you kept me like a secret but i kept you like an oath

well, it’s safe to say that taylor performing you’ve got a friend in me with randy newman and him saying “no one’s smarter than you” in response to her singing the line “some other folks might be a little bit smarter than i am” was not on my 2026 bingo card but here we are

The funny thing about people acting like Taylor had lost all of her songwriting abilities when showgirl came out is that she put out the most eloquent, lyrically dense 31-track album the year before. She put out songs that said things like “say it once again with feeling how the death rattle breathing silenced as the soul was leaving, the deflation of our dreaming leaving me bereft and reeling, my beloved ghost and me sitting in a tree d-y-i-n-g” the year before and people thought her songwriting abilities had just vanished? God forbid a woman want to have fun and write something campy after pouring out her deepest, darkest secrets