BABY, LET THE GAMES BEGIN

Knew he was a killer
First time that I saw him
Wonder how many girls he had loved and left haunted
But if he's a ghost then I can be a phantom
Holdin' him for ransom
Some, some boys are tryin' too hard
He don't try at all though
Younger than my exes but he act like such a man, so
I see nothing better, I keep him forever
Like a vendetta-ta

I-I-I see how this is gonna go
Touch me, and you'll never be alone
I-Island breeze and lights down low
No one has to know

In the middle of the night, in my dreams
You should see the things we do, baby
In the middle of the night, in my dreams
I know I'm gonna be with you
So I take my time
(Are you ready for it?)

Me, I was a robber
First time that he saw me
Stealing hearts and running off and never saying sorry
But if I'm a thief then
He can join the heist
And we'll move to an island-and
And he can be my jailer
Burton to this Taylor
Every love I've known in comparison is a failure
I forget their names now
I'm so very tame now
Never be the same now, now

I-I-I see how this is gonna go
Touch me and you'll never be alone
I-Island breeze and lights down low
No one has to know
(No one has to know)

In the middle of the night, in my dreams
You should see the things we do, baby
In the middle of the night in my dreams
I know I'm gonna be with you
So I take my time
(Are you ready for it?)
(Ooh, are you ready for it?)

Baby, let the games begin
Let the games begin
Let the games begin
Baby, let the games begin
Let the games begin
Let the games begin

I-I-I see how this is gonna go
Touch me and you'll never be alone
I-Island breeze and lights down low
No one has to know

In the middle of the night, in my dreams
You should see the things we do, baby
In the middle of the night, in my dreams
I know I'm gonna be with you
So I take my time
In the middle of the night

Baby, let the games begin
Let the games begin
Let the games begin
(Are you ready for it?)
Baby, let the games begin
Let the games begin
Let the games begin
(Are you ready for it?)

It's time to give Tay Tay's new song the grad-student attention it deserves. First of all, why was Taylor Swift at "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk"? Did she not read the reviews? Did her people not read the reviews? Was she doing someone a favor? Why would TS, pop-culture phenom, incapable of attending a friend's wedding without creating a shit-storm--why would this person spend her time on third-tier Ang Lee? I imagine her in her kitchen in Tribeca, with her cats, and she's holding a paper, and she says, "I know there's a nasty critical consensus, but I just have a feeling about this one. Take me to the Times Square Regal RIGHT NOW." In any case, Taylor set her eyes on Joe Alwyn, and because she is a poet of sorts, she used his movie as a metaphor. Joe is a killer--a soldier, in the movie--but he also slays young women. He leaves them "haunted." And thus begins a game of transformation--and it runs through this song, in its entirety. When you hear these words, don't you think of Ovid's "Metamorphoses"? Come on. I know I'm not the only one here. I think of Taylor and Joe as the mom and the baby in "The Runaway Bunny," constantly shape-shifting--as people in complex relationships are wont to do. If Joe haunts women, he's not just a killer; he's a ghost. And, like the mom in "Runaway Bunny," Taylor will adjust herself accordingly. She will become a phantom. Ah! Joe has changed again; he is a harmless pedestrian. Taylor will become his kidnapper. (That's sort of disturbing and sexy, no?) Now, the main source of tension in the song: Taylor's exes rear their ugly heads. In "Mine," a deadbeat dad threatened Taylor's happy relationship. In "Begin Again," it was one mildly nasty ex. Here, in "Ready for It," we have a host of older exes, who did not act "like such a man." ("You call me up again just to break me like a promise." "I said, I heard that you've been out with some other girl. He said what you heard is true...") The specter of the shitty exes briefly awakens Wrathful Taylor; she has vendettas, and she will keep them forever. She'll keep them right next to her new love.

I've not seen commentators make an important point. Taylor's lyrics are often about the spectacle of a calculating, hyperactive mind. So: Taylor is often envisioning the future as she makes her calculations. ("I knew you were trouble when you walked in." "I can see the end as it begins. My one condition is: Say you'll remember me." "You're the kinda guy who should send me running, but I kinda know that I won't get far." Taylor also spends a good deal of her songwriting time inhabiting the skins of other people. "I bet you're sitting by your window, looking out at the city." "You're on the phone with your girlfriend; she's upset." "I bet you got pushed around; somebody made you cold." When we read, we're meant to predict and to empathize. Taylor Swift does that in her daily life; she is an active reader of experience, more active than most of the people around her.) Anyway, another moment of Taylor Swift calculation: "I see how this is gonna go. Touch me and you'll never be alone." It's double-edged: I see this is a real love-match. Also: I see it will be a major pain, as we'll be surrounded by photographers all the time. I'm fascinated by that hyper-awareness--and the way it works itself into TS's lyrics.

The chorus is also double-edged--as many have remarked. "You should see the things we do in my dreams": We have endless sex! But also: We establish a life together, we have a house, we maybe have a family, we maybe retreat from the public eye. Do you notice the frequency with which TS alludes to dreams and to inner lives? "Even if it's just in your wildest dreams." "We'll be dreaming instead of sleeping." "I'll be the actress starring in your bad dreams." "Darling, I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream." She encourages the listener to care a bit more about his/her own interior landscape--to imagine that maybe that landscape is worthy of attention and even commentary. I don't know if that's deliberate on TS's part--but it's a service to her listeners.

The second verse continues the "Metamorphosis" theme. Taylor is no longer a kidnapper; she is a robber. Joe is a bystander, until he morphs into an accomplice, then into an island jailer, then into Richard Burton. Such a fertile imagination! Meanwhile, Taylor becomes a prisoner, and, finally, Liz T--*the* Taylor, of "Cleopatra," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." Such chutzpah here! There are those exes again, making mischief. TS shuts them down; they are failures; she has forgotten their names, in a state of conjugal ecstasy; she will "never be the same." (And form underlines content. This is a bizarre spoken-word song. It really is *not the same* as her earlier work. Like it or loathe it, it represents a risk and a change.) OK. THOSE are my thoughts on "Ready for It." This album happens shortly after my wedding--so just anticipate that early November is going to be a very emotional time for me. There may be quite a bit of italicizing and caps-lock--at that time--in this blog. Are you ready for it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T62maKYX9tU