All the Similes and Metaphors in Taylor Swift’s Red, Ranked
- Memorizing him was as easy as knowing all the words to your old favorite song
As someone who recently discovered I still know every single word to Vanessa Carlton’s debut album Be Not Nobody, this speaks to me on a deep emotional level.
2. Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street / Faster than the wind, passionate as sin ending so suddenly
Red as an album sort of marks the end of “girl next door” Taylor Swift and the transition into “massive pop star” Taylor Swift, and this lyric is that in a microcosm. This is not something the vast majority of her fans can relate to, not being old enough or (more likely) rich enough to drive a new Maserati, but she does a good job of describing what that feels like.
3. Like the colors in autumn, so bright just before they lose it all
It’s sort of cliché but it is a good point: it sucks that leaves are at their prettiest right before winter hits and they all die and turn brown.
4. Loving him is like trying to change your mind once you’re already flying through the free fall
Most of these comparisons are nonsensical and this ranks high purely for being something I can understand… sort of.
5. Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met
As someone who regularly falls in love with strangers on the CTA after 1.5 seconds of eye contact, sure.
6. Losing him was blue like I’d never known
Blue as sadness. Taylor is revolutionary.
7. Missing him was dark grey all alone
Loneliness as grey. Wildly original.
8. Loving him was red
So this lyric is dumb, and even dumber after seeing her intro the song through monologue. Taylor?
“I think a lot about them, I write a lot about them, and so sometimes I think of analogies to compare to feelings.
Like, if we’re talking about colors I would say that blue represents sadness and gray represents loneliness.
But the kind of emotions that I’ve been writing lots of songs about lately, they happen to be very intense emotions: extreme love; extreme, terrible, awful, unbearable heartbreak.
And those emotions I like to label as the ‘crazy’ emotions.
Ugh, and the crazy emotions are very difficult to get through, don’t you think?
And, the thing is, they’re hard to get through, they’re hard to write songs about, but you being here tonight means that we’ve all been through the same things and I’d like to thank you for making my music the soundtrack to your crazy emotions.
Because the crazy emotions that make us stronger, the ones that test us, the ones that teach us the important lessons in life, feeling those emotions…
If I had to put a color to those emotions…
I wonder if we’re on the same page about this?
And scream loudly if you are, but I think those colors, if I had to pick one for all those emotions I think it would be bright, burning RED.”
TAYLOR, YOU ARE NOT THE FIRST PERSON TO COMPARE LOVE TO THE COLOR RED.
9. Touching him was like realizing all you ever wanted was right there in front of you
This is embarrassingly literal.
10. Regretting him was like wishing you never found out that love could be that strong
Alternatively, ‘tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. I think I’m team Alfred Lord Tennyson in this celebrity feud.
11. Fighting with him was like trying to solve a crossword and realizing there’s no right answer
That’s not how crosswords work, Taylor.
