On August 3, Taylor Swift surprised her fans by releasing a pre-release version of one of her songs. The 34-year-old, 14-time Grammy-winning singer announced on Instagram Stories that she would be making “first draft phone memo” versions of select tracks from her most recent album, The Tortured Poets Department , available for a limited time.
With this offer, fans can get a behind-the-scenes look at the songs before they are fully developed for the album. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys is one song that has gained particular popularity.
The phone memo version’s lyrics are more emotional than those on the final album version. Swift sings, “Just say when, I’ll play again / He was my best friend in the sandlot” in the outro of the full song, which was released on April 19.
Swift recently spoke to iHeartRadio about the emotional depth of her song. It’s about “not having someone’s favorite toy until they break you and then don’t want to play with you again.” She explained that the song, written or co-written by Swift for her album TTPD, tells a story through the eyes of a child’s toy.
The song talks about how in relationships people value and cherish someone before underestimating and discarding them. This metaphor expresses the feeling of feeling valuable until someone is broken and forgotten.
Swift also said that a line from an earlier version of the song that many fans found particularly heartbreaking was removed. This slower-paced rendition, featuring only a piano, accurately captured the song’s original emotion.
His interpretation highlights the song’s main theme, which is the hurt of being suddenly ignored after being initially appreciated. It also expresses the deep sense of loss and betrayal that comes with such a drastic change in attitude.
The concept of denial is explored in the song Cassandra. The artist admits that at first people said an emphatic “no”, but he hopes that eventually minds will change. The difficulty of trying to repair a relationship that appears to be broken but still has the potential to heal is explored in the song.
In addition, three songs – Cassandra, The Black Dog, and Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? – which are early “first draft phone memo” versions, are currently available for download on Swift’s website.
Also read: ‘Do What You Love’: Taylor Swift honors Simone Biles, Sha’Carri Richardson and Katie Ledecky in Olympics promo video
