If you’re anything like me, a certified Swiftie, you’ve been streaming Taylor Swift’s newest album Midnights 24/7 since it was released on 21 October. If you haven’t, I strongly urge you to check it out. Her tenth studio album is of course a masterpiece. Inspired by the thirteen sleepless nights she has had throughout her career, Taylor produced some of her most emotional tracks yet to date.
Shortly after the album’s release, she announced Midnights (3am Edition) which features seven additional tracks. One of the songs, Would’ve, Could’ve Should’ve immediately sent Twitter into a frenzy and had fans analysing and decoding the lyrics, as the track is supposedly written about her ex-boyfriend John Mayer.
In case you missed it, the pair briefly dated in 2010, though not much is known about the relationship. We do know, however, that Mayer was the one to reach out. He publicly asked her to feature on his song Half of My Heart saying she was the next Stevie Nicks. A then 19-year-old Taylor Swift cited 32-year-old Mayer as one of her biggest inspirations in songwriting, making his actions even more questionable. He was in a position of authority as well as being much older, and he used this to take advantage of a young and impressionable girl who was still finding her way in the music industry.
After they parted ways, Swift released her third studio album Speak Now featuring the song Dear John which is known to be about Mayer:
“Dear John, I see it all, now it was wrong / Don’t you think nineteen’s too young / To be played by your dark twisted games when I loved you so? / I should’ve known”
And in comparison, here are some lyrics from her new song off Midnights, Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve:
“…And I damn sure never would have danced with the devil / At nineteen and the god’s honest truth is that the pain was heaven / And now that I’m grown, I’m scared of ghosts”
After growing up and experiencing healthy relationships, she’s looking back and seeing how toxic the dynamic between the two was. Now that she’s the age that Mayer was at the time of the relationship (32), she sees how big the age gap is between her and a 19-year-old, and how different the level of maturity is.
“Living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts / Give me back my girlhood it was mine first”
This lyric is particularly heart-wrenching as Swift sings it so innocently, almost like a child yelling for their toy back. She was still just a teenager when they dated, and many fans speculate that this line is her describing how she still believed in fairytale love before he ruined that perception for her. She feels she lost her innocence and girlhood because of him, and that she ‘regrets [him] all the time.’
Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve is also track 19 on the deluxe album, which she released at the age of 32, just another hint that this song is about her toxic relationship with Mayer.
What’s even more exciting is that it’s another easter egg that Swift has planted about ‘Speak Now’ being her next re-recorded album. She has been rerecording her past albums to get the rights to her own music after her previous record label Big Machine Records sold her masters. So far she’s released Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version), and all signs point to Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) being next.
If I were John Mayer I’d be sleeping with one eye open – not only will he be slated by fans when Dear John (Taylor’s Version) is released, but there’s also bound to be many vault tracks about their questionable relationship.