Taylor Swift has given fans a sneak peek into the beautiful madness of her creative process by sharing the first draft of lyrics for three of the songs from her 1989 album.
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As she re-released the project last Friday (October 27), Swifties who purchased a Target CD version of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) were treated to the first draft of lyrics for “New Romantics” and “Wonderland” from the deluxe version of the album and “Wildest Dreams” from the original release.
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In “New Romantics” fans can see a lyrical shift by Swift in the bridge where she sings, “Please, take my hand and / Please, take me dancing and / Please, leave me stranded / It’s so romantic.” In the first draft of lyrics, Swift shares she wrote, “So take my hand / we’ll both stand / inside a burning building.”
The unused lyrics continue, “Maybe I’m a s**t show / But I’m fun and kinda cute and willing affectionate / And if I could be your anti-hero / You could be my perfect villain / We’ll go around chasing storms / Leave me cold then keep me warm / Fall in love then go to war / That’s what new romance is for.”
More changes could be found in “Wonderland” where Swift swapped “We danced down hallways, too in love to think straight / Screaming you’re the king and I’m the queen,” to “So, we went on our way / Too in love to think straight / All alone, or so it seemed." Additionally, she turned the pre-chorus from, “Didn’t I tell you don’t listen to them?” to “Didn’t they tell us don’t rush into things?”
Even more changes could be found in the bridge, where “I turned around to find you and you were nowhere to be found / There was screaming and lightning / And I haven’t been back since I had to leave you there,” morphed into, “I reached for you, but you were gone / I knew I had to go back home / You searched the world for somethin’ else / To make you feel like what we had / And in the end in Wonderland / We both went mad.”
The last of the lyrical changes could be found in the bridge of “Wildest Dreams.” Swift played with the lyrics “See it in black and white / You and me all night,” “See me in black and white / Rocking/Dancing with you all night” and “Remember all those fast times,” before deciding on, “You’ll see me in hindsight / Tangled up with you all night / Burning it down.”
Available now, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), is the fourth re-release of six that Taylor has planned in an effort to regain artistic control of her music. It features the original 13 tracks plus five never-before-heard songs that didn’t make the original album.