it's time to go (listen to our latest episode)
Episode 6, a deep dive on "it's time to go," out now!
Sometimes walking out is the one thing
That will find you the right thing
Is this a Taylor Swift song or a therapy session? Our latest episode is a little bit of both!
This week, we’re doing a deep dive on Taylor Swift’s song, “it’s time to go,” a bonus track on the album evermore. This conversation is a continuation of our previous show and tell episode on toxic relationships (yes, we’re getting DEEP!) so if you haven’t listened to that one yet—it’s time to go!
If last week’s episode didn’t inspire you to listen to the song, check it out below. Then go listen to the episode…please!
A huge and sincere thank you to everyone who listened, rated, and reviewed our podcast! We are overwhelmed and overjoyed by the response, and we appreciate your love and support. (Haven’t reviewed us yet? Go on, we’ll wait!)
If you know of a Swiftie (or non-Swiftie! We’re not exclusive) who may be interested, please consider sharing this email, the podcast, or our social channels.
And, if you’re looking to get a little more extra credit…keep reading for a closer look at the song in our latest episode.
This week’s extra credit - brought to you by Jodi
Part of this “extra credit” section is to take you behind how we prepare for our podcast. Usually (and it will happen here, bear with me) that means sharing how we select and analyze songs. But before I get into that, I want to acknowledge that this email was written last week—before the terrorist attacks in Israel. As marketers, Jenn, Maansi, and I are no strangers to evaluating what’s happening in the world to determine “is this the right time to put this message in the world?” We did the same thing with this podcast. Ultimately, we decided that we’d move forward with this week as planned, not because “everything is normal,” but instead so that it’s here for those who are ready to listen, whenever they are ready.
As I thought about this episode’s song, it took on a new meaning for me this week. I deleted Instagram from my phone back in December for my own mental health, and redownloaded it a few weeks ago so I could promote this podcast. It meant that when Saturday’s attacks occurred, I was right on Instagram seeing what was happening and how the world reacted. And I didn’t like what I saw—neither the reports of the horrors happening to innocent Israelis and Palestinians, nor the response of the media, nor seeing some of my friends placing blame on Israel, Israelis, and Jews for the attacks. I posted my messages of support for Israel and innocent Israeli and Palestinian lives, and then decided “it’s time to go”—Instagram no longer serves me. Here were the “snaps from the same little breaks in my soul,” albeit from a toxic social media relationship.
A tangential relationship to this week’s topic and the rest of the post at best, but since these “extra credits” are spaces for the three of us to share our perspectives and voices, I couldn’t not share mine.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled extra credit
The topic of toxic relationships initially came up during our Eras Tour bonus episode (coming Friday, October 13th, just in time for the Eras Tour Movie!). “Stay, Stay, Stay” was one of Maansi’s surprise songs in Santa Clara, prompting me to pull up the lyrics. And…oh boy. “I threw my phone across the room at you” “You think that it’s funny when I’m mad” “I love you because you have given me to choice but to stay.” Let’s just say it broke my millennial-feminist-pro-therapy brain to listen to this song.
And thus, the topic of “toxic relationships” was born. I won’t go into it—listen to Episode 5 to hear ALL about it—but I will say that despite choosing this topic because of its inspiration’s focus on a bad romantic relationship, I was drawn to “it’s time to go” precisely because it wasn’t about a romantic relationship.
Perhaps the biggest criticism of Taylor Swift is that she only writes songs about ex-boyfriends. If you know nothing else about Taylor, that’s probably what you know about her. How she developed this reputation despite basically all of country music’s male musicians also writing about failed romantic relationships is rooted deeply in misogyny and the patriarchy—but I digress! I wanted to pick a song that represented a departure from the topic of romance.
“it’s time to go,” as a Track 17 bonus track to evermore, is one that perhaps not everyone has listened to. I am here to tell you—scroll up! Listen! And then keep reading…I’ll wait!
Ok, ready?
Instead of rehashing what we talk about in Episode 6, I’m going to bring you behind the scenes on how I prep for an episode. But to REALLY understand today’s song, you need to first understand why Taylor is re-releasing her music.
Editor’s Note: Are you new to Taylor Swift and still trying to figure out what “Taylor’s Version,” “re-records,” and “owning her masters” even means? Here’s a great article to read! TL;DR: The contract she signed when she was 15 meant her record label, Big Machine Records, “owns the masters, or original recordings, of her first six albums, as is typical with many recording deals.” They wouldn’t let her buy them back, so she left for another label where she could own all future music. Then the label sold her masters to someone else—Scooter Braun, see Taylor’s Tumblr post for why this is a problem—so she decided to re-record her music so SHE could own it.
Once I pick my song (which I do by pressing “shuffle” on the “This is Taylor Swift” Spotify playlist) , I go analog…I print out the lyrics!
Is this bad for the environment? Yes. (Easter egg alert for our next topic!) But when I think about literary analysis and diving deeper into a text, I immediately flash back to high school where I wrote color-coded notes in the margins and drew symbols as shorthand for the different themes and references in a text. Yes—I was “that student,” and yes, I continue to be “that girl” with a color-coded calendar at work.
Lyrics and colored pens in hand, I press play on the song of the week, and then see where my mind takes me. By this point I probably have a few themes or ideas in mind, and I start notating the lyrics with what I notice and feel as I listen.
Here I started by identifying the 5 vignettes or mini-stories in the song to see what their connection is. These different scenarios are all the “universal” situations that make you know it’s time to go: backstabbing, lying, gaslighting, betrayal, boredom, feeling stuck. This is what makes the shift to Taylor’s personal situation (15 years, 15 million tears / Begging til my knees bled) resonate: Once she’s set the stage with more universal experiences, we can empathize with her own very personal and not at all relatable experience of losing her masters.
This is what makes this song so powerful in my opinion. Do any of us know what it’s like to have our life’s work owned by someone else? Nope. But of the 5 vignettes that open the song, it’s almost guaranteed every listener will relate to at least one. There will be one situation that makes the listener feel “that old familiar body ache / the snaps from the same little breaks.” These personal, individual experiences where you feel so alone and lost, now make you feel seen, heard, felt, and understood.
“Thankfully, I left my past in Scott’s hands and not my future.” - Taylor Swift, Tumblr Post, Jun 30th, 2019
“He’s got my past frozen behind glass / But I’ve got me” - “it’s time to go,” evermore, December 2020
And this, dear reader, is the crux of what makes Taylor Swift such a profound and impactful songwriter: she taps into the core emotion of her own experience in a way that is relatable, recognizable, and resonant to the millions of people listening to her songs. “it’s time to go” hits different not because of Taylor’s struggle to own her masters, but because she found a way to make that situation relatable to other moments of betrayal, loss, and transition. She simultaneously makes a song about her, about us. And in that, she helps us empathize with her experience and cheer her on.
Thanks for doing the extra credit with us today (don’t worry, we don’t grade on a curve!)