More about: Taylor Swift

'If you play these games, we're both going to lose' is the secret message that frames the entire backstory to the original version of 'Forever & Always', the eleventh song from Fearless.

Similarly to 'The Way I Loved You' - the track before it - 'Forever & Always' leans much more pop-rock than country compared to other tracks on Fearless. In true Taylor fashion, it was a last-minute addition to her sophomore album, frantically written shortly after her break-up (with Joe Jonas, to be specific). 

Like any true songwriter, 'Forever & Always' was written in the aftermath of something that Swift describes as “really, really dramatic and crazy”, needing her to immediately address it in her songwriting. In comparison to the rest of the songs on Fearless. which are full of fairytale imagery and rose-coloured glasses, 'Forever & Always' is a song about true heartbreak, devoid of any illusions Swift had about what love is, looks, or feels like based on what she’s read in books or seen in films. 

In January 2010, Rolling Stone published an excerpt of an interview with Swift ahead of the Grammys, where she was nominated for eight awards. In the interview, Swift herself connects the knee-jerk reaction to writing songs that started as a tangible way to get her emotions out and ties a thread to 'Should’ve Said No' from her self-titled debut: two songs that were last-minute additions to each album, respectively. Both tracks are snarky and have tongue-in-cheek lyrics alluding to the feeling of needing the last word after being wronged, but there’s the underlying feeling of being betrayed by someone you genuinely believed in too. 

In conversation with BMR, Swift described 'Forever & Always' as a song about a time when she “was in a relationship with someone and I was just watching him slowly slip away. I didn't know why, because I wasn't doing anything different. I didn't do anything wrong. He was just fading. It’s about the confusion and frustration of wondering why? What changed? When did it change? What did I do wrong?” At this point, everyone knows the story of what happened (The 27 second phone call, the Ellen interview, the SNL monologue, and the like), but what I, personally, never really thought about was just how young Swift was when she was navigating this huge, devastating (at the time) loss. 

Where the original 'Forever & Always' is cheeky, the deluxe Fearless piano edition is heartbreaking and serves as a reminder that for any young person experiencing love and loss for the first time, many cover up their hurt with a quick remark when they are really hurting. The 'Forever & Always' piano version’s special secret message further exemplifies this — “Still miss who I thought he was.” This version gives a new layer to the song; even if the track was finished in a race against time to get it on the album, the piano version requires Swift to pause, sit with her ache, and reflect on who she believed this person to be.

Fearless (Taylor's Version) is out now. 

More about: Taylor Swift