Untitled

Timelines: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

3 January - hair pinned up at restaurant in Virgin Islands. Harry's "might as well.." Tattoo first seen. Covered with Ferns now.

4 January - Taylor's blue dress on a boat

7 January -Harry back in London, date People reports that they broke up. Reports Scott swift told them to slow down.

9 January - photos of Harry in Richard Bransons hot hub on front page after the break up. (I often wonder what the less famous people think now that they treated him poorly as a kid and he is massive now). Gordon Smart (1:12, warning he follows it with a bad anecdote about 18 year old H), who worked on media for One Direction, said in 2020 that Harry had said:

"Simon Cowell actually paid me to do some media training with them back in the day so I met them before they were massive and they were again really lovely kids. [...] I wrote a front page story about him sharing a jacuzzi with a girl on holiday and he told me it was bollocks and we still ran it, because we had a picture of him in the jacuzzi. It was probably totally innocuous and I really I'd like to apologize unreservedly to Harry for that because it was an error of judgment on my part and it probably tarnished our friendship."

Richard Branson also has gross sounding comments about this 18 year old that day.

10 January - made fun of his accent at Grammy's

15 January - one direction trip to Ghana for Red Nose Day comic relief

21 January - Taylor in London reports she saw Harry

22 January - Harry got the Butterfly and handshake tattoos.

23 January - Taylor in Madrid before performing at the '40 Principales Awards'

26 January - Both at NRG Awards, 25 January Taylor posts Cannes Sunset situation. They both stayed in the Intercontinental Carlton Cannes Hotel.

1 February - Harry's 19th birthday. £5k tab, messy, wild party. Rumour that Taylor had booked a week in Italy which was cancelled

10 February - Taylor at Grammy's, night Ed says inspired Tenerife Sea

21 February - both attend Brit awards - Taylor performs I knew you were trouble with Harry in the audience. In march she told the Sunday Times "Well, it's not hard to access that emotion when the person the song is directed at is standing by the side of the stage watching." She goes to an afterparty with Tom Odell and out with him the next night. Tom writes Country Star about Taylor and Harry wrote Happily about wishing they were together.

23 February - 3 November - 1D Up all Night tour, start in Europe

20 April - Red tour break till the 25th; One Direction tour break starting in Manchester till Paris on 29th. Louis stays in Europe,

23 April - Harry arrives alone in LA without the Peace ring

24 April - Neither Harry or Taylor seen. The day Harry got the ring

25 April - First day Peace Ring is seen. Harry has dinner with Rod Stewart, Rod then plays the Troubadour and Harry stayed at Rod Stewarts house. Taylor in Cleveland

28 April - Harry posts photo of sunglasses on beach. Taylor photographed in a gym in Los Angles. Wears the ring to leave LAX and there is an absolutely insane mob because he is there alone with no security.

29 April - Arrives in Paris alone, still wearing ring, described as a riot. The ring is in This is Us in Paris

1 May - Everything has changed released as single

18 May - Taylor posted rose’s with a Great Gatsby quote: “Just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.... “

27 May - Taylor wrote Wish you Would

12 June Taylor on Grimmy, he says Trouble is the “best song ever” 4 times at 11 mins. Best song ever was released 22 July. :)

28 June - Harry seen with Paige

1 July - Harry cross tattoo NYC stayed at the Bowery Hotel NYC

6 July - both play in Pennsylvania, Taylor has a week off after, unseen. On the 8th Harry was sick on stage.

30 July - September GQ cover story where they badgered Harry about how many people he’d slept with (two)

August 14 - Lover Journal: August 14, 2013, Watch Hill RI. Says she feels like a tiger in an enclosure, feels hunted, talks about paparazzi and cell phones. Also calls herself a rabbit, a flower growing in a sidewalk that is picked and how photos ruin a moment, online photos/comments and 'level of possession'.

25 August - VMAs, texting each other and shade, together at afterparty. Sang purple rain together at after party.

June - September Midnight Memories written with Happily

27 September - 1D sign another contract with Syco for 3 albums, they are each paid £10m.

28 September: On the anniversary of the Begin Again weekend in Paris 28 September- 5 October 2012 Harry tweeted: "We don't need no piece of paper from the city hall". from Australia.

17 October Harry cried onstage, (0:55) during over again Taylor seen with Alexander Skarsgard 3 days later

13 November - Taylors first Victoria Secret show where she wears a union jack dress in NY and performed IKYWT. On 14th Harry in UK for Gemma's graduation, TS in NY for billboard awards.

18 November - Courtney Cox said she hung out with each of them at her house in Malibu

20 November - Harry has dinner with Kendall Taylor tweets ""I've listened to "Hold On" by @ColbieCaillat 45 times today. So on repeat. So important." on the 21st when dinner reported.

23 November, both at AMAs, gold dress.

25 November - Midnight Memories released with Something Great written with Jacknife Lee who also worked on Red. Kendall PDA AMAs

3 December - Lover Journal - December 3, 2013, Sydney.

6 December - Harry leaves Kendalls hotel and they have breakfast. Lunch the next day.

12 December - One Direction in Milan, record the Xfactor final interview with cushions on the floor.

13 December - Taylor posts a series of photos to IG about a rose garden party in Melbourne, Australia while on tour for her birthday. Many think 1989 will be called Roses. The captions made a sort of poem "Roses. Red Balloons. Pretty.... Sparklers. The best birthday I've ever had." Which could be a dig at Harry, Roses being common Haylor imagery, his tattoo and she famously said her 2012 birthday was her best ever when he took her to the Lakes. Harry's "better still be my winding wheel" tweet. Harry posts his Cannes photo December 14.

15 December - One Direction performs Midnight Memories on Xfactor UK Final and Harry arrives at Kendalls London hotel at 2am.

While simultaneously, this post appears:

It’s Smokey Robinson. The Agony and the Ecstasy.

Lyrics

What's it all about this crazy love

How did our two worlds entwine?

How do I fit into your life

How did you get into mine?

I belong to someone else we know

Back when first we met

Oh, we thought for fun

One night together might be nice

Oh, but fun turned into love for both of us

So now we pay forbidden lover's price

Oh, 'cause love like ours is never, ever free

You pay some agony for the ecstasy

Oh, love like ours is never, ever free

You got to pay some agony for the ecstasy (for the ecstasy)

Nights when you're alone, you know that I

Laid with someone else beside me

Oh, but you love me still and I love you

You know I would no matter where I'd be

Hey, but love like ours is never, ever free

You got to pay some agony for the ecstasy

Oh, love like ours is never, ever free

We got to pay some agony if we wanna have the ecstasy (for the ecstasy)

Hey, got to pay some agony

If we wanna have an ecstasy, yeah

And we need each other desperately, don't we, baby?

And I'll never from you be free, no, no

So you'll have to do the leavin' me, yeah

And you'll have to do the leavin' me, oh baby

'Cause I'm gonna pay the agony, yeah

'Cause, oh, lovin' you is ecstasy, that's what it is

And I'm willin' to pay the price, oh

'Cause I'll make it a sacrifice, oh, yes, I will

And I'll never, never, never, never

Are they so worried the world will loose their minds and Stan’s turn on them? The lines about “not want you to go broke” in sushi and “telling all the rich folks anything they wanna hear” in cowboy like me could read as stans

I do know they decided to keep it private for years, maybe we’ll never know

If you thought DWOHT was a monster post, strap on in you'll probably need another coffee at midnight to keep you going...

What has Taylor said about Red?

Speaking to Taste of Country in 2013 Taylor recounts: "I had been writing for about a year when I wrote ‘Red,’ the song. And when I wrote that song, it’s almost like everything shifted, and I wanted to take the album to a different pace. Because as soon as I wrote the song, I knew I wanted to name the album ‘Red.’ So, that was kind of in my mind when I worked on the album for the next year, and that ended up being — those songs ended up being the majority of the songs that ended up on the record."

Taylor confirmed again to Billboard magazine that the writing of Red the song was the turning point and the muse for the rest of the album. "“Red” the song was a real turning point for “Red” the album. When I wrote that song my mind started wandering to all the places we could go”."

In that same Billboard interview Taylor talks about the the themes of the album, It’s all the different ways that you have to say goodbye to someone. When you’re experiencing the ups and downs of a relationship, especially when you’re 22 years old, they all strike you different ways. Every different kind of missing someone, every kind of loss – it all sounds different to me. When you are missing someone, time seems to move slower and when I’m falling in love with someone, time seems to be moving faster. So I think, because time seems to move so slow when I’m sad, that’s why I spend so much time writing songs about it. It seems like I have more hours in the day.

According to Taylor’s Lover journals, she wrote the song on a flight home after a show in Tacoma Washington September 7, 2011. She was supposed to head to LA after her show however after a phone conversation with her brother (Austin) she was “missing my mum and my town where I know my way around”, so she flew home to Nashville instead.

Sounds like Red was a crucial piece to the TS4 album no?

Context

So from the above we know the song was written in September of 2011. So what was or had been happening for Taylor? The general consensus is that the entire Red album is written about Jake with maybe a haylor song or two. I whole heartedly disagree - its more likely the opposite is true. Here's why:

Taylor has stated in almost every interview ever that she will not reveal who her songs are written about, she does however say her music is where her truth is.

So swifties do you know your Jake herstory?

All To Well was the first song that was written for the Red album. It was written with one of Taylors regular co-writers of the time Liz Rose. At the time of writing Taylor was recovering from a bout of writers block that followed a damaging relationship. Taylor said to USA Today: "There's a kind of bad that gets so overpowering you can't even write about it," she says of that time. "When you feel pain that is so far past dysfunctional, that leaves you with so many emotions that you can't filter them down to simple emotions to write about, that's when you know you really need to get out."

Brutal.

More alarmingly she opened up to The Guardian: [Hide away and find your peace of mind / With some indie record that's much cooler than mine.] "That was the most important line of the song," Swift says. "It was a relationship where I felt very critiqued and subpar. He'd listen to this music that nobody had heard of … but as soon as anyone else liked these bands, he'd drop them. I felt that was a strange way to be a music fan. And I couldn't understand why he would never say anything nice about the songs I wrote or the music I made."

And finally to USA Today: "WANEGBT is a definitive portrait of how I felt when I finally stopped caring what my ex thought of me. He made me feel like I wasn't as good or as relevant as these hipster bands he listened to. So I made a song that I knew would absolutely drive him crazy when he heard it on the radio. Not only would it hopefully be played a lot, so that he'd have to hear it, but it's the opposite of the kind of music that he was trying to make me feel inferior to."

I don't really wish to delve too deep into their relationship as we absolutely do not have the information necessary to make certain judgements however there's quite a bit to be concerned about in the statements above.

However, for a songwriter who "writes all the time" to be so debilitated by a relationship that they are unable to process their emotions is pretty alarming. Do you think this is the type of relationship you would be singing State of Grace, Red, Treacherous, I Knew You Were Trouble, 22, I Almost Do, The Last Time, Holy Ground, Sad Beautiful Tragic, Everything Has Changed, Begin Again, Come Back…Be Here, Babe, Message In A Bottle, Run, and The Very First Night about? Would you go back to this person who was so damaging to you? Would you miss them in a longing way?

Yeah nah. Me neither.

So who then?

Taylor made a rare comment on her personal life to Vanity Fair in 2013, "“But what it ended up adding to was this whole kind of everyone jumping on the bandwagon of ‘Taylor dates too much’—which, you know, if you want some big revelation, since 2010 I have dated exactly two people.”

Those two people, Conor Kennedy and Harry Styles. Oh well it MUST be Conor Kennedy! You say? Wrong.

Taylor's first public sighting with Conor was in July of 2012, almost a year after the song the changed the course of the album. Taylor allowed a "friend" to comment on her personal relationships from the same Vanity Fair article above. That friend had the below to say about Conor, "He was just like a two-month thing,” and that Swift “says he was awesome”.

Okay so it's not Conor, but it can't be Harry. Taylor and Harry met at the Kids Choice Awards on 31st March 2012. Wrong again.

Courtesy of Taylor's Time Person of the Year 2023 interview we get a great insight as to how she handles new relationships and the unique circumstances of her job “We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other. By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.”

And now I direct you to the incredible @foxes-that-run's timelines for further information. These are continuously being updated as we dig through the trenches of the interwebz.

Now that you're back from that rabbit hole we continue!

Talking to NPR in November 2012 Taylor reveals: I've had relationships with people that were really substantial and meant a lot to me, but I couldn't write a song about that person for some reason. Then again, you'll meet someone that comes into your life for two weeks and you write an entire record about them.

In October 2013 she spoke with Vulture, “I heard from the guy that most of Red is about,” Swift said. “He was like, ‘I just listened to the album, and that was a really bittersweet experience for me. It was like going through a photo album.’ That was nice. Nicer than, like, the ranting, crazy e-mails I got from this one dude."

🏎️Crazy ranting emails does not sound like Harry, but it does sound like a serial gaslighter who never had anything great to say about your art even when you were dating. You know who would understand having an album written about them? Another songwriter.

Cars

Written on 7th September 2011, conveniently the same day our curly haired muse makes his first purchase into the classic/high performance car world. Harry purchased an Audi R8 on this day in England. (England is 8 hours ahead of Washington) The biggest of shoutouts again to @foxes-that-run for finding this nugget!

The level of troll between these two will never not amuse me. Harry one of the esteemed guests at the 2019 Google Camp had the option of a Mercedes Benz, Maserati, or Luxury Van to ferry themselves around the event. He did not disappoint:

Harry has a vast sports and vintage car collection and impeccable taste(imo). My personal favourite, the 1966 Mercedes-Benz 230SL convertible

Secret Message

Red's secret message in the album liner spells out SAG.

This one's still a work in progress, its definitely not Screen Actors Guild, or SAGgittarius. Taylor loves a bait and switch. My hero @foxes-that-run's leading theory is that it's Styles At GQ, which is pretty spot on if you ask me. For more context go read the timeline^^

Red

Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street

Faster than the wind, passionate as sin, ending so suddenly

Loving him is like trying to change your mind once you're already flying through the free fall

Like the colours in autumn, so bright just before they lose it all

Taylor opens by painting one of the most vivid pictures she ever has, driving a new Maserati down a dead end street. A high powered sports car that is designed for performance, should never be on a dead end street, it will crash and burn. While this song switches through past/present tense the context shows us its reflective. She's not in this moment right now, but her feelings are unresolved.

"Loving him is like trying to change your mind once you're already flying through the free fall" is a direct reference to gold rush:

🏎️ I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush

Losing him was blue like I'd never known

Missing him was dark gray, all alone (Woah)

Forgetting him was like tryin' to know somebody you never met

But loving him was red (Red, red)

(Red, red)

But loving him was red, (Red, red)

(Red, red)

Colours, colours, colours, colours!!

Colours are the centrepiece of this song; this song is the key for colours that follow.

The rest of the world was black and white, But we were in screaming colour

Losing him was blue like I'd never known.

A reference to sadness, melancholy, depression. This is a very common theme throughout Taylors music and escalates when she is reminiscing about this muse and living without him.

🏎️ My, my love had been frozen deep blue, but you painted me golden - DWOHT

🏎️ And it’s blue, the feeling I got - Cruel Summer

🏎️ My heart’s been borrowed and yours has been blue - Lover

🏎️ We’re so sad, we paint the town blue - Miss Americana

🏎️ I’m with you even if it makes me blue - Paper Rings

🏎️ I blew things out of proportion, now you’re blue - Afterglow

🏎️ If your cascade ocean wave blues come - peace

🏎️ Don’t want no other shade of blue but you - hoax

🏎️ Did I paint your bluest skies the darkest grey a universe away? - Coney Island

🏎️ Sapphire tears on my face, sadness became my whole sky - Bejewelled

🏎️ Looked up at me with honour and truth, broken and blue - The Great War

🏎️ Catastrophic blues, moving on was always easy for me to do - Hits Different

Missing him was dark grey, all alone

When she is without him, there is no colour. Everything fades to grey. There is no passion, there are no sparks.

🏎️ I make all your grey days clear - So It Goes...

🏎️ In shades of grey and candlelight - Getaway Car

🏎️ It fades into the grey of my day-old tea ‘cause it will never be - gold rush

🏎️ Did I paint your bluest skies the darkest grey a universe away? - Coney Island

🏎️ Gray November, I’ve been down since July - evermore

🏎️ Got swept away in the grey, I just may like to have a conversation - Question...?

But loving him was red

His love has painted her with colour, colours she's never seen with anyone else. The use of the colour red following this album links back to this muse.

🏎 Cherry lips, crystal skies - Blank Space

🏎️ And I got that red lip classic thing that you like - Style

🏎️ Red lips and rosy cheeks - Wildest Dreams

🏎️ You’re still all over me like a wine-stained dress I can’t wear anymore - Clean

🏎️ We show off our different scarlet letters - New Romantics

🏎️ So here’s the truth from my red lips - End Game

🏎️ Crimson red paint on my lips - I Did Something Bad

🏎️I’ve got a list of names and yours is in red underlined - LWYMMD

🏎️ I once believed love would be burning red, but it’s golden - Daylight

🏎️ A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground with no one around to tweet it - The Lakes

🏎️ I don’t like anticipating my face in a red flush - gold rush

🏎️ Literally the whole song Maroon.

🏎️ And we will never go back to that bloodshed, crimson clover - The Great War

🏎️ I’m not even sorry, nights are so starry, blood moonlit - Glitch

Touching him was like realizing all you ever wanted was right there in front of you

Memorizing him was as easy as knowing all the words to your old favorite song

Fighting with him was like trying to solve a crossword and realizing there's no right answer

Regretting him was like wishing you never found out that love could be that strong

These two love a puzzle, especially of the wordplay variety.

Remembering him comes in flashbacks and echoes

Tell myself it's time now, gotta let go

But moving on from him is impossible when I still see it all in my head

In burning red

Burning, it was red

Another direct reference to another Taylor song, this time Treacherous.

🏎️ Your name has echoed through my mind - Treacherous

And that's why he's spinning 'round in my head (Red, red)

Comes back to me, burning red (Red, red)

(Red, red)

Yeah, yeaa (Red, red)

Here's the reference. He keeps spinning in her head, she can't let go. Why not? Because he keeps coming back. That sounds awfully like other songs we've heard from Taylor? You would be correct.

🏎️ And when we go crashin' down, we come back every time - Style

🏎️That's how you got the girl - HYGTG

🏎️ When you're young, you just run, But you come back to what you need - This Love

🏎️ This love came back to me - This Love

🏎️ And so it goes, You two are dancing in a snow globe 'round and 'round - YAIL

🏎️ We team up, then switch sides like a record changer - New Romantics

🏎️ Was it over then? And is it over now? - Is It Over Now?

🏎️ 'Cause we break down a little, But when you get me alone, it's so simple - So It Goes…

🏎️ But then you called, showed your hand, I turned around before I hit the tunnel - Cornelia Street

🏎️ Now I'm missing your smile, hear me out, We could just ride around, And the road not taken looks real good now - 'tis the damn season

🏎️ In my defence, I have none, For digging up the grave another time - the 1

🏎️ It's never too late to come back to my side - dorothea

🏎️ And I knew you'd come back to me, You'd come back to me - cardigan

🏎️ But it might just have been you, Passing by unbeknownst to me - SOTB

🏎️ And you passed right by - Long Story Short

🏎️ I thought the plane was goin' down, How'd you turn it right around? - Labyrinth

🏎️ A brief interruption, a slight malfunction, I'd go back to wanting dudes who give nothing - Glitch

His love was like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street

It just mtch my think so muchhh

Thank youuu !!1

Please reblog their original post

It is just so well put

This is why the maroon is def about him

It is insanee

RED all made sense to me now

"So I heard from the guy most of RED is about"

Jake could never say it like that

With the timing of TR too, it's all speculation but wonder if HS made a choice around that time. We'll probably never really know what went down.

Taylor was really emotional in Mexico and played a lot of Haylor songs. No way to know, as you say Cornelia St was the date that Harry went to TR's play and there were quite a bit of coverage about that. His Pick You Up leaked on the 31st too.

Thanks @cntfightmydemonsthyknowhowtoswim for this list she posted the other day:

24/8 - Playing "I Forgot You Existed" and making the crowd green? 👀 [Lover songs are usually a light pink colour]

25/8 - Snow On The Beach

26/8 - Played Cornelia St & YOYOK. (wearing green) Very emotional in Cornelia St (Looks like she's crying mid song?)

27/8 - Played Afterglow & Maroon. Very emotional in both. She does tend to play Maroon all up in her feelings though. But similar to Cornelia St, looks like she's crying mid song in Afterglow as well.

I think she would be emotional playing Cornelia Street anytime, it's only the second time it's been played. @cntfightmydemonsthyknowhowtoswim has a post about Cornelia Street. here:

Taylor rented Cornelia Street in June 2016. Not counting time before she said the "Summer was an Apocalypse" on 29 August, or when she was in Nashville writing Reputation, Cornelia St seemingly happened in late September or October.

Harry disappeared in LA 2 September. In that time it was announced Hendall was over. Then the 29 September 2016 anniversary the Another Man Mix Tape and articles. (She repaid this with a 70 song "Taylor Loves" Spotify playlist on 28 September 2017.) He reappeared in London 12 October, just before he went to Jamaica to record HS1.

Joe was in London till 4 October and was first seen in NY on the 12th at the Kings of Leon/Bowery. In November, Taylor then went to Asia and was based in London by the end of the year.

I don't think they wrote music to affect the other person's relationship but what they felt. Also Taylor has written as much, if not more, problematic things about Harry while they are in other relationships, I have picked one from every album, but there are so many more here.

Joe had no rep, like didn’t get mentioned about his own movie premiere, but Harry did/does have a reputation' in 2017. “I wanna be your endgame, endgame / Big reputation, big reputation / Ooh, you and me, we got big reputations”

What could "I get drunk, but it's not enough / ’Cause the morning comes and you're not my baby / I look through the windows of this love / Even though we boarded them up" possibly mean in 2019?

"And if my wishes came true / It would've been you / In my defense, I have none / For never leaving well enough alone" in 2020.

"I don't like that anyone would die to feel your touch / Everybody wants you" .... .... see top TikTok thirst traps below 😂 poor Joe. These numbers are similar I need to say one has 7 digits.

Oh it's all very organic.

I also don't understand the whole concept. Why would she need a reason to get away from CH? She could just leave him like she left all the other relationships, especially as she didn't care about him, she even left HS... why would she need to get into another relationship and why bother for 3+ months if they were just a getaway car?

The thing that I have wondered about Getaway Car is the timing, it was one of the last songs on Reputation, @cntfightmydemonsthyknowhowtoswim's Rep timeline has it being recorded in April 2017. Which I have been thinking it is weird to write about such a short, pretty plainly PR relationship 10 months after it ended.

However, April 2017 was the anniversary of the Something Bad/High Infidelity affair that did end that relationship. And on April 29 2017 Harry also wore the same shirt Calvin included in the Ole video.

Also Harry is always driving in her songs, and car references are also usually him.

hahaha no, I think they are friends and muses. I don't think they are (or intend to get) over each other. I think having each other as "muse" is helpful to have both their work and an ability to have relationships. A significant portion of their songs since Red are about each other. Rolling Stone commented on it in 2021, talking about Style:

I think their other relationships are real, but there's a pattern of media having them seem longer, happier and more consistent. ("Leave me drownin' to edit the runtime" - Ed's Punchline) They seem to respect their other relationships, Harry's behaviour changed when he thought Taylor was happy with Joe, seemingly until he no longer did.

They have likened their relationship to Nash/Mitchell and Burton/Taylor, like them Harry and Taylor have patterns and a sense of possessiveness and inevitability.

In November 2012, talking about Red she said to NPR:

"I've had relationships with people that were really substantial and meant a lot to me, but I couldn't write a song about that person for some reason. Then again, you'll meet someone that comes into your life for two weeks and you write an entire record about them." 

I don't think their relationship falls neatly into a box. In fact in 2020 Harry said to Stern (52 mins) he wasn't sure he would ever have what Linda and Paul McCartney had, that:

"People’s relationships are different now, everyone’s open and people have different things, but I’d like to think I would at some point."

Which to me matches the lyrics of the leaked Make My Day. I think the inner boy from Cheshire would settle down but I think navigating their careers and personalities is hard.

Hi, I haven't, I love that song though. So here it is:

Hunger

It is about Harry looking back on a relationship he is not over. It was leaked in 20 April 2022, the week he played Coachella. See 2022 timeline if you subscribe to the thought the leaks are timed.

When it was written is less important because it's quite reflective, but based on 'one year into two', if I had to guess, I think this song is from the first week of January 2017:

4 January 2013 - Blue dress on a boat

6 January 2015 - Harry and Taylor were ambiguously dating (and touring) since Valentine's Day 2014. Harry arrived in LA on the 2nd and neither was seen for a few days. Taylor posted this photo with 'This Love' Lyrics. Harry then reappeared. Things seemed tense at Lily Aldridge's birthday on the 19th and Taylor went to Maui with the Haim sisters while Harry stayed in LA. Taylor started dating Calvin a few weeks later.

6 January 2016 - Harry posted this photo of rain on a window. Out of the Woods MV was just released, it aired NYE 2015 in the same show as the last 1D TV appearance.

5 January 2017 - The leak Lately included that it was written on 5 January 2017, He flew to LA on the 6th. Lately was leaked on 6 January 2024. That is one year turning two from 2015:

Lyrics

Candles burnt down to the floor Wearing less than you wore before Shoes sitting by the door never put them on We would stay in my house for days Spilling breakfast on pillowcases Your stuff don’t taste the same Now that you’re gone

The first verse is reminiscing of the good times, of enjoying spending time together in a hedonistic way.

To me the first lines are on New Years Eve 2012 which Taylor also included in New Years Day "Candle wax and Polaroids on the hardwood floor / You and me from the night before". If written in January the shared NYE memory would have been timely.

I love the line "shoes sitting by the door" it sounds to me like they were to go out but stayed in to be together.

"Your stuff don't taste the same" to me is her music, especially Red and 1989, I imagine hearing them after they were actually over would hurt with how much the themes of 1989 especially are "built to fall apart and back together again"

I guess I’m prone to overthinking One thing goes wrong and I can’t adjust I’ve lost the taste for the good in us And I’m sorry

The second verse is talking about feeling sad that Harry wasn't able to keep the relationship and his engagement with it.

"Lost the taste for the good": reminds me of the Two Ghosts, "We're not who we used to be". Two Ghosts was written around Valentines Day 2015, soon after this break up. To Nick Grimshaw Harry said about it "sometimes things change, and you can do all the same things, and sometimes it’s just different, you know". I think this is a similar detached loss of connection, later to Zane Lowe Harry said he was 'just coasting.'

I think with more time for reflection this song has matured to see with regret why he lost the taste for the good in what he lost, which Two Ghosts doesn't get into.

"Prone to overthinking" is interesting, Harry seems like he would. He uses this word again in Grapejuice about Taylor, he acknowledges she worries about other girls and assures he doesn't want anyone else "You're always there, so don't overthink, I'm so over whites and pinks"

We had a hunger then only each other then Couldn’t get enough when we started Always a hunger then now it’s just emptiness We were in love, we were starving We had a hunger then

To me, the song title and chorus has a double meaning:

In the first half of the chorus Harry is singing about Hunger in the sense of an insatiable desire for each other. The bliss of a new relationship where you just want to be together all the time.

This ends with 'now there's just emptiness. He uses emptiness as an analogy for being emotionally depleted in Ever Since New York also "There's no water inside this swimming pool" and in Two Ghosts "We're just two ghosts swimming in a glass half empty"

I hear a second meaning with "we were in love, we were starving." The theme of the song is reflecting on where it went wrong, I think he is referring their mental health and wellbeing at the time as being a factor for why it didn't work out.

We could ruin a perfect night On my birthday I made you cry You told me you learned to drive I guess you lied I could never get sick of you I just bit off more than I could chew And as one year turns into two I’m still not over you, still not over you

As the song says, they are still not over each other.

You told me you learned to drive

This could be read two ways, as many anons have said to me today :)

Taylor used driving as a metaphor for their relationship in Treacherous and throughout 1989 and Harry did in Keep Driving. The line is saying that she told Harry they could make it work but she lied and they didn’t. I really like this interpretation, it reminds me of Fools Gold where he also called her a lair for him feeling like his commitment to their relationship wasn’t reciprocated

My first take on this was it is an inside joke from a car lover to someone who once crashed her car twice during a Rolling Stone Interview. But I like the other one better now.

On my birthday I made you cry

Taylor also refers to this in Coney Island the male part sings "Were you standing in the hallway / With a big cake, happy birthday". Sadly there are options for this, I think the big cake is a metaphor for an special gift:

2015, he threw a big party with lots of famous people in LA just before he left for tour. After possibly break up 6 January, on the 17th Taylor shared a photo of her kitchen with the framed Temper Trap Lyrics on her stove, (below). She then went to Maui with the Haim sisters, on the 23rd - 30th (I wonder if Harry was meant to go). On Harry's birthday she was in Nashville.

2013 Taylor had Temper Trap write and sign the correct lyrics/Arm Lyrics/Tattoo and framed it for his birthday, but they broke up before she gifted it. She included it in the photo again in 2015. :( The blue dress on a boat was 4 January, however she was in London on the 21st and rumoured to see him. There were reports she had booked a week in Italy as well as other gifts. Harry had a wild 19th birthday with a £5k bar tab and strippers.

I could never get sick you

I hear "I could never get sick of you" as responding to something said directly to Harry. However, in November 2015 Taylor used those words to Vogue. It's an interesting comment that was foreshadowing the Reputation era. If this song was written in early 2017 it would have been the thick of that:

"I'll need to give people a certain breather from me because at a certain point they're going to get a little sick of hearing about me, so then I'll need to go away for a while and then depending on my gauge on how sick of me they are I'll decide when to put out the next album,"

I just bit off more than I could chew

"does it hurt terribly Draco?"

Taylor has a theme of using childhood and school in songs about Harry. In the earlier songs she used it as a metaphor for the band but also to show that they were really young, almost high school sweethearts in that they there's a first love vibe about them. They include:

August: "Will you call when you're back at school? I remember thinkin' I had you"

It's nice to have a friend: "School bell rings, walk me home Sidewalk chalk covered in snow Lost my gloves, you give me one "Wanna hang out?" Yeah, sounds like fun"

Suburban Legends "I had the fantasy that maybe our mismatched star signs / Would surprise the whole school / When I ended up back at our class reunion/ Walkin' in with you"

Betty "I'm only 17, I don't know anything But I know I miss you"

Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince "You know I adore you, I'm crazier for you / Than I was at 16, lost in a film scene" and "They whisper in the hallway, "She's a bad, bad girl" (okay) / The whole school is rolling fake dice"

The Willow Music video also includes them as kids which taylor said was a Seven reference.

And my favourite reference of all is the Everything Has Changed music video, I might do a post just on how Haylor this adorable video is:

Neither Harry, Taylor or Justin Bieber have ever said they met then. The source for the Justin Bieber story was the Mirror. What Justin said was that a super star thinks a Harry was hot, not that he introduced them. Which she did think he was hot, and as she was besties with Selena they probably did go to a party at his.

I don’t think they intended it to be known at all, Harry was unprepared and caught off guard when asked about it 17 days after that show/5 days after the Mirror article. (1:27)

People says “they reportedly crossed paths” at the awards (not that Selena introduced them) and no mention of a Taylor connected source.

They both flew from London to LA on 27 January 2012 before then, which is a rather unlikely coincidence.

The only “source close to Taylor” quote on this is that Harry pursued her for a year before they dated, that places them meeting in 2011, 12 months before the Kids Choice Awards is the March 2012 show she added his audition song (Soul Sister) to Fearless in Paris when he was MIA on a break.

That kiss was 21 April 2012, Harry and Taylor had to have known each other long enough for him to pursue her for a year, then start dating such that Taylor was upset that he kissed someone else:

Thanks for the ask, sorry for the delay, I was leaving the leaks but today learned something interesting, that the 'Lately' Voice Note leaked almost on it's own anniversary. The file includes that it was from 5 January 2017.

It first appeared on HS News on the 7th Jan, but it had been around a day or so by then. There's a photo of Harry on the next day too.

It's not a finished song so I'll just flag this part, which with the timing, makes me think it could be about Joe and Taylor, it also includes a reference to Clean's "Rain came pouring down"

The rain falls down and I'm heavy now And I fall out [and it's] underground I don't believe what you're saying to me, "that I love him"

Link with Dancing with our Hands Tied

In April 2016 Harry and Taylor had been spending time together before he left to film Dunkirk and record HS1 in May 2016, and also both in NY & LA later in the year.

He and Taylor had both been in London at the start of January and both in LA at the end of January 2017. There was an unconfirmed sighting of them together on 28 December 2016.

On 3 January Taylor had a Lover Journal entry, that she and Joe had been together since October the 3rd. Taylor was then seen for the first time in a while in LA at a gym on 12 January, which is when DWOHT is thought to have been written.

On 5 January he then writes this voice note about a lover told them they love someone else.

Around 12 January she then writes DWOHT about wishing she had another chance with someone but feeling fame ruined it.

Harry started wearing the Rose ring soon after. The rest of 2017 they released and promoted HS1 and Reputation.

DWOHT

In Secret Sessions she talked about how this scenario was when she wrote Dancing with Our Hands Tied:

That inspiration for the song came when she was back in LA after spending several months out of the public eye. as we know now she spent basically all of this time in the UK without anyone knowing she was in a relationship. back in LA (i think for work), she went to the gym only to be caught by paparazzi on her way out.. the paps shouted all kinds of things at her including comments about her weight… remember this was the first time she had been properly seen in months and nobody knew she was in a relationship.. She described being really overwhelmed by the experience but that her thought process was less about herself and more about how she could possibly have a normal relationship when this was her life. Taylor actually said that after the incident she went straight to the recording studio, cried, and wrote this song.

@cntfightmydemonsthyknowhowtoswim just did a post about DWOHT, in particular the line "If I could dance with you again" means the song is not about her BF at the time, plus it refers to the age Taylor was when she and Harry broke up (25) and water rushing in (Clean, later Falling.).

Interesting that DWOHT and this voice note leak both reference Clean.