Taylor Swift had to say “don’t go” to a few of her original 1989 lyrics.
Upon the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) — which dropped on Friday, October 27 — Swift revealed a few key changes from three of the songs off the album’s original tracklist: “New Romantics,” “Wonderland” and “Wildest Dreams.”
In “New Romantics” Swift 33, sings, “Please, take my hand and / Please, take me dancing and / Please, leave me stranded / It’s so romantic,” during the track’s bridge. However, her first draft — which is shared on a poster for the Target CD version of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) — shows her initial lyrical ideas.
“So take my hand / we’ll both stand / inside a burning building,” she originally wrote, before adding a bit of tongue-in-cheek self-loathing.
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“Maybe I’m a s—t show / But I’m fun and kinda cute and willing affectionate,” she quipped. “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.” (Swift would later incorporate her feelings of being perceived as an “anti-hero” in the lead single for her 2022 album, Midnights.)
On “Wonderland” — another deluxe album track which used Alice in Wonderland imagery to depict a whirlwind romance — Swift made a few changes to seemingly reflect the pressure of a relationship in the spotlight.
“We danced down hallways, too in love to think straight / Screaming you’re the king and I’m the queen,” was later turned into “So, we went on our way / Too in love to think straight / All alone, or so it seemed,” while the pre-chorus, once “Didn’t I tell you don’t listen to them?” eventually became “Didn’t they tell us don’t rush into things?”
Swift also initially mentioned “colors I’d never see twisting around me” in the pre-chorus — a possible connection to “we were in screaming color” from “Out of the Woods” — but altered the line to read, “I felt your arms twistin’ around me.”
The final change in “Wonderland” comes in the bridge, which began as “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.” It ultimately transformed 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,” once again using a direct Alice in Wonderland depiction to bring the story to life.
“Wildest Dreams” also has bridge alterations. Swift seemingly toyed with “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 the iconic “You’ll see me in hindsight / Tangled up with you all night / Burning it down” lyric.
Swift announced during her final Los Angeles stop of the Eras Tour in August that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was on the way, hitting shelves exactly nine years after the original on October 27. The record includes all 19 re-recorded tracks plus five never-before-heard songs from “The Vault,” which many feel is largely inspired by her past romance with ex-boyfriend Harry Styles.
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“I was born in 1989, reinvented for the first time in 2014, and a part of me was reclaimed in 2023 with the re-release of this album I love so dearly,” she wrote in a message shared via social media to celebrate the release. “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine the magic you would sprinkle on my life for so long.”
She continued: “This moment is a reflection of the woods we’ve wandered through and all this love between us still glowing in the darkest dark. I present to you, with gratitude and wild wonder, my version of 1989. It’s been waiting for you.”
