He had truly fallen in love with Taylor’s material, so Taylor finally had someone on her side who, she felt convinced, could take her where she wanted to go. She had needed to hold her nerve several times, but she was at last on her way to something big. She had shrugged off school bullies, moved hundreds of miles away from home, weathered several rejections, walked away from an unsatisfactory arrangement with a big label and maintained her self-belief as best she could throughout. With such optimism in the air following her first meetings with Borchetta, she could afford to feel truly proud of herself.
Yet she was always in touch, and still is, with her greatest source of support – her parents. To be reminded of their role in her success, she only has to look to a friend of hers. ‘I’m really good friends with Kellie [Pickler], whose Mom abandoned her,’ Taylor told the Washington Post. ‘I look at my mom, who’s been there for everything, and I think, like, if I’d been in Kellie’s situation, I probably wouldn’t have made it. I look at other people who have absentee fathers or self-consumed mothers, and I’m so lucky.’ The Swifts were proving to be a mighty fine team.
As an artist, Taylor sees herself as one who avoids the temptation to succumb to cheap gimmicks, however superficially enticing they may seem in the short term. With her record deal signed and her parents on board with the whole project, it was time for Taylor to take the music she had been working on for some years and channel it into a package that would become her first album. Her inner artist wanted to produce a record she would be proud of. Her business-savvy side was keen for the album to succeed commercially.
The latter emotion was the one that invited temptation – and the more she worked on the songs, the more aware she became of how her youthful conceits would stand out in the adult-centred, middle-age-dominated country world. ‘All the songs I heard on the radio were about marriage and kids and settling down,’ she said. She found these themes hard to relate to. Rather than become a gimmicky act, singing songs on topics clearly beyond her years, she resolved to stick to what she knew. She had no wish to become one of those child performers who sing incongruously mature ballads as some sort of ghastly cabaret act.
As far as Taylor was concerned, there was no rule that stated country music songs should not tell the stories of young people. If she had to overcome the doubting tones of many industry authorities on this point, that was fine by her – she has always been comfortable sticking to her guns. Indeed, some of those close to her swear she is at her best when there is some sense of fight in the air. ‘I kept writing songs about the guy I dated for a couple of weeks and who cheated on me, about things I was going through,’ she told Entertainment Weekly. ‘There was no reason why country music shouldn’t relate to someone my age if someone my age was writing it.’ She returned to the theme during an interview with Billboard: ‘I was writing about the same things that I’m writing about now, of course – boys. And I’ve always been fascinated by the way that people treat each other and the way that they interact. Stuff like that just really, really fascinates me and always has.’
These themes would form the backdrop of her debut album. A team of producers were involved in putting it together, but the first and main talent called in was Nathan Chapman. He came to the project after he met Liz Rose. Though he had produced music before, he had never produced an album in full. Ever since he graduated from Lee University in 2001 with a degree in English, he had been looking for his big break. He would certainly get that by working with Taylor. As for the lady herself, she was quickly impressed by his way with the studio controls. She had begun to work with him on her demos. When he stayed on for the album proper, he did not disappoint. As she told Country Music Television (CMT) in 2006: ‘I got to record with a bunch of really awesome producers in Nashville, but none of [it] sounded the way it did with Nathan … the right chemistry hit.’
She had the right man for the job – and she was ready to give him the space to shine. Unlike some divas, Taylor acknowledges the importance of producers to the creative process, but she takes a hands-on approach in the studio. For she is an artist who feels she can bring a lot to the production table herself. ‘When I write a song, I hear how it is supposed to sound in my head,’ she said. ‘I can hear the production. I can hear what the drums are doing, what the mandolin is doing, what the bass is doing, when I’m writing that song. So usually, when we go to the studio, all I have to do is sit down with Nathan for 10 minutes and say, “This is how I want this to sound,” and he [brings] it all to life.’
How the drums, mandolin, bass and other instruments would sound on her debut would be a pleasing mix. It took her four months to complete the album – and she was delighted with the final product. Little wonder, then, that her eponymous debut album would prove a fascinating collection of music. Here was the first substantial glimpse she gave to the world of her vision. We have already looked at the genesis of the album’s opener, ‘Tim McGraw’. The final production was a rich tune, complete with slide guitars – all the better for setting the tone from the start. During the song, Taylor reflects on the relationship it concerns as ‘bittersweet’. The song itself is also a mixed bag emotionally – it is at once romantic and uplifting, as well as sad and heartbreaking. It includes moments of humour – like the tendency of the guy’s truck to become ‘stuck’ in secluded side roads at night – and vivid imagery, such as the moon acting like a spotlight on a lake. It is a fine and fitting opener to her debut.
Some songs by Taylor are growers, which creep up on the listener only after several plays. Others grab the listener immediately. A song in the latter category is ‘Picture to Burn’, in which we first come across Taylor’s tendency to vent immense anger through her material. Indeed, it is the song’s very fury that makes it a true throat-grabber. She has spoken about the story behind the song. ‘It’s about a guy I liked who didn’t like me back, and I got really mad, you know?’ she said. They never actually dated, because Taylor was deeply troubled by how ‘cocky’ and narcissistic the guy was – ‘and that’s where that song came from’.
Discussing the track with CMT Insider, Taylor admitted: ‘This song is my angry song on my album.’ It is not just about ire, though. She showcases her knack for sassy vocal delivery in the song’s second line – in which she sings knowingly that the narcissist will always love himself more than he could love her. She also replaced a subsequent line, which joked about her telling her friends that the guy was ‘gay’, for the radio release, as she was keen not to offend any listeners unintentionally.
The chorus is chanted, heaping some good, fun, hands-in-the-air infectiousness into proceedings. With its rich banjo and instantly catchy guitar line, ‘Picture to Burn’ seems to be influenced musically in part by Amy Dalley and Ashlee Simpson – and is all the better for it. Yet the anger continues to be striking. As Taylor repeatedly chants the word ‘burn’ at the end of the song, it turns into something quite aggressive for such a sweet young girl. The overall theme of the song ties into the ‘defiant lady’ motif employed by many of country music’s female singers. For instance, ‘Goodbye Earl’ by the Dixie Chicks – one of Taylor’s favourite songs during her karaoke era – is of this genre, though it does not burn as angrily as Taylor’s track.
Yet, as she told CMT Insider, there is also some wit and fun in the song. ‘I think girls can relate to the song, because basically it’s about just being mad,’ she said. ‘And it’s okay to be mad after a break-up or after something goes wrong with a relationship. It’s just, like, completely, brutally honest. It’s also kind of funny. It’s got a comedic edge to it.’ The critics loved it: among the tributes paid to it by reviewers were that it was ‘bluntly relatable’, and a ‘clever, sassy, upbeat’ song.
Moving to the real-life experiences behind the track, the song itself paints an unflattering picture of the guy she is raging against. He comes across as angry and lacking in self-awareness. Perhaps the strongest hint of his narcissism is that he is, as far as Taylor is concerned, oblivi
ous to the fact that the song is about him. That he did not connect any of the dots and point the finger at himself suggests considerable delusion on his part. In the years since the album’s release, as Taylor has matured and evolved as both a songwriter and a person, she had changed from the angry teen who wrote this song. ‘I had this song called “Picture to Burn” that’s talking about how “I hate your truck” and “I hate that you ignored me”, “I hate you”,’ she told MTV. ‘Now, the way that I would say that and the way that I would feel that kind of pain is a lot different.’ Yet, as we shall see, she has stood by the overall album in the main.
Track three is the now-iconic ‘Teardrops On My Guitar’. This song is cooler and calmer than its predecessor, but no less arresting or inspiring for that. As we know, Taylor wrote this song about her friend Drew Chadwick. She had a crippling crush on him, which was unrequited. ‘I had it bad for him, and I just kept thinking, why am I so invisible to him? Why does he have to have a girlfriend?’ I never told him that I liked him, but I did write a song with his name on it.’
The final version, which appeared on the album, is a sweetly produced mid-tempo number. It begins gently, with Taylor singing the opening to the verse in a semi-detached, almost Bieberesque style. Yet as the verse builds into the bridge, the pace and intensity both pick up. The chorus arrives in a rush of energy. The overall effect is one of Taylor at her best and most earnest. This is the track that grabbed the attention of the media and, indeed, the world. It took Taylor out of the country and teen markets and spread her appeal to all. As Billboard magazine put it, the song is ‘ultimately relatable’ and Taylor ‘makes the heartbreak palpable’. It is a tender song.
Where the opening tracks dealt with experiences that are universal, track four tells a story that is very particular to Taylor. And while ‘A Place in this World’ is a song that many listeners will be able to relate to, the lyrics are explicitly autobiographical to Taylor, concerning her own efforts to make it in the music industry and the world itself. She was inspired to write this song during her earliest days in Nashville. Her initial dream had come true – she had moved to the heart of the industry she wanted to conquer. However, having got there, she felt overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge ahead. As she explained to TV network Great American Country (GAC), she was ‘just sort of looking around at all these big buildings and these important people, wondering how I was going to fit in’.
Every listener could understand that emotion and pinpoint an example of it in their own life: perhaps their first day at university or in a new job. Moving to a new district, even. Arguably, human existence is driven by a desire to find a place in this world. And that desire is never truly satisfied, however old one gets. Not for the first – or last – time, Taylor had struck lyrical gold: a theme that all ages, genders and backgrounds could empathise with. Commercially speaking, this is songwriting of the smartest kind. Musically, it has a stadium feel, which makes it seem as much like a song from the Red era as it does from her debut album.
‘Cold As You’ includes ‘some of the best lyrics I’ve ever written in my life’, according to Taylor. The lyrics are certainly astonishingly adult and dark for those penned by a girl in her mid teens. She has never specified which real-life person, if any, this song is about. Perhaps that is just as well; whoever he is, he comes across appallingly. Some of the subjects of her break-up songs emerge as men who were just not right for Taylor, rather than just not right. The protagonist of this song – real or otherwise – seems a troubled figure.
The song will send shivers down the spines of many listeners. This is not the wistful, unrequited love found in previous efforts, but one of dark and chilling imbalance. While musically it is by no means a highlight on the album, the words – with their condescending smiles, rainy days and emotional walls painted a shade of grey – transport it into a career highlight in the opinion of many Swifties (as her fans are known). Taylor gets excited about the musical structure of songs, but what seems to animate her most is a powerful, punchy lyric. ‘I love a line on a song where afterward you’re just, like, burn,’ she told Rolling Stone. There are, ironically, several burning moments in ‘Cold As You’. It is another song that has considerable poise and is steeped in maturity.
In the aforementioned track ‘The Outside’, Taylor lays some demons of her younger years to rest. As we have seen, she wrote this song when she was just 12 years old. Finding it hard to fit in with the ‘in’ crowd at school, she penned these lyrics to try to make sense of what she was going through. ‘I wrote that about the scariest feeling I’ve ever felt: going to school, walking down the hall, looking at those faces and not knowing who you’re gonna talk to that day,’ she told Entertainment Weekly.
Ironically, she went on to explain, the rejection she felt at school thickened her skin and toughened her will, to the extent that it made her unafraid of rejection from record labels when she presented herself to them. She knew that anything the labels said to her could never sting as much as her schooldays had. It is fascinating to reflect on what an inadvertent gift her school tormentors were. There is always a positive to be found in any bitter challenge life throws at us.
Musically speaking, this is essentially an upbeat tune that sets up a fiery juxtaposition: sad lyrics about loneliness set against the feel-good melody and production. Artists throughout pop history have found that, when done correctly, this is an effective trick. In its very essence, though, ‘The Outside’ emits the message that there is an upside to life’s trials. Its position in the track sequencing is inspired: it lifts the pace of the album precisely when that surge is needed.
Not only does ‘The Outside’ partially conceal its sad theme under a happy track, it also to an extent reflects the essence of track seven. In ‘Tied Together with a Smile’, Taylor sings about how people put a brave public face on their problems. They tie themselves together with a smile, she sings, even as their lives come apart. The inspiration for the song came when she discovered that a friend – widely considered by their contemporaries to be ‘the golden one’ – was bulimic. When Taylor was told about her friend’s problem, she said it was ‘one of those moments when your heart kind of stops’. Therefore, she added, it was a ‘tough’ song to write, because it was about something so painful and ‘real’.
However, she aimed to flavour the song with an element of redemption and hope. The song is, she hopes, ultimately about ‘how, no matter what my friends go through, I’m always going to love them’. In a sense, this song is a sibling to ‘The Outside’. There, she indirectly channelled the advantages of being an outsider; here, she shows that being very much on the inside can come at a bitter price. She loves to turn assumptions on their head, give them a good shake and see what falls out. Said Taylor: ‘It’s about that moment [when] you realise someone isn’t all you thought they were and you’ve been trying to make excuses for someone who doesn’t deserve them. And that some people are just never going to love you,’ she said. Musically the song is no great shakes compared to some of the bigger tracks on the album, yet its theme has struck many listeners deeply.
Heartache, unrequited love, bullying and bulimia – the album has been a tough journey so far. In ‘Stay Beautiful’ she lightens the load as she celebrates the beauty of a boy who seems unaware of his stunning looks. Seeing him merely walk past her on the street is a highlight of her day – and as she sings, she is far from alone in her admiration of him. She hopes one day that he will choose her door to knock on, but even if he does not, she hopes he will stay beautiful. The feelings behind the song are reminiscent of ‘You’re Beautiful’ by James Blunt. With its slide guitar and sway-in-your-seat tempo, this is a happy tune. It’s a welcome one, too: it sets aside the growing sense of gloom its predecessors had set.
However, it’s straight back to darker shades in ‘Should’ve Said No’, an anthem that has become one of her signature tunes. Here it is glowering anger that rules. She steps outside the country sphere and enters the terr
ain of the classic teenage anthem. This was the final song to be written for the album and she says it took just minutes to put the basics of it together. She says she wrote it 20 minutes before she recorded it. ‘It just kind of fell out of my mouth and now it is in my CD player,’ she explained. In it, she addresses a boy called Sam who cheated on her. The pop-rock format lends itself perfectly to her indignant yet defiant anger. Some critics, particularly a handful in the country music community, felt it was too angry. But this vengeful song was absolutely lapped up by mainstream audiences. It is also perfect for the live arena and has been covered by television talent-show hopefuls to great effect.
Taylor says that she has learned a lesson from the incident behind the song and others like it. She has concluded that a crucial decision or temptation comes before any problem in life. If one would only say no to that temptation, she believes, life could be so much simpler. She uses the ever-influential Andrea to strengthen this argument. ‘Before I can make decisions, I always think: what is my mom going to think if I tell her this? Is my mom going to be really upset if she finds out about this?’ This thought experiment is often enough to convince her to say no at the right times.
Therefore, a wider concern can perhaps be identified here. Does Taylor, who has long aimed to position herself as the wholesome daughter of the sometimes-debauched pop world, mean that we should all say no to temptation? Is this, in part, a Christian-influenced message of restraint and abstinence in a world of snakes? One thing is for sure: the protagonist of the song felt uncomfortable about the track. By capitalising certain words in the lyrics sheet of the CD, she spelt out the word ‘Sam’ repeatedly, offering a partial identification of her villain. He began to send Taylor nervous texts. He was worried that she would turn even more attention onto him during interviews, and that she would ‘crucify’ him on television. ‘All I could think was, well, you should’ve said no,’ she told Women’s Health. ‘That’s what the song is about.’
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