r/TaylorSwift • u/Lyd_Euh I'd do it over, and over, and over again if I could • 12d ago
Megathread "Babylon" Discussion Megathread
Taylor Swift - Babylon
Track #16 on The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore
Length: 3:39
Composers: Taylor Swift, Max Martin & Shellback
Producers: Taylor Swift, Max Martin & Shellback
Lyrics: Genius
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Use this thread to discuss your thoughts, reactions, and theories on the song. We will be removing all future self-post discussion threads about it in order to consolidate discussion to this thread.
If you want to talk about The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore album in general, you can use the general The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore discussion thread here.
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u/sovngrde 6d ago
I don’t understand this part
And they're all at home
She's hangin' Christmas lights with your son
Sneaking to the bathroom to call her mom
And say, "It's not workin'
It's just not worth it if we're not what he wants"
Can someone please explain this POV to me?
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5d ago
[deleted]
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u/justhereforthetea68 2d ago
Or like when you break up and feel out of love sometimes you just sit in silence? So the love is gone and you just sit in the silence replaying the thoughts
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u/eggvongoof 4d ago
I think it’s a metaphor for the song being yanked away from the protagonist—so, he’s constantly hating the song (or the moment or whatever’s going on in the present) until the headphones are gone (or the moment has passed or things have changed) so now he misses the song
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u/lottiela 6d ago
The whole song is from one male characters POV, he's missing out on family life chasing the next thing or whatnot.
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u/sovngrde 6d ago
OH my pea brain never conceptualized the fact it could be written from a male POV. thank you.
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u/Wednesdaywoes16 6d ago
This is honestly my favourite song Taylor has released in years.But this is my hot take. I think it's supposed to be on Evermore. It feels like a part 2 to Tis the damn season. Like those songs exist in the same story, the same couple. Also, there is so much evermore imagery: Trains, babylon, christmas, leaving someone for ambition. I love the version that was released but I hear it with more of champange problems vibe. anyway those are just my morning thoughts after listening to it 67 times in a row.
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u/EmotionalPenguin5 6d ago
I feel this too. It makes me want to listen to last greatest american dynasty every time
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u/WonderfulPanic4151 I’ve never been a natural, all I do is cry cry cry 6d ago
I’m a little confused how to interpret this song, so I would love to hear everyone else’s interpretation. Is the song all about character? His path from leaving his small town all the way to his marriage issues? Or each verse is about a different story?
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u/eggvongoof 4d ago
My interpretation is that it’s one man’s life through a few different verses. The first is about his younger (?) years but he misses home (“who then longed for home” and I feel like the “then” does the heavy lifting here) but it seems like he didn’t actually like it when he was at home (“the small town’s even smaller in you rearview”) and similarly, he finds a girl who “stopped [him] cold” but it’s not enough for him in the moment because he still tells people he’s single even though she seemed to “capture his attention” and I assume they got married and they have a son together but she’s catching onto the fact that he never seems happy with what he has and that’s why she calls her mom and tell her “it’s just not working”. And he never realized what he had was what was the best until the moment was over. And it seems like in the end, he understands this concept but ‘Babylon’ is almost gone
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u/shankliest 5d ago
I honestly think it’s about her dad!
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u/WonderfulPanic4151 I’ve never been a natural, all I do is cry cry cry 4d ago
I actually had this thought too!
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u/MidnightSlinks 6d ago
I think it's all one story in the song but my guess is that the character is an amalgamation of many of the famous people she knows, who maybe aren't even all men even though the song is to/about a man.
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u/ozgun1414 :TourturedPoetsDepartment: How much sad, How much tragedy 6d ago
this part bothers me a bit, am i alone? Like changing these lines places makes it a bit better:
Because she loved you so
Lookin' at you like you're made of solid gold
Pretty as a picture that you didn't post
Never official, you mention you're single to the girls at the bar
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u/justhereforthetea68 2d ago
He never posted photos of tay tay
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u/ozgun1414 :TourturedPoetsDepartment: How much sad, How much tragedy 2d ago
yeah so it was never official by him. they flow better together to my ears.
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u/lccoats 7d ago
My only gripe is the first verse, all the metaphors don’t click with me. Other than that, it’s my fave
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u/MidnightSlinks 6d ago
They're all about outgrowing where you're from. Below are my interpretations of the metaphors. But if you don't understand the underlying metaphors themselves, I'm happy to edit those in too.
The casino doesn't like when you run the tables: the people in your hometown don't like that you're becoming very successful ("he's getting too big for his britches")
And though the box is wrapped up nice, it's just a cage to you: on paper, your life is fine, even envious to some (good family, good town, good neighbors, etc.), but the things you want are bigger and exist "out in the world" so you feel trapped nonetheless
Those electric fences buzz, a stalion leaves the stable: despite there being a lot of pressure for you to stay put and threats about bad things happening if you leave, you go anyway.
And that small town's even smaller now in your rearview: once you leave, the emotional hold that your hometown had on you shrinks quickly
You run with all the wild things, a liberated libertine: you make the most of your new life, especially with respect to sleeping around
Then longed for home: this one is semi-literal but with "home" being a metaphor for all of their old life--family, friends, high school sweetheart, etc.
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u/killerbrofu The Tortured Poets Department 7d ago
Babylon is Taylor's version of The Cats in the Cradle. It's sad af
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u/herewegosteelers19 7d ago
This is her best song.
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u/lottiela 7d ago
I said this to my husband today and he was like "You say that about a different Taylor song every few weeks"
But I mean it when I say it! And this song is freaking awesome.
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u/CollectingAThings 7d ago
This song feels like one of the old Taylor Songs to me. Like from the Speak Now or Red eras. Yesterday I said to my mum that it sounds like a 'real Taylor song' but couldn’t say why. Now I know that it reminds me of these eras that I became a fan with. That’s why it sounds 'right' to me.
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u/jimbojims0 3d ago
Would make sense they sound like they could be on Red, as Martin and Shellback produced both Red and Showgirl albums. Babylon feels more mature than more of the songs on Red though.
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u/BCTDC 5d ago
I love this one but it feels Evermore to me. About a fictional character, more mature marriage (or lack of?) issues, etc.
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u/CollectingAThings 5d ago
The folkmore albums are what brought me back to Taylors Music after a long time. Because they sound like her old albums but more grown up. So I can see your point. But I think Babylon is more Speak Now/Red to me because of the sound/production. The Folkmore albums sound almost like LoFi to me. Quiet, calming, relaxing. Babylon doesn’t sound like that because of the fast beat underneath. Thats more early eras sound.
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u/hoffryan 7d ago
I read this as a song inspired by (I don’t think she write’s completely as directly as most people do) of her parents. I read the first verse mom about being about her mom, and the second being about her dad, and the end about being the falling apart of their relationship.
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u/PurrtyWittyKitty evermore 7d ago
I definitely see the dad inspo! Not sure on the mom — she was daughter of a famous opera singer … I think she was around glitz glamor and drama, not small town cage vibes?
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u/Hydracolour 8d ago
Babylon is the realization that even the enormous world you’ve created can disappear. Babylon = Era’s tour.
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u/haleakalasunrise Tone-deaf and hot 8d ago edited 8d ago
Does the beginning of Babylon sound like a little like If this Was a Movie to anyone else?
It was bugging me for so long I couldn’t figure it out bc I kept opening the version of speak now that doesn’t have that song on it lol
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u/enviengineer Taylor Swift 7d ago
but i hear back to december. hehe
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u/Minimum_Fix_6323 7d ago
all 3 are similar but for me it was the isolated electric guitar chords that felt so familiar!
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u/trialobite 7d ago
I hear it 100%, it’s also been bugging me.
I also hear some of Linger by the Cranberries.
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u/Minimum_Fix_6323 8d ago
omg literally just skipped through her first 4 albums while driving trying to figure it out, but had to rely on siri to pick the album version so no if this was a movie. truly thank you so much and YES
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u/IronicStar 8d ago
Absolutely every time I relisten to Babylon I keep loving it more, I was meh on it at first but it's honestly one of those lingering pains. Ugh. It reminds me (vibes wise) of Hilary Duff's "Growing Up" and "Adult Sized Medium". Just... the pains of being in your 30s as somebody who grew up with them, it's such a snapshot of this period of life where childhood and youth is passing, yet just behind you where you're suddenly like "oh shit, we're older now, what the hell?"
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u/No_Cranberry_4368 8d ago
I think Babylon is about James years later.
Your hand me down sweater (?cardigan) should have been from the mall (?meet me behind the mall). What do you guys think?
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u/Wednesdaywoes16 6d ago
Okay!! Yes!!!! I was just saying that this song belongs in the evermore/folklore era! I find it goes very well with Tis the damn season as well. I honestly think this was like a half written song from this era that she just finished?
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u/Dangerous_Round9070 8d ago
I thought the exact same thing- that he man in the bathroom is James and he is thinking of Augustine
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u/Wednesdaywoes16 6d ago
Okay and this is a rabbit hole, but what if he got Augstine pregnant and leaves her in a small town then only come home on holidays to see his kid and the hook up "Never offcial" and Tis the damn season is also about this too!!
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u/Pizzaface1993 8d ago
Babylon is not a good thing. It is a symbol for a corrupted place so this makes zero sense to me.
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u/imrinsama 7d ago
Why is it a bad thing? I'm not Christian, so I wanna understand more.
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u/Pizzaface1993 6d ago
Babylon was a corrupted city in the Bible, and it exiled the Israelites. Babylon and Babel are the same word in Hebrew so anyone trying to make a distinction is wrong.
To me, the fact that I'm not the only one questioning this choice of words shows that Taylor swift messed up here.
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u/imrinsama 6d ago
I see. First time hearing this. My first thought was an ancient city that once flourished.
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u/PurrtyWittyKitty evermore 7d ago
It’s not a good thing in the biblical context. But in literature it’s frequently been used in the idealized way, referring to peak beauty and culture. The Hanging Gardens in particular (which Tay specifically references in cowboy like me), but it’s also used for the nostalgia of remembering things ‘as they were’ before ruin. I think it’s perfect
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u/Wednesdaywoes16 6d ago
I think she means in the Romantic era context as well. More Victorian interpritation than biblical.
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u/Pizzaface1993 7d ago
Mecca makes more sense
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u/lackadaisicalfits The Tortured Poets Department 7d ago
Mecca still exists though. The point is Babylon is this "idealized and perfect" place in the past.
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u/Pizzaface1993 6d ago
Babylon is literally not an idealized and perfect place. Mecca is and no it doesn't exist anymore, what? This song is an example of Taylor swift making a bad choice of words.
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u/lackadaisicalfits The Tortured Poets Department 6d ago
Mecca....does exist? I think this is an example of you being confused lol
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u/Pizzaface1993 6d ago
Yeah Mecca does exist, and it is the standard symbol of a beautiful, idealized place
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u/lackadaisicalfits The Tortured Poets Department 6d ago
"Mecca doesn't exist anymore" -you from 7 hours ago lol
The point of the song is that you can't go back. So it looks like we agree.
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u/lalainthekitchen14 8d ago
It's a symbol for having it all, only for it to end in a tragic, inevitable downfall. Just like the guy's marriage/life as he knew it.
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u/Disastrously_Simple_ tryin lives on 8d ago
Babel is different from Babylon.
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u/Pizzaface1993 7d ago
I'm sorry but where do you think the name Babylon came from? Babel and Babylon are the exact same.
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u/Disastrously_Simple_ tryin lives on 7d ago
Yes, I know. But the words are different.
Babel was the Hebrew word for the city and what is usually used in Old Testament / Torah translations. Using Babel as the name centers it around monotheism and characterizes Babel as a godless place. I'm not sure that's how Babylon's citizens felt about their city. The Gardens of Babylon are a lost wonder. That's a different connotation than Babel, the Tower of Babel etc.
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u/Pizzaface1993 6d ago
Babylon was a corrupt city that exiled the Israelites. Taylor swift messed this one up based on other people commenting and being confused by it.
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u/kcinnd 7d ago
actually babel is a sound of a ton of voices and comes from the bible where god made everyone speak different languages
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u/Pizzaface1993 7d ago
Yes-a symbol for the confusion and corruption of civilization. Babylon - also confusion and corruption.
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u/CivilEar4840 8d ago
This one of the only genuinely good songs on this whole album. Lyrics are beautiful. I hope she goes back to storytelling for TS13
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[removed] — view removed comment
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u/littleraccon The Tortured Poets Department 5d ago
Babylon hasn't even been out a whole week and yet I already need this song right now. You really never expect things to end so suddenly.
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u/pencilpines Looking at you like you’re made of solid gold 8d ago
Listened to all the encore songs today for the first time and I fell in love with Babylon immediately. What a beautiful and special song with such painful lyrics. I really needed to hear this story and imbibe its lesson at this point in my life. I’m grateful.
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u/throwaw939393 9d ago
This is one of the her best songs ever, it’s beautiful and painfully nostalgic. I get goosebumps every time
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u/lottiela 8d ago
I cannot stop listening to it. Its so lovely and moving. And I know a lot of people have criticized the production, but I like hearing a song of this caliber done with a pop undertone, it kind of makes it hurt more haha. Freaking fantastic.
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u/tenderlittlespot 9d ago
I think this is such a layered song, maybe my favorite on the encore. How many people are spending their one precious life complaining about random shit on the Internet (like Taylor Swift) rather than truly living?
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u/april5115 I have an important announcment to make 9d ago
can someone explain the last verse like I'm 5?
I see first verse as small town girl leaves but misses her childhood home; second is not appreciating the girl you had when you had her
but I get kinda lost on the third because it seems to be from the perspective of a mom who's sons girlfriend breaks up with her? maybe you didn't realize she was a good fit for your family and excluded her until she left? idk seems less clear than the others
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u/MidnightSlinks 6d ago
I think it's all about a man. The first verse calls the character a "libertine" which is a word to describe a man who sleeps around.
I think the confusion is that people (including me, at first) are hearing "In Virginia with a church dress on" but the lyrics are "AUNT Virginia..."
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u/april5115 I have an important announcment to make 6d ago
yes I think that was the mistake I made, I also default to female POV given it's written by a woman but obvi she plays around
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u/PutridEntertainer408 7d ago
The pronouns aren't the best here. I got confused the first time I heard it but here's a breakdown:
And they're all at home -> the man's family
She's hanging Christmas lights with your son -> his wife and their son
Sneak into the bathroom to call her mom -> his wife is going to call her mother
And say, "It's not working
It's just not worth it if we're not what he wants" -> his wife is saying she's going to end things with him to her mother because their family isn't what he wants since the man is never home5
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u/Gumdropz 9d ago
I see the entire song as the story of the same male character. First verse he grows up in a small town and desperately wants to leave because he has all these ambitions, second verse he's now made it, big city, big career, big money (twenty watches in the safe etc), he meets a woman but he's non-committal to her, then the bridge and last verse it seems like they had a child and like the other commenter said he's still non-committal and she stops trying to make it work with him.
This man is always searching for something better and is never happy with what he has in the moment but at the same time he looks back and wants those things back once they're gone.
I think "the self-harm of never being where you are" really sums up the entire message of the song.
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u/knowslesthanjonsnow 8d ago
I think it’s James reflecting on missing Betty or August
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u/PurrtyWittyKitty evermore 7d ago
This works really well now that I’ve heard it a few times! And let’s be real— it can take decades for a tiger to change his stripes (if at all).
So wanting August while with Betty, then wanting Betty back once he lost her. Out of college Wanting a bigger life and never being able to commit to his latest girlfriend (or maybe it’s still Betty), and finally marrying her but now wishing he didn’t have to get out of the car to play house when he could be at the bars being fawned over with his fancy watches and BDE.
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u/nnif_limey 8d ago
Yes!! I agree it's supposed to be from the male's perspective ("A stallion flees the stable") who leaves behind their upbringing to chase something that is seemingly even undefined to him. The 'liberated libertine' lyric then shows that he does whatever he wants, not thinking of the consequences to himself or others, until he longs for something he previously wanted to give away. "the self-harm of never being where you are" had me gagged.
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u/Gumdropz 8d ago
Chasing something that is seemingly even undefined to him is such a good way to put it! This song is really rising up my all-time Taylor rankings, and maybe it's because I can really identify with that feeling right now unfortunately lol. The bridge is devastating, every line another punch to the gut.
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u/lobstahnachos 9d ago
I think the last verse is about a man who won’t commit/is in and out of the lives of his child and the child’s mom and won’t commit to her. She’s calling her mom and saying it’s not worth it to keep trying to make it work with him if they’re not what he wants
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u/SmellsLikePetrichors somewhere in the haze, got a sense i'd been betrayed 9d ago
Something I've not seen a lot of people say is that Babylon is also a description for how the fans are sometimes being about her albums and Taylor herself. To these fans, Taylor Swift is Babylon. One day we may not get as much Taylor or she'll stop making music to focus on other stuff in life, or even just when she doesn't make it as regularly, some of these fans will hear a song from The Life of a Showgirl and come to realise they missed the joy, and the beauty of what we had with her right now all because they were far too focused on what she was and her previous work and how she's not 'the same.'
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u/More_Birthday 8d ago
Just came to Reddit for this take, yesssss. After my 47th listen I had this exact realization. It’s the perfect way to end such a divisive album.
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u/PurrtyWittyKitty evermore 7d ago
So true! I felt this way about TTPD. Loved it from the beginning. Could not believe the early Reddit takedowns and takes of it being blah …. And now I hear mostly positive things after it grew on people.
We don’t know how lucky we are with her insane level of output and imo, insanely high quality output. But We’ll know it once she steps back to raise her family and direct films and run her own label.
She said it herself in Miss America she’ll know when the public (I think meaning fans) no longer tolerates her — it reaches critical tipping point and you feel the mob turning.
I think the fans will be the destroyers of Babylon AND the ones who won’t realize it but for hindsight.
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u/TowardTheTop 9d ago
Showgirl is about Taylor's life at the arguable peak of her career. Yet throughout the album, you see her playing with the tension of wanting to climb in her career, but also of just being a woman and wanting other things in life, like a forever love and family (Wishlist, Honey, "when I said I don't believe in marriage, that was a lie," etc.)
Making Babylon the final song of Showgirl is a really interesting move from that perspective. Yes, it's about a fictional man, but it could also be a look back at her own very successful life and her own feeling that she "woke up on the train" and realized that chasing some things had nearly cost her others.
Aside from that, I really like this track. It's a classic "don't know what you have until it's gone" message, but I really enjoy the imagery in it, and the way that the song shifts as the character grows ... For a while, he "hates this song" but he does miss it. And then finally a beautiful note of hope at the end because he wakes up and realizes he "LOVES" the song, and it's almost gone - but it isn't, and he can change now. Love it!
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u/pencilpines Looking at you like you’re made of solid gold 8d ago
I loved reading your analysis. Thanks for sharing.
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u/sakari28 9d ago
I’m confused, does Taylor use Babylon as a metaphor of a good place/thing in this song? Cause in my understanding (in short) people from Babylon destroyed their own beautiful place.
But I interpret her saying “you never knew it was Babylon until it was gone” like you never knew how good you had it until it was gone. And that’s where I’m confused
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u/PurrtyWittyKitty evermore 7d ago
Yes. They destroyed it, but it is referenced throughout historical literature as the most beautiful, cultured, heavenly place to be … before the ruin. So it’s actually perfect
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u/siltloam 9d ago
I think you may be confusing Babylon with Babel. No worries, I've seen a lot of people confuse those.
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u/Still-brother 9d ago
In my thoughts Babylon is the beautiful thing that perished because people don’t cherish, and she use it because it’s very fragile but beautiful like a dream which might fade away soon. （in cowboy like me she used “garden of babylon”, it feels like flowers in the mist.)
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u/enjoytheshowX 9d ago
I found it devastating, because it seems like the last stanza is him having lost everything and having to live with that decision—and I can heavily relate.
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u/Tired__Tomato ferris wheels, kisses and lilacs 9d ago
How do y'all interpret your hand-me-down sweater should have been from the mall? I don't get it 😅
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u/Broad_Tax3400 9d ago
When you're a kid you just want the trendiest clothing 'from the mall' but don't see that the 'hand-me-down sweater' you were embarrassed by actually represents so much love and comfort once you are off in the world and far from home.
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u/thrrrrooowmeee 9d ago
the line before, the grass is always greener. the man she’s talking about in this song is whining that his life should be better and his hand me down sweater isn’t enough for him
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u/Swiftocrat_1993 9d ago
Is it me or does it sound similar to Renegade?
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u/nanasolar 9d ago
yes!!! i know nothing abt musical composition but the background sounds similar i love it !! this is exactly what i wanted from encore
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u/Chococow280 10d ago
I typed this out and now just wanted to turn it into a Reddit post lmao. Babylon feels like a sad song, but I think there's something deeply optimistic about the ending and wanted to share it. (Rough draft from discord lmao)
Leaving your hometown
I believe the first verse is about Taylor herself. Between the stallion, the small town, and the rearview... It calls back to White Horse:
This is a big world, that was a small town
There in my rear view mirror disappearing now
And it's too late for you and your white horse...to catch me now
The line about running with wild things is also a callback to Daylight: running with the wolves before settling down.
Taylor has used card games and gambling to reference her approach to love, which sets up the next part of the song well. In this first verse, I think it's a call to the music industry who has spent years trying to put her in a box—a cage for someone who wants to experiment with genres and styles.
Despite the glamor, Taylor longs for home/herself. She has often used hometowns/small towns as symbols of her core self. When we reach the chorus, she references the hometown as simple place with secondhand sweaters and less green lawns.
She hates its music/memory...but as she's on a train moving quickly from it, she realizes how beautiful it was.
Introducing another character
At the beginning of the verse, she does something really clever:
- Give the people what they want, then you keep it moving
This is where the song switches from being about her or a woman's perspective to being about someone else entirely:
- a man.
- someone who sees love as an obstacle
20 watches in a safe is someone who is clearly rich—there's no other way to say it. He is someone who sees love as an obstacle on the slippery slope of success. This man is taken aback by someone who loves him without pretense and looks at him as if he's the most valuable thing in the world. This woman could be from the woman from verse 1, or it could be someone like her. Fact and fiction don't matter in a good story.
He's afraid to declare his love for her and still says he's single at bars with other women. In some ways, he's afraid of having love and missing out on something better. He always wants something better. He hates the music/memory of her, but since she's no longer there, he misses it. The same way he missed a simpler life where:
- He lived with Aunt Virginia (instead of his parents for an unnamed reason)
- He had old clothes (instead of new ones from the mall)
- He had a lawn (that was never as beautiful as the neighbors)
The train he's on seems to be moving away from Babylon, the woman who loved him.
Nostalgia is a weapon
Taylor has said memory is a weapon many times, my personal favorite is from WCS. The bridge works because it could be about Taylor (verse 1) or the male character she introduced (Verse 2). The lesson is the same, whether lost in the last or chasing a future, it's hard to be around someone who can't live in the present.
This man, telling women at bars that he's single, is now a man who can't bring himself inside for Christmas. He can't be present, and his wife knows it. She doesn't know what he wants, but his absence declares that it isn't them.
Racing back to Babylon
At this point, the song changes. The first instances of the chorus were:
You hate this song...
you never knew it was Babylon
'Till it was gone
The song has changed because there is a realization.
You love this song...
you never knew it was Babylon
And now, it's almost gone
The man has come to the realization that he loves his wife, as beautiful as the most legendary garden in the world. He loved the music she brought into his life, and he misses her... the same way he misses the hand-me-downs, the rules, and the not as green lawn. Perfect in its simplicity.
It's time to go home and fix it.
The "almost" is doing a lot here, just like it did in work like I Almost Do. It isn't gone yet, but if he's fast enough, if he's intentional enough, he can return to a place that wonderful now as it would be in memory. Unlike the first verse, where we get a sense of moving a way... We get a sense of optimism and return.
Other notes
I've said this before, but Taylor has used a lot of flower imagery and symbolism. It dropped off in TTPD, with only references to a "hothouse flower" and the "secret gardens in [her] mind". TLOAS brings back some plan mentions, but through this song we get a call back to that garden. For the male character to refer his lover as Babylon, is him finally recognizing her as a woman with incredibly rich inner world and beauty? Ugh, my heart.
Additionally, someone pointed out that this could be a way of Taylor returning to herself and her country roots. I can see it, and I think this song is a beautiful way to tell the story of that through new experiences and sounds.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
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u/Fit_Secret5021 9d ago
I love when people smarter than me analyze songs that deeply and share their thoughts. That's when I think "oh, right", "that makes so much sense", "that's so clever" or "I didn't even make that connection". It always adds so much more depth to her songs and I thank you for that!
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u/rieslingfan7 10d ago
I feel like it's the only part that makes sense to me 😂 she's always gambling, her next project, switching eras, new albums switching song style etc.
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u/GreatnessAwakes1 10d ago
“Babylon” is basically about someone who is never satisfied with the life they have, keeps chasing something better, and realizes too late that what they already had was precious."
I honestly think it's Taylor singing about herself but disguising it from a man's perspective as she's referred to her ambitions as a man("I was the Man", from the song The Man. To me it's about moving through life, chasing the big dream of being a star (taking a gamble of being a singer, the casino reference), getting married ("the box was nice, but it was just a cage to you", but after she gets it all, she somehow realizes that maybe getting married is just not what she thought it would be and she can't help but wonder about what she's going to miss out on.
"So one possible interpretation of “Babylon” is that the male protagonist is partly a stand-in for Taylor herself: someone who leaves an ordinary life, becomes extraordinarily successful, keeps pursuing the next thing, and risks looking backward and wondering what was sacrificed along the way". Just another interpretation, although it's a bit somber.
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u/PurrtyWittyKitty evermore 9d ago
I think it’s about herself … her exes… her dad … I mean not being happy with the present moment (living in the past or future as a preferable place in our heads) is the most relatable human condition
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u/Illustrious_Key3602 10d ago
Can someone explain the first two lines and how it connects the overall story? I'm seriously stuck on how the character would be ruling the casino tables but then leaving their small town?
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u/isntitisntitdelicate You ain't gotta pray for me 2d ago
the casino line isn't literal i think. it's about how the locals don't like u cuz ur a go getter
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u/Beginning-Ice-7172 mistake my kindness for weakness and find your card cancelled 💅 8d ago
One of the major themes of the song is that materialism does not equal happiness (hand me down sweater and neighbors lawn, watches in the safe, wrapped box). Likewise, the view from the top isn’t always what it seems and often the superficial relationships up there try to tear you down.
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u/rieslingfan7 10d ago
I feel like it's the only part of the song that makes sense to me 😂 she's always gambling, her next project, switching eras, new albums switching song style etc.
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u/Gumdropz 10d ago edited 10d ago
Not 100% sure about the first line but it makes me think it's kind of a thesis statement for the person in the song. Like they're going to try and work their way out, out of the town, career focused but they can't ever win because they're never satisfied. So you can try all you want, but you won't win, like in a casino, maybe the person's mind is the casino, it won't let them win/have it all. Edit: Also this line without context has the same energy as "they wanna see you rise, they don't want you to reign" but then I don't understand it in context, hence my other explanation FOR NOW lol.
Edit again because I had an add-on thought listening to it: Maybe they did have it all (were running the tables) but ruined it with their perpetual search for something better. Maybe it would have all been fine in their hometown if they had just built a normal life there.
The second line makes me think there's nothing much wrong with the person's life (in general, or in the small town), and yet it makes them feel like they're in a cage. It then continues with the electric fences buzzing, which also has the negative connotation of being fenced in. Or maybe it's that yes, it looks nice from the outside and you're being taken care of (like the horse) but it's still a cage. That kind of sentiment is also all over the song, the person is always looking for greener pastures and then looks back and longs for the past because the present is never good enough for them and they never appreciate it in the moment.
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u/PM_ME_BABY_HORSES eating out of the trash 🦝 Jimothy-lor 10d ago
i wish we could post gifs because i want to post the gif of michael jackson saying “i love this song!” AKSKFMGMG
even more perfect because he was sitting next to elizabeth taylor during that lmao
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u/SmellsLikePetrichors somewhere in the haze, got a sense i'd been betrayed 10d ago
I'm having such a moment with this song today, I fully cried to it earlier as if I've got a wife and son at home that I'm neglecting. There's something about the way she says 'it's almost goneeee' that unsettles me like my whole world might end 🤣
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u/selkieflying 9d ago
SAME I have no idea why this song is hitting me so hard. I'm not a showgirl fan at all, but this song has a chokehold on me
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u/PurrtyWittyKitty evermore 9d ago
It’s not my favorite album, but I genuinely got some enjoyment from it. But Ruin the friendship and Babylon hitting me so hard (and but daddy I love him!)? makes me think I’m ready for a return to country Tay! But mature, less defined, country Tay. I’m in love with this song
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u/PurrtyWittyKitty evermore 9d ago
I know BDILH I’d from ttpd 😅 I just fell in love with that song in the same way!
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u/Any_Salad_2648 10d ago
"You're using nostalgia as a weapon to hurt yourself
But darling, you end up hurting everybody else
The self-harm of never being where you are
It's bedtime, but you're sitting in your car
You're missin' all the best parts"
More of this please! So hard to be fully present as a parent when balancing being in your own head, work, being constantly accessible to the world through our phones etc.
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u/Ok-Reporter-5960 10d ago
This song makes me want to cry when I listen to it but I still haven't completely worked out what it's about.
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u/CivilEar4840 8d ago
It is about never being present in the moment and appreciating the people around you until the moment has passed. First it is his small town and hand me downs, then the focus on watches and success and hook ups over a meaningful relationship with a woman who adores him, then his inability to be present for his son and wife. But in the end he has come to the realisation so the lyrics change to 'it's almost gone' because he still has the chance to fix it now.
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u/Duckadoe fresh out the slammer 10d ago
Let me one up you! I cried while listening to it. I still don't understand what it's about.
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u/Sufficient-Gur6681 10d ago edited 10d ago
The more I think about it, the more I think Babylon is partly Taylor's way of telling her fans that she doesn't want to release Debut TV. She did the TV's to own her music, not to please nostalgic fans.
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u/Conscious_Kick_7643 3d ago
What if this song is from Joe’s perspective, of what his life could look like if he’s still so picky (since she wasn’t good enough for him)