right.
I had my reservations at first- not because of Florence and the machine (as far as I’m concerned, it’s a good matchup) but I honestly didn’t know what the story was. What does this state in particular have to do with anything the song talks about? Luckily Taylor clarified it on an interview. Apparently, in addition to being an avid listener of crime podcasts, she watches dateline and other news programs. And this was inspired by a pattern she noticed- how criminals tend to go to Florida to start over or escape justice. I wanted to make a goodfellas connection personally but Henry Hill lived out his witness protection days in California. Either way, with that knowledge and a little extra time, now I like the song more than I did at first.

Both “little old me” and “Clara bow” are interesting new territory- although the latter has shades of “the Lucky One” from Red. Taylor talking about the pitfalls of fame and showing how angry she’d been about being mistrusted and misunderstood. Being regarded as “the next big thing” and compared to other famous women when all of them deserve to be celebrated for their own merits and achievements.
Early album reviews chalked it up as another extended assault against an ex and clearly missed that some of these songs were about completely different things.
“I can do it with a broken heart” is another example- she talks about having to fake smiles and put on a brave face even while on the inside, she would rather hide from the spotlight while she pieces herself together. It’s track 13 the same way “this is why we can’t have nice things” was on reputation so it’s hard for me not to see the parallels. Particularly the sarcasm. ICDIWBH does that trick where it’s an upbeat happy song with sad lyrics… except it’s hard to smile my way through this one. No amount of production tricks can disguise the truth. (Side-note- I find the crowd noise and chatter on this song, while valid to the story, iREALLY annoying but each subsequent listen has helped me work toward tuning it out).

“Little old me” has so many cool things in it and makes for a great anthem for pretty much anyone who’d been wronged or crossed one too many times. It’s the one song I’d seen live footage of and it’s a good fit. I just kinda don’t want to be in the audience if this song is being done cuz thousands of people screaming the title lyric at once would probably make my ears ring for days.
It runs long but I’m not sure which line I’d edit out if I could. There’s so many good ones. “You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me” has certainly made the rounds with the memes.

LOML is a song I’m still figuring out for a similar reason Out the Slammer continues to prove elusive. Are these about one person or more than one?
LOML is a heart wrenching ballad and you figure out by the end why she left it as an acronym. But to me, it reads as “I wasn’t ready to fall in love with you before but now that we’re together, this didn’t turn out the way I wanted.” I saw a Facebook post the other day talking about getting together with exes and as much as you’re reminded of why you loved each other, it’ll dawn on you how there was a reason you broke up in the first place. I think that’s somewhat close but I can’t be sure.
Slammer is among my favorites in terms of melodies but I’m not sure what prison she’s referring to. Was it a self imposed mental one or was it a previous relationship where “long story short, it was the wrong guy”?
The final image of the two of them sitting on swings wearing imaginary rings is so good that it sticks with me. It speaks of a simpler, more innocent time.

Once the smoke started to clear, I was really getting caught up in the melodies of these songs. Like I’ll listen and I just feel good cuz they scratch a certain itch for me.
“My boy only breaks his fav toys”- as great as the concept is, it wouldn’t have stuck with me the same without the oscillation at the end of each chorus line.
Slammer and “guilty as sin” were close to each other and brought me reassurance when I really needed it. Reassurance that said I’d one day get where I want to go with these songs. When I was doing 3 songs a night to come down after the first rotation, “Guilty as sin” was the first song (after the 1st two tracks) I fell in love with and I worked up from there. I love the concept but what she does with her voice at some points of it really make it work.

A lot of these songs involve abandonment so it’s kinda cool how the first few explore this concept in completely different ways. They start fantastical but later on get more real.
Like we have imagery from Barbie and Toy Story, followed by alien abduction and it culminates in going down with the ship. Her delivery on “so long London” make it feel like an Ed Sheeran song because that style is his bread and butter. It’s also a companion piece to “you’re losing me” where she talks about not being able to resurrect their love. Now things are over for sure this time. It’s also sort of messed up how the blame was put on her when he’s the one who gave up first.

The smallest man who ever lived- possibly the most raw bridge she’d ever done. It felt like 5 times a new wound opened in my chest and by the end I was destroyed. Not balling my eyes out like I’d done with “all too well” but the pain she went through felt like I’d gone through it myself.
Certain things in it bring “mad woman” to mind so I can’t help but wonder if it was one final bit of retaliation to one of the men who took her masters from her.

Alchemy was a recent song I’d come around on. After some heavy things in previous songs, it finally hit me that this is a hopeful eye locked on the future. Not sure if it’s about Travis but it sorta feels like it with the team celebration in the bridge.

Albatross has a lot of those folklore/evermore vibes with how it’s put together. “Ivy” has come to mind for me a lot with this album. It took me a while to get it but it’s cool how the story ends in a completely different place than where it started. That the real villains are the people fighting to keep them apart, saying she’s the bad influence but nothing they do is able to keep them apart. Love conquers all in the end.

Fortnight and tortured poets were such a good one-two punch that it built my expectations for the rest of the songs really high. Thankfully I’ve reached a point now where every thing has its own place and works.
Tortured poets definitely gives me 80s vibes with the drum programming- to where my mind is combing through my breadth of knowledge to figure out what it reminds me of. Everything counts by Depeche Mode. IT and Shockadelica by Prince. Word up by Cameo. And dozens more. I love all the name checks. The Charlie Puth one came out of complete left field but I’m not mad about it. I’ve listened to him at least twice since. And, no joke, this song helped me get a Jeopardy question I wouldn’t have otherwise. Dylan Thomas was in the clue and the answer of the Chelsea Hotel.
On the other hand, the line about “you take my ring off my middle finger and put it on the one people put wedding rings on”… ugh, it’s one of those moments where I wanna scream “dude just call it what it is like a normal person”. It’s too many words that could’ve easily been edited down.
Also- I know Jack is Jack Antonoff but I have no idea who Lucy is.

Fortnight is sooo good but I’ve had to work hard to shove it out of my mind so I could focus on the other 16 songs. I don’t think I’d ever fallen so hard for an opening track of an album.
It also makes me anxious for her to put out another music video so my focus isn’t so singular.
Circles was the only Post Malone song I’ve liked so I didn’t know what to expect from him on this song. His part could’ve been filled by anyone, really, but I’m glad it wasn’t him doing some rap solo that doesn’t make sense in the song’s context.

Finally I think I’ve run out of things to say.
Soon I’ll work my way through the anthology one song at a time. Going forward, that’s probably how I’ll approach my first listen of all new music. I’m an album type of person but that might need to change. At least at first as a cautionary measure because I don’t want to go through this again.

Album length commentary- how long is too long?

I feel like I’ve written a dozen posts since Taylor’s new album came out… none of which were deep dive track by track discussions about it.
Full disclosure- I won’t get there for a while. I’m 4 listens in and I can safely say I’m out of the woods in terms of my uncertainty about it. I went from overwhelmed and disappointed to optimistic… not even cautiously. Straight up optimistic. I might not get there as quickly as everyone else but I will. And once I do, THEN I’ll check out the anthology. One song at a time on her YouTube channel.
I may not be here to talk about it exclusively but it’s part of this discussion.

As fascinating as Taylor swift twitter is, it’s brought me to some bizarre places where I can feel strongly one way but can also be cognizant of the other side.
Case in point today- several of them quoted a Rolling Stone article that’s criticizing the length of her new album by celebrating the fact other artists are putting out shorter ones.

The strange part is that I can see both sides so clearly.
Yes, I do think tortured poets is too long and I’d mentioned once or twice that there’s been a lot of pressure to digest as soon as possible.
Yes, I can agree that Taylor and Ed Sheeran have been guilty of putting out a vast quantity of music lately and the quality of these songs varies. (Although she at least has her re-recordings and vault tracks as an alibi that exempts her from this criticism)

But I also don’t think artists should have their output restricted or that it should upload some kind of standard. And I don’t want to complain about too many songs. It feels like a really silly thing to complain about. Of course I want more music.
I just think it’s a lot all at once…
It’s funny but it was 20 years ago when Prince said in interviews how music is being viewed as disposable and that shouldn’t be the case. I play around with the possibilities of how Prince may have viewed Taylor if he’d been here to see what she’s done in the last 5 years. Even if he had some good things to say about her honing her craft, improving and evolving, and fighting to own her masters… he might have had a few choice words to say about her putting out 31 songs at once, never mind the ridiculous amount of variants.

So I gave it some thought- how long is too long an album for me personally?
The short answer, cliched as it sounds, is that it depends.

With pop music that fits that commercial mold (catchy hooks, choruses, bridges, etc), I can go over an hour.
Lady Gaga’s chromatica is a prime example. Plus the fact it’s its own world that I love visiting and staying for as long as it lasts.

But when the subject matter is a little more serious, I think that’s the deciding point as well as what songs of longer lengths are doing with that time. This is where things get a little more subjective and additional study and scrutiny might be needed to fully flesh out my thoughts on the matter.

Going back to Prince for a second, I’ve found that with him, less really is more. My favorite albums, for the most part, have 12-13 songs at most and run 45-50 minutes. In my top 7, the longest album is the gold experience which is 18 tracks that span an hour total. Only 12 are actual songs and the rest are segues. But with those songs, they’re so good that the length is justified.
On the other hand, 1999 and sign o the times, both considered among his best ever work… the sum of their parts outrank them as a whole. Many of their songs are absolutely brilliant. But the entity suffers as a whole thanks to the songs that run long and don’t do as much with that extended stay. 1999 has lady cab driver, which has a storyline for 3 minutes and jams out for the remainder of its time. Plus there’s the awkward sex scene in the middle. Then sign o the times suffers because it has a live track that runs 9 minutes with a lot of jamming that goes nowhere for much of it. All of this comes down to personal taste, of course. I’m well aware that Prince is a quality songwriter and he’ll extend a jam session in a song or concert until he’s gotten everything he’s wanted out of it. But there are times when I’m fully engaged and others when I’ve had my fill after a certain point and want nothing more than to move on to something else.
Then there’s his longer albums like emancipation that go 3 hours over 3 discs… I respect his passion enough for wanting to do this album to enjoy it, but it’s not something I’m often in the mood for. Not to mention I almost never do it all at once. 3 hours is a long time and we only have so much daylight.
Aside from the few songs of his that are so blatantly sexual I can’t deal with them, the only other criticism I’ll give him is that his songs tend to overstay their welcome on record and live.
All of the Swiftie madness as of late has me seriously considering how much an attention span I really have anymore. But when I started out as a Prince fan, I learned it was a muscle that needed to be stretched and toned. But there’s still a limit or a line to draw somewhere.
I’ve received the comment multiple times how it’s impossible to be bored at a Prince concert because of the energy he brings into a room. I don’t doubt that. But the fact is I’m never going to experience that cuz I never saw Prince live so I can’t say this for sure. The closest I’ll come to feeling that now is getting a tour of paisley park- something I REALLY hope I’ll be able to do at some point.

As fascinating as it is to see the creative process across his vault releases since his passing in 2016, which songs made it on albums and why others didn’t. But those releases also constitute a lot of music that I don’t have the time or attention span to digest at the rate I’d like. The only time I’d complain about there being too many songs is when there are multiple versions of one song in a set. One alternate version is great but more than 3 is way too much. The latest D&P release is especially guilty of this. But I know on a different release, I’ll feel differently.
Come and Gold Experience, which have yet to be re-released with the deluxe edition treatment is the classic example within the Prince community and one I’m particularly passionate about. While D&P has multiple versions of album tracks, these mostly exist because remixing was a big deal at the time. But why these other 2 releases are so important, they come from a special time in his career (for reasons good and bad) where fans got to know his songs really well before the actual albums were released. Whether from live or TV appearances. But for many, when the actual album came out, their expectations fell short because certain songs weren’t released (most came out in another project later) and the eventual album versions weren’t as strong as previous versions they’d become acquainted with. Biggest example is Endorphinmachine with cowbell that ruined the fan favorite song… for a second I thought, maybe Prince saw the SNL sketch and laughed so much that he added the cowbell as tribute. Except the cowbell sketch came out 5 years after the gold experience so that theory is out. But it wouldn’t have been the first or last time Prince made a last minute change to a song or tracklist because he had a “you know what would be cool?” moment.

Anyway…
As much as I’ve enjoyed these vault releases from the estate people, fatigue does have a habit of setting in. There’s also the initial fear of “what if I don’t like this”.

But I’ve noticed with Taylor’s vault releases, I tend to be more invested when I only have 5-6 new songs to learn. Plus the quality more than makes up for the lesser quantity. Some are so good, I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t make the album over some other songs I don’t like quite as much.
Fearless and Red have a dozen or so vault tracks of various degrees of excellence. But one has some quality issues (mostly due to Taylor still honing her songwriting skills) and the other is vastly overshadowed by one particular song where it’s easy to forget all that came before it.

This just made me think how it’d be fun one day to compare Prince and Taylor’s vault material- if one package by one would surpass another in terms of quality and quantity falling in line with each other. But that’ll be another day- perhaps after all of her re-recordings are out and his people get a few more deluxe editions under their belts. A true apples to apples comparison would need a total of 6 albums from each artist, both need 2 more to go, so I can wait until then.

Hopefully I haven’t completely abandoned the plot by this point…
But going back to the matter at hand, the best I can conclude is that I don’t mind having a lot of songs in an album… within reason.
The idea of having albums is that all of the songs contained within adhere to one idea or a collective theme. The more songs that are added into the mix, you run the risk of that concept getting lost. That’s one concern. Another is the loss of balance because too many songs are about the same thing or exhibit the same mood, particularly bad moods. In recent history, I’d taken Evermore and (-) to task for this particular issue. I’ll reiterate- I can’t criticize an artist for telling their truth. But it doesn’t mean every iota needs to be shared with the world.
Also- I listen to music to be entertained and to have a good time. I’m not always up for an endurance run where a lot of heavy things are explored in length. There needs to be levity sprinkled in between or it gets to be too much. Adele’s beloved 21 album doesn’t overstay its welcome and the songs are nearly all high quality. Maybe 1-2 I don’t like. But I’m not always in the mood to hit the beaten path of breakup anthems. Sam Smith’s in the lonely hour checks two of those boxes but also overstay its welcome.

Maybe it’s just really hard when Taylor spends a long time in her music being sad or angry about things because she’s become such a bright spot in a pretty bleak reality. The interesting thing is that I don’t feel the same fatigue with her as I do when other artists spend a lot of time down in the dumps on their records. Her critics say how her songs sound the same but I’ve never felt that. Even now there’s a lot of variety, many different ways of saying similar things because she keeps changing and evolving by seeking new types of inspiration.
On the first listen of her new music, things did start to run together after a while and it was only when I took it apart 3 songs at a time I was able to appreciate the subtle differences. Then over time, the differences become more distinct and I think I’m there now.

I think I’ve also reached a point where I can stop bashing Evermore or going on and on about how it took me over a year to remotely like it. The other day I was in the mood for enough songs I jumped into it and had a hell of a good time.
But during the onset, it was a lot of sad songs and everything else struggled to make an impact. There either weren’t enough light songs in between or the darkness was too deep for light to penetrate. I read somewhere recently how it’s normal for our negative memories from childhood or life in general stick out in your memory a lot more than the so-called happy memories. That’s the best way I can describe what happened here. And I tend to listen to albums start to finish the first few times. Maybe going forward with new releases, I should just stop when something doesn’t feel right. Or just listen a few songs at a time until I’m ready for the whole thing. But while that album was the sum a bunch of different sad things, the Ed Sheeran album was multiple ways of saying the same thing. And that’s a big ask for anyone, especially those of us who are hard on ourselves far too much or have internal dialogue that revolves around not feeling good enough or not feeling worthy of things. Recent studies talk about the power of affirmations or positive thinking in general. Another muscle a lot of us need to flex and strength- me included.
I’m undermining the necessity of heavy conversations but it’s just as necessary to give yourself space when you’ve had enough. Preferably before you reach that limit.

So that’s three lessons I didn’t mean to explore yet here we are:
Sometimes music is an endurance run. After all, life isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon.
Try to rethink how you speak to yourself and try to be gentler, especially in face of adversity
It’s ok to drop everything and stop when you’re not feeling right about something. And learn what those limitations are

One last comparison before ending this-

As much pressure as I’ve felt getting through tortured poets to keep up with the other fans, it was a lot more intense when I started out in the Prince community. Simply due to the sheer volume of music I had to catch up on. Ok, maybe just a little more intense…
It’s strange feeling like I’ve gotten so old that I can’t consume music as quickly as I used to. I’ve reached a point in my mid 30s where I don’t like too much repetition and I need to be in the mood to listen to music before I do. I want to appreciate what I have before it passes me by. And I can’t help but wonder how old most of these Swifties on Twitter are. Are they teenagers or 20 somethings? When do they have the free time to listen and comment? Not to say I don’t have ample free time after my shift ends but I usually spend that doing over things. It’s such a foreign concept to me but I think it’s true- I am getting older and I can’t keep up with these things the way I used to. I’ve almost always done things at my own pace so this shouldn’t bother me as much as it does. But as much as I seriously wish I could keep up with everyone else, maybe I’m better off accepting the fact that maybe I can’t…

Pitfalls of Experiencing an album release at the same time as everyone else

Taylor’s new album- tortured poets society (this is how my mind is gonna always remember it until it doesn’t)- came out last Friday.
I’ve heard it ONCE. And I’m struggling really badly with the fact it made such a lukewarm impression on me. Meanwhile all the Twitter Swifties are heralding it as the greatest thing she ever did. And even worse, there have been so many comments about all the people who have had negative things to say about it.

It is occurring to me I’d made this point before but apparently it’s become a major issue for me. The whole idea where I don’t want to be lumped into a group of people just because they have an opinion that’s contrary to the majority.
And yeah, I’m probably overthinking this and letting it bother me too much. But hear me out.

The big reason why people supposedly don’t like this album… they heard it once and made a snap judgement. Ok, fair enough. I’ve certainly done my fair share of that.
But one other comment got under my skin in a really bad way because it read like a back handed comment. It essentially said the people who don’t “get” this album have never experienced heartbreak, gaslighting or trauma and “I’m jealous” those people don’t have that in their lives.
I can read this one way and take it as a compliment, but part of me also takes it personally. As if saying you need to be broken or damaged in some way for this to resonate with you in some way.

I’ve experienced all of Taylor’s albums in real time, have zero romantic experience, and yet that’s never prevented me from enjoying her music before. So why should this time be any different?
I ultimately had to ask myself how many times have the people who made these comments listened to this music? Probably a lot more than I did. As much as I want to say how jealous I am that they have the time and attention span for multiple listens in a single weekend, I wouldn’t trade how I do things. I am jealous of how quickly they were able to ingest all this music to make such thoughtful comments.

I think what’s fueled my panic and my anxiety over not connecting with this music right away goes back to my previous history with Taylor swift albums.
Historically, I’ve only had a handful of first listens where I loved them right away. And honestly the same is true for a lot of music I enjoy. The first impression isn’t always perfect but time usually works in my favor after a certain point.
There’s also Evermore and how long that took me to listen to with a positive outlook by the end. I never want to have that experience again. Thinking too much of this music is sad, I don’t want to feel this way ever again so I’m not going to listen anymore. In the past, I had this same bizarre experience with some of my other favorite artists. They put out one album I don’t love immediately and I gave up listening to them. Some, I never got back to. Others I did but it took me months or even years to rekindle that spark.
There’s also a lot of FOMO involved with this. I want to take my time with this music and I really believe it should- only 1-2 songs a day for a week if I have to. But I’m afraid by the time I get there, it’ll be past tense and nobody will be talking about it anymore. It’ll either be “bring on the next Taylor’s version” or more Eras tour talk. I’d been behind the curve for so long with her releases since the Taylor’s versions started coming out. Even though we’re all on the same page, starting with a clean slate at the same time, it feels like everyone’s slates are filled up and mine is still a blank page.

I’ve had many epiphanies lately and this was one of them.
I had an approach with all the Prince albums that were released in the time I followed his career. Where I’d go into isolation to form my own opinion before checking out what others think. Some of it is a defense mechanism- pretty much every new release I experienced, more experienced fans hated because it wasn’t “like the good old days.” And I didn’t want to deal with all that negativity that had nothing substantial backing it up.
And up until this point I’d been listening to Taylor’s music completely on my own. No input from anyone, no reading online comments. So why change now?
I honestly don’t know why. For another reason I’d been extremely wired into the “for you” section of Twitter. I’ve gotten some benefit from it, updates I might not have found otherwise, but it has really brought me more anxiety than it’s worth.

As of finishing this, I’d just gotten through her lyrics. At face value, they read more coherent to my brain than evermore did. There’s still those poetic flourishes that I need to read over multiple times to wrap my head around. But I’m seeing some REALLY good stuff I’m looking forward to experiencing again. But it’s gotta be a little at a time. I said I’d pace myself next time and that’s what I’m gonna do.

Discord in fandoms is exhausting

Before I start, two things:

I realize that by criticizing the criticizers that I’m not only a hypocrite but I’m only adding to the toxicity I’m calling out
We really need to stop lumping people into a category because you disagree with them. Because their opinion might be more complicated than simply hating on something for no reason

And honestly both of these apply to more than just music. And I do blame social media and the internet for fostering this environment. But I think that’s really what’s wrong with the world today- assuming all people who have an opinion you don’t agree with are the same.

Anyway the majority of this post is about Swifties.
But as a Prince fan, I gotta do a sidebar for him.

I’m no stranger to discord within the Prince community. It’s ultimately why I left the fan boards after several years because everything got too toxic.
And this was BEFORE his untimely passing. I’d hate to see what it’s like now.

But since 2016, there’s been constant criticism about his legacy and his music is being handled by the people in charge. The majority is what’s being released from the vault and what isn’t. A lot of “we want more music- no, not that music!” bitching and moaning.

What happened with “United States of division” last week was just another piece of that. But it’s the first time since purple rain deluxe that I was underwhelmed or at least critical of a release.
Admittedly a lot of my frustration is my own fault. After experiencing how Taylor swift handles her releases, maybe I just assumed that Prince’s people finally got it together and all of this recent musicology hype lately was leading to something huge.
Except it didn’t… we got ONE song.
I’m not saying I’ve lost faith into these people but it certainly took a hit in that moment.

Some other stuff that need to be clarified-
Unlike most of the complainers, I didn’t have this song. I’ve never heard it before and it’s cool.
However, it’s not something I’ll listen to on repeat. The music was super groovy but the whole “make love not war” thing is played out. But I suppose it’s better than a full blown political rant like “Avalanche” was
My biggest pet peeve with the people running things continues to be the fact they’re not even the first ones to break the news

Taking the pet peeve further, that’s probably what frustrated me most about this announcement. The same people mishandled the D&P deluxe announcement. Speculation had been running rampant and they finally decided to admit they were doing exactly that.
Why even have a marketing department (or is that a PR thing?) if they can’t control what news comes out? Fans can speculate all they want but when an official announcement comes out after others less official have already come out… someone isn’t doing their job.

Meanwhile, Taylor has supreme control, not just over her music (cuz she owns her own creations) but the news that comes out about her releases.
So why can’t the Prince team be like that? Is it because it’s too many people or are there rats that leak the news before the majority of them are ready to come forward?
Either way, this needs to stop. Don’t be the last ones to confirm what everyone already knows.

Like many others, I heard about this song’s release a day before the announcement. So, forgive me for being an optimist, but I thought the big announcement they wasted a graphic on was in ADDITION to that one song.

And in all honesty, yes. I’d be cool with a musicology re release with new material. I’d buy it as soon as it was on sale, most likely. But it’s not at the top of my priority list.
I’m still waiting for Parade simply for the vault- songs of legend I’d only heard by name but not the songs themselves. And of course a full blown come and gold set with every alternate version of the album tracks.
Everything else is optional, lol
But knowing myself I’ll probably buy everything that comes out until these albums do… just out of paranoia of missing out but also, what if they don’t get what I want because they didn’t profit from what they did release…
It’s one big mind game. And yes I’m grateful for any new music.

It was just a little disconcerting to see people complain about the complainers and say “these people find fault in all the releases.”
To which I say- don’t compare us. I’m allowed to be mad about not getting what I wanted out of this. My reasons, while a bit selfish, are still valid reasons. It isn’t as if I’ve given up on things. Only thing is- going forward, I’ll be less likely to get excited for anything until they officially confirm it. I.E. less speculation- which is fine cuz it’s easier to wait for these things anyway.

And in typical “me” fashion- I say I’m gonna talk about something else briefly and it winds up not being brief.
But I’m sure I have more than enough Swiftie pet peeves to make up the difference.

In all fairness, I think the source of annoyance is all generated by a single Twitter account.
I’m super grateful it has a filter for “following” vs just “recommended” posts. I’d lose my mind otherwise.
In those times I do get curious, I’m usually rewarded with frustration and stuff that annoys me.

I may have gone on a rant about this before but the Swiftie community got stupid complicated after Taylor released Folklore and started her “Taylor’s version” journey. And if it wasn’t, maybe I’m just more aware of these complexities than I used to be.

In general I think criticism is fine as long as it’s constructive. That notes can be taken and you’ll learn from them and get better at whatever it entails.
And it genuinely is ok to not like something if it doesn’t work for you. It’s not as if you’re a bad fan of someone if you have album tracks you skip.

With very few exceptions, it’s safe to assume that everybody skips at least one song they don’t like by their favorite artist or musician.
And those who don’t- cool. You’re probably better off than the rest of us anyway.

To narrow things down a bit, these are the criticisms I’m addressing. People feeling ick from other fans because they

Don’t automatically love the Taylor’s versions over the originals
Didn’t like a certain song until they saw the eras tour performance
Praise folklore and evermore for being the so-called “breakthroughs” for her as a songwriter

I don’t know whether I should be more annoyed at the people making these comments or the people they criticize. Probably the former because it comes off as a toxic trait. Like they can’t help but attack people over opinions they disagree with. I just don’t think it’s ok to assume everyone who shares one opinion, does so for the same reason. And therefore they can all be criticized with a single sentence.

To speak for myself, I conduct myself as a Swiftie the same way I do as a Prince fan. I focus on forming my opinion first before checking on everyone else.
And with Taylor, I’ve arrived to all my conclusions on my own. And by pure coincidence, a lot of her fans share the same sentiment.
Case in point- all too well was my favorite Red track since the beginning. And I learned years later that it was a universal fan favorite AND Taylor’s personal favorite. The same coincidence can be said about her bridges. They’re my favorite parts and usually what makes me LOVE certain songs. I didn’t know until her recent acceptance speeches that it’s one of her favorite parts as a songwriter- cracking that code.

This segues into one of these bullet points.
I didn’t know vigilante was the least loved Midnights track. I just knew it was the one song I skip on that album regularly.
My dislike for it comes down to it just not being my thing. It’s a little close to hip hop for my liking and the story, good as it is, doesn’t interest me enough for additional revisits. But mainly, it doesn’t fit with the rest of the album for me so I skip it.
Seeing it done live in the Eras tour movie did make me like it more than I did- it was an unexpected inclusion that was really cool.

A lot of the midnights set for me was “I wouldn’t have picked that song but I really like what she did with it.”
The only ones I was really excited for were Karma and anti hero. I would’ve exchanged bejeweled, midnight run (which I skip time to time as well for the auto tune alone) or vigilante for snow on the beach but I did like the setup for those numbers.
If I get raked over the coals for not responding to “you’re on your own, kid” until the piano performance… fine, go ahead. It was sorta like a piece was missing for me until seeing her live interpretation.
Speaking for bridges, that’s a top tier one for me. It’s like going downhill really fast, trying to keep up with where she’s going and you don’t realize until you reach the end what she’s ultimately saying. Everything after “saw something they can’t take away” sneaks up on me every listen and I love that feeling. The one time not quite knowing all the lyrics actually enhances the experience.

This carries over to the whole “not realizing Taylor was a greater songwriter before folklore” comment…
But basically, you shouldn’t be so rude to people just because they’re late to the party. Or that they just realized something you’ve known longer than them. The proper response is to welcome them with open arms because they showed up. It’s not like they showed up late to a dinner party and everyone else is eating dessert… music is timeless so don’t put a time limit when it’s acceptable to appreciate it.

This sort of discord has been happening in the Prince community since 2016- seasoned fans being elitist towards the newbies. We need all the new fans we can get so it’s not doing any good to giving them attitude because they didn’t start when you did.
And believe me, I’ve told the story enough times how the attitude I got from experienced Prince fans early on almost halted my journey when it was just beginning.

Also, I was sorta under the impression it was music critics and non fans who “woke up” and realized Taylor was talented because of folklore.

Someday when I find the time, I’ll go back and decide which songs of hers were objectively the best written. I’ll probably find plenty of them that predate the quarantine era.
Speaking as a long haul fan, there was a learning curve for me with folklore and evermore. That’s not reprehensible either. It’s like how it takes some kids longer to learn how to read or tell time. And if you’re not helping others to understand what is giving them trouble, you’re part of the problem.
Oddly enough I’ve found this with a lot of things- but I find the things I work the hardest for, I have a greater appreciation and enjoyment of them. Case in point- albums by other artists that didn’t work for me at first, once they did, they became my favorites. Like it’s a reward for putting in all that work. Maybe I’m not there with evermore as a whole yet but that’s become my story with Coney Island. I didn’t get it at first but now that the message makes more sense, it’s becoming a favorite. Ultimately it’s a nice step in the right direction.

Which leaves the superiority complex the Taylor’s versions are getting opposed to the originals. A lot of the people with this issue tend to refer to the originals as “the stolen versions.” While this is true, the masters were upended by Scooter Braun buying big machine. But Taylor, correct if I’m wrong, never called them that. As far as I’m aware, she’s moved on and is perfectly fine with the new versions.
This rhetoric just bothers me a little because it creates an “us vs them” mentality. Meaning that if you’re not all in on every Taylor’s versions, you’re not a good fan.
For me, moving on hasn’t been easy and for some albums, I still haven’t fully embraced the Taylor’s versions over the originals. As someone who’s going through a similar journey with Prince posthumous albums… I still have conflicts. Not just having to buy albums I already bought again, but if I have any sort of attachment to the music, I can’t just move on and act like the originals don’t exist. That the memories I had with them didn’t happen and it’s not as if those memories can easily transferable. To me, they still feel like separate entities because I owned them at different times.

Having gone through this with Prince four times already, the only remaster that falls short is purple rain. I don’t get the same warm feelings as the original songs. And as I progress through the disc, I just keep getting hit with the hard fact he’s longer with us. Releasing it as quickly as they did after his death ruined it for a lot of people, including me.
Every other super deluxe, the album is sonically superior to the original. 1999 even felt like a brand new album. The other two, the sound is louder and clearer but I didn’t hear a huge difference otherwise.

The Taylor’s versions have gotten better with each one she’s put out. But it’s not without internal conflict.
Fearless and Red have a lot of personal memories attached to them, so moving on like the originals didn’t happen- next to impossible.
Fearless was all about high school innocence and it’s interesting looking back on it with an older perspective. There’s just one or two songs where I didn’t like her singing as much as the originals. “Tell me why” suited her younger voice a lot better. Whereas “you belong with me” benefited from a redo because it doesn’t have the sudden inhale in the bridge.
Red- I loved the new coat of paint in pretty much every instance except “stay stay stay.” Because the laugh at the end no longer has that fun spontaneity to it. It’s there cuz the original had it and I liked it better when it was a spur of the moment thing.

I’ll come back to both of these in another post eventually. But I really need to listen to the vault tracks more cus I still don’t know them, not even by name. The trouble with Red is that all too well overshadowed everything else. And Ronan is not something I wanna play all the time.

As for being a truly better version, speak now is it.
Something about its production never quite worked for me. Maybe it was just too country and I’m not a fan of that. Somehow it just became my favorite.
This goes for nearly every album but for the Taylor’s versions, I’m playing all the songs I used to skip. So maybe the fresh coat of paint was all I needed for them to click.
I skipped nothing on fearless except “you’re not sorry” the first few years. Red, I skipped “the last time” for being too sad and “beautiful tragic love affair” for meandering too much. Now, things have changed for the better.

Then speak now- I skipped “grow up” for being too sentimental and “innocent” for, I’m not quite sure. It just took the new version for me to understand it better. And maybe it being removed from the Kanye drama (I still don’t get how that was a response to that incident) made me respond to it more.

1989- it was among my least listened to albums but not for lack of connection or enjoyment. I just never found the right time and place where it’d be my go to album. All the others had a month or time of year or weather pattern I associated with them.
Several of the songs had a similar story arc where I either didn’t hear a difference or I really liked the differences I did find. Out of the woods is a good example of the latter.
There were two I skipped simply because they were sleepy ballads that didn’t excite me. Maybe it’s because the music reminds me a lot of the video game Stardew Valley in winter time, but I’ve come around on “You Are In Love” in a big way. And I think “This Love” started to hit me differently for its own reasons, but not quite sure what they were.

My only setback- which is enough where I’d put the original version in place of the new one in an iPod playlist- is New Romantics. And this is the moment I’d confront the fans who insist ALL Taylor’s versions outdo the originals and anyone who says otherwise is nitpicking differences between the two.
I might do a direct side by side comparison someday but not anytime soon.
But I don’t need to do that to recognize something is off about the new version.
This song is about the reckless abandon of camaraderie and the burst of energy when the chorus hits makes that a reality. The new version is missing that distinct oomph, that surge of adrenaline, and I miss it so much that the song is incomplete without it.
What I’m trying to say- you can’t put a price on how a song makes you feel and no one has the right to take that away from you.

This also connects to a recent thing Taylor has done leading up to her new album- she constructed playlists with her catalogue to demonstrate her 5 stages of grief.
I’d read comments here and there while I tried to find the playlists on Twitter and I can’t help but agree. I feel strange putting some of these songs in the categories she chose. Her breakup with Joe Alwyn has clearly changed a lot about how she looks back on them in retrospect. She is entitled to change her mind- they are her songs after all.
I just don’t know if I want to make that change with her. Putting Lover and Sweet Nothings together in the denial phase… I’m sorry, I can’t do that. I think Tolerate It was anger but it’s definitely bargaining or somewhere between those two.
Then again I shouldn’t be too surprised. She composed folklore and evermore playlists and I don’t think of those songs in that context at all. And I’d rather keep a lot of these songs where they are in my head instead of a more cynical context. And a lot of this feels steeped in cynicism.

Tortured poets has had a lot of hype. But also a lot of “soundalike” conversations. To the point all of her albums are being compared to the new music.
I’m just hoping it’s not similar to evermore- because at face value, it was a very cynical album with a lot of break up songs and not many lighthearted moments.

So to sum everything up… I will definitely be listening to Taylor later.
But seriously, you are what you love so let people love what they love without your interference.

What Prince and Taylor Swift have in common…

I’m not going to pretend this isn’t just some crazy fantasy— this idea of my two favorite people in music having some sort of crossover potential.
And if you want to write this as such, that’s perfectly fine.
But I kinda want to see where this goes so I’ll go down this rabbit hole until I run out of things to say.
I also want to preface- there’s a lot of crossover potential between Prince and a lot of other artists who endured similar trials or their music has taken on a life greater than their own. Anyone who wants to pursue that certainly can. Nor am I uniquely qualified to discuss this topic. If I’m the first or last person to connect these two names together, I’d be greatly surprised.

For starters, I wouldn’t have thought of ANY of this if not for two things

1- Taylor losing ownership of her master recording when Scooter Braun bought out her label, Big Machine Records. A move ultimately resulting in her re-recording her back catalog. As of this post, she has 2 “Taylor’s versions” left to finish- reputation and her debut self titled album

2- The Eras Tour
There was an article I read from the New York Times or some other major publication that went into great detail on this topic. How this tour exemplifies how Taylor’s music occupies its own universe, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, and how it’s just as relatable to her fans as it is to her.
(This is an oversimplification of that article, of course. And I’m sure it was about more than just this tour. I think it focused more on why Taylor has become the phenomenon she is now).

… and I suppose the 2020 lockdowns deserves to be #3 on this list
If it wasn’t for all that, Taylor wouldn’t have penned Folklore or Evermore. She has said in interviews how she couldn’t have sustained a career on her diarist style of songwriting forever. And lockdowns and quarantines created the environment that fostered these albums. The need to fantasize and escape as well as reflect on past and present realities.

The end result of this- Taylor not only attracted new fans, people who finally started taking her seriously as a songwriter, but she created her own world. And soon enough, she found a way for her other albums to carve out niches in that same space.

How does all of this connect back to Prince?
It’s best to take that one step at a time. Not just so it’s easier for outsiders to understand but my own brain (as is often the case with Prince) can only process this if I break it down into bite sized chunks.
Back when I got my start as a fan of his, each of his older albums felt like its own galaxy so I could only comprehend them if I spent individual time with each one.
It’s easy to argue Prince’s music is much more complicated so it takes more time to get to know his work. But really, the necessity of doing things this way comes down to one thing- I checked into Prince in 2007, so I had over 20 albums to track down and listen to.
…just in case anyone’s thinking “you didn’t have to listen to everything”… believe me, I didn’t plan on that. But the nook of the Prince fan community I was dialed into at the time had other plans. I had a short list of what I considered “essential” “must have” albums. Everyone else essentially thought I was crazy and ultimately made a liar out of me. Not that I’m sorry about it. I’d say of all the Prince albums I wound up procuring, there is only one I never would have gotten myself. And the only reason I have it at all was that a friend of mine threw it in with two other albums he tracked down for me.

Going back to Taylor, I experienced all of her albums in real time so the only catch up I’ve ever had to do is the vault tracks on her Taylor’s versions… it always seems like an uphill battle to get through all of those before the next one comes out. And I think I might finally have succeeded…
Although I might have to go back to fearless and red before tortured poets society comes out in April. (And yes I’ll call it that forever cuz I can’t shake the association with “poets” and “society”)
But considering the trajectory her career is on and how regularly she puts out music, it’s possible a fan could discover her a decade from now and have to play catch up like I did with Prince because they weren’t born yet.

Although, like I said, Taylor’s music isn’t as complex as Prince’s music so it’ll be a much easier journey. Except there isn’t an album yet where I could confidently say “skip that one”- until all of the Taylor’s versions are finished, then you could maybe skip the original versions of her first 6 albums.

Already, that’s one thing these two have in common- how prolific they are as songwriters.
It’d be foolish to do a side by side comparison cuz Prince would win every time. He had enough music in his vault for dozens of albums- they just never came out because he either got distracted by another project or his label restricted him to an album a year.
But the fact she released folklore and evermore mere months apart all while she was working on her new version of Fearless… how many artists nowadays have anything close to that? That’s a very Prince-like thing to do but on a more human scale. Opposed to his scale which could only be described as super human.

Now for the actual bullet points I set out to begin all this-

The argument about musical artists owning the rights to their work- Prince probably wasn’t the first person to speak out about it but he’s one of the biggest faces of this problem with the music industry.
For those who aren’t in the know, this dispute is the reason “the artist formerly known as Prince” became a thing and how his symbol became synonymous for him as a person.
Even as the hardcore fan I am, I’m not the most knowledgeable when it comes to the semantics of all this. But I know this much.
Warner Bros was a really good label for someone like Prince who wanted to produce his own work and they gave him a lot of freedom to do what he wanted. But they didn’t say “yes” to all of his whims. Like with sign o the times, that was originally a 3 disc album and they made him cut it down to two. Then with the symbol album, they argued with him over what the first single should be. Shortly after that, he signed a new contract, the largest of its kind. And he spent the rest of the decade trying to get out of it. The reasons behind that are a little more complicated than I have the mental capacity to go into. But part of it was an epiphany he had during negotiations. He didn’t like the fact someone else had control of when his music was released. Someone commented to him something along the lines of “so when can we expect your next album?” A rudimentary question. But it was a problem. The 90s had a lot of back and forth over whether he was ready to release music and the label wasn’t and vice versa. After the name change, he wanted a double release- one album of old “Prince” music and an album of his new music under the new unpronounceable name (ie the symbol). This never came to pass. By the time either of these albums came out, he’d already moved onto the next thing.
The bigger picture of all that- his career never fully recovered from that. Muhammad Ali was still considered the greatest after changing his name but Prince was written off by a lot of same people who’d sung his praises. And I suppose the changing landscape of the music industry and how radio rotation was now decided by corporations instead of the local DJs probably contributed too. But this created the gross misconception that Prince fell off or he wasn’t as good as he was. He was still making music but nobody who had a voice that mattered gave him the promotion he deserved. The kind he used to get back in the 80s.
One can only hope that his legacy will set a precedent about musical artists should strive for in their own careers. Like most geniuses, he was never truly appreciated in his time and I hope that changes.

What happened with Taylor and her masters… again, similar story but far less complicated.
Her masters became someone else’s property. I don’t know this story all that well either but I’m pretty sure she had the choice of buying them back at an obscene markup or she could record new versions she’d own the rights automatically.
Apparently not much about recording contracts have changed because in both cases, the rights of the music didn’t belong to their creators. Why this is- I don’t know and it’s grossly unfair. I could be wrong so don’t quote me, but no other media has this issue with it. Some book contracts probably do this also and that’s why pages on the internet are dedicated to “do not sell your book to these companies” lists. (I’ve never gotten published but I’ve done enough research on the subject that I’m at least aware there are sucky publishing companies out there).

The point where both of these people meet in the middle.
Both come from groups with a history of either being marginalized or having their rights taken away. Prince wrote “slave” on his face during his label dispute to help drive home the race part of the issue.
Taylor’s song “mad woman” touches on the dispute over her own masters from the female perspective. Essentially saying how there’s a double standard when women try to defend their rights.

And of course times like this, I can’t help but wonder what Prince would’ve made of all this if he was here to see it unfold. Would he have criticized her for realizing too late you need to own the rights to your work?
And where she’s at now, would he sing her praises of her songwriting or how she has control over her image?
If he wasn’t initially on board, I’d like to think he would’ve come around by now.
Would he cover any of her songs in concert or invite her to paisley park to jam? I can’t see it happening cuz they run in different circles but it’d be cool to think ‘what if’. He’s put himself on the line for a lot of female artists, helping them reach their fullest potential… but at this point, Taylor is, well, tailor made the way she wants to be so he could just as easily shrug and say “she doesn’t need my help. She knows what’s up”

I’m always going to secretly hope during some interview talking about artists’ rights that Taylor will mention Prince. I hope she’s at least remotely aware of what he went through in his time. And it’d be cool to daydream how Prince’s profile could be raised into the stratosphere because the biggest person in music right now came out saying he was a fan. Her rabid fan base would follow her lead and discover his music. My mind can’t even comprehend how astronomical an impact that would be. Although the cynic in me could see that not working because her fans decide his personal history with women is enough reason to not bother with him at all. And that’d be a huge shame.
Plenty of men in music had received criticism for how they’d conducted themselves in their personal lives but the only people I’m aware of whose legacies were tarnished by this are Eric Clapton and Phil Spector… and maybe John Mayer. Him and Taylor being linked together pretty much ruined his career. He’s still around doing stuff but you never hear about it.
John Lennon, I’ve heard rumors of him being abusive to his women, but he’s still considered one of the greatest artists music has ever had. Even if he was alive today, he’d still probably have a positive legacy behind him.

I’ve obviously gone off track. But just to address the second bullet point I listed, how Taylor used the eras tour to create her own wonderland to bring her fans every night.

Aside from him being a musical genius and modern day Mozart, Prince caught my attention because his music occupied a space I didn’t know even existed. It made my mind twist in different directions I never thought possible. So I took a deep dive into his music to experience more of that and I’d highly recommend it if you have the time.

I started listening to Taylor just because her songs were relatable to what I was going through in my own life. That’s the main thing I look for when it comes any singer or songwriter I invest in. And any time that person also writes their own songs and plays an instrument, even better.
By this point, Taylor has bridged that gap where she’s not just creating songs most typical people can relate to on a personal level, she’s creating fictional worlds and characters while doing so. That doesn’t sound like an easy feat but she does it so effortlessly. It’s literally insane. If you wanna go back even further, the Beatles did that whole “world within an album” concept with Sgt Pepper and, to a lesser degree, abbey road
Drawing parallels between Taylor and the Beatles is a discussion onto itself- but I’m not nearly as knowledgeable about them to pursue that any further than to say the potential is certainly there.

With all that said, I think I’d finally stretched this conversation as far as I can go.
My word might not mean much but take my word for it- more Taylor swift fans need to check into Prince’s music and his career and vice versa.

At face value, Taylor may pale next to a lot of what most people consider the greatest musical acts of all time. But the fact is that a lot of people with a lot of power are paying attention to her right now and there’s a big reason for that.
And I know for me personally, she’s one of my favorite people to listen to. Easily my top 3 and I listen to a LOT of different kinds of music.

Also, one last thing these two people have in common.
It wasn’t as well known when he was alive but Prince gave a lot of his money away to various charities, local and national. Taylor swift was recently certified as a billionaire and she gave a lot of her money away as well.
The one place where Taylor likely has Prince beat is, from what I’ve heard, she pays the people that work with her a lot better than he did. Part of his fallout with the Revolution did come down to money. But most of what his band mates did attain from their time working with him, those are the sorts of things money can’t buy so I suppose it all evens out.

Ok, I’ve gone on long enough.
Both of these people are amazing- go listen to them!

Music for the fans or everyone? [Plus more Evermore banter]

I wouldn’t call myself a Reddit person but I’ve picked up some interesting things off that site when I’m searching for answers.
Lately that’s been various Evermore lyrics… and maybe one or two from folklore.

But while doing so, I found one interesting comment. It mentions how Taylor’s music can only be fully enjoyed by her fans and herself and aren’t as accessible to those outside of that sphere.
Later mentioning the 2020 albums being less diaristic.
Also- I didn’t know that was even a word but I get it.

Looking at the big picture, I’d have to say that’s pretty accurate.
I’m sure there was a handful of people who became fans of hers through her indie folk period or were quote “finally able to take her seriously”
But there’s the other side of the coin too. Longtime fans like me who didn’t quite understand that approach so there was a little disconnect at first.
Evermore, I think I’m finally turning that corner where I’m finding myself in the music. That relatability I had trouble finding. But also, a lot of these songs were written like they were from a different time. You know how in Shakespeare or old time English novels where the wording for simple sentences is over complicated or you have to get the meaning of the sentence rather than one word at a time. That was my issue for most of it.
Turns out- all I needed was to reread midnight sun. Seeing some of these songs through the lens of Edward and Bella unlocked a lot that I was missing before.
And also my brain finally made space for some of the lyrics. With that less of a problem, I’m finally able to make sense of things.

Going back to the criticism, though.
I’m not going to disagree with it. But at the same time, I don’t feel like she’s closed herself off from general listeners. Everyone can get something out of her music. She’d been around long enough where there really is something for everyone, even the people who aren’t into the romance and relationships.

There’s plenty of evidence to support both sides of the argument- whether artists should cater their music to the masses or their fans. In other words- put out the energy you want to receive back. Whether it’s commiserating over lost love or throwing out a moral question and making people think about their feelings on it.

I don’t spend nearly enough time in the Swiftie community to know where everyone stands. So it always surprises me that our favorite songs tend to line up. I’m not being influenced in my choices by anyone but Taylor. Which is probably the greatest proof she really is a mastermind.
But from what I’ve experienced with the Prince fan community, I’m willing to bet all fan bases have their array of issues and critiques. You only really hear about these things when you spend time around other people.
I’ve learned pretty quickly in my time how opinionated prince fans can be and how, at the end of the day, you’re never gonna please all of them at the same time. Because they all want different things.

It’s funny to me to consider if this criticism was brought up to Prince.
Like after he’d done multiple accessible pop albums in a row and he put off fans by doing something like lotusflow3r or the rainbow children or Lovesexy. Longtime fans will immediately stand up and say “hang on, prince began his career doing his own thing and then he started to do pop music”. Essentially doing the opposite of most people in music do. They get your attention with the poppy stuff and once they’re established, they can experiment and the right people will stick around. Prince did that by following purple rain with around the world in day, which had a lot of bandwagon fans scratching their heads.

In either case, both of these artists never stopped being their authentic selves.
Even on the pop albums, Prince did some weird stuff just to keep things interesting.
Purple rain had darling Nikki and computer blue. 1999 had lady cab driver.
I’m sure there are plenty more but those are the ones I can think of right now.

Of course a lot of Prince fans would rather prince do the weird inaccessible stuff because it stretches his creativity and makes him less predictable. But I’m sure part of it is that they simply don’t want to share him for the rest of music fans.
There’s common jokes about how some of his songs after the 2000s is like “if you don’t agree with this, you can leave”… but really, some of us just choose to ignore the rainbow children and other JW messages and take out of his music whatever we want.
I don’t think Prince ever wanted to drive his fans away from his music. Sometimes he just wanted us to consider a different perspective… whether or not we change is still up to us in the end.

It’s always gonna be fascinating to me how evermore was the Taylor swift album I found the most challenging.
Part of me really thought my road with her was going to end at reputation. All because I don’t like hip hop and rap or general cussing in music. But that gritty side of Taylor wound up becoming my favorite version of her for as long as that was her most recent album.
Both reputation and Evermore, if I could connect them to any Prince album, they’d be like her graffiti bridge. All three happen to feature other artists and create a new vibe that hadn’t existed before. Although the level of songwriting with evermore and Coney Island is probably still better than the non Prince music on graffiti bridge.
I make these connections primarily because of something Prince said about his fans and how they reacted to his album. Basically, your fans will see themselves in your music and when you act in a way they don’t expect, they blame you for not living up to their idea of you.
Graffiti bridge is one of those prince projects only a handful of his fans really understood. He used it to try to bring a message across but he did it in such an abstract way that it didn’t make sense right away. It took many years for people to warm up to it. Some never have but still enjoy most of his other work.

For reputation, I know for sure that challenged my idea of who Taylor was.
She was the safe, squeaky clean girl next door. Suddenly her being “the bad girl” and talking about drinking, getting revenge and so on. It was intimidating. I was also afraid all the haters that put her down changed that sweet little girl forever.
You know, the whole “the old Taylor can’t come to the phone… she’s dead” thing.
Lover was all the reassurance I needed that the good girl Taylor is wasn’t gone forever. She’s still cussing in her music but it’s still not nearly as bad as Prince in his heyday. Or the legions of rappers that curse every other breath. And sure I could just get the “clean” non explicit version of her albums to avoid this but whatever… for all I know it’s a phase she’ll get out of.
Prince was able to stop but his newfound faith had a fair bit to do with that. Although he did bend over backwards in order to sanitize all of his music after becoming a Jehovah’s Witness. All the fans he lost cuz he wasn’t cursing or doing his most explicit music anymore… I still think they missed out on a lot. If anything was worth sticking around for, art official age certainly was.

For whatever reason, evermore was a bigger challenge for me than Taylor’s other albums. Heck, it was from the same cloth as folklore but one worked for me and one didn’t. Maybe because one was more hopeful than the other. Evermore had way more sad songs than I was used to hearing in one place. And the sad stuff was REALLY sad. I’d argue sadder than all too well and last kiss. At least with those, the reason for the sadness was more on the surface. With tolerate it, champagne problems, Coney Island and evermore, it was far more complicated.
Champagne was about her turning down a proposal but never explaining why other than “I never was ready”
Coney Island… I’m still working that one out. Supposedly it’s her “to all the guys I loved before”- thinking through past mistakes and hopefully moving past them.
And evermore, it’s a lot like last kiss because it’s a post breakup reflection. But much more complicated. It’s more about reconciling what happened, the struggle to move forward and finally succeeding.
The song happiness and the whole idea of “you haven’t met the new me yet” is one potential resolution. Once you lose the version of yourself that existed in that relationship or that breakup, you become a stronger version of yourself that’s open to experience new things. But also gaining the perspective where the past doesn’t hurt like it used to.

And going back to the twilight connection, that helped me understand Evermore the song a bit more. Or to be more specific, new moon did. Much of that book is Bella trying to live her life without Edward. Although like with “wasting all these tears” by Cassadee pope, I see both of these songs as new moon songs… except that she and Edward never get back together and she’d successfully moved on without him.

I’d spent a bit of time on Reddit trying to answer questions about the evermore songs and I’d found plenty of answers. It’s just that at face value, very little of it made sense to me. And I’d loved Taylor since her first album
I’m also the type of person who likes to interpret her songs through my own experiences, afraid any outside information will ruin the image I’d put in my head. That’s why I’d stopped watching her videos. I don’t want that image to interfere with mine. Although “all too well” I had to see because that song coming out in the full 10 minutes. And my version of the song in my head remains unaffected even though I’d seen it twice.
Someday soon I hope to watch her other videos from the last 3 years as well.
But to go back to the top of this paragraph, I really did need Taylor’s help to figure out what she was trying to say with these songs. And from there, I was finally able to make connections of my own.

The criticism about her music catering more to her fans than music people as a whole— while a legit critique, all I can really say now is “dude, what’s stopping you from changing that?” Maybe you owe to yourself to take that deep dive into the connections, references and Easter eggs.
Sure, 10 albums (plus all the Taylor’s versions) may seem like a lot. But it isn’t that bad. Unlike me coming into prince world 30+ albums behind in 2007, you have plenty of time to catch up.

***

Also, maybe it’s just me. But the further I go down rabbit hole like this, it makes me think… Prince and Taylor Swift could easily attract the same kinds of people toward their music. It can’t be just me. Granted, with Prince, you have to do a little more digging to find your niche in his vast catalogue of music. Not all of it is poppy and accessible like Taylor’s.
It’s just so funny to me how I keep making connections between the two when, really, I’m the only thing these two have in common.

Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour- The Movie

Taylor Swift and I are never gonna be in the same room at the same time…

So thankfully this massive tour has been released in this format. I’d be game for a DVD release too, but I’m not sure if I could sit through all of it at once again. Maybe do an era a day and stretch over a couple of days.
The only way I can describe the aftermath was sensory overload. Almost like overdosing on Starbucks. It was so much fun, but it was a lot. My ears are still ringing a little bit and I kinda lost my voice from singing along.
Totally worth it, though. I’m sure I spent the first couple of hours smiling until my cheeks hurt, although the moods of the songs helped steer that course. All of her dancers, singers and band members were incredible and deserve just as much credit. They really got to shine, some even got dance solos, and it’s clear how much work they put in to make these shows happen.

***

The short version: every era got the love and attention it deserved… except for Speak Now and the self-titled first album, only getting one song each (not counting credits). And the songs from the albums she didn’t get to tour because, you know, 2020, they got their time in the spotlight finally. The closest thing they got to that platform was her being on The Grammys and she did a medley including Willow, Cardigan and August.

And I’m sure there will be haters on the internet proposing drinking games for every time a song involves platforms rising and falling, groups of dancers flanking her from one end of the stage to another, and so on. Certain setups did repeat a number of times but a show this long… it’s just par for the course.

The best part was being surprised about era order and which songs would be chosen to reflect that era. Guessing from musical or narrative clues. Nearly every song that’d been on the radio made an appearance except for one or two I can think of at the moment. Mildly disappointing, but I did get a lot of songs I didn’t expect and that made me super happy.

Anyone not wanting spoilers, this might be the time to stop reading… cuz I will mention songs and some of the visuals that accompanied them. All I can do is recommend that you get yourself to a theater and see it for yourself if you haven’t had that chance in person.

***
Ok, all spoilers going forward…

I don’t remember which eras were done which order. So to write this, I’m going to go chronologically because that’s the easiest way my brain can assess the equation of all that had transpired during this massive show.

Taylor Swift- self-titled

I’m not surprised this only got the one song. Not much of this album makes sense in the grand scheme of things, not like it did back on the Fearless concert DVD. Plus, it’s one of two albums she hasn’t given the “Taylor’s Version” treatment.
But once she mentioned talent show in her monologue, I knew it was gonna be “Our Song.”
One of two songs in the acoustic set.

Side-note: there was a lot of hype about her diving into the water and emerging on the other side of the stage. So I was mildly disappointed not to get to see that here. And it’d have been cool for a longer acoustic set. Prince did a piano medley as part of his LoveSexy tour and I felt like I got a little more out of that.

Fearless

This was probably my mom’s favorite part of the show because she knew more of the songs. We got to the end of “Love Story” and she joked “ok, we can go now” LOL

Fearless, You Belong with Me and Love Story was a pretty good cross-section.

And the Fearless DVD had some great performances of the rest of the album that would be hard to top. One highlight she mentioned from that tour was where she did the bridge and knelt down on the stage and the girls nearby held her hands to offer reassaurance to accompany the lyrics. And that just became a part of future shows from that tour.

Speak Now

Another single song affair (with the exception of the credits… which you should totally stick around for. It includes a lot of fan footage but also rehearsals and various wrinkles that had to be ironed out. A couple I remember from my dad showing me the clips during mornings of web surfing).

But if any song was going to be done, I couldn’t be happier it was “Enchanted.” It’s in my personal top 3 of all her songs. She wore this gorgeous fairytale gown and everything around her was so pretty. It was a perfect match for this song.

“Back to December” was one song I kinda missed hearing but I’d also played the re-release of Speak Now several times in the past few months. At least 5 times, so I really can’t complain.
I also gotta say it just might be my favorite Taylor’s Version. The original Speak Now was in maybe my bottom 3 of her albums and I’d skip two or three of the songs I didn’t like as much. With this new version, I haven’t skipped a track yet. So I think I’m more than ready to move onto the upcoming 1989 release.

Red

For a while, this was my favorite Taylor Swift album so I’m really happy it got so much love here.
Since we ordered the tickets on Fandango, “We are never ever getting back together” immediately jumped into my head. So I’m super happy I got to hear it again. Another “smiling so much my face hurt” part of the show.
“I knew we were trouble” was one I know my sister was thrilled about. We’d sung that song in the car together numerous times.
“22” was a nice change of pace for a couple of reasons but it was maybe the first time in the show Taylor wasn’t in a dress. She was just chilling with her buddies in a T-shirt and hat. The whole vibe matched the song perfectly.

And after much anticipation, we were treated to the 10 minute version of “All too well.”
I’d seen the short film video twice and listened to it maybe 4 times on its own. So I was excited just to see how she’d adapt it in a live format. She was just on a raised platform with her guitar. Even surrounded by all those fans, it felt like a raw intimate performance. And thanks to the lighting and key changes, it felt like it had a proper beginning, middle, and ending. The way everything shifted after she went from the final chorus of the standard version and went on her slow rant that was essentially the final nail in that coffin. In the short film, this was where they made the transition from the events of the song to present day.
I won’t give away any more than that because the first time I saw it, it took my breath away. So unexpected.

I was also happy to learn that some of the previous unheard lyrics were finally sinking into my head. It’s not the type of song you can play on repeat to learn. The first couple of listens, I was just a hot mess afterwards because it’s so raw and emotional.

1989

“Style” was a great start to this set. Followed by “Blank Space”… I think that was the song where she and a bunch of her dancers got illuminated hockey sticks and smashed a hologram of a car because I think the music video had something similar. That was a really fun one.
“Bad Blood”- considering the SoFi roof went completely crimson, it was kinda surprising she didn’t do the whole song. But I’m also kinda glad. It’s not one of my personal favorites because it’s just a lot of shouting. The way her voice drips with sarcasm would make it fit perfectly with “This is why we can’t have nice things” from Reputation and “Bejeweled” from Midnights in a medley.
“Shake it off”- super fun, of course. We got really into that one. Even clapping right before the chorus because we just couldn’t help ourselves.

Reputation

Once the title screen for this came up, I was SUPER excited. It didn’t start out that way but it became the album to overtake Red as my favorite Taylor Swift album.
It’s also the one I’d gone the longest without listening to. Usually I’ll bring out for a rainy day because it fit that environment so well. And a day like today fit it perfectly. I was a little concerned I’d forgotten some of the words but they fell down like pieces into place soon enough.
A lot of snake imagery, both on the stage and her outfit. She wore something of a catsuit with snakes weaving around it.

“Ready for it” was a great way to start.
“Delicate” had some cool stage design where she sung in different parts of the circular section of the stage and cracks would form where she stood.
“Don’t blame me” was a surprise but a good one. Also a good lead-in for the next song.
“Look what you made me do” was super cool. Like in the video, the different outfits she’d worn from different eras made appearances. Except her dancers were the ones wearing them.

…was kinda hoping for “Getaway Car” to make an appearance, but she did a few songs similar to it so the omission at least makes sense. “All too well” being one of them- oddly enough, when I put these albums in my car, I get to those two songs usually around the same exact spot. A lot of open road, cruising downhill with a 55mph speed limit with not many cars to worry about nearby.

Lover

Taylor made a comment early in the show how she’ll hope that this concert will come to mind when we revisit these songs in the future.
Already, I know that’s going to be the case with some of these because this era opened the show.

She started with a little “Miss Americana” and went into “Cruel Summer.” It’s kinda funny how she asks the crowd if they know the bridge when they obviously do. I know I did. Recalling it now, I can’t help smiling. Plus when we got our tickets at the theater, we also got concert flyers and she was dressed in the white fringe dress with shades of pastel from this part of the show.

And based off some of the narrative, I knew “The Man” was coming next. She’s feeling pumped up by the crowd so she goes into this. A bunch of her dancers are at office desks and later, the girls, all wearing suits, dance with her.

Omg, this whole album is so much fun. It has to be a bright and sunny day, but I’d driven home to it a bunch of times. So that brought back a lot of those fond memories.

“Lover” I’d seen her do on piano on Saturday Night Live but it also sounded great on guitar.

“You need to calm down” only had a couple of minutes to it, but I think it was the first song my sister recognized in the show.
We’re definitely gonna have to play some of these albums together soon. Cuz, like she did, I do have all of them…

Folklore

She brought the frame of that house in the woods from her Grammys performance.

I didn’t get “Cardigan” or “Mirrorball” but she did a LOT of really good songs from this album.

She focused a lot on the love triangle storyline. The performance of “Betty” fit the vibe of the song perfectly. Her playing guitar in the house and her singers were on the steps below.
“Illicit Affairs” was a brief but really interesting conclusion… I never thought about it before, but I guess it would make sense somewhere in this story. Not sure if it’d be from Betty or Inez’s perspective.
“August” was nice and breezy just like on the record.

“Tears Ricochet”- another surprise, but I enjoyed this one too. It actually got me choked up. So many emotions go along with this one. I think it was one of a few she’d directed at the person who underhandedly took her masters and is why the Taylor’s Versions are coming out. But you can apply to a number of stories and the line “when you can’t sleep at night, you’ll hear my stolen lullabies”… whoa, that feels like one of the heaviest things she’d ever written. And everyone she was with were dressed in funeral black. This song always gave me Six Feet Under vibes even though I barely watched the show when it was on.

Almost forgot “The Last Great American Dynasty”… another surprise and one of my favorites on the album. Her dancers were dressed in formal wear from 50 years ago and they really brought this song to life. There was even a train that went across the background to kick it off.
And “the 1” to kick it all off- she’s just chilling on the roof of that house, looking back on a past love.

Evermore

If I had to pick any Taylor Swift album I don’t like that much, it’s this one… so I’m glad that I got as much out of this part of the show as I did.
Maybe it’s the songwriting style or the way the duets were constructed, but there’s a disconnect I’ve yet to work around.

But she picked some good songs to represent it.

“willow” was a given and it felt like a perfect fit for the Halloween sense. She wore this long gown and along with the dancers, she wore a black cape. Almost like they were all part of a coven. And they had these orbs I could almost picture as jack-o-lanterns.

“marjorie” was an interesting inclusion I didn’t expect. I think it was actually about her grandmother who’d had a career as an opera singer but never achieved the level of success Taylor has. In the background at the end of the song, you can hear marjorie vocalizing from old recordings.

“champagne problems” had the coolest piano- completely covered in moss. And she said how she’d dreamed of playing this song live in that way. Part of that 2020 quarantine mentality and the need for escapism.
The actual title, I still don’t understand what it means. The best the internet has is basically making mountains out of molehills, making too much out of the smallest details. But it’s among her most unique songs, talking about two sides of a proposal gone wrong. How half goes to this meeting with the intention to propose and the other planning to break it off. And she’s the one that breaks it off. A lot of people speculated this was about then boyfriend Joe Alymn… maybe it is, I’m not sure. I just know they’re not together anymore and everyone knows who she HAS been seen with lately. You’d have to be living under a rock not to know about her and Travis Kelce.

“tolerate it” had a slow intro where there was dining table setup and it took a while for me to figure out which song it was going to be. But once she started to get meticulous with everything, I knew it was going to be this one.
Another gut punch of a song. I read somewhere “Rebecca” was one of the books she read in quarantine and it helped inspire this song. I’d never read it myself, but the song is about giving your all to a relationship and that effort not being acknowledged or the affection returned in the same way. Then at the end, she threatens to walk away because she has to do what’s best for her and the relationship is not it.

Midnights

“You’re on your own, kid” was a preview to this part of the show, appearing in the acoustic set.

“Lavender Haze” was so cool with all the puffy clouds. Also gotta say the midnight blue fringe dress she wore for this part of the show was probably my favorite of the dresses. That color looked amazing on her.

I’ve been enjoying the album since it came out. Heck, I took it off my iPod because I was at the point I was afraid I’d get sick of it.
But it was maybe my least favorite part of the show.
She picked some great songs, but some are among the ones I don’t like quite as much.

“Vigilante Shit” is the one song I skip and have since removed from my iPod. It’s all about women getting revenge on men that had wronged them. The vibe would fit in with the Reputation era. But I’m just not a fan.
I did like the setup with all the girls sitting on chairs and dancing like they’re in a Bob Fosse routine.

“Midnight Run” has an auto-tune vocalist on it that I’m not really into. (I don’t remember much to add about the actual performance)

“Bejeweled”… yeah, it was these three songs in a row I didn’t really enjoy. One fun part of that number was a couple of her dancers getting solos and a resounding “Nice!” of approval. These people are crazy talented.

I was hoping for “Snow on the Beach” but without Lana del Rey, who appears on the album, it probably wasn’t going to happen anyway.

But they had “Anti-hero”… the image of a giant Taylor lurching toward a city, I’m guessing is pulled from the music video… which I have yet to see and might need to rectify.

I thought maybe “Mastermind” would be the final song because… you know… Taylor is all about putting easter eggs in everything she does, so it’d be a good way to sum all of this up.

But when she said the final song was coming and I recognized it, I couldn’t be happier… this show had to end on a great note and “Karma” is the best I could think of.
It recently got a remix with Ice Spice, who’d recently appeared on SNL, so it makes sense to have this here for that connection.

On the album, that song had come after what had been a lull that lasted maybe 4 songs. Labyrinth was the beginning of this turning point, but Karma… omg… it was like everything went from black and white to technicolor, or from mono to stereo. Whatever the case, a switch flipped in my head and I was completely entranced by it.
The feathery coats Taylor and her dancers were wearing, each a different color, didn’t really match the image I had in my head, but having a group number that involves marching down a long walkway absolutely works. It’s a huge celebatory number.
Another great bridge- one I’d worked hard to memorize and today I finally nailed it.

From start to finish, I don’t think there was ever a point where I got bored. But it isn’t often I see a concert, not a common occurence anyway, where I know every single song. And as someone who owns a lot of Taylor Swift music, whatever expectations I had were definitely surpassed.
For anyone who’d never gotten to see Taylor live, I couldn’t recommend this show higher. But if I know the internet, I’m not the only one who singing this show’s praises.

You need to slow down (2 Taylor’s versions in one year)

Yes, this is a shameless reference to “you need to calm down”.
Yes, I’m aware I’d made this comment before.
And no, I don’t mean this to be serious… but two albums in one year from anyone is a lot…

I consider myself a Swiftie- but I don’t have the stamina that the majority of her fan base seems to have. They consume her music as quickly as she puts it out.
I just can’t do that…
I’ve reached a point in my life where I don’t buy as much music as I used to but that doesn’t mean I like diving in headfirst EVERY time my favorite artists put out new music.

This year my attitude towards music has been- “oh I’m in the mood for this, I’ll listen to that.” Things are far more spontaneous and the results have been really rewarding. So really, this news is messing with my zen and I don’t like it 😝

The last time I felt this degree of whiplash was her announcement of Evermore. I’d only gotten folklore a few months before that and I think I listened to it ONCE. It wasn’t until Christmas I had that breakthrough moment where I fell in love with that album.

I have listened to Midnights a lot this year- the most I’d listened to the latest Taylor swift album since Lover. I’ve REALLY enjoyed that one, not only because it marked the end of that horrible lockdown period but it felt like a return to form. And Karma skyrocketed into my favorites of her songs in an instant.
But now with yet another re-recording on the horizon, this curveball is becoming another Subtract situation. I got the new Ed Sheeran album the weekend of its release but I’ve only played it maybe twice. Not only because I’d just gotten around to Equals THIS year (and I got it two Christmases ago) but I loved that album so much that Subtract kinda brought me down. Not surprisingly it’s a collaboration with Aaron Dressner of folklore/evermore fame.
Now I’m not saying pop singers aren’t allowed to do serious music or expand on their artistry. That’s essentially what grants them the staying power most never achieve. But it’s a matter of personal preference. When I’m used to someone following the typical pop song pattern, that’s what I look for and I don’t feel good when I can’t find it. There’s some heavy stuff on the record and I don’t generally listen to music that makes me depressed or puts me in some sort of negative headspace. Those were my main issues with Evermore- the missing pop song structure and one depressing song after another.

With Ed Sheeran at least I can give him the benefit of the doubt here. Evermore was still in that escapism storytelling- it wasn’t all based on actual events.
With Subtract going forward, I’m sure I’ll give it its proper chance when the mood strikes me. If that takes a couple years, so be it. It’d be worth it when it does.

In terms of the re-recording, my history hasn’t been great. I bought them to support Taylor but it doesn’t mean I’m ok with tossing the original albums aside like they don’t matter anymore.
I did give fearless and red their dues when I first got them and put the time in. But I still lean towards the original albums. The fearless vault, I enjoyed a lot. Red, I can only listen to “all too well” so much because it’s so long and emotional. I have to listen to the other tracks on their own and set time aside for that one song.
In terms of sound, Red sounds incredible. The one negative I draw from it is the laugh at the end of “stay stay stay”. It was a fun moment on the original album but putting it on the re-recording lacks that spontaneity. It’s just there because the original had it and it being improvised was what made it good in the first place.

Full disclosure- speak now was my least listened to Taylor swift album. I’d play it once every November and that’s it. I rarely get in the mood for it beyond that. Part of it was cuz fearless was so good. The themes are a little mature and some songs I skip because they don’t carry that spark for me. Innocent in particular- finding out later what it was about did nothing to change my feelings about it. As a song it’s just sleepy and boring. With its inspiration in mind, it’s a very bizarre response to that event. Not because she should’ve given Kanye hell for embarrassing her like that, but… I don’t know. I’m sure some metaphor fits how I’d describe it but I haven’t found.
Then “last kiss” is easily her most heart wrenching composition. I feel like I have to cry in a corner for an hour before I can fully recover. As sad as it is, “all too well” in any form never put me through that.

I played through all of speak now the one time and I enjoyed it. Even the songs I typically skip, I listened to. “Never grow up” was always too sentimental for me but I really appreciated hearing it from an older perspective. It also helped to learn it was about her moving away from home the first time. I don’t like songs where a parent talks to a child about stuff like that- probably because I never want kids and it makes me uncomfortable. But when Taylor did here and with “Rowan”, I didn’t mind so much. Rowan is too sad to play all the time but I’m ok after it unlike “last kiss”.
And maybe with one exception, the vault tracks were incredible. I’d swap them for some of the album tracks easily.
I’ll have to go back to it on my iPod some day soon so I can better grasp the audible changes from the original.

Going back to the top of the page, my curiosity is why so soon? It’s not like Taylor had a time limit when she had to get all these re-recorded albums out… if there is one and I’m just unaware of it, please leave a comment and let me know.

I should preface this next part by saying I don’t go out of my way to compare every singer’s experiences in the industry to Prince. But stuff like this is similar enough that it’s unavoidable.
Taylor reclaiming her music and Prince reclaiming his freedom from his contract are two different things. But the fact is that Taylor is most likely going to succeed in half the time he did.
In an abbreviated version of his “slave” years- in 1993 he wanted to get out of a 6 album contract with WB but they refused to put out his music at his pace. They said they’d oversaturate the market so they only agreed to one a year or so. He had his albums on their desk in 1996 and the last one wasn’t released until 1999.
My question is why he was restricted but for Taylor, it’s perfectly fine.

It’s one of those moments it’d be interesting to get his perspective. I’m not a mind reader, nor is anyone else claiming what he “would’ve wanted”.
I’m sure he would’ve approved of her method of reclaiming her music. But he also might have said “if she knew my story she never would’ve sold her masters in the first place.” He might’ve made a race comment, implying she has free range because she’s white and he was restricted cuz he was black.
I always kinda wonder how he felt about Taylor. I never heard him comment on her publicly. He respected lady Gaga as a piano player and part of piano and mic was to show he wasn’t slacking. But if he disliked Ed Sheeran because you literally couldn’t escape his music, would he have made similar comments about Taylor?
And if so, would it have mattered to me? Probably not. But I love when legacy artists approve of my taste in music. I can’t help it.

Going forward with 1989, I’m not sure what my expectations are. If I even have any.
I’ve only heard the new version of “this love” during the “the summer I turned pretty” trailers and I immediately liked it better than the original.
With it being Taylor’s first outright pop album, I had a bit of a learning curve to navigate. Some songs I didn’t like immediately and gave subsequent listens the same day. “Blank space” was actually one of them but I think I was more concerned that she was admitting her detractors were right about her all along and she actually takes her men for granted.
The only songs I regularly skip are the two sleepy ballads “this love” and “you are in love” so if this newer versions can grab my attention, that’s a victory.
Bad blood is the only other low point for me. Rumor is the Kendrick Lamar version won’t be included- that’s ok cuz I didn’t really get it. I personally hate rap remixes of songs cuz it takes away from what made it good.
But I didn’t even like the original that much. Any song where Taylor takes on that attitude or shouts it instead of singing it, I’m not a fan. “This is why we can’t have nice things” on reputation- I’ll listen to but it’s not my favorite.
Another interesting thing about the album for me is that it’s not one I listen to much. Not because I don’t like but maybe because I haven’t found the perfect conditions to listen to it.
The first four albums, I regularly do September through December- one album a month in order. Then reputation I only played on cloudy and/or rainy days to match the tone of the album cover and Lover for the outright sunny days.
Folklore first hit me around Christmas but sometimes the mood will strike me out of nowhere. And midnights, it regularly creeped into my head so I listened to it a lot.
The closest I’ve come to finding a niche was maybe the first warm day of spring. I don’t have a lot of music in my collection that correlates to that time of year and I’m hoping maybe 1989 can be that album.
I also played “welcome to New York” once on a train heading to New York but that’s not a regular enough occurrence.
But however this new re-recording goes, if it encourages me to listen to these songs more than I typically do, that’ll be a huge victory.

“Speak Now” FINALLY announced as the next Taylor’s Version album

This news finally came out yesterday and I’m not sure who’s more relieved about the news: me or all the other Swifties.

Other than Midnights (and its bonus tracks) and the fact nobody seemed to be able to get concert tickets, “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” felt like the most common topic fans were discussing on Twitter.
I don’t know how many months all this clamoring had been going on for but I was honestly getting SO SICK of it.
Taylor’s always been one of those artists who likes to include easter eggs or hints to her upcoming projects in her videos or live appearances. But the fact so many fans were breaking down the door, saying “Speak Now is going to be the next Taylor’s version” or “when is she finally going to announce Speak Now- Taylor’s Version- cuz we KNOW that’s going to be the next one?”

I honestly thought I was crazy fanatical when Dream Street was around and Jesse McCartney when his solo career was taking off…
the craziness of Taylor’s fan community puts all of that to shame. I’d been with her since the pop version of “Teardrops on my Guitar” first premiered on my local radio station, but even I’m not THIS crazy for her and her music.
Her overzealous fans are great when it comes to defending her and occasionally going after her exes. Whenever John Mayer says anything that makes Twitter news, millions of Swifties call him out for what he did to her- under the assumption “Dear John” really was about him. But some of the other things I’ve read them saying and doing- it terrifies.

Granted- they were right. Speak Now was the next of her re-recorded albums. My annoyance with them wasn’t about which album they were picking to be next. But the fact they just wouldn’t shut up about it. As if Taylor has nothing better to do than to announce her next releases as soon as she thinks them up.
With anyone in music, it’s important to remember that they put out music on THEIR schedule, not their fans’.
Yet here I am, part of the Prince community, waiting impatiently for the next new music release. But it isn’t as if I send out a tweet every single day screaming for the music from his vault to be readily available.
At least on that front, there’s a little more hope of new music coming out. It’s just a matter of what and when.

As for Speak Now itself… I’ll come out and say that it’s not one of my favorite Taylor Swift albums.
I was gonna go on a rant about how it’s one of my lowest ranking albums per my personal rankings system for all my music (except my Prince music)… but actually my lowest scoring albums also include Reputation and 1989… two albums I enjoy a lot. Especially Reputation.

I just feel like I reach for the skip button a little more frequently with Speak Now.
“Grow Up” is one of those overly sentimental songs I don’t typically like. And “Innocent,” I get that it was some comment about Kanye interrupting her acceptance speech, but I just don’t get it as a song.
If we’re going by pure instinct, like, which Taylor Swift albums am I the least likely to play when I just want to listen to her?
They’d be her debut self-titled, Speak Now and Evermore. Although with her first album, despite it being more country than I’m into and not her most mature writing, I appreciate it more as I listen to it.
The other two, they’re just not a vibe I crave frequently.

I think Speak Now is also marred by songs like “Last Kiss”… I often skip that one because it breaks my heart too much when I listen to it. It comes off like the type of song she wrote/recorded as soon as she’d experienced the events she’s writing about.
By that logic, “All Too Well” really should be a harder listen than it is. The long version, that’s something I can only play for a couple of months for a few reasons. One of them is the fact it cuts me up too much and I spend a good 10 minutes crying after it’s over.

However, with all this being said, I’m still looking forward to seeing/hearing how Speak Now has changed since Taylor released it over a decade ago.
Especially songs like “Dear John” and “Enchanted”… and something tells me “Mean” will be even sweeter… thinking how far she’d come since she wrote the song about that one critic after the Grammys and she sung it the following year and looked straight in the camera… I mean, that guy is probably still doing the critic thing, but I genuinely hope he came around and realized he was wrong. Not that Taylor is completely immune to criticism now. Nobody is. But it still makes me happy that she didn’t let that one guy stop her from doing what she loves.
And “Long Live” will be just like “Change” in its updated version… stronger, braver and more confident.

There’s only going to be 6 vault songs included with this release and that’s ok. I think there was a deluxe version she releases later on and I only have the original release.