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No Body, No Crime

 

"No Body, No Crime" is a buzzy new Taylor Swift song, and it's a "Country Western murder mystery." It's about a man who murders his wife so he can be with his mistress. But the speaker--a family friend--seeks revenge. She murders the man, and she subtly frames the mistress for the killing.

The first part of this setup does actually happen in the world: Think of Chris Watts or Scott Peterson. But we're probably not meant to dwell on this fact.

I'm obsessed with a few things, such as Taylor's sense of parallelism and writerly economy: "Este's a friend of mine; we meet up every Tuesday for some dinner and a glass of wine. Este's been losing sleep....Her husband's acting different, and it smells like infidelity..."

I'm also hooked on the strange, relentless DETAILS: the Olive Garden, the changed tires, the housecleaning history, the boating license (!) .....the life insurance policy....the change in living arrangements.....

And I notice zeugma, when one word serves two functions: "(A) That ain't my merlot on his mouth....(B) That ain't my jewelry on our joint account...." ON in sentence (A) has a slightly different role from ON in sentence (B).....

It *is* strange that "merlot" becomes MER-lot....but this odd mangling of syllable-stress is part of Taylor's charm....

Once again: Obsessed.
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