"So Long, London": A Ode to Emotional Labor & Not Being "The One" | Taylor Swift TTPD Analysis
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- "So Long, London" is track 5 on Taylor Swift's newest album "The Tortured Poets Department". So it's no surprise that this song takes us on a ~f e e l t r i p ~. This song documents what it feels like to take on the emotional labor of a relationship that's already died. Trying to revive what's left, carrying metaphorical "dead weight" up a hill all the while coming to the realization that you may have never really been "The One" to your once ~lover~...
How do you interpret this song?! Share your thoughts with me in the comments below! 😊
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I know 'tolerate it' is fictional but this song just feels like the girl who was tolerated removed the dagger from her and broke free from that relationship
With hindsight, I think "fictional" in the context of Folklevermore means "still autobiographical, but with plausible deniability". Given what she said about London Boy in later songs, pretty much everything in Tolerate It has been validated - except the supposed age difference (which goes to plausible deniability).
you have no idea how many times i thought about "tolerate it" during this analysis LOL
many of the songs from folkevermore are now becoming very easy to interpret through an autobiographical lens...🤔
@@knowitnone valid points are being made here 👀
@@knowitnone yeah that makes sense!!
So true! IMO “Tolerate it” is synonymous with lyrics in TTPD, So Long London and Fresh Out The Slammer are a few examples.
"And my friends said it isn't right to be scared everyday of a love affair "
I thought it has double meaning like she's scared that he's going to cheat on her
omg!! 👀...a valid interpretation, especially b/c the word "affair" here seems SO off
@@summersentiment Exactly! Makes sense because as you said a 6 year relationship isn’t considered an affair.
I noticed in a few songs the reference “her”,
Fresh Out The Slammer “He was with her in dreams”,
The Great War “maybe it was her” also “somewhere in the haze got a sense I'd been betrayed” …could definitely be emotional or physical “affair”.
Thanks again 🙏🏼
@@summersentiment IKR!!
"Fairy lights through the mist" signifies temptation (to leave, to find a more responsive lover, or maybe even a specific person who is tempting her) - not necessarily modern fairy lights, but like a mythical English folktale, where fairies will tempt you to follow them (into danger, but also adventure). But she "kept calm and carried..." meaning she didn't succumb, she stuck by London Boy even though she was the one carrying that relationship. She's saying other options were available, and she may have been tempted, but she wants us to know she is beyond reproach in all of this. Which of course must be taken with a grain of salt :D
I interpreted " I saw in my mind fairy lights through the mist" as she saw a wedding ( fairy lights are quite popular in weddings) in their future even though it was gloomy at that time and that's why kept calm and carried the weight of the rift , she still had hopes that he'd marry her
@@Clara_taylorsversion Oooh! I like that.
@@knowitnone
omg!! i LOVE this! tbh i prefer your interpretation of that line. it fits in much better. ALSO: omg!! this reminds me of peter pan & tinkerbell...was she being tempted into going back to the lost boy...🤔
aww i love this interpretation too!! ✨ she was trying to stay positive and used this as fuel to keep going up that hill
The Heath is Hampstead Heath, a big park/nature reserve in the middle of London, and also that's what the whole area is called. London Boy grew up next to Hampstead Heath and said in an interview he'd want to have his ashes scattered on the Heath. In the Miss Americana documentary, the two of them are walking through Hampstead Heath in one of the scenes.
thank you so much for this context 😊✨
It's also mentioned in London Boy ("Like a Tennessee Stella McCartney on the Heath") 😊
The acapella intro of the song is church bells. One might hear such bells at a wedding, perhaps while Taylor is at the altar waiting for proof.
It sounds like church bells but she is also singing So long London slowly too.
now that i think abt it, the first line might mean that she (in her mind) thought that things were going to get better in the relationship (fairy lights have a positive connotation) and the mist signifies uncertainty, so it means she really thought it was going to improve, but it didnt, thats why she says "in my mind"
i like your interpretation of mist representing uncertainty, that's interesting! thank you for sharing 😊✨
the "two graves, one gun" lyric got me thinking that this "gun" is some action, something he did, that killed them both and their relationship, thats why there are two graves
"I founded the club she's heard great things about" - I see it as like an actress, who Joe allegedly had or still has an affair with, is actually being a swiftie
omg 👀
I picture this song as, you meet your ex lover somewhere for the last time, maybe like during the day, outside somewhere, a foggy day, to hand over keys or something. And you are standing there, and have your last conversation to say goodbye. And you are just calm.The tears are done, there are no hysterics. It's just now bitter cold reality. And you say to each other, I hope you find someone. And then you just want to get out of there. You walk quickly away.
I also think maybe the fairy lights through the mist might be referring to her memories of happier times. She has often associated Joe with light and warmth in other songs, but now the relationship has become cold and hazy like mist. But she keeps fighting because she remembers those fairy lights and she's hoping they can get back there.
I love these videos, not only because I enjoy your analyses, but they encourage me to think about the songs in a different way.
hey ss, what do you think about this song being the track 5? people are saying that there are better and sadder songs suited to be track 5 like loml or even icdiwabh. but i think so long london fits better just because london boy deserves this honor better than the other guy lmao.
also i really love the double entendre in verse 3 of altar being a wedding altar but also sacrificial altar. idk if taylor intended it this way, but it reminds me of iphigenia, daughter of agamemnon. she sailed all the way to aulis thinking that she was gonna marry achilles, the greatest of the greek warriors, but turned out she was sacrificed to the goddess artemis on the same altar she was about to get married on. i especially think like that because of the line "you sacrificed us to the gods..." following that altar line.
also, the line "a moment of warm sun" could allude to london weather being cloudy a lot of the times.
i think that this song was meant to be a track 5, i agree with you...b/c its about london boy. even thought ttpd is mainly about the ~rebound~ i think the length of time she was w/ london boy and the countless number of songs he was the muse for all make this song deserving of being a track 5. this is 1 of the only songs that i think is 100% about london boy on ttpd so i think it makes sense to be a track 5
i like your interpretation of the altar! there's a great deal of irony (horrifying irony) that comes with a that. i did not know about allusion you explained so thank you for sharing that, so interesting!😊
and yes definitely! i agree! 🌧️
thank you for your comment! (and all comments tbh, i appreciate you watching and commenting all this time!!💖)
@@summersentiment if it's true, that kinda shifted the meaning of track 5 from "the most vulnerable song" to "vulnerable song AND an honorable place that you can't just put any song onto" 😂
and yeah iphigenia's marriage/sacrifice is just a small part in the entire story of the trojan war. especially because taylor has the song cassandra in the anthology, so even if she didn't intend it this way, i think she's at least aware of the lore and that's enough for me lol
also thank *you* for making this video. i love your lyrics breakdowns sm
Great analysis !!! Your videos make me appreciate Taylor’s songs even more 💖
I think the line “I founded the club she heard great things about” might also be a reference to the “tortured men club” (if you know the backstory of the whatsapp group chat, that also inspired the album title).
Maybe the new girl of the song heard the love interest talking ironically about this group chat (the tortured men club) and Taylor is saying “I’m the founder of that club”, as to say “I am responsible, I’m the one who tortures the men”.
Keep up with the great job, love you🫶🫶
LOL at "I am responsible, I'm the one who tortures the men" 👏 hahahaa
i like that take!! and yes, i've heard about that club. i discussed it in my ttpd album name analysis (before ttpd released) and i was so shook that was a possible inspiration lol
and thank you so much!! appreciate you and your comment!!💖💖
The intro make me think of the one of Death by a Thousand cuts, with all the "my, my, my, my" that also seem like a choir.
Btw, I always love your videos ! Thanks !
very true!! i wonder if that was intentional or not lol 🤔
and thank you so much! 😊✨
Your analysis of every song is so beautiful, I would love it if you analysed all the songs on TTPD, I WOULD JUST EAT IT ALL UP.
I love how deeply you analyse each word, I haven't seen any other "song analyser" do that
Love your videos💕💕💕
aw thank you so much! i really appreciate your kind words! 💖😊
Have you considered the parallells with “You’re losing me”? For example:
1. “my heart won’t start anymore” -> “I stopped CPR, after all it’s no use”
2. “How long can we be a sad song?” -> “how much sad did you think I had in me”
3. "My face was gray" -> "and I'm just getting color back into my face"
4. “I loved this place” -> “remember looking at this room, we loved it cause of the light”
Also, to me, the intro song almost sounds like Big Ben? And the rest of the song sounds like she’s riding (on a motorcycle in a helmet) through a long tunnel and as she passes the tunnel lights, they create this pulsating rhythm
Could you break down the “in summation” poem at the end of the cd booklet/vinyl (it’s also probably online somewhere)?
idk why but "i founded the club she's heard great things about" reminds me of the song "all of the girls you've loved before" but in this case she would be one of the girls, so i think it means she helped him become a better person for "her"(his new girl)
A little fyi. And you can google it. Taylor and Joe offered on a house together in London in December 2022. A large house in the Hampstead Heath area. And the house closed in April of 2023. April 2023 is when their breakup was leaked. So kind of bad timing, that they broke up just as their new house closed. I wonder if she got Joe off the title on that house yet, or what. Edit - But I like your interpretation, that she left all she knew in New York, to be with him in London. And then he left her in London.
Yes! This is one of my favorites from this album! Can’t wait to watch it
Great analysis! This is my first time seeing your content and I am a fan! A few additional thoughts: the phrase "Keep calm and carry on" comes from a motivational poster from the UK before WWII, and fits in with the stereotype of the British being unflappable, having a "stiff upper lip," etc. In this case American Taylor seems to be borrowing this British phrase to describe how the protagonist faced the ending of this relationship. Also, while "rift" could mean fight, I think it's more helpful to think of it as a physical break (it has connotations to geology, a rift in the ground). So instead of carrying a fight, I imagine her carrying a rock that has been split in two and trying to hold the two pieces together. Lastly, I interpreted the phrase "I founded the club she's heard great things about" simply to mean that she made Joe someone that another person would want to date - both by elevating his status as her boyfriend, and perhaps by putting some work into him as a person - and the "her" then becomes someone who was Joe's next potential or actual love interest. Thanks again for this, this song is so rich lyrically!
the ship lyric kinda makes me think that he accused her of giving up on their relationship, when she was actually fighting to keep it alive, but she was not succeeding at it, thats why she went down, she's still inside the ship, which would symbolize their relationship
Yes so happy for this! I can’t wait for loml and Peter. For Peter I recommend looking at original brother Grimm Peter Pan story. What song of TTPD are you listening to most?
thank you for suggesting looking into the Grimm version! 😊
honestly?..."so high school" LOL. not necessarily for lyrical content but for "omg this sounds like late 90s/early 2000s!!!"
i'm also listening to "the black dog", "fresh out the slammer", "peter" and "chloe or sam or sophia or marcus" ALOT on repeat.
hby?!
I was eagerly waiting for your TTPD songs analysis, you summarised "so long, london" so perfecty, such a heartbreaking song 😪
Pls do "Fresh out the slammer" next 😭
it is SO heartbreaking and i love the writing on the song so much!!
and thank you!! 😊✨
Fantastic new analysis video, you are amazing, gorgeous and wonderful, great job, my distant cousin and Summer Island Neighbor is a mastermind with her music, much love! ❤️🙌🎶
top notch analysis! thank you!
Hey ! I am big fan of your analysis...can you pls pls do the analysis of sufjan Steven music also, album carrie and lowell
Hello 👋🏼 Great analysis! I’m interested in an analysis of BDILH. Also The Black Dog. When you mentioned “save your dirtiest jokes for me” I associated “esoteric joke” to the same person.✅
Thank you 🙏🏼
Let's go new video
You just can’t trust that this narrative is necessarily true
As she has changed her story of the many loves of her life -many many times
Come on guys
If she truly loved Joe she wouldn’t be over him and then crushed emotionally by her celestial love Matty instantly - then Travis in less than a year -
I think there is a reason all these men move away from her
Give them the benefit of the doubt 💚
I think she is clingy. That could be her problem. Especially with the celeb guys who want to run around and have fun.
And to add to my post above, she is probably clingy, and then gets a temper tantrum if they reject her in some way. That is my guess. Because she talks about the guys always telling her they need space. And she had that song about Conor Kennedy where she threw her phone at him. So she probably has temper tantrums. And then the guys just run off.
Of course we are only hearing her side, and people hating on her boyfriends in real life are being silly. That being said, when discussing song lyrics, this is the narrative we are being given and we have no other input, so to analyse the song, we have to behave as if this is accurate.
I also think you shouldn't dismiss her feelings as if she really loved him, she would never have whatever. Love is complicated, and people have complicated feelings. Just because she moved on, it doesn't mean her love or pain were not real or significant.
@@klatskyntrue 💚
FINALLY
Please do The Great War when you can.
Another two 👍👍up SS.
thank you! 😊
"Every day a love affair" to me, means Taylor is scared Joe is cheating on her. Its kind of like the song, No Body No Crime - she thinks he's is cheating, but she just can't prove it. I was also in a similar position in my long term relationship. So many shady incidents with other women with him, but he always denied it and declared his innocence, and called me paranoid. So I was always scared he was cheating. But eventually I did catch him cheating, and I saw I had been right all along.
I want to know???
"Keep calm and carry on" is a british "motto" from WWII.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Calm_and_Carry_On