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Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

 Taylor Swift is not a dancer, not an actor, and not much of a singer. She is a writer, and she makes this point at the start of her recent touring show, by calling attention to her own words. "We've reached the first bridge of the evening. Do you know this one? Do you think you want to sing with me?"


I'm drunk in the back of the car--
And I cried like a baby coming home from the bar.
Said, I'M FINE... but it wasn't true.
I don't want to keep secrets just to keep you!
And I snuck in through the garden gate--
Every night that summer--just to seal my fate.
And I screamed, for whatever it's worth,
I love you--ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
He looks up, grinning like a devil....

Here is what TS achieves in this bridge. She finds a new way to use zeugma--the striking deployment and redeployment of one verb within one sentence ("I just have room to lay my things and a few friends," "I keep secrets just to keep you"). She alludes to Eden, and the expulsion from the garden, and the grinning serpent/devil. (And she seems to like the Book of Genesis, as a "garden" makes a reappearance on the "Folklore" album). Finally, she explores the idea of tension in a succinct way; she shines a light on the "gap between speech and thought." (Said I'M FINE but it wasn't true....) These are terrific lines--smuggled into a concert for tweens.

I'm not writing a review, but I wanted to tip a hat to that bridge. Also, I was relieved that "Betty" made the cut. I admire TS's portrait of the inarticulate, fumbling narrator, who reminds me of some teenagers I know personally. This guy sees his girlfriend dancing with another fellow, and he can't even name this fellow, or acknowledge the depth of his own hurt feelings. ("I hate the crowds, you know that--plus, I saw you dance with him.") The narrator acts out in a foolish way, and Swift's syntax matches the muddled thinking: "She said, James, get in. Let's drive....Those days turned into nights....Slept next to her, but I dreamt of you all summer long!") 

TS doesn't always scale these heights--the concert is long and uneven--but, still, I'm a fan.

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