FMG: Showgirl Gail, reporting for duty

featuring my 13 favorite (pre-Showgirl) Taylor Swift lyrics

Happy Friday!! Happy Showgirl day!!!!

You’re reading this on Friday, October 3, 2025 (or sometime after), but I’m writing this on Thursday, October 2. Taylor Swift’s 12th original studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, is set for release in a matter of hours, and my Friday morning is planned to a T to ensure maximum enjoyment and minimal distraction.

On a scale from “Taylor Swift is the worst person in the history of the planet” to “I would literally die for Taylor Swift,” you (like most people) probably fall somewhere in the middle. Personally, I do not worship Taylor Swift the person (and if you worship any celebrity or public figure, I encourage you to seek professional help!) — but I can confidently say that she’s the artist of my life and that I’m so grateful she wrote the soundtrack to so many of my memories. I listened to “Never Grow Up” when my niece and each of my nephews were babies, and now that the oldest are six and three, we sing “Welcome to New York” and “Paper Rings” together in the car. I begrudgingly relate to “The Prophecy,” but I find solace in the knowledge that “So High School” was written shortly after. I listened to “The Man” on repeat on Wednesday, November 7, 2024 (lyrics linked directly here, to ensure no one misses my point), and I hope that “Call It What You Want” will be the first-dance song at my hypothetical wedding.

I don’t need you to like Taylor Swift or her music, but it is one of my greatest duties on this earth to argue with those who claim her music is elementary, vapid, or poorly written. (They said her lyrics were dumb and shallow, then she wrote The Tortured Poets Department — which features lyrics like “Beauty is a beast that roars, down on all fours, demanding more / Only when your girlish glow flickers just so do they let you know, it’s hell on earth to be heavenly” — and they said it was boring, abstruse, and esoteric. Pick a side!!!!)

In the interest of this aforementioned duty, please see below for just a few of the Taylor Swift lyrics (and the songs/albums they hail from) that have stopped me in my tracks and that still give me chills upon every listen. (Disclaimer: When I set out to write this, I didn’t realize it would feel like picking a favorite child. I made myself edit the list to 13, but somehow the result is both too short and too long.) Please enjoy (and if your favorite lyric didn’t make my top 13, please leave a comment and let me know what I missed!). ❤️‍🔥

• “I have this dream my daughter-in-law kills me for the money; she thinks I left them in the will / The family gathers ‘round and reads it, and then someone screams out, ‘She’s laughing up at us from hell!’” (“Anti-Hero,” Midnights)

• “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby, and I’m a monster on the hill / Too big to hang out, slowly lurching towards your favorite city; pierced through the heart but never killed / Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguised as altruism, like some kind of congressman?” (“Anti-Hero,” Midnights)

• “If clarity’s in death, then why won’t this die? / Years of tearing down our banners, you and I / Living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts / Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first.” (“Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” Midnights (3am Edition))

• “I didn’t opt in to be your odd man out; I founded the club she’s heard great things about / I left all I knew; you left me at the house by the Heath / I stopped CPR; after all, it’s no use / The spirit was gone, we would never come to /
  And I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free.” (“So Long, London,” The Tortured Poets Department)

• “You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues? / I died on the altar waiting for the proof.” (“So Long, London,” The Tortured Poets Department)

• “You shit-talked me under the table, talking rings and talking cradles / I wish I could unrecall how we almost had it all / Dancing phantoms on the terrace, are they secondhand embarrassed that I can’t get out of bed ‘cause something counterfeit’s dead?” (“loml,” The Tortured Poets Department)

• “What a valiant roar, what a bland goodbye; the coward claimed he was a lion / I’m combing through the braids of lies: “I’ll never leave,” “Never mind” / Our field of dreams, engulfed in fire / Your arson’s match, your somber eyes.” (“loml,” The Tortured Poets Department)

• “They told me all of my cages were mental, so I got wasted like all my potential.” (“this is me trying,” folklore)

• “Let’s fast forward to three hundred awkward blind dates later / If she’s got blue eyes, I will surmise that you’ll probably date her / You dream of my mouth before it called you a lying traitor / You search in every model’s bed for something greater.” (“Is It Over Now?,” 1989 (Taylor’s Version))

• “One for the money, two for the show; I never was ready, so I watch you go / Sometimes you just don’t know the answer ‘til someone’s on their knees and asks you / ‘She would’ve made such a lovely bride, what a shame she’s fucked in the head,’ they said / But you’ll find the real thing instead; she’ll patch up your tapestry that I shred.” (“champagne problems,” evermore)

• “Photo album on the counter, your cheeks were turning red / You used to be a little kid with glasses in a twin-sized bed / And your mother’s telling stories ‘bout you on the tee-ball team / You taught me about your past, thinking your future was me.” (“All Too Well,” Red)

• “Maybe we got lost in translation, maybe I asked for too much / But maybe this thing was a masterpiece ‘til you tore it all up / Running scared, I was there, I remember it all too well / And you call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest.” (“All Too Well),” Red)

• “Time won’t fly, it’s like I’m paralyzed by it / I’d like to be my old self again, but I’m still trying to find it / After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own / Now you mail back my things, and I walk home alone / But you keep my old scarf from that very first week, ‘cause it reminds you of innocence, and it smells like me.” (“All Too Well,” Red)

As I’m writing this, I’m honestly savoring this pre-release period of excitement. My sister Becca always says that her favorite part of Christmas morning isn’t opening a gift, but rather the part right before you open one, when you get to excitedly wonder what’s inside. I can’t wait to hear what’s inside this new album, and I hope it brings the joy, artistry, and hope we all need and deserve.

Have a great weekend, Showgirls!

XOXO,

Showgail

The news is heavy, and it’s important to protect your peace — but it’s also important to read/watch/listen to journalism from trusted, verified sources. Factual, unbiased journalism is one of our best weapons in the fight against misinformation and oppression, and I promise that it’s cool to care.

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