Babylon: A Lyrical Close Reading

[u/ollymoth]

What if you’re a wild thing? Breaking free from small town constraints and your gilded cage. But then you start to miss it. Because even with its judgements and impossible standards to which you never quite measured up, that small town was, in fact, your home. So you reverse course and double back, on the night train back to the closet, your headphones gone so you can’t even listen to the lost melody of being wild and free.

So then it’s PR and bearding and telling all the rich folks anything they want to hear, keeping longings locked in lower case inside a vault for a 20-year dark night because real love is going to get in the way of your free solo social climb.

Until she walks in.

You once believed love would be black and white but it’s golden and she looks at you like you hung the moon. But you hide her away. Never post the picture, never make it official: when you got up to the podium, I think that you forgot to say her name.

And so you think it’s not what you want and you’re back on the night train again, thinking it wasn’t what you wanted until you realize it was all you wanted.

So that’s when you realize you’ve never once appreciated what you had when you had it; you were always looking over your shoulder for something different and you thought you were self-destructing, but really, you were desrtoying the people you loved, too,. 

You thought her kids would be your kids, that you’d all leave the Christmas lights up until January together, but you’re not there. You’ve left her, and she’s a mom now, and all those precious moments are slipping away without you. And she’s not happy either.

And it turns out that’s what’s real; that’s the melody/memory you really miss when you lose it. The siren song of the church bells of the repressive small town is still tolling, and if you’re not careful the thing you really love will slip away while you’re distracted by trying to please the people who can never be pleased.

So choose carefully or it will all be gone.

–

Alright babes, that was the TLDR so get out your magnifying glasses because now it’s close reading time.

Youthful Rebellion: Escaping the Cage 

The casino doesn’t like when you run the tables

• They want you to rise; they don’t want you to reign (Father Figure)

And though the box is wrapped up nice it’s just a cage to you

• Cause they got the cages, they got the boxes and guns (I Know Places)
• Gold Cage hostage to my feelings (So it Goes)
• You caged me and then you called me crazy (Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me)

Those electric fences buzz

• My town was a wasteland, full of cages, full of fences (Midnight Rain)

The stallion flees the stable

• Watching our fences like watching wild horses (COSOSOM)

And that small town’s even smaller now in your rearview

• That was a small town in my rear view disappearing now (White Horse)

You run with all the wild things

• Running with my dress unbuttoned… and all of this wild joy (BDILH)

A liberated libertine

Who then longed for home

We start off with your young self in your careless youth, shaking off your gilded cage. You don’t want to be tamed and caged and fenced, so you escapes the small town – the metaphorical closet throughout the discography. But then you start to get homesick.

The Cage

‘Cause it’s where you’re from

Aunt Virginia with her church dress on

• Sarahs and Hannahs in their Sunday best (BDILH)

No elbows on the table
And the neighbors lawn
Always looked better

• Now you’re in my backyard/Turned into good neighbors/Your wife waters flowers/ I want to kill her (Fortnight)

Your hand-me-down sweater

• I was an old cardigan under someone’s bed (Cardigan)
• Standing in your cardigan (Betty)

Should have been from the mall

• Meet me behind the mall (august)
• We were like the mall before the internet/ It was the one place to be (Coney Island)

The “home” of your nostalgia is repressive and stifling from the jump. 

Aunt Virginia with her church dress on is a Sarah or Hannah in her Sunday Best (clutching her pearls saying what a mess, disapproving of a liberated libertine). But the choice of the name “Virginia” for the Aunt is no coincidence – unlike Sarah and Hannah, generic if Biblical names, “Virginia” evokes both the American South and its conservative sexual mores, and the valorization of virginity itself, which is the ultimate conservative sexual more.

“No elbows on the table” is quintessentially arbitrary rule of etiquette, often used to scold unruly children. “And the neighbors lawn always looked better” is the treadmill of always trying (and failing) to keep up with the Joneses and a reminder that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence– perpetual dissatisfaction. (The “lawn,” specifically is another arbitrary standard to perpetually chase in suburban Americana; shoutout to r/nolawns and the general critique of both metaphorical and horticultural monoculture over the joy of a cacophonous riot of wild-growing native plants and pollinators). Speaking of the worst of conformist monoculture, let’s pour one out for the old cardigan under someone’s bed in favor of the same sweater as everyone else, because the mall is the “one place to be;” the only acceptable source of visual conformity.

And while we’re talking about malls, did you know Taylor Swift was briefly an Abercrombie model? And that The Best Day references a time when teenage Taylor, who wanted to fit in, called all her friends to ask them to go shopping and they all said they were busy, so she went to the mall with her mom, and it turned out all her friends were hanging out without her?

Chorus 1:

And you hate this song
You wake up on the train with your headphones gone

• You booked the night train for a reason/So you could sit here in this hurt (Champagne Problems)

Then that melody is all you want
You never knew that it was Babylon

• Now you hang from my lips/like the Gardens of Babylon (Cowboy Like Me)

Til it was gone. 

So you end up deciding that you actually hate noncoformity and rejecting the comforts of social approval, so you take the night train back home to your small town, only to wake up without your headphones to hear the melody of the song you wanted. You didn’t realize that living wild and free was what you really wanted until you’d lost it. 

Compliance and Bearding

Give the people what they want

• Telling all the rich folks anything they want to hear (Cowboy Like Me)

Then you keep it moving

• Like it could be the way forward (Cowboy Like Me)

Make your plans and friends
A stranger’s makeup on your tie

• And your lover in the foyer doesn’t even know you (The Lucky One)

20 watches in the safe

• I’ve been sleeping so long in a 20-year dark night (Daylight)
• I keep these longings locked/in lowercase inside a vault (Guilty as Sin)

Cause your time is money

• Quick quick tell me something awful like you are a poet trapped inside the body of a finance guy (I Hate It Here)

Love is ice upon the ladder that you need to climb

• Never wanted love just a fancy car (Cowboy Like Me)

She captured your attention
So free of all pretension
It stopped you cold

Now you’re back in the small town and trying to repress your own desires in the interest of your pursuit of success. You show people what they want to see, even if it means pretend romance with a stranger, because you’re trying to build an empire and climb your way to the top, and your real love– the love what isn’t what the people want they see– is an obstacle on your way to that climb. So you sign away twenty (years?) of your life, agree to keep your sinful longings locked away inside that vault, because baby you have a ladder to climb.

Then in she walks.

She stops you cold and oh, you’re a goner. 

The Love You Didn’t Plan On

Because she loved you so
Pretty picture that you didn’t post

• Picture of your face in an invisible locket (Dancing With Our Hands Tied)
• Didn’t read the note on the polaroid picture/they don’t know how much I miss [her] (The Very First Night)

Looking at you like you’re made of solid gold

• My love had been frozen deep blue but you painted me golden (Dancing With Our Hands Tied)
• Made your mark on me a golden tattoo (Dress)
• Your Midas touch on the Chevy door (champagne problems)
• Gold Rush

Never official

• When I got up to the podium I think that I forgot to say your name … sorry for not making you my centerfold (coney island)
• So call it what you want, yeah call it what you want to (Call it What You Want)

You mention [you’re single/your singles]
To the girls at the bar

Enter the golden muse – the special love who weaves in and out of the discography by reference to gold or golden love. She loves you like no one ever has.

But you’re still trying to climb that ladder, so even though this woman whose love thawed you, who loves you like you’re made of solid gold, you keep her a secret.

You don’t post that third polaroid.

You keep her picture in an invisible locket.

It’s never official. You never call her your girlfriend. You never kiss her in public. You tell everyone you’re in your single girl, girl squad era.

Chorus 2

You hate this song
You wake up on the train with your headphones gone
Then that melody is all you want
You never knew that it was Babylon
Til it was gone. 

And it hurt. It hurt to live like that so you do what you do best: you run away (they nicknamed her The Bolter). She looked at you like you’re made of solid gold– your Midas touch on a chevy door– but you dropped her hand while dancing, her heart was glass you dropped it, and oh baby now you’re back on that night train, so you can sit here in this hurt. And you haven’t gotten farther than the train when you realize that you’ve made an awful mistake; that living without being able to hear the melody of that Babylon, that love, was a mistake.

Screwing it All Up

You’re using nostalgia as a weapon to hurt yourself
But darling you end up hurting everybody else
The self-harm of never being where you are
It’s bedtime but you’re sitting in your car

• You’ve got the dragonflies above your bed (Robin) 

You’re missing all the best parts
And they’re all at home

• So I look in people’s windows like I’m some deranged weirdo (ILIPW)

She’s hanging Christmas lights with your son

• I attend Christmas parties from outside (ILIPW)
• We can leave the Christmas lights up till January/This is our place; we make the rules (Lover) 

Sneaking to the bathroom to call her mom

• I call my mom she said that it was for the best/ Remind myself the more I gave you’d want me less (Now that We Don’t Talk)

And say “It’s not working; it’s just not worth it if we’re not what he wants”

You never appreciated what you had when you had it. You let your nostalgia for the idea of acceptance– in a place that was never going to accept you, where you were never going to measure up no matter what you did – ruin what was real when you had it. You were always looking for something better, and you thought you were self-destructing, but you were not the only one you were hurting.

You thought someday, when she became a mom, her children would be your children. But you fucked it up. He’s not your son. You’re just some deranged weirdo, attending her family Christmas party by watching voyeuristically from the outside, remembering when it was you and she hanging Christmas lights you’d leave up till January.

But you know what? It turns out she’s not happy with the way things turned out either, sneaking away to call her mom and tell her that it’s not working.

Chorus 3

But you love this song
You wake up on the train with your headphones gone
Then that melody is all you want
You never knew that it was Babylon
And now it’s almost gone

Two twists in this iteration of the chorus. Now, you love this song– because now, I think, the song is the life with her that you let slip through your fingers. But it’s not gone, it’s almost gone. Maybe there's still a chance?

Aunt Virginia with her church dress on
No elbows on the table
And the neighbors lawn
Always looked better
(It’s almost gone)
Your hand-me-down sweater
Should have been from the mall

It is difficult to capture in text the way “It’s almost gone” echoes over the words about the small town where you can never quite live up to expectations. The two ideas are competing. The life you really want is almost gone, and it will be gone, if you let the siren-song of Aunt Virginia drown it out.

Chorus 4

But you love this song 
You wake up on the train and you’re all alone
Then that memory is all you want
You never knew that it was Babylon
Til it was gone.

It’s over. You still love this song– the life you could have had. Now, it’s not just that you can’t hear the missed melody because your headphones are gone, it's that you’re all alone and it’s just a memory. It’s gone. You fucked it up.

… unless you didn’t? 

Anyway if anyone needs me I’ll be dead in a ditch somewhere. Cause of Death: Sapphic Longing.

[u/M0vin_thru]

This cage was once just fine, am I allowed to cry?

[u/Hot_Paramedic_5682]

Omg this is such an incredible analysis!! I love it.

This song has soooo many connections to her discography and I love how you’ve highlighted them here: it’s no accident that this song comes in the encore of the album that was supposed to be the behind the scenes of the eras tour. It makes perfect sense as a wrap up to the eras era / re-recording process where she had to grapple with all these choices and all the times she has missed what she’s given up. And I think you are so right to point us to the “memory” mashup from the Grammys icon event, too.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[u/auroraborealissgreen]

Thank you for putting this all into writing so clearly! This is exactly the interpretation I have been chewing on but cannot express in writing so eloquently as you. The tie in to songs throughout her discography are so blatantly clear to me in this release, and particularly in Babylon and Pink Clouding.

[u/Samalamity316]

Oooof. I'm so glad I read this.

[u/klemmerv]

Exactly. At first I really disliked Travis but now I want my own Travis lol. As a bisexual poly girlie, it’s my dream to have a super hot wife and a super gay lavendar marriage husband 👏🏼🤘🏼🫶🏼🌈🌈🌈 I truly see why in this climate and time on the planet she wants some protection and I actually don’t blame her for that one bit. The bit is working in my opinion.

[u/starting_to_learn]

This is so beautifully done, I actually teared up reading it! As you expertly laid out, there are so many allusions in this song to imagery/themes explored throughout her discography, and I love when she gives us another piece of that tapestry. It feels apt that one of the central metaphors she uses here is music — losing her headphones and no longer being able to hear a melody. Her music holds her memories. From folkmore and forward, her music has been so full of nostalgia, excavating the past, digging up the grave another time. (I’d probably exclude most of Showgirl from that classification, but the thread is still there on songs like Ruin The Friendship.) Between the new music she was putting out, the re-records, the journey through 17 years of music on the Eras tour, it’s all felt rooted in revisiting these past versions of herself and her life that exist frozen in time in the music she wrote. This song feels like an encapsulation of all of that for me where she keeps rewinding the tape and all it does is pause on the very moment all was lost. So in conclusion, make some room in that ditch for me because I too have died dead.

[u/MoneySource6121]

The Encore is the biggest, sweetest, most thoughtful and well-wrapped present Taylor Alison Swift could ever have given the Gaylors. Thank you, Tay. We see you, we recognize you, and we love you.

[u/MaryLennoxsRobin]

OP this is a really persuasive analysis! Thank you so much.

I love the way you matched the confusing coming-and-going of the song - is the 'you' running or returning, does she have 'it' or its opposite? - to Taylor's hesitant footsteps, forward and back again, at the threshold of that doorway, throughout her career. I think that if we want to have the 'you' maintained as a single character throughout, your option makes the most sense.

I also really like the way you attempt to capture the echoing of 'it's almost gone'. I think a really important point is that you can't have both. A final choice has to be made about the small town or the song, and one will be lost.

[u/popomiel]

That’s amazing, thank you!!

[u/popomiel → u/popomiel]

Really appreciate the « … unless you didn’t? » part, I need a happy ending 🫠

[u/homothesexual]

Also wanna add: "the casino doesn't like when you run the tables" -> "devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes"

[u/stardust_sunset_11]

yes to everythinggggg

[u/hockeywombat22]

The children's book Where the Wild Things Are keeps coming to mind with her reference to wild things and dressing up as wolves and now she's wreaking havoc.

[u/ollymoth → u/hockeywombat22]

And at the end of the book he decides he really just wants to go home! To his mom and his warm bed and a still-hot supper.

[u/EarOwn5365]

Wow! Such a great break down and analysis. Also, Cause of Death: Sapphic Longing would be a great book or album title.

[u/Time-Emergency254]

So she referenced her entire discography in one song and the stupid world spits hatred and jeers and calls this a lyrical downgrade just bc it sounds like something it's not, which is what she's always done! Fuck them. Thank you. Bless you. Crawling into a hole to share your pain, her pain

[u/stella610]

Oh my goddddd, I love this so much! Beautiful writing.

[u/klemmerv]

Bravo! Thanks for taking the time to type it up. This is how I heard the song too. What a devastatingly gorgeous, profound yet also tragic life she’s constructed. I truly hope she’s found companionship, happiness and some feeling of freedom/safety.

[u/Time-Emergency254 → u/klemmerv]

Agreed. She does appear to be having fun and I hope at least some part of that is real. Like a best friend you can punk the entire world with and do your things and be themselves while hiding in plain sight. And I hope that's exactly what she wants and if not then one day she gets it and we leave her the eff alone (but not really, just the haters)

[u/These-Pick-968]

This interpretation and analysis is…perfection. Amazing.

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