Erika Fox
5/24/2023
Hey there, I’m Erika, a committed Speak Now girlie. Please allow me to update you on all things Speak Now, so you are prepared for the highly anticipated rerecord, dropping July 7th, 2023.
Rollout
Why not begin by recapping the announcement! ICYMI, Taylor announced the upcoming release of Speak Now Taylor’s Version at night 1 of her Eras Tour run in Nashville, TN on 5/5. The rerecorded album will arrive just in time for Last Kiss day, 7/9 (this date is mentioned in the song).
Fans that were not present at this Nashville show started to suspect something was up when Taylor Nation went live shortly before the surprise song segment. Here is what they went live to show (the following is a TikTok shot by a fan, not Taylor Nation):
Later that night, Taylor cemented the news with an Instagram post sharing more details, including the STUNNING new album cover:
This post has amassed over twice as many likes as her other two rerecord announcements, Fearless TV and Red TV, and has even surpassed Midnights, her most recent original album, in like count.
Easter Eggs
Buckle up, it’s time to review all the Mastermind shenanigans Taylor got up to while preparing to announce Speak Now TV.
Hinting that SNTV was next:
Bejeweled Video
Before the release of Midnights, there might have been a few things here and there (whether it be intentional on Taylor’s part or not) that led Swifties to believe that SNTV was next, but the Bejeweled music video is really what launched all chatter into high gear. There are too many Speak Now references to name, but here are a few:
*** Before you proceed! It might be helpful to know here, in case you don’t, that Speak Now is often referred to using the color purple or the number 3. This comes from Speak Now being Taylor’s 3rd album, and purple being a prominent color on its album covers. ***
- an “Enchanted” instrumental can be heard in the opening scene
- Laura Dern says “Speak Not”
- In an elevator, 13 buttons appear to represent Taylor’s albums (the 12 that are out including Fearless TV and Red TV, with a purple 13th button) and Taylor chooses the 3rd floor, also represented with a purple button
- Taylor wears “SN” hair clips, likely short for Speak Now
- In the outro, a “Long Live” instrumental is played, and Taylor is depicted with 3 dragons
Sneaky Instagram Captions
Taylor has taught fans to pay attention to how she formats text, as her original method of leaving cryptic messages was to hide irregularities in her written lyrics. Now that Speak Now TV has been announced, it’s easy to find some examples of where she might have been teasing fans.
Most notably, Taylor’s last instagram post before announcing SNTV is practically screaming what is to come. The purple color scheme. There’s a purple heart paired with a capitalized NEXT. Three o’s in both ‘love’ and ‘you’. And the use of the ‘3’ digit.
In fact, Taylor had included the 3 digit in many of her tour posts leading up to the announcement. And yes, this can be chalked up to her simply noting that she played 3 shows, but it perhaps it’s overly specific for her to do it every time… unless she was giving a hint.
There are lots of other examples of little details noticed by fans where we’ll never know for sure if they were meant to be SNTV easter eggs or not.
Teasing the Release Date:
There were SO many times where fans had thought they had cracked Taylor’s code when it comes to the release date of Speak Now Taylor’s version. But now that we know the answer, that SNTV is coming 7/7/23, here are the easter eggs that foreshadowed this.
- Last Kiss
Because “Last Kiss”, the penultimate track on the standard version of Speak Now, mentions the date July 9th, fans speculated that Taylor might use that as inspiration for the release date of the rerecord. As fans know that Taylor always releases music on Fridays, some had their eye on Friday, 7/7, as a potential date.
- National Koi Fish Day
Apparently, 7/7 is National Koi Day. Why is this significant? Well, Taylor played a guitar with Koi on it on her 2011 Speak Now World Tour.
And Taylor reminded us of this with the recent “Anti-Hero” music video.
And then continued to use Koi fish imagery in the “Lavender Haze” video.
It just seems painfully obvious now, but no, this was the work of a Mastermind.
What to Expect
With Taylor Swift, we know to expect the unexpected. However, here are some nuggets that have been discussed while anticipating SNTV’s arrival.
The Absolute End of John Mayer
We know how bad the Red TV era was for Jake Gyllenhaal. Well, the Speak Now TV era likely won’t be a fun time for John Mayer for similar reasons. While I don’t think we can expect a 10 minute version of Dear John, the rerecord era will definitely bring this relationship back to the surface. Don’t think that John will get a free pass because this album came out 13 years ago, Taylor is still clearly affected by their time together, as she sings about it in the Midnights 3am track: “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve”. She regrets him all the time.
Even Taylor Lautner is concerned:
And yes, Lautner is also an ex that is written about on Speak Now. But “Back to December” puts him in a positive light, so he knows he’s good.
Better Than Revenge Lyric Change?
Better Than Revenge, Speak Now’s 10th track, is one of the songs we will soon get a Taylor’s Version for, but will it be slightly different? A line from the chorus of this song has not aged particularly well:
She’s not a saint and she’s not what you think
She’s an actress, whoa
She’s better known for the things that she does
On the mattress, whoa
While this kind of language might have been normal in 2010, in 2023, this is considered slut shaming. Thus, fans are anticipating Taylor might tweak these lyrics for the rerecord.
Mysterious Liverpool Music Video
A young Joey King starred in the Mean music video back in the original Speak Now era, and now she has been spotted in Liverpool on the set of a Taylor Swift music video.
The following tweet says it all.
Fast Facts
- Speak Now was originally produced in 2008 to 2010 by Taylor Swift and Nathan Chapman.
- Speak Now, the standard edition, is a completely self-written album. Taylor decided to do this to prove wrong a slew of critics that claimed she could not song write on her own, following the massive success of her second album, Fearless.
- The original Speak Now, the deluxe edition, included a song called “If We Were A Movie”. However, likely because this bonus track has a co-writer on it, Taylor sneakily re-homed it on to Fearless TV. This change allows for SNTV to continue to be a completely self-written album. (The Taylor’s Version rerecord albums do not have deluxe versions, all songs that were ever a part of the era take a spot on the album).
- Taylor originally wanted to title the album “Enchanted”. However, male stakeholders told her this name was too immature.
Speak Now’s Liner Note Codes
Finally, as you may know, Taylor Swift left secret messages hidden in her lyrics for her first 5 albums. These codes were a fun way for Taylor to reveal more about her music, so reviewing the codes from the original Speak Now seems like an essential task to do before listening to SNTV.
The following is adapted from another post of mine, which can be found here.
The codes:
- Mine : Toby
- Sparks Fly : Portland, Oregon.
- Back To December : Tay.
- Speak Now : You always regret what you don’t say.
- Dear John : Loved you from the very first day.
- Mean : I thought you got me.
- The Story of Us : CMT Music Awards.
- Never Grow Up : I moved out in July.
- Enchanted : Adam.
- Better Than Revenge : You thought I would forget.
- Innocent : Life is full of little interruptions.
- Haunted : Still to this day.
- Last Kiss : Forever and always.
- Long Live : For you.
The meanings:
There are definitely some cryptic codes on this list. But to start off, here are the ones that don’t really require additional explanation:
- Speak Now : You always regret what you don’t say.
- Dear John : Loved you from the very first day.
- Mean : I thought you got me.
- Better Than Revenge : You thought I would forget.
- Haunted : Still to this day.
- Never Grow Up : I moved out in July.
Now for the deeper ones:
- Mine : Toby
Unlike her use of the name “Sam” for Should’ve Said No on her debut album, Toby does not refer to the subject of Mine. Instead, this code lends a nod to Toby Hemingway, the actor who stars alongside Taylor in the Mine music video.
- Sparks Fly : Portland, Oregon.
Taylor allegedly wrote Sparks Fly when she was 16 after opening up for Jake Owen in Portland, Oregon. After that night, she made the following post on mySpace:
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 Happy Halloween Happy Halloween! I’m sitting at the airport in Portland, Oregon.. About to get on a red-eye flight (Oh yes, I just said red-eye. Meaning, all night. This should be interesting…) to Toronto, Canada for another weekend of Rascal Flatts shows. Tonight was awesome. It was a show in Portland at a bar called Duke’s, I opened up for Jake Owen.And a little back-story, I’ve had his album on repeat for the past couple of months.. It’s an amazing album and I literally cannot stop listening to it. I’ve got every line memorized, and if you see me on a plane.. Chances are, I’m listening to some song off that album, at a volume level that’s probably going to cause long-term hearing damage someday. ANYWAY. I got to walk in on his sound check and meet him. Turns out he’s extremely cool, and had bought my album on iTunes. And since I had to leave after one song of his set, he played my favorite song “8 Second Ride” first. Which is another reason why he’s awesome. And just to let everyone know, YES, I did dress up for Halloween. Yes, I stood onstage in an angel costume with huge wings (that really conflicted with my guitar playing). And I convinced my two guitar players Todd and Kevin to put on those little headbands with the devil ears attached. Haha. Oh yeah, it was great. It’s so awesome playing to a crowd and seeing some people who know the words to EVERY SONG! I love that the album is out, and I love that y’all are listening to it. You guys are so awesome, and I really appreciate all of your comments. I love you all so much. Thanks for everything.
– Taylor Swift, MySpace
The original lyrics of Sparks Fly allude more to the song being about this night. In the first verse, the words in the published version “You’re the kind of reckless that should send me running/But I kinda know that I won’t get far” were transformed from “You say my name for the first time, baby/And I fall in love in an empty bar“.
- Back To December : Tay.
No, “Tay.” is not Taylor Swift referencing herself. Back to December is about her romance with Taylor Lautner.
- The Story of Us : CMT Music Awards.
The Story of Us is about how Taylor felt when seated not far from her ex, John Mayer, at the CMT Music Awards. She has made the following quote about the experience:
The “Story of Us” is a song that I wrote about an awkward situation where, well… Let me just preface by saying that I have happened to run into exes in strange places lately. This is about one of those situations where the strange place that I ran into him was an awards show.
I was seated a couple of seats away from him and there was so much that needed to be said, and neither one of us was willing to say it. We were both acting like we were engaged in conversations with people that we don’t even know. It was just miserable. I was telling my Mom about it later, and I said I felt like I was standing alone in a crowded room. And then I was like, “Gotta go. Bye!” And my Mom is used to that at this point so, that’s what this song is about.
– Taylor Swift
- Enchanted : Adam.
Enchanted is allegedly about Adam Young, the lead singer of Owl City, whom she never actually dated, only had an “Enchanted” encounter with. Adam responded to Taylor by covering the song.
- Innocent : Life is full of little interruptions.
In Innocent, Taylor forgives Kanye West for intercepting her at the 2009 Video Music Awards after winning over Beyoncé for “You Belong With Me” (Note, this was before the 2016 beef). I think that was more than a little interruption, Tay.
- Last Kiss : Forever and always.
By referencing Forever and Always, a track off of Fearless, here, Taylor hints that Last Kiss and Forever and Always are about the same person. That person is allegedly Joe Jonas.
- Long Live : For you.
Long Live is Taylor’s love letter to her fans. Taylor is literally dedicating the song to the reader, a fan.
Erika Fox 