December 1, 2025 • 21 mins
You can call me anything you want, sweetheart, because in this lyric breakdown we’re tackling the sticky sweet sentiment of Honey!
In the 11th track from The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift redefines the language of love, one term of endearment at a time. But is there more going on in this track than meets the eye?
That was a trick question: of course there is! Taylor’s using double entendres and double meanings to trace how words like “sweetheart” and “honey” were used as weapons, and are now used as real terms of affection.
We’ll pour through this track line by line, relate it to its “sister track” Call it What You Want, and see what we can learn about this new love of a Showgirl.
✨ Swiftly Sung Stories dives deep into Taylor Swift’s storytelling craft, exploring her lyrics through the lens of literature, emotion, and the art of songwriting.
📚 Subscribe for more Taylor Swift lyric analysis, literary breakdowns, and storytelling deep dives.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey everyone.
(00:00):
Welcome back to the Swiftly Sung Stories Podcast.
I'm Jen, your Swiftie English teacher, and today we're tackling track 11 in my track by track analysis of the life of a showgirl.
We are diving straight into, call it what you want, part two AKA Honey.
In this song, our showgirl narrator redefines the language of love, one term of endearment at a time.
(00:21):
But is there more to this track than this sticky, sweet title implies we're gonna find out together.
In my last few episodes, I analyzed Taylor's prologue poem, and the first nine tracks, 10 tracks of this album.
My God, we're almost done.
And that lays a lot of groundwork for understanding the themes that Taylor's exploring in these lyrics.
So go check those out.
In a lot of them we're talking about how the life of a showgirl is really how the show gets in the way of the girl.
(00:47):
And it's a theme we're gonna see Play Out Again in Honey.
All of his content is available on my website.
If you want the text version with annotated lyrics, and if you're watching this on YouTube, you can find me wherever, get your podcasts and vice versa.
Okay.
.886549467Let's lay a little bit of groundwork for the themes within honey, and then we'll roll into our dissection line by line Welcome to swiftly sung Stories where we unpack the Taylor Swift Universe one era album and lyric at a time. 17 00:01:15,160.886549467 --> 00:01:19,480.886549467 Think of it like English class, but it's all Taylor Swift and none of the boring stuff. 18 00:01:19,930.886549467 --> 00:01:25,330.886549467 I'm Jen, your Swifty English teacher and classes in session, so come on in and meet me in the margins. 19 00:01:25,616.886549467 --> 00:01:26,516.886549467 Before I go into detail. 20 00:01:26,516.886549467 --> 00:01:29,306.886549467 Quick caveat, I'm not here to discover what Taylor Swift did. 21 00:01:29,306.886549467 --> 00:01:31,886.886549467 I'm not here to talk about her relationships. 22 00:01:32,336.886549467 --> 00:01:41,896.88654947 I only really discuss her personal life if it's pertinent to the lyrics everything I'm about to say is my opinion as a writer and an English teacher, and your lens is different and that's what makes it great. 23 00:01:41,926.88654947 --> 00:01:47,566.88654947 I'm not claiming this analysis is fact or the only meaning, the only interpretation. 24 00:01:47,566.88654947 --> 00:01:51,856.88654947 I'm just gonna point out different things and you can make your connections where you like. 25 00:01:52,336.88654947 --> 00:01:54,766.88654947 So take what resonates and leave what doesn't. 26 00:01:55,996.88654947 --> 00:02:01,126.88654947 So what's up with Honey? It's not really a standout song on this record, at least not for me. 27 00:02:01,126.88654947 --> 00:02:02,476.88654947 It's not super deep. 28 00:02:02,476.88654947 --> 00:02:21,616.88654947 It uses a lot of repetition, and while it's really, really catchy and beautiful, what is it really saying? Honey is plopped between canceled, which is a really scathing satire about cancel culture and the title track, the Final Track, the Life of a Showgirl, which is about how the showgirl life isn't all that it appears. 29 00:02:21,616.88654947 --> 00:02:24,316.88654947 It's polished on the outside and bruised on the inside. 30 00:02:25,246.88654947 --> 00:02:35,86.88654947 So what purpose does honey serve? To me, the song makes the most sense as a sort of updated version or a sequel of, call it What You Want from Reputation. 31 00:02:35,596.88654947 --> 00:02:37,846.88654947 There are of course the lyrical connections. 32 00:02:37,846.88654947 --> 00:02:40,576.88654947 Call it what you want versus You can Call Me Honey if you want. 33 00:02:41,116.88654947 --> 00:02:43,686.88654947 Those are very similar, but these two tracks are also both. 34 00:02:43,746.88654947 --> 00:02:49,236.88654947 Second to last with call it What You Want, being sandwiched between Track 13. 35 00:02:49,236.88654947 --> 00:02:50,706.88654947 This is why We Can't Have Nice Things. 36 00:02:51,186.88654947 --> 00:02:54,66.88654947 And the Final Track 15 on Reputation New Year's Day. 37 00:02:54,306.88654947 --> 00:03:01,251.88654947 So within the overall narrative structure of each album, they're kind of wind down songs, right? Like she's taken us on this. 38 00:03:01,716.88654947 --> 00:03:05,886.88654947 Emotional rollercoaster, and then in both honey and call what you want. 39 00:03:05,886.88654947 --> 00:03:12,291.88654947 She looks back on all of the lessons learned and reflects on how much she's changed before she closes out the story, the album. 40 00:03:12,291.88654947 --> 00:03:14,991.88654947 I have an upcoming episode in my Taylor Swift 1 0 1 series. 41 00:03:15,21.88654947 --> 00:03:20,841.88654947 Once I've completed showgirl, that will really dive into how Taylor uses narrative structure in detail. 42 00:03:20,841.88654947 --> 00:03:23,751.88654947 So if you're curious about that, remember to subscribe so you don't miss it. 43 00:03:24,321.88654947 --> 00:03:31,341.88654947 It'll be a really interesting and detailed look about how she exactly takes us on these storytelling journeys through songs and through albums. 44 00:03:32,151.88654947 --> 00:03:36,291.88654947 So while honey might not be the most emotionally hard hitting song. 45 00:03:36,726.88654947 --> 00:03:41,256.88654947 It is revealing and it does serve a purpose, and that purpose is reflection. 46 00:03:42,96.88654947 --> 00:03:44,826.88654947 Look where I was before and look where I am now. 47 00:03:45,306.88654947 --> 00:03:49,416.88654947 And so the song structure she uses here is really reflective of that. 48 00:03:49,416.88654947 --> 00:03:57,876.88654947 Honey is an unusual song structure for Taylor, and I think that's part of why this track doesn't feel maybe as impactful as others. 49 00:03:58,506.88654947 --> 00:04:02,236.88654947 It begins with an intro and then it goes directly into the first chorus. 50 00:04:02,416.88654947 --> 00:04:13,96.88654947 I point this out because I think it does fit within the theme of this song, which is switching it up, feeling brand new, changing and growing, and redefining what love should feel like. 51 00:04:13,96.88654947 --> 00:04:15,466.88654947 She hasn't stuck with her old way of doing things here. 52 00:04:15,466.88654947 --> 00:04:17,596.88654947 Her tried and true song structure. 53 00:04:18,351.88654947 --> 00:04:26,751.88654947 Because these characters in honey are also entering a new era and a new way of life and love, so it makes sense that she's switching up even the format of her writing here. 54 00:04:26,751.88654947 --> 00:04:28,581.88654947 Okay, so let's get into it line by line. 55 00:04:28,611.88654947 --> 00:04:33,921.88654947 There's a short intro in which our narrator says, you can call me honey if you want, because I'm the one you want. 56 00:04:34,911.88654947 --> 00:04:37,701.88654947 So she's setting up the central metaphor that will run throughout the song. 57 00:04:37,731.88654947 --> 00:04:48,411.88654947 Honey and other terms of endearment will come to mean different things as this track goes on, but from the jump, these lyrics remind us of, so call it what you want. 58 00:04:48,621.88654947 --> 00:04:52,491.88654947 Call it what you want to, and it almost feels like. 59 00:04:52,821.88654947 --> 00:04:57,261.88654947 Like a reply or an answer, right? Like call it what you want. 60 00:04:57,621.88654947 --> 00:04:59,271.88654947 You can call me honey if you want. 61 00:05:00,351.88654947 --> 00:05:00,711.88654947 Call it. 62 00:05:00,711.88654947 --> 00:05:07,11.88654947 What you want is about not needing to put a label on a relationship or a period of her life. 63 00:05:07,71.88654947 --> 00:05:14,211.88654947 And in the lyrics she goes through all of the things that you can call it hiding, running away, a love bubble, a rescue. 64 00:05:14,211.88654947 --> 00:05:17,961.88654947 You can call it anything what you want, but here she does label it. 65 00:05:18,621.88654947 --> 00:05:20,571.88654947 Honey, you can call me honey. 66 00:05:21,201.88654947 --> 00:05:38,451.88654947 And in the larger character arc of Taylor Swift, it feels like she's moved from uncertainty or from the unknown to the other end of the spectrum to feeling sure, because she is sure you can call me honey if you want, because I'm the one you want. 67 00:05:38,451.88654947 --> 00:05:42,231.88654947 So she's saying you can call me this because I know you mean it. 68 00:05:42,471.88654947 --> 00:05:47,121.88654947 So she is gone from, I don't know what this is, but I know I want it to. 69 00:05:47,811.88654947 --> 00:05:51,141.88654947 I know what I want and it's you and I know that you want me. 70 00:05:51,801.88654947 --> 00:05:55,311.88654947 There's no more doubt or waffling or eschewing labels. 71 00:05:55,311.88654947 --> 00:05:59,511.88654947 It's sincerity and security and she's 100% sure. 72 00:06:00,711.88654947 --> 00:06:04,71.88654947 She then goes into the first chorus when anyone called me sweetheart. 73 00:06:04,311.88654947 --> 00:06:06,51.88654947 It was passive aggressive at the bar. 74 00:06:07,701.88654947 --> 00:06:12,531.88654947 So here's our second term of endearment or second label for your partner and she's gonna list a few. 75 00:06:12,531.88654947 --> 00:06:20,931.88654947 In the song Sweetheart can be a term of endearment like honey, but in her past experience, it was used like mean girl ammunition. 76 00:06:20,931.88654947 --> 00:06:30,351.88654947 She remembers being on a night out at a bar and some girl sarcastically calling her sweetheart, which was meant to cut her down or demean her. 77 00:06:31,371.88654947 --> 00:06:32,931.88654947 And the bitch was telling me to back off. 78 00:06:32,931.88654947 --> 00:06:35,571.88654947 She continues 'cause her man had looked at me wrong. 79 00:06:36,466.88654947 --> 00:06:41,26.88654947 So she juxtaposes sweetheart with bitch, and this is purposeful. 80 00:06:41,26.88654947 --> 00:06:46,66.88654947 They can both mean the same thing depending on the context in which they're used. 81 00:06:46,786.88654947 --> 00:06:53,176.88654947 So this past use of sweetheart, a woman at the bar was angry because her man and looked at me wrong. 82 00:06:53,176.88654947 --> 00:06:56,596.88654947 This woman is using sweetheart when she means bitch. 83 00:06:57,21.88654947 --> 00:07:01,671.88654947 Which sets up this theme of covert and double meanings that will run throughout the rest of the song. 84 00:07:02,181.88654947 --> 00:07:04,401.88654947 That's the shtick of honey, terms of endearment. 85 00:07:04,461.88654947 --> 00:07:08,91.88654947 That can be genuinely endearing or they can be demeaning. 86 00:07:09,741.88654947 --> 00:07:11,841.88654947 If anyone called me honey, she goes on. 87 00:07:11,871.88654947 --> 00:07:13,731.88654947 It was standing in the bathroom. 88 00:07:14,91.88654947 --> 00:07:14,931.88654947 White teeth. 89 00:07:15,861.88654947 --> 00:07:21,921.88654947 So she flashes back to this other scenario where a term of endearment was used to shame her. 90 00:07:21,951.88654947 --> 00:07:31,551.88654947 Here it feels like maybe we're in a high school bathroom where this gaggle of mean teen girls with these fangs of white teeth speak in daggers. 91 00:07:32,331.88654947 --> 00:07:34,491.88654947 They were saying that skirt don't fit me. 92 00:07:34,491.88654947 --> 00:07:37,521.88654947 She recalls and I cried the whole way home. 93 00:07:38,706.88654947 --> 00:07:44,236.88654947 So she remembers being shamed for the way she looks, which is incredibly high school coded. 94 00:07:44,256.88654947 --> 00:07:45,816.88654947 But this last line feels familiar. 95 00:07:45,816.88654947 --> 00:07:46,746.88654947 I cried the whole way. 96 00:07:46,746.88654947 --> 00:07:47,316.88654947 Home. 97 00:07:47,916.88654947 --> 00:07:50,616.88654947 Feels a lot like the girl in the dress, cried the whole way home. 98 00:07:51,126.88654947 --> 00:07:52,596.88654947 This time it's the girl in the skirt. 99 00:07:52,596.88654947 --> 00:07:55,596.88654947 But both times she's made to feel small and insecure. 100 00:07:55,596.88654947 --> 00:08:02,556.88654947 Both times she's wearing something that symbolizes innocence or femininity, a dress versus a skirt. 101 00:08:03,576.88654947 --> 00:08:07,566.88654947 And these are really moments where that innocence is lost. 102 00:08:08,916.88654947 --> 00:08:16,176.88654947 So because of these incidents in the past, she's developed these kind of Pavlovian responses to words like sweetheart and honey. 103 00:08:16,896.88654947 --> 00:08:20,526.88654947 They were only meant to shame her, but now they're coming to mean something different. 104 00:08:21,426.88654947 --> 00:08:22,956.88654947 It all changes. 105 00:08:22,956.88654947 --> 00:08:25,56.88654947 And then she tells us exactly how it changed. 106 00:08:25,56.88654947 --> 00:08:29,916.88654947 But you touched my face, redefined all of those blues. 107 00:08:30,126.88654947 --> 00:08:31,386.88654947 When you say honey. 108 00:08:32,526.88654947 --> 00:08:36,126.88654947 So this face touching imagery feels incredibly intimate. 109 00:08:36,336.88654947 --> 00:08:41,946.88654947 And what she really means is you've touched a part of me that no one else has been able to reach. 110 00:08:42,426.88654947 --> 00:08:53,316.88654947 All of those blues, the insecurities, the doublespeak, the bullying, it's all in the past because when this person calls her honey or sweetheart, he's being truly intimate. 111 00:08:53,316.88654947 --> 00:08:57,251.88654947 And we know it's true intimacy because it's displayed in this really simple. 112 00:08:57,606.88654947 --> 00:08:58,956.88654947 Face touching imagery. 113 00:08:58,956.88654947 --> 00:09:00,456.88654947 He's really seeing her. 114 00:09:01,596.88654947 --> 00:09:10,86.88654947 So to redefine all of those blues is to take these moments where honey and sweetheart were weaponized, and to erase them or rewrite them. 115 00:09:10,476.88654947 --> 00:09:12,816.88654947 She'll no longer have this shame trigger. 116 00:09:13,296.88654947 --> 00:09:15,651.88654947 When she hears those words directed at her. 117 00:09:17,496.88654947 --> 00:09:20,856.88654947 Going into the first verse, she begins with some more romantic imagery. 118 00:09:20,856.88654947 --> 00:09:23,466.88654947 Summertime spritz, pink skies. 119 00:09:23,901.88654947 --> 00:09:27,861.88654947 We are 13 lines into the song, by the way, and we've only just reached the first verse. 120 00:09:27,861.88654947 --> 00:09:29,601.88654947 So this is quite an unusual structure. 121 00:09:30,441.88654947 --> 00:09:39,921.88654947 So summertime spritz is this lighthearted, cheerful vibe, and then we get pink skies, which is the opposite of those blues that she described previously. 122 00:09:39,921.88654947 --> 00:09:42,951.88654947 This is optimism emerging from her past pessimism. 123 00:09:44,436.88654947 --> 00:09:46,326.88654947 But if pink skies sound familiar, they should. 124 00:09:46,326.88654947 --> 00:09:51,936.88654947 It was a big part of Lover, both the album and the era, which symbolized this new positive outlook. 125 00:09:51,936.88654947 --> 00:10:03,216.88654947 It's the same vibe here, but this whole section also feels really similar to invisible string from folklore time, curious time, gave me the blues, and then purple pink skies. 126 00:10:04,56.88654947 --> 00:10:13,416.88654947 So she's using sky imagery and metaphors to describe moving from a stormy time of life into this clear, smooth sailing, happier time. 127 00:10:14,436.88654947 --> 00:10:17,626.88654947 And she also uses the sky clearing language in Opalite. 128 00:10:17,646.88654947 --> 00:10:22,446.88654947 So it's a recurring motif through this album and it shows up quite a lot in previous albums as well. 129 00:10:23,406.88654947 --> 00:10:26,976.88654947 She goes on and names another color, winter green kiss, all mine. 130 00:10:26,976.88654947 --> 00:10:29,406.88654947 So she's contrasted summer and winter. 131 00:10:29,406.88654947 --> 00:10:34,561.88654947 Summertime spritz, winter green kiss with this kind of seasonal weather imagery. 132 00:10:35,671.88654947 --> 00:10:41,641.88654947 Taylor usually uses winter as a metaphor for a time of deep reflection and sometimes depression. 133 00:10:42,806.88654947 --> 00:10:46,561.88654947 I think, um, back to December or gray November. 134 00:10:46,621.88654947 --> 00:10:47,461.88654947 I've been down since July. 135 00:10:48,666.88654947 --> 00:10:52,716.88654947 But here winter is depicted as crisp and cool. 136 00:10:53,166.88654947 --> 00:10:55,266.88654947 He's rewritten winter as well. 137 00:10:55,476.88654947 --> 00:10:59,676.88654947 We can imagine a wintergreen kiss as someone chewing wintergreen gum. 138 00:10:59,676.88654947 --> 00:11:10,746.88654947 So it's romantic and it's refreshing and it's definitely not the same depressive winters as before and it's all mine, which means there's no games, there's no back and forth. 139 00:11:11,436.88654947 --> 00:11:12,906.88654947 There's just trust and love. 140 00:11:13,446.88654947 --> 00:11:14,946.88654947 And she then expands on that. 141 00:11:15,126.88654947 --> 00:11:16,596.88654947 Gave it different meaning. 142 00:11:16,716.88654947 --> 00:11:17,886.88654947 'cause you mean it when you talk. 143 00:11:17,886.88654947 --> 00:11:20,706.88654947 The subject of this line, I think is honey. 144 00:11:20,706.88654947 --> 00:11:30,546.88654947 So she's saying he gave this label a different meaning because he means it sincerely, but there's also a larger meaning of you gave love a different meaning, not just the word honey. 145 00:11:31,101.88654947 --> 00:11:32,331.88654947 Because you're not playing games. 146 00:11:32,331.88654947 --> 00:11:36,351.88654947 There's no hidden language or speaking in code in this relationship. 147 00:11:36,351.88654947 --> 00:11:41,61.88654947 He says what he means, and when he says, honey, it means you're sweet. 148 00:11:41,61.88654947 --> 00:11:43,641.88654947 You're mine, honey. 149 00:11:43,641.88654947 --> 00:11:44,61.88654947 I'm home. 150 00:11:44,61.88654947 --> 00:11:44,991.88654947 We could play house. 151 00:11:44,991.88654947 --> 00:11:51,291.88654947 She continues, which pulls in this kind of 1950s nuclear family coded phrase to play. 152 00:11:51,291.88654947 --> 00:12:00,171.88654947 House is usually a childhood game where kids make believe, happy family, but it seems she has some more adult appropriate games in mind. 153 00:12:01,191.88654947 --> 00:12:03,201.88654947 We can bed down, pick me up. 154 00:12:03,351.88654947 --> 00:12:15,591.88654947 She goes on, which uses two double entendres to bed down means to get an improvised bed set up like during camping, but bed down here refers to Naughtier bedroom activities. 155 00:12:16,71.88654947 --> 00:12:20,331.88654947 And then there's pick me up, which we can also glean a couple different meanings from. 156 00:12:20,331.88654947 --> 00:12:23,806.88654947 There's come pick me up, like come collect me and take me home. 157 00:12:24,626.88654947 --> 00:12:26,166.88654947 And then there's being picked up. 158 00:12:26,686.88654947 --> 00:12:29,896.88654947 In a womanizer sort of way, like a pickup artist. 159 00:12:30,586.88654947 --> 00:12:34,761.88654947 And then there's being literally picked up and carried, which I think is what she's talking about here. 160 00:12:35,856.88654947 --> 00:12:46,806.88654947 So after she's picked up, she asks, who's the baddest in the land? And this alludes to snow White's evil queen who asks her magic mirror, mirror mirror on the wall. 161 00:12:47,166.88654947 --> 00:12:56,826.88654947 Who's the fairest of them all here? She's more of a, a good queen, but she's kind of asking who's been a bad, bad girl in like a naughty, flirty way. 162 00:12:57,351.88654947 --> 00:13:08,541.88654947 But here they're both the baddest in the land as in naughty in the bedroom, but also as in badass, like powerful and potent both together and separately. 163 00:13:08,541.88654947 --> 00:13:11,841.88654947 What's the plan? She asks and then she quickly answers herself. 164 00:13:12,261.88654947 --> 00:13:14,991.88654947 You could be my forever nightstand honey. 165 00:13:15,441.88654947 --> 00:13:21,381.88654947 So she's wondering what their future holds, like what's the plan for our life, and then answers herself. 166 00:13:21,786.88654947 --> 00:13:25,296.88654947 Wherever you go, I will follow or wherever I go, you're coming with me. 167 00:13:26,226.88654947 --> 00:13:28,266.88654947 But I think this line is my favorite forever. 168 00:13:28,266.88654947 --> 00:13:31,126.88654947 Nightstand is a play on one night stand. 169 00:13:31,386.88654947 --> 00:13:34,446.88654947 It's permanence versus impermanence. 170 00:13:34,446.88654947 --> 00:13:43,86.88654947 He'll be her forever, nightstand or a permanent fixture in her bedroom in her life, and she's implicitly contrasting that with something temporary. 171 00:13:43,86.88654947 --> 00:13:43,836.88654947 A one night stand. 172 00:13:44,826.88654947 --> 00:13:46,986.88654947 It's a really clever use of language and I love it. 173 00:13:48,216.88654947 --> 00:13:50,436.88654947 Then the second verse repeats a couple of lines. 174 00:13:50,436.88654947 --> 00:13:52,656.88654947 You can call me honey if you want, 'cause I'm the one you want. 175 00:13:52,656.88654947 --> 00:13:53,946.88654947 And then she repeats. 176 00:13:54,6.88654947 --> 00:13:55,656.88654947 I'm the one you want again. 177 00:13:56,16.88654947 --> 00:13:58,506.88654947 And this repetition is reinforcement. 178 00:13:58,566.88654947 --> 00:14:00,486.88654947 There's no doubt that he wants her. 179 00:14:00,546.88654947 --> 00:14:03,396.88654947 It's security and fidelity. 180 00:14:03,516.88654947 --> 00:14:04,776.88654947 I'm the one you want. 181 00:14:05,136.88654947 --> 00:14:06,936.88654947 There's no questioning. 182 00:14:06,941.88654947 --> 00:14:08,796.88654947 There is no, call it what you want. 183 00:14:09,96.88654947 --> 00:14:11,286.88654947 What he wants is her and the other way around. 184 00:14:12,981.88654947 --> 00:14:15,321.88654947 You give a different meaning because you mean it. 185 00:14:15,351.88654947 --> 00:14:17,31.88654947 When you talk, she repeats. 186 00:14:17,721.88654947 --> 00:14:19,101.88654947 But by now we can tell. 187 00:14:19,191.88654947 --> 00:14:21,771.88654947 It isn't just the word honey. 188 00:14:21,851.88654947 --> 00:14:23,861.88654947 It means intimacy. 189 00:14:23,891.88654947 --> 00:14:25,541.88654947 Trust, connection. 190 00:14:25,541.88654947 --> 00:14:26,321.88654947 Comfort. 191 00:14:27,191.88654947 --> 00:14:32,801.88654947 It's really begins to mean you gave me an entirely new definition of love. 192 00:14:33,806.88654947 --> 00:14:42,206.88654947 We're also beginning to see that honey and sweetheart and any other term of endearment are just stand-ins for what she's really getting at, which is love. 193 00:14:42,776.88654947 --> 00:14:48,236.88654947 It's not just the term of endearment that's changed, meaning it's the endearment itself. 194 00:14:48,926.88654947 --> 00:14:51,326.88654947 Because here it does what it says on the tin. 195 00:14:51,476.88654947 --> 00:14:54,386.88654947 There's no pretense and there's no hidden agenda. 196 00:14:55,76.88654947 --> 00:14:58,526.88654947 He's redefined what love means to her because all the games are over. 197 00:14:58,526.88654947 --> 00:14:59,606.88654947 There's no back and forth. 198 00:14:59,951.88654947 --> 00:15:01,241.88654947 There's nothing up in the air. 199 00:15:01,301.88654947 --> 00:15:02,771.88654947 There's no, call it what you want. 200 00:15:03,491.88654947 --> 00:15:05,591.88654947 All that uncertainty is gone, sweetie. 201 00:15:05,591.88654947 --> 00:15:07,41.88654947 It's yours kicking in doors. 202 00:15:07,61.88654947 --> 00:15:07,991.88654947 She continues. 203 00:15:08,51.88654947 --> 00:15:10,181.88654947 Take it to the floor, give me more. 204 00:15:10,421.88654947 --> 00:15:14,561.88654947 And here the it of it's yours means everything. 205 00:15:14,831.88654947 --> 00:15:20,571.88654947 Like all of her, like she says, in death, by a thousand cuts, my heart, my hips, my body, my love. 206 00:15:21,531.88654947 --> 00:15:28,251.88654947 In prior relationships, there may have been kicking in indoors in, you know, dramatic fights, but here it's playful. 207 00:15:28,701.88654947 --> 00:15:34,71.88654947 They can't wait to make it to the bedroom, or they would kick in doors to be able to reach or rescue one another. 208 00:15:34,821.88654947 --> 00:15:40,671.88654947 And then take it to the floor is another double entendre usually means to drive fast, like pedal to the metal. 209 00:15:41,241.88654947 --> 00:15:55,731.88654947 But here it has this sort of steamier meaning and it's this passionate scene, right? Kicking in doors and needing one another so desperately that they can't even make it to the bed and give me more is something you would utter in bed, but it also has a deeper emotional meaning. 210 00:15:55,731.88654947 --> 00:15:59,61.88654947 It's give me all of you because you have all of me. 211 00:16:00,621.88654947 --> 00:16:03,831.88654947 She goes on buy the paint in the color of your eyes. 212 00:16:04,131.88654947 --> 00:16:11,291.88654947 And remember they're still playing house here and she's imagining decorating this new space and she wants it to look like him or to match him. 213 00:16:12,101.88654947 --> 00:16:15,821.88654947 This is similar, to have a couple kids got the whole block looking like you. 214 00:16:15,821.88654947 --> 00:16:20,111.88654947 She's setting up this new life and she wants it all to look like him. 215 00:16:20,846.88654947 --> 00:16:21,686.88654947 With this paint. 216 00:16:21,686.88654947 --> 00:16:24,356.88654947 She wants to graffiti my whole damn life. 217 00:16:24,626.88654947 --> 00:16:31,586.88654947 Honey, she wants to be enveloped in him in every part of her life, both the showgirl and the girl. 218 00:16:32,306.88654947 --> 00:16:39,116.88654947 But this also reminds us of a much, much earlier song, cold As You, you put up walls and paint them all a shade of. 219 00:16:40,271.8865495 --> 00:16:41,951.8865495 Here it's the opposite. 220 00:16:41,951.8865495 --> 00:16:52,91.8865495 There are no emotional walls erected between them, and though she doesn't specify his eye color here, we understand that it's probably the opposite of a depressive gray. 221 00:16:52,211.8865495 --> 00:16:56,96.8865495 She wants to color drench her life in the color of him. 222 00:16:57,746.8865495 --> 00:16:58,646.8865495 She's all in. 223 00:16:58,646.8865495 --> 00:17:02,66.8865495 In other words, and she says this specifically in the prologue poem. 224 00:17:02,96.8865495 --> 00:17:04,106.8865495 If he's in, you are too. 225 00:17:05,126.8865495 --> 00:17:10,436.8865495 And though she doesn't specify a color, remember that color symbolism is important in Taylor's universe. 226 00:17:10,436.8865495 --> 00:17:14,576.8865495 She wants her entire universe to be painted the color of him, whatever color that is. 227 00:17:14,576.8865495 --> 00:17:18,986.8865495 So even though she doesn't tell us what his eye color is, it still fits in the vein of this. 228 00:17:19,331.8865495 --> 00:17:22,691.8865495 Larger long running metaphor of her colors of love. 229 00:17:22,721.8865495 --> 00:17:24,431.8865495 She wants to color drench. 230 00:17:24,491.8865495 --> 00:17:26,301.8865495 She wants to color drench in him. 231 00:17:26,351.8865495 --> 00:17:37,331.8865495 Moving onto the final pre-chorus, though there's no official bridge in this track, this final pre-course really serves as the bridge, and it's the most vulnerable bit of the song as Taylor's bridges tend to be. 232 00:17:38,441.8865495 --> 00:17:40,811.8865495 She says, when anyone called me late night. 233 00:17:41,366.8865495 --> 00:17:46,406.8865495 She was talking about her, her past lovers, he was screwing around with my mind. 234 00:17:46,406.8865495 --> 00:17:50,366.8865495 So whenever she'd get a late night phone call in the past it was a booty call. 235 00:17:51,86.8865495 --> 00:17:53,486.8865495 And more than that, it was manipulative. 236 00:17:53,486.8865495 --> 00:17:57,116.8865495 These previous lovers didn't mean it when they talked or they didn't say what they meant. 237 00:17:57,746.8865495 --> 00:17:58,946.8865495 They didn't want her. 238 00:17:58,946.8865495 --> 00:18:07,166.8865495 They wanted, you know, maybe her body or maybe the idea of her, maybe they wanted the showgirl and were disappointed when they saw the girl. 239 00:18:07,571.8865495 --> 00:18:11,861.8865495 Underneath asking, what are you wearing? Too high to remember in the morning. 240 00:18:12,431.8865495 --> 00:18:20,261.8865495 So this past lover would call in a drug fueled haze trying to get into her pants, but it was all insincere or it was all a game. 241 00:18:20,591.8865495 --> 00:18:25,331.8865495 And now that that's all over, it's heroin, but this time with an e. 242 00:18:25,331.8865495 --> 00:18:27,941.8865495 And when anyone called me lovely, she continues. 243 00:18:28,481.8865495 --> 00:18:30,731.8865495 They were finding ways not to praise me. 244 00:18:30,881.8865495 --> 00:18:32,51.8865495 So lovely. 245 00:18:32,51.8865495 --> 00:18:37,931.8865495 Like sweetheart and honey can similarly be used in this dismissive, demeaning way. 246 00:18:38,141.8865495 --> 00:18:43,301.8865495 I live in the UK and I often hear the word lovely used as like, okay, now that's done. 247 00:18:43,301.8865495 --> 00:18:44,51.8865495 Let's move on. 248 00:18:44,201.8865495 --> 00:18:44,591.8865495 Lovely. 249 00:18:45,551.8865495 --> 00:18:46,631.8865495 It's dismissive. 250 00:18:46,961.8865495 --> 00:18:51,911.8865495 So they used to call her lovely when they were trying to avoid any real intimacy or vulnerability. 251 00:18:52,241.8865495 --> 00:18:54,881.8865495 Instead of saying, that was amazing, or You are amazing. 252 00:18:54,911.8865495 --> 00:19:00,221.8865495 They dismiss her with this use of lovely wiping their hands and walking away. 253 00:19:01,1.8865495 --> 00:19:07,361.8865495 It's either that or they're commenting on her looks instead of her worth her appearance instead of her contents. 254 00:19:08,141.8865495 --> 00:19:10,211.8865495 But you say it like you're in awe of me. 255 00:19:10,211.8865495 --> 00:19:13,571.8865495 She says, and you stay until the morning honey. 256 00:19:14,966.8865495 --> 00:19:26,636.8865495 So not only does he use the word lovely as a real term of affection, but he uses it to express the sort of awe and admiration of her both physically and emotionally instead of Lovely, let's move on. 257 00:19:26,636.8865495 --> 00:19:39,741.8865495 It's, you are so lovely and he means it, and we know he means it because he stays, and this might seem insignificant, like of course he spends the night, but you stay until the morning. 258 00:19:40,496.8865495 --> 00:19:51,836.8865495 Really answers one of Taylor's longest running questions, which is, who could ever leave me darling, but who could stay? And now the answer is right in front of her. 259 00:19:51,836.8865495 --> 00:19:55,646.8865495 You could stay, you could be my forever night stand. 260 00:19:55,646.8865495 --> 00:19:59,306.8865495 The chorus repeats and then she ends this track with a simple one line outro. 261 00:19:59,726.8865495 --> 00:20:01,406.8865495 But you can call me honey if you want. 262 00:20:02,651.8865495 --> 00:20:04,961.8865495 And we can insert any term of endearment here. 263 00:20:04,961.8865495 --> 00:20:09,101.8865495 She's saying, you can call me whatever you want, because I know you mean it. 264 00:20:09,491.8865495 --> 00:20:11,501.8865495 It's not empty jargon. 265 00:20:11,501.8865495 --> 00:20:17,321.8865495 It is real meaningful language, and it's this new language of love that's been redefined for her. 266 00:20:18,11.8865495 --> 00:20:19,926.8865495 It's Call me what you want, she's saying. 267 00:20:20,906.8865495 --> 00:20:27,116.8865495 Because this relationship has redefined the very language of love and relationships. 268 00:20:29,96.8865495 --> 00:20:34,496.8865495 That's it for my analysis of honey, and let me know in the comments what you think of this track and what it means to you. 269 00:20:34,646.8865495 --> 00:20:37,826.8865495 That is the most important part of all of this is not what it means to me. 270 00:20:38,156.8865495 --> 00:20:40,916.8865495 It's not what it means to Taylor, it's what it means to you. 271 00:20:41,516.8865495 --> 00:20:43,616.8865495 So what's your favorite line? Please let me know. 272 00:20:44,96.8865495 --> 00:20:50,996.8865495 Please like and subscribe so you don't miss my next episode where we are wrapping it all up and diving into the title track, the Life of a Showgirl. 273 00:20:50,996.8865495 --> 00:20:57,626.8865495 This is where we're gonna tie all of those narrative threads together and reflect back on this album as a whole, so you won't wanna miss it. 274 00:20:58,286.8865495 --> 00:20:59,906.8865495 Thank you so much for being here with me. 275 00:20:59,906.8865495 --> 00:21:00,836.8865495 It really means a lot. 276 00:21:00,886.8865495 --> 00:21:07,666.8865495 I am just starting this channel and it honestly, it means the world to me that you watch or listen and engage. 277 00:21:07,666.8865495 --> 00:21:10,96.8865495 It's just everything. 278 00:21:10,156.8865495 --> 00:21:10,996.8865495 Thank you so much. 279 00:21:11,326.8865495 --> 00:21:11,956.8865495 See you next time. 280 00:21:11,956.8865495 --> 00:21:14,266.8865495 That's it for this chapter of Swiftly Sung Stories. 281 00:21:14,326.8865495 --> 00:21:18,46.8865495 If you enjoyed this deep dive, please don't forget to follow, subscribe, or leave a review. 282 00:21:18,106.8865495 --> 00:21:20,146.8865495 It helps other Swifties find their way here. 283 00:21:20,296.8865495 --> 00:21:23,116.8865495 I'm Jen and I had a marvelous time reading everything with you. 284 00:21:23,236.8865495 --> 00:21:23,746.8865495 See you next time.
Hey everyone.
(00:00):
Welcome back to the Swiftly Sung Stories Podcast.
I'm Jen, your Swiftie English teacher, and today we're tackling track 11 in my track by track analysis of the life of a showgirl.
We are diving straight into, call it what you want, part two AKA Honey.
In this song, our showgirl narrator redefines the language of love, one term of endearment at a time.
(00:21):
But is there more to this track than this sticky, sweet title implies we're gonna find out together.
In my last few episodes, I analyzed Taylor's prologue poem, and the first nine tracks, 10 tracks of this album.
My God, we're almost done.
And that lays a lot of groundwork for understanding the themes that Taylor's exploring in these lyrics.
So go check those out.
In a lot of them we're talking about how the life of a showgirl is really how the show gets in the way of the girl.
(00:47):
And it's a theme we're gonna see Play Out Again in Honey.
All of his content is available on my website.
If you want the text version with annotated lyrics, and if you're watching this on YouTube, you can find me wherever, get your podcasts and vice versa.
Okay.
.886549467Let's lay a little bit of groundwork for the themes within honey, and then we'll roll into our dissection line by line Welcome to swiftly sung Stories where we unpack the Taylor Swift Universe one era album and lyric at a time. 17 00:01:15,160.886549467 --> 00:01:19,480.886549467 Think of it like English class, but it's all Taylor Swift and none of the boring stuff. 18 00:01:19,930.886549467 --> 00:01:25,330.886549467 I'm Jen, your Swifty English teacher and classes in session, so come on in and meet me in the margins. 19 00:01:25,616.886549467 --> 00:01:26,516.886549467 Before I go into detail. 20 00:01:26,516.886549467 --> 00:01:29,306.886549467 Quick caveat, I'm not here to discover what Taylor Swift did. 21 00:01:29,306.886549467 --> 00:01:31,886.886549467 I'm not here to talk about her relationships. 22 00:01:32,336.886549467 --> 00:01:41,896.88654947 I only really discuss her personal life if it's pertinent to the lyrics everything I'm about to say is my opinion as a writer and an English teacher, and your lens is different and that's what makes it great. 23 00:01:41,926.88654947 --> 00:01:47,566.88654947 I'm not claiming this analysis is fact or the only meaning, the only interpretation. 24 00:01:47,566.88654947 --> 00:01:51,856.88654947 I'm just gonna point out different things and you can make your connections where you like. 25 00:01:52,336.88654947 --> 00:01:54,766.88654947 So take what resonates and leave what doesn't. 26 00:01:55,996.88654947 --> 00:02:01,126.88654947 So what's up with Honey? It's not really a standout song on this record, at least not for me. 27 00:02:01,126.88654947 --> 00:02:02,476.88654947 It's not super deep. 28 00:02:02,476.88654947 --> 00:02:21,616.88654947 It uses a lot of repetition, and while it's really, really catchy and beautiful, what is it really saying? Honey is plopped between canceled, which is a really scathing satire about cancel culture and the title track, the Final Track, the Life of a Showgirl, which is about how the showgirl life isn't all that it appears. 29 00:02:21,616.88654947 --> 00:02:24,316.88654947 It's polished on the outside and bruised on the inside. 30 00:02:25,246.88654947 --> 00:02:35,86.88654947 So what purpose does honey serve? To me, the song makes the most sense as a sort of updated version or a sequel of, call it What You Want from Reputation. 31 00:02:35,596.88654947 --> 00:02:37,846.88654947 There are of course the lyrical connections. 32 00:02:37,846.88654947 --> 00:02:40,576.88654947 Call it what you want versus You can Call Me Honey if you want. 33 00:02:41,116.88654947 --> 00:02:43,686.88654947 Those are very similar, but these two tracks are also both. 34 00:02:43,746.88654947 --> 00:02:49,236.88654947 Second to last with call it What You Want, being sandwiched between Track 13. 35 00:02:49,236.88654947 --> 00:02:50,706.88654947 This is why We Can't Have Nice Things. 36 00:02:51,186.88654947 --> 00:02:54,66.88654947 And the Final Track 15 on Reputation New Year's Day. 37 00:02:54,306.88654947 --> 00:03:01,251.88654947 So within the overall narrative structure of each album, they're kind of wind down songs, right? Like she's taken us on this. 38 00:03:01,716.88654947 --> 00:03:05,886.88654947 Emotional rollercoaster, and then in both honey and call what you want. 39 00:03:05,886.88654947 --> 00:03:12,291.88654947 She looks back on all of the lessons learned and reflects on how much she's changed before she closes out the story, the album. 40 00:03:12,291.88654947 --> 00:03:14,991.88654947 I have an upcoming episode in my Taylor Swift 1 0 1 series. 41 00:03:15,21.88654947 --> 00:03:20,841.88654947 Once I've completed showgirl, that will really dive into how Taylor uses narrative structure in detail. 42 00:03:20,841.88654947 --> 00:03:23,751.88654947 So if you're curious about that, remember to subscribe so you don't miss it. 43 00:03:24,321.88654947 --> 00:03:31,341.88654947 It'll be a really interesting and detailed look about how she exactly takes us on these storytelling journeys through songs and through albums. 44 00:03:32,151.88654947 --> 00:03:36,291.88654947 So while honey might not be the most emotionally hard hitting song. 45 00:03:36,726.88654947 --> 00:03:41,256.88654947 It is revealing and it does serve a purpose, and that purpose is reflection. 46 00:03:42,96.88654947 --> 00:03:44,826.88654947 Look where I was before and look where I am now. 47 00:03:45,306.88654947 --> 00:03:49,416.88654947 And so the song structure she uses here is really reflective of that. 48 00:03:49,416.88654947 --> 00:03:57,876.88654947 Honey is an unusual song structure for Taylor, and I think that's part of why this track doesn't feel maybe as impactful as others. 49 00:03:58,506.88654947 --> 00:04:02,236.88654947 It begins with an intro and then it goes directly into the first chorus. 50 00:04:02,416.88654947 --> 00:04:13,96.88654947 I point this out because I think it does fit within the theme of this song, which is switching it up, feeling brand new, changing and growing, and redefining what love should feel like. 51 00:04:13,96.88654947 --> 00:04:15,466.88654947 She hasn't stuck with her old way of doing things here. 52 00:04:15,466.88654947 --> 00:04:17,596.88654947 Her tried and true song structure. 53 00:04:18,351.88654947 --> 00:04:26,751.88654947 Because these characters in honey are also entering a new era and a new way of life and love, so it makes sense that she's switching up even the format of her writing here. 54 00:04:26,751.88654947 --> 00:04:28,581.88654947 Okay, so let's get into it line by line. 55 00:04:28,611.88654947 --> 00:04:33,921.88654947 There's a short intro in which our narrator says, you can call me honey if you want, because I'm the one you want. 56 00:04:34,911.88654947 --> 00:04:37,701.88654947 So she's setting up the central metaphor that will run throughout the song. 57 00:04:37,731.88654947 --> 00:04:48,411.88654947 Honey and other terms of endearment will come to mean different things as this track goes on, but from the jump, these lyrics remind us of, so call it what you want. 58 00:04:48,621.88654947 --> 00:04:52,491.88654947 Call it what you want to, and it almost feels like. 59 00:04:52,821.88654947 --> 00:04:57,261.88654947 Like a reply or an answer, right? Like call it what you want. 60 00:04:57,621.88654947 --> 00:04:59,271.88654947 You can call me honey if you want. 61 00:05:00,351.88654947 --> 00:05:00,711.88654947 Call it. 62 00:05:00,711.88654947 --> 00:05:07,11.88654947 What you want is about not needing to put a label on a relationship or a period of her life. 63 00:05:07,71.88654947 --> 00:05:14,211.88654947 And in the lyrics she goes through all of the things that you can call it hiding, running away, a love bubble, a rescue. 64 00:05:14,211.88654947 --> 00:05:17,961.88654947 You can call it anything what you want, but here she does label it. 65 00:05:18,621.88654947 --> 00:05:20,571.88654947 Honey, you can call me honey. 66 00:05:21,201.88654947 --> 00:05:38,451.88654947 And in the larger character arc of Taylor Swift, it feels like she's moved from uncertainty or from the unknown to the other end of the spectrum to feeling sure, because she is sure you can call me honey if you want, because I'm the one you want. 67 00:05:38,451.88654947 --> 00:05:42,231.88654947 So she's saying you can call me this because I know you mean it. 68 00:05:42,471.88654947 --> 00:05:47,121.88654947 So she is gone from, I don't know what this is, but I know I want it to. 69 00:05:47,811.88654947 --> 00:05:51,141.88654947 I know what I want and it's you and I know that you want me. 70 00:05:51,801.88654947 --> 00:05:55,311.88654947 There's no more doubt or waffling or eschewing labels. 71 00:05:55,311.88654947 --> 00:05:59,511.88654947 It's sincerity and security and she's 100% sure. 72 00:06:00,711.88654947 --> 00:06:04,71.88654947 She then goes into the first chorus when anyone called me sweetheart. 73 00:06:04,311.88654947 --> 00:06:06,51.88654947 It was passive aggressive at the bar. 74 00:06:07,701.88654947 --> 00:06:12,531.88654947 So here's our second term of endearment or second label for your partner and she's gonna list a few. 75 00:06:12,531.88654947 --> 00:06:20,931.88654947 In the song Sweetheart can be a term of endearment like honey, but in her past experience, it was used like mean girl ammunition. 76 00:06:20,931.88654947 --> 00:06:30,351.88654947 She remembers being on a night out at a bar and some girl sarcastically calling her sweetheart, which was meant to cut her down or demean her. 77 00:06:31,371.88654947 --> 00:06:32,931.88654947 And the bitch was telling me to back off. 78 00:06:32,931.88654947 --> 00:06:35,571.88654947 She continues 'cause her man had looked at me wrong. 79 00:06:36,466.88654947 --> 00:06:41,26.88654947 So she juxtaposes sweetheart with bitch, and this is purposeful. 80 00:06:41,26.88654947 --> 00:06:46,66.88654947 They can both mean the same thing depending on the context in which they're used. 81 00:06:46,786.88654947 --> 00:06:53,176.88654947 So this past use of sweetheart, a woman at the bar was angry because her man and looked at me wrong. 82 00:06:53,176.88654947 --> 00:06:56,596.88654947 This woman is using sweetheart when she means bitch. 83 00:06:57,21.88654947 --> 00:07:01,671.88654947 Which sets up this theme of covert and double meanings that will run throughout the rest of the song. 84 00:07:02,181.88654947 --> 00:07:04,401.88654947 That's the shtick of honey, terms of endearment. 85 00:07:04,461.88654947 --> 00:07:08,91.88654947 That can be genuinely endearing or they can be demeaning. 86 00:07:09,741.88654947 --> 00:07:11,841.88654947 If anyone called me honey, she goes on. 87 00:07:11,871.88654947 --> 00:07:13,731.88654947 It was standing in the bathroom. 88 00:07:14,91.88654947 --> 00:07:14,931.88654947 White teeth. 89 00:07:15,861.88654947 --> 00:07:21,921.88654947 So she flashes back to this other scenario where a term of endearment was used to shame her. 90 00:07:21,951.88654947 --> 00:07:31,551.88654947 Here it feels like maybe we're in a high school bathroom where this gaggle of mean teen girls with these fangs of white teeth speak in daggers. 91 00:07:32,331.88654947 --> 00:07:34,491.88654947 They were saying that skirt don't fit me. 92 00:07:34,491.88654947 --> 00:07:37,521.88654947 She recalls and I cried the whole way home. 93 00:07:38,706.88654947 --> 00:07:44,236.88654947 So she remembers being shamed for the way she looks, which is incredibly high school coded. 94 00:07:44,256.88654947 --> 00:07:45,816.88654947 But this last line feels familiar. 95 00:07:45,816.88654947 --> 00:07:46,746.88654947 I cried the whole way. 96 00:07:46,746.88654947 --> 00:07:47,316.88654947 Home. 97 00:07:47,916.88654947 --> 00:07:50,616.88654947 Feels a lot like the girl in the dress, cried the whole way home. 98 00:07:51,126.88654947 --> 00:07:52,596.88654947 This time it's the girl in the skirt. 99 00:07:52,596.88654947 --> 00:07:55,596.88654947 But both times she's made to feel small and insecure. 100 00:07:55,596.88654947 --> 00:08:02,556.88654947 Both times she's wearing something that symbolizes innocence or femininity, a dress versus a skirt. 101 00:08:03,576.88654947 --> 00:08:07,566.88654947 And these are really moments where that innocence is lost. 102 00:08:08,916.88654947 --> 00:08:16,176.88654947 So because of these incidents in the past, she's developed these kind of Pavlovian responses to words like sweetheart and honey. 103 00:08:16,896.88654947 --> 00:08:20,526.88654947 They were only meant to shame her, but now they're coming to mean something different. 104 00:08:21,426.88654947 --> 00:08:22,956.88654947 It all changes. 105 00:08:22,956.88654947 --> 00:08:25,56.88654947 And then she tells us exactly how it changed. 106 00:08:25,56.88654947 --> 00:08:29,916.88654947 But you touched my face, redefined all of those blues. 107 00:08:30,126.88654947 --> 00:08:31,386.88654947 When you say honey. 108 00:08:32,526.88654947 --> 00:08:36,126.88654947 So this face touching imagery feels incredibly intimate. 109 00:08:36,336.88654947 --> 00:08:41,946.88654947 And what she really means is you've touched a part of me that no one else has been able to reach. 110 00:08:42,426.88654947 --> 00:08:53,316.88654947 All of those blues, the insecurities, the doublespeak, the bullying, it's all in the past because when this person calls her honey or sweetheart, he's being truly intimate. 111 00:08:53,316.88654947 --> 00:08:57,251.88654947 And we know it's true intimacy because it's displayed in this really simple. 112 00:08:57,606.88654947 --> 00:08:58,956.88654947 Face touching imagery. 113 00:08:58,956.88654947 --> 00:09:00,456.88654947 He's really seeing her. 114 00:09:01,596.88654947 --> 00:09:10,86.88654947 So to redefine all of those blues is to take these moments where honey and sweetheart were weaponized, and to erase them or rewrite them. 115 00:09:10,476.88654947 --> 00:09:12,816.88654947 She'll no longer have this shame trigger. 116 00:09:13,296.88654947 --> 00:09:15,651.88654947 When she hears those words directed at her. 117 00:09:17,496.88654947 --> 00:09:20,856.88654947 Going into the first verse, she begins with some more romantic imagery. 118 00:09:20,856.88654947 --> 00:09:23,466.88654947 Summertime spritz, pink skies. 119 00:09:23,901.88654947 --> 00:09:27,861.88654947 We are 13 lines into the song, by the way, and we've only just reached the first verse. 120 00:09:27,861.88654947 --> 00:09:29,601.88654947 So this is quite an unusual structure. 121 00:09:30,441.88654947 --> 00:09:39,921.88654947 So summertime spritz is this lighthearted, cheerful vibe, and then we get pink skies, which is the opposite of those blues that she described previously. 122 00:09:39,921.88654947 --> 00:09:42,951.88654947 This is optimism emerging from her past pessimism. 123 00:09:44,436.88654947 --> 00:09:46,326.88654947 But if pink skies sound familiar, they should. 124 00:09:46,326.88654947 --> 00:09:51,936.88654947 It was a big part of Lover, both the album and the era, which symbolized this new positive outlook. 125 00:09:51,936.88654947 --> 00:10:03,216.88654947 It's the same vibe here, but this whole section also feels really similar to invisible string from folklore time, curious time, gave me the blues, and then purple pink skies. 126 00:10:04,56.88654947 --> 00:10:13,416.88654947 So she's using sky imagery and metaphors to describe moving from a stormy time of life into this clear, smooth sailing, happier time. 127 00:10:14,436.88654947 --> 00:10:17,626.88654947 And she also uses the sky clearing language in Opalite. 128 00:10:17,646.88654947 --> 00:10:22,446.88654947 So it's a recurring motif through this album and it shows up quite a lot in previous albums as well. 129 00:10:23,406.88654947 --> 00:10:26,976.88654947 She goes on and names another color, winter green kiss, all mine. 130 00:10:26,976.88654947 --> 00:10:29,406.88654947 So she's contrasted summer and winter. 131 00:10:29,406.88654947 --> 00:10:34,561.88654947 Summertime spritz, winter green kiss with this kind of seasonal weather imagery. 132 00:10:35,671.88654947 --> 00:10:41,641.88654947 Taylor usually uses winter as a metaphor for a time of deep reflection and sometimes depression. 133 00:10:42,806.88654947 --> 00:10:46,561.88654947 I think, um, back to December or gray November. 134 00:10:46,621.88654947 --> 00:10:47,461.88654947 I've been down since July. 135 00:10:48,666.88654947 --> 00:10:52,716.88654947 But here winter is depicted as crisp and cool. 136 00:10:53,166.88654947 --> 00:10:55,266.88654947 He's rewritten winter as well. 137 00:10:55,476.88654947 --> 00:10:59,676.88654947 We can imagine a wintergreen kiss as someone chewing wintergreen gum. 138 00:10:59,676.88654947 --> 00:11:10,746.88654947 So it's romantic and it's refreshing and it's definitely not the same depressive winters as before and it's all mine, which means there's no games, there's no back and forth. 139 00:11:11,436.88654947 --> 00:11:12,906.88654947 There's just trust and love. 140 00:11:13,446.88654947 --> 00:11:14,946.88654947 And she then expands on that. 141 00:11:15,126.88654947 --> 00:11:16,596.88654947 Gave it different meaning. 142 00:11:16,716.88654947 --> 00:11:17,886.88654947 'cause you mean it when you talk. 143 00:11:17,886.88654947 --> 00:11:20,706.88654947 The subject of this line, I think is honey. 144 00:11:20,706.88654947 --> 00:11:30,546.88654947 So she's saying he gave this label a different meaning because he means it sincerely, but there's also a larger meaning of you gave love a different meaning, not just the word honey. 145 00:11:31,101.88654947 --> 00:11:32,331.88654947 Because you're not playing games. 146 00:11:32,331.88654947 --> 00:11:36,351.88654947 There's no hidden language or speaking in code in this relationship. 147 00:11:36,351.88654947 --> 00:11:41,61.88654947 He says what he means, and when he says, honey, it means you're sweet. 148 00:11:41,61.88654947 --> 00:11:43,641.88654947 You're mine, honey. 149 00:11:43,641.88654947 --> 00:11:44,61.88654947 I'm home. 150 00:11:44,61.88654947 --> 00:11:44,991.88654947 We could play house. 151 00:11:44,991.88654947 --> 00:11:51,291.88654947 She continues, which pulls in this kind of 1950s nuclear family coded phrase to play. 152 00:11:51,291.88654947 --> 00:12:00,171.88654947 House is usually a childhood game where kids make believe, happy family, but it seems she has some more adult appropriate games in mind. 153 00:12:01,191.88654947 --> 00:12:03,201.88654947 We can bed down, pick me up. 154 00:12:03,351.88654947 --> 00:12:15,591.88654947 She goes on, which uses two double entendres to bed down means to get an improvised bed set up like during camping, but bed down here refers to Naughtier bedroom activities. 155 00:12:16,71.88654947 --> 00:12:20,331.88654947 And then there's pick me up, which we can also glean a couple different meanings from. 156 00:12:20,331.88654947 --> 00:12:23,806.88654947 There's come pick me up, like come collect me and take me home. 157 00:12:24,626.88654947 --> 00:12:26,166.88654947 And then there's being picked up. 158 00:12:26,686.88654947 --> 00:12:29,896.88654947 In a womanizer sort of way, like a pickup artist. 159 00:12:30,586.88654947 --> 00:12:34,761.88654947 And then there's being literally picked up and carried, which I think is what she's talking about here. 160 00:12:35,856.88654947 --> 00:12:46,806.88654947 So after she's picked up, she asks, who's the baddest in the land? And this alludes to snow White's evil queen who asks her magic mirror, mirror mirror on the wall. 161 00:12:47,166.88654947 --> 00:12:56,826.88654947 Who's the fairest of them all here? She's more of a, a good queen, but she's kind of asking who's been a bad, bad girl in like a naughty, flirty way. 162 00:12:57,351.88654947 --> 00:13:08,541.88654947 But here they're both the baddest in the land as in naughty in the bedroom, but also as in badass, like powerful and potent both together and separately. 163 00:13:08,541.88654947 --> 00:13:11,841.88654947 What's the plan? She asks and then she quickly answers herself. 164 00:13:12,261.88654947 --> 00:13:14,991.88654947 You could be my forever nightstand honey. 165 00:13:15,441.88654947 --> 00:13:21,381.88654947 So she's wondering what their future holds, like what's the plan for our life, and then answers herself. 166 00:13:21,786.88654947 --> 00:13:25,296.88654947 Wherever you go, I will follow or wherever I go, you're coming with me. 167 00:13:26,226.88654947 --> 00:13:28,266.88654947 But I think this line is my favorite forever. 168 00:13:28,266.88654947 --> 00:13:31,126.88654947 Nightstand is a play on one night stand. 169 00:13:31,386.88654947 --> 00:13:34,446.88654947 It's permanence versus impermanence. 170 00:13:34,446.88654947 --> 00:13:43,86.88654947 He'll be her forever, nightstand or a permanent fixture in her bedroom in her life, and she's implicitly contrasting that with something temporary. 171 00:13:43,86.88654947 --> 00:13:43,836.88654947 A one night stand. 172 00:13:44,826.88654947 --> 00:13:46,986.88654947 It's a really clever use of language and I love it. 173 00:13:48,216.88654947 --> 00:13:50,436.88654947 Then the second verse repeats a couple of lines. 174 00:13:50,436.88654947 --> 00:13:52,656.88654947 You can call me honey if you want, 'cause I'm the one you want. 175 00:13:52,656.88654947 --> 00:13:53,946.88654947 And then she repeats. 176 00:13:54,6.88654947 --> 00:13:55,656.88654947 I'm the one you want again. 177 00:13:56,16.88654947 --> 00:13:58,506.88654947 And this repetition is reinforcement. 178 00:13:58,566.88654947 --> 00:14:00,486.88654947 There's no doubt that he wants her. 179 00:14:00,546.88654947 --> 00:14:03,396.88654947 It's security and fidelity. 180 00:14:03,516.88654947 --> 00:14:04,776.88654947 I'm the one you want. 181 00:14:05,136.88654947 --> 00:14:06,936.88654947 There's no questioning. 182 00:14:06,941.88654947 --> 00:14:08,796.88654947 There is no, call it what you want. 183 00:14:09,96.88654947 --> 00:14:11,286.88654947 What he wants is her and the other way around. 184 00:14:12,981.88654947 --> 00:14:15,321.88654947 You give a different meaning because you mean it. 185 00:14:15,351.88654947 --> 00:14:17,31.88654947 When you talk, she repeats. 186 00:14:17,721.88654947 --> 00:14:19,101.88654947 But by now we can tell. 187 00:14:19,191.88654947 --> 00:14:21,771.88654947 It isn't just the word honey. 188 00:14:21,851.88654947 --> 00:14:23,861.88654947 It means intimacy. 189 00:14:23,891.88654947 --> 00:14:25,541.88654947 Trust, connection. 190 00:14:25,541.88654947 --> 00:14:26,321.88654947 Comfort. 191 00:14:27,191.88654947 --> 00:14:32,801.88654947 It's really begins to mean you gave me an entirely new definition of love. 192 00:14:33,806.88654947 --> 00:14:42,206.88654947 We're also beginning to see that honey and sweetheart and any other term of endearment are just stand-ins for what she's really getting at, which is love. 193 00:14:42,776.88654947 --> 00:14:48,236.88654947 It's not just the term of endearment that's changed, meaning it's the endearment itself. 194 00:14:48,926.88654947 --> 00:14:51,326.88654947 Because here it does what it says on the tin. 195 00:14:51,476.88654947 --> 00:14:54,386.88654947 There's no pretense and there's no hidden agenda. 196 00:14:55,76.88654947 --> 00:14:58,526.88654947 He's redefined what love means to her because all the games are over. 197 00:14:58,526.88654947 --> 00:14:59,606.88654947 There's no back and forth. 198 00:14:59,951.88654947 --> 00:15:01,241.88654947 There's nothing up in the air. 199 00:15:01,301.88654947 --> 00:15:02,771.88654947 There's no, call it what you want. 200 00:15:03,491.88654947 --> 00:15:05,591.88654947 All that uncertainty is gone, sweetie. 201 00:15:05,591.88654947 --> 00:15:07,41.88654947 It's yours kicking in doors. 202 00:15:07,61.88654947 --> 00:15:07,991.88654947 She continues. 203 00:15:08,51.88654947 --> 00:15:10,181.88654947 Take it to the floor, give me more. 204 00:15:10,421.88654947 --> 00:15:14,561.88654947 And here the it of it's yours means everything. 205 00:15:14,831.88654947 --> 00:15:20,571.88654947 Like all of her, like she says, in death, by a thousand cuts, my heart, my hips, my body, my love. 206 00:15:21,531.88654947 --> 00:15:28,251.88654947 In prior relationships, there may have been kicking in indoors in, you know, dramatic fights, but here it's playful. 207 00:15:28,701.88654947 --> 00:15:34,71.88654947 They can't wait to make it to the bedroom, or they would kick in doors to be able to reach or rescue one another. 208 00:15:34,821.88654947 --> 00:15:40,671.88654947 And then take it to the floor is another double entendre usually means to drive fast, like pedal to the metal. 209 00:15:41,241.88654947 --> 00:15:55,731.88654947 But here it has this sort of steamier meaning and it's this passionate scene, right? Kicking in doors and needing one another so desperately that they can't even make it to the bed and give me more is something you would utter in bed, but it also has a deeper emotional meaning. 210 00:15:55,731.88654947 --> 00:15:59,61.88654947 It's give me all of you because you have all of me. 211 00:16:00,621.88654947 --> 00:16:03,831.88654947 She goes on buy the paint in the color of your eyes. 212 00:16:04,131.88654947 --> 00:16:11,291.88654947 And remember they're still playing house here and she's imagining decorating this new space and she wants it to look like him or to match him. 213 00:16:12,101.88654947 --> 00:16:15,821.88654947 This is similar, to have a couple kids got the whole block looking like you. 214 00:16:15,821.88654947 --> 00:16:20,111.88654947 She's setting up this new life and she wants it all to look like him. 215 00:16:20,846.88654947 --> 00:16:21,686.88654947 With this paint. 216 00:16:21,686.88654947 --> 00:16:24,356.88654947 She wants to graffiti my whole damn life. 217 00:16:24,626.88654947 --> 00:16:31,586.88654947 Honey, she wants to be enveloped in him in every part of her life, both the showgirl and the girl. 218 00:16:32,306.88654947 --> 00:16:39,116.88654947 But this also reminds us of a much, much earlier song, cold As You, you put up walls and paint them all a shade of. 219 00:16:40,271.8865495 --> 00:16:41,951.8865495 Here it's the opposite. 220 00:16:41,951.8865495 --> 00:16:52,91.8865495 There are no emotional walls erected between them, and though she doesn't specify his eye color here, we understand that it's probably the opposite of a depressive gray. 221 00:16:52,211.8865495 --> 00:16:56,96.8865495 She wants to color drench her life in the color of him. 222 00:16:57,746.8865495 --> 00:16:58,646.8865495 She's all in. 223 00:16:58,646.8865495 --> 00:17:02,66.8865495 In other words, and she says this specifically in the prologue poem. 224 00:17:02,96.8865495 --> 00:17:04,106.8865495 If he's in, you are too. 225 00:17:05,126.8865495 --> 00:17:10,436.8865495 And though she doesn't specify a color, remember that color symbolism is important in Taylor's universe. 226 00:17:10,436.8865495 --> 00:17:14,576.8865495 She wants her entire universe to be painted the color of him, whatever color that is. 227 00:17:14,576.8865495 --> 00:17:18,986.8865495 So even though she doesn't tell us what his eye color is, it still fits in the vein of this. 228 00:17:19,331.8865495 --> 00:17:22,691.8865495 Larger long running metaphor of her colors of love. 229 00:17:22,721.8865495 --> 00:17:24,431.8865495 She wants to color drench. 230 00:17:24,491.8865495 --> 00:17:26,301.8865495 She wants to color drench in him. 231 00:17:26,351.8865495 --> 00:17:37,331.8865495 Moving onto the final pre-chorus, though there's no official bridge in this track, this final pre-course really serves as the bridge, and it's the most vulnerable bit of the song as Taylor's bridges tend to be. 232 00:17:38,441.8865495 --> 00:17:40,811.8865495 She says, when anyone called me late night. 233 00:17:41,366.8865495 --> 00:17:46,406.8865495 She was talking about her, her past lovers, he was screwing around with my mind. 234 00:17:46,406.8865495 --> 00:17:50,366.8865495 So whenever she'd get a late night phone call in the past it was a booty call. 235 00:17:51,86.8865495 --> 00:17:53,486.8865495 And more than that, it was manipulative. 236 00:17:53,486.8865495 --> 00:17:57,116.8865495 These previous lovers didn't mean it when they talked or they didn't say what they meant. 237 00:17:57,746.8865495 --> 00:17:58,946.8865495 They didn't want her. 238 00:17:58,946.8865495 --> 00:18:07,166.8865495 They wanted, you know, maybe her body or maybe the idea of her, maybe they wanted the showgirl and were disappointed when they saw the girl. 239 00:18:07,571.8865495 --> 00:18:11,861.8865495 Underneath asking, what are you wearing? Too high to remember in the morning. 240 00:18:12,431.8865495 --> 00:18:20,261.8865495 So this past lover would call in a drug fueled haze trying to get into her pants, but it was all insincere or it was all a game. 241 00:18:20,591.8865495 --> 00:18:25,331.8865495 And now that that's all over, it's heroin, but this time with an e. 242 00:18:25,331.8865495 --> 00:18:27,941.8865495 And when anyone called me lovely, she continues. 243 00:18:28,481.8865495 --> 00:18:30,731.8865495 They were finding ways not to praise me. 244 00:18:30,881.8865495 --> 00:18:32,51.8865495 So lovely. 245 00:18:32,51.8865495 --> 00:18:37,931.8865495 Like sweetheart and honey can similarly be used in this dismissive, demeaning way. 246 00:18:38,141.8865495 --> 00:18:43,301.8865495 I live in the UK and I often hear the word lovely used as like, okay, now that's done. 247 00:18:43,301.8865495 --> 00:18:44,51.8865495 Let's move on. 248 00:18:44,201.8865495 --> 00:18:44,591.8865495 Lovely. 249 00:18:45,551.8865495 --> 00:18:46,631.8865495 It's dismissive. 250 00:18:46,961.8865495 --> 00:18:51,911.8865495 So they used to call her lovely when they were trying to avoid any real intimacy or vulnerability. 251 00:18:52,241.8865495 --> 00:18:54,881.8865495 Instead of saying, that was amazing, or You are amazing. 252 00:18:54,911.8865495 --> 00:19:00,221.8865495 They dismiss her with this use of lovely wiping their hands and walking away. 253 00:19:01,1.8865495 --> 00:19:07,361.8865495 It's either that or they're commenting on her looks instead of her worth her appearance instead of her contents. 254 00:19:08,141.8865495 --> 00:19:10,211.8865495 But you say it like you're in awe of me. 255 00:19:10,211.8865495 --> 00:19:13,571.8865495 She says, and you stay until the morning honey. 256 00:19:14,966.8865495 --> 00:19:26,636.8865495 So not only does he use the word lovely as a real term of affection, but he uses it to express the sort of awe and admiration of her both physically and emotionally instead of Lovely, let's move on. 257 00:19:26,636.8865495 --> 00:19:39,741.8865495 It's, you are so lovely and he means it, and we know he means it because he stays, and this might seem insignificant, like of course he spends the night, but you stay until the morning. 258 00:19:40,496.8865495 --> 00:19:51,836.8865495 Really answers one of Taylor's longest running questions, which is, who could ever leave me darling, but who could stay? And now the answer is right in front of her. 259 00:19:51,836.8865495 --> 00:19:55,646.8865495 You could stay, you could be my forever night stand. 260 00:19:55,646.8865495 --> 00:19:59,306.8865495 The chorus repeats and then she ends this track with a simple one line outro. 261 00:19:59,726.8865495 --> 00:20:01,406.8865495 But you can call me honey if you want. 262 00:20:02,651.8865495 --> 00:20:04,961.8865495 And we can insert any term of endearment here. 263 00:20:04,961.8865495 --> 00:20:09,101.8865495 She's saying, you can call me whatever you want, because I know you mean it. 264 00:20:09,491.8865495 --> 00:20:11,501.8865495 It's not empty jargon. 265 00:20:11,501.8865495 --> 00:20:17,321.8865495 It is real meaningful language, and it's this new language of love that's been redefined for her. 266 00:20:18,11.8865495 --> 00:20:19,926.8865495 It's Call me what you want, she's saying. 267 00:20:20,906.8865495 --> 00:20:27,116.8865495 Because this relationship has redefined the very language of love and relationships. 268 00:20:29,96.8865495 --> 00:20:34,496.8865495 That's it for my analysis of honey, and let me know in the comments what you think of this track and what it means to you. 269 00:20:34,646.8865495 --> 00:20:37,826.8865495 That is the most important part of all of this is not what it means to me. 270 00:20:38,156.8865495 --> 00:20:40,916.8865495 It's not what it means to Taylor, it's what it means to you. 271 00:20:41,516.8865495 --> 00:20:43,616.8865495 So what's your favorite line? Please let me know. 272 00:20:44,96.8865495 --> 00:20:50,996.8865495 Please like and subscribe so you don't miss my next episode where we are wrapping it all up and diving into the title track, the Life of a Showgirl. 273 00:20:50,996.8865495 --> 00:20:57,626.8865495 This is where we're gonna tie all of those narrative threads together and reflect back on this album as a whole, so you won't wanna miss it. 274 00:20:58,286.8865495 --> 00:20:59,906.8865495 Thank you so much for being here with me. 275 00:20:59,906.8865495 --> 00:21:00,836.8865495 It really means a lot. 276 00:21:00,886.8865495 --> 00:21:07,666.8865495 I am just starting this channel and it honestly, it means the world to me that you watch or listen and engage. 277 00:21:07,666.8865495 --> 00:21:10,96.8865495 It's just everything. 278 00:21:10,156.8865495 --> 00:21:10,996.8865495 Thank you so much. 279 00:21:11,326.8865495 --> 00:21:11,956.8865495 See you next time. 280 00:21:11,956.8865495 --> 00:21:14,266.8865495 That's it for this chapter of Swiftly Sung Stories. 281 00:21:14,326.8865495 --> 00:21:18,46.8865495 If you enjoyed this deep dive, please don't forget to follow, subscribe, or leave a review. 282 00:21:18,106.8865495 --> 00:21:20,146.8865495 It helps other Swifties find their way here. 283 00:21:20,296.8865495 --> 00:21:23,116.8865495 I'm Jen and I had a marvelous time reading everything with you. 284 00:21:23,236.8865495 --> 00:21:23,746.8865495 See you next time.
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