Revolutionary Taylor: Our take on the Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift through an American Revolution lens(PT 1)

Hey history nerd swifties! Hope you enjoyed the release of TTPD, I know I did. I mean, 2 hours and 2 minutes of new Taylor music, it’s the best combination of folklore and 1989 Taylor’s Version. Although folklore does have some local roots, we’re here to talk about the Tortured Poets Department, which was Taylor’s new album which released today. And today’s date is very conveniently, April 19th. What else happened on April 19th? The first shot of the American Revolution. Let’s get started. We’re going to make this into a series, where we do 2-3 songs per day and talk about how that relates to the revolution.

Overall connections

• Taylor Swift’s number is 13, which is the number of colonies there were in 1775, and they are the original 13 colonies.
• This album’s release date was April 19th, which is the day of the Battle of Lexington and Battle of Concord
• Both of the suspected muses this album is about are British, Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy.
• Taylor is a colonist in this case, telling the story of the revolution. The other person, is parliament, more specifically King George.

Track 1: Fortnight

Being track one, Taylor has to set the scene. Setting the scene in the American Revolution was the Boston Tea Party. People were frustrated at this time and said that the king was committing acts of treason, much like Taylor’s lyric, “no one here’s to blame, But what about your quiet treason?”. Furthering the colonist’s’ sentiment in this time period. The ship which they threw the tree off, the Eleanor, came in on November 28th, 1773, whereas the Boston Tea Party was on December 16th, 1773. Another line that Taylor and Post Malone say in the outro is, “’Nother fortnight lost in America”. This being in the outro is a cry for liberty and freedom in the US, which was a similar sentiment to the Sons of Liberty during the Boston Tea Party.

Track 2: The Tortured Poets Department

This one goes into a bit of detail. Her line, “But you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave/And I had said that to Jack about you, so I felt seen”. This song is mostly likely referring to when she dated Matty Healy, the lead singer in the band, The 1975. Lucy, referring to Lucy Dacus, one of the three singers in the band, boygenius. Matty said some off-putting comments to Lucy, even though they used to be friend, and Lucy said that they are not talking any more. Which draws a connection to the colonists and parliament, when they were allies during the French and Indian war, and now they’re at war.

See you around for more Revolutionary Taylor tomorrow!