The Resolutions of Love in New Year’s Day

This episode is brought to you by Expedia and Visit Scotland. Start your story in Scotland. Experience the pool of wide untamed landscapes and fresh cuisine that feels rooted in place. Discover castles steeped in legend and feel the genuine warmth from locals you meet in a place that will stay with you long after you leave. Start planning your own Scottish holiday today at Expedia.co.uk Co.uk slash Visit Scotland. Welcome to The Swiftie and The Scholar, the podcast where we examine the lyrics, lore and literary legacy of Taylor Swift. I am Angela McDowell, The Swiftie. And I am Dr. Uncle Jerry Coutts, The Scholar. Happy New Year! Happy New Year, Angela! It's January 1st today. Isn't that great? A brand new year. Can we take the hats off now? Yeah, I think so. That was enough for me. Okay, we celebrated. Woo-hoo! I should have had confetti poppers. I know. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Really, really, shoulda made a mess of your office. How you doing? I'm doing really well. Do you want to tell us your four resolution? No, I'm just kidding. I did do something that I can report. Oh, okay. Okay, Jonathan, my son-in-law, we were at a party and he and I were sitting together doing nothing. Fun party? Well, you know, I mean, the wives were all socializing and Jonathan and I were, you know, being guys. And so we were hanging out and Jonathan suggested, he asked me if I have downloaded the Facebook app and I said, no. And so he took my phone and he used my face and I downloaded the Facebook app. Oh my God. And it doesn't stop there. I signed up on Instagram. I know. So he downloaded the Instagram app and they're both on my phone. Okay. Yep. Just the apps or did he like set you up with account? Well, I mean, kind of set me up. I mean, on Instagram, so set me up on Instagram and then my daughter came by and she asked me, what does that say? So maybe I'm going to change my name on Instagram because the only reason why I would use it would be for this podcast. Right. Right. So I signed up under Dr. Uncle Jerry. Oh. Okay. But if you think about Dr. Uncle Jerry all run together. Yeah. She said, it looks like drunk El Jerry. Okay. So we can work on that. Maybe she literally didn't know what it said. Okay. That's hilarious. We will keep you updated for when that becomes a thing. Just look for drunk El Jerry. Funny. Yeah. I am a Hispanic file. You know, I was in Spain for nearly a year. I do research there. I love Spanish culture in the language. Maybe I am drunk. I'm drunk El Jerry. Yeah. Maybe so. Drunk El. I don't. Well, yeah. Okay. That's what she saw. Well, that's really exciting. This is breaking news. I know breaking news, right? It's on my phone. Now I haven't used it yet. Don't send anything to me, please. Don't give it overwhelmed yet. Yeah. Don't expect any answers. And don't look for drunk El Jerry. It might be changing soon. It might just, I mean, I don't call myself doctor. You know, we did it just for the podcast to established credibility. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, so I'm pretty much just Jerry. Maybe I should change it to just Jerry. Just Jerry. Yeah. So. Okay. Well, that's exciting. Can't wait to start tagging you and stuff. That's what's new. Okay. Well, What about you? Anything new? No, you know, 2025. What a year. What a year. We did start this podcast though. In 2025. That's been a real bright spot. We did. I've had fun. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't think I would. I'm kidding. I knew every moment with Angela is a ray of sunshine. She's such a hoot that Angela. She's great. Oh, wait. Can I tell something about you? Oh, gosh. Yes. When Angela was a child, I gave her a nickname. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We hadn't talked about this. We had a friend on Dear Reader, which has never gone live. Yeah. So yes. I like to read things backwards. Which you've told us to do with her. With Taylor Swift. I know. But when I was a kid, my dad showed me, he mentioned that he had altered the momentum of the automobile because there was a pot sign. And I was fascinated that the word stop backward was pots. And so I've always been really fascinated with words for forward and backward. I love palindromes, right? Palindromes are words that are the same forward and backward like mom, M-O-M. Backward is still M-O-M or radar, R-A-D-A-R, R-A-D-A-R. And there are palindromatic lines. And there's one about Napoleon is, Abel was I, air, I saw Elba. So Napoleon was held on the island of Elba. Okay. And if you read Abel was I, air, I saw Elba. Backward it says Abel was I, air, I saw Elba. Same, yeah. Right. So yes, Angela's name backward is Allegna. And I started calling her Allegna. And my parents to this day still call me that. You're stuck. I've been called that my whole life. And when people, my parents will just like say it randomly and I just answer to it. Cause that's what they've always called me. And then people that are like new are like, what did they just say? And I'm like, it's really not, we don't need to get into it. It's just backwards. I don't know. Mine backward is E-Redge, you know. And so not as much fun as Allegna. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, we're, we're consuming time because we've got this. I don't know. Yeah. So I love this song. New Year's Day is what we're covering today from reputation. This is only our second reputation song. Okay. But yeah, maybe not the most for us to talk about in the context of this podcast. But I wanted to do it because these are, this is our first like holiday season doing this podcast. That's right. So I just wanted to do it. And we, we got to the damn season for Christmas. The happiest. Christmas song. And now we have this one, which is a little more hopeful, I think. It's, it is hopeful. And, um, yeah, but it's, uh, it's incredibly redundant. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and I don't mean, I don't mean that's a critique of the song. I mean, as a poem, if I were, if I were the editor of this poet, I would say, well, you know, I mean, I liked the first four stands of the song. You know, I mean, I liked the first four stanzas. Maybe we could do something with the last several and, uh, but I mean, you know, a song is different from a poem in that regard. Right. Exactly. So, um, so this is, um, like I said, from a reputation, this is the last song on reputation and reputation never had any, um, bonus tracks or anything. Um, so this just like ended the album. Um, and this is written and produced by both Taylor and Jack Antonoff. Okay. The dynamic duo. Yes. So let's do it. Okay. Get into it. Okay. New Year's Day. Yes. Um, uh, first the title. Yes. Right. New Year's Day is a party day or I'm sorry, it should be, it's the after the party day. Uh-huh. Recovering from the party. Right. Recovering from the party. New Year's Eve is the party. New Year's Day is the recovery period. Um, so it kind of sets the scene and the poem is going to be about that. Right. It's going to be about after the party. Um, it's also a day for resolutions. And so I did think that was kind of fun to think about, you know, I wonder, are we making resolutions in this poem? And I think that she does. Right. She, she resolves the continuance of the relationship. Yeah. So I thought that was very clever. Okay. Um, so I liked, I liked both directions that, that she came from the literal cleanup of the party and the day for resolutions. Okay. So thumbs up on the title, thumbs up on, on foregrounding the poem itself. And then we get to a very brief four line verse one. Yes. So all of the verses are what we call quatrains. Uh, that is four line stanzas. Uh, so we have a bunch of quatrains. And so I'm looking to see, do we have quatrain rhyme party lobby floor before? And the answer there is, yeah, we've got kind of a, a, b, b, and then page run away, um, mid nights day, uh, you know, away in day rhyme page and midnight's not so much. Um, but, you know, so we have a little internal rhyme going. We have quatrains set up. So it looks like a very conventional type of poem. Um, it starts off with there's glitter on the floor after the party. So I mean, it's a great visual image. Right. So she is employing imagery. It's nice. Uh, the glitter could be metaphorical. Yeah. Right. So the glitter on the floor, uh, you know, when you, when you throw glitter, they're like beautiful, glistening moments of joy. But then they fall down to the floor and it's a mess. It's a mess. Just so much trash you have to pick up. Yeah. Right. So you have the contrasting imagery of at the moment it goes up on New Year's Eve, it's, it's beautiful, joyful celebratory. But the next day it's, it's that mess. Okay. Girls carrying their shoes down in the lobby. Um, you know, um, why are they carrying their shoes? Have they been in a state of undress? Maybe. Could be. Or they were just dancing. Or could be just dancing. Another feet hurt. That's right. I've, um, you know, I used to be a sponsor advisor for our, uh, Phi Theta Kappa honor society. And believe it or not, the honors kids, uh, you know, all college students like to dance. So, uh, you should have seen the advisors. We would sit over there going, Oh, geez. It's like secondhand embarrassment. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, we would go to regional conventions or the international convention and they always had a dance and, um, you know, the girls always wore their heels and they were looking sporty. But then as the dance progresses, you can't dance in those things. So the heels come off and they're dancing in their feet hurt. And, um, and it's funny because I got that visual image of my students, you know, my female students walking away, holding their high heels, their hands kind of wobbling along on their bare feet because they're tired. Um, so it was a fun. I mean, you know, that's fun. You can tell there was a party. You can tell there. It definitely was a party. Uh, there's candle wax and Polaroids on the hardwood floor. Um, so again, I like the consistency of imagery. Um, you know, it's camel wax, candle wax. So the candles, which would be celebratory would have burned down. So the light has gone out. Yeah. I know that doesn't sound very like a hopeful image. No, but I mean, it's okay because I had fun that night. And then the next day, the drops of candle wax and, you know, have you ever had that where you've had to clean candle wax off of something? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think, I mean, hopefully it's a relevant idea to everyone. Um, you know, when it drops on a wooden floor, on a wooden table, the candle wax seems to just somehow melt. It's in there. Yeah. It does. It does. And you wind up, you don't want to scrape the surface, but you can't figure out any other way to get the wax off. And so, yeah, the candle wax, just a headache and the old Polaroids and it's on a hardwood floor. So I think that's intentional. Hardwood, you know, unresistant, you know, right? It's hard. The next day is just hard. Yeah. You and me from the night before. However, but, um, and by the way, I also thought about candle wax has tears, but I don't think that that fits. Oh, yeah. Like dripping down. Right. Okay. But I do like Polaroids as images of memory. Yeah. Right. Because you're taking pictures in order to capture the memory. Have the memory. Yeah. Right. So yeah, you want to catch that memory and then later on in a refrain, she says, hold on to the memories. They will hold on to you. Right. So, um, you know, candle wax, I don't think works as tears, you know, but I swear every other party I ever attended, somebody broke up crying. Yeah. You know, it's what happens. But, um, but I do like the Polaroids as a metaphor for memory. Yeah. A great. So you and me, um, so we have kind of a narrator and a, and a partner. And so immediately you have to ask, okay, who is this? Is this a fictional character? Is this Taylor Swift? Um, you know, it feels like a fictional character. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. You can tell me. I mean, I don't know either. I don't know that this is like super fictional. I mean, super. Yeah. I don't know if it's like super autogra, autobiographical or super fictional or if it's just somewhere in between. Just telling a story. Like I'm going to stay in doing it with, right? Within the New Year's Eve to New Year's Day metaphor. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, and you mentioned the New Year's Eve to New Year's Day metaphors. Yeah. I think that they're both their real time images that she's talking about, but I think that they're metaphor. Yeah. Agree. Right. So, um, and since it extends throughout the entire work, anytime you take a metaphor and extended throughout a stanza or an entire work, it is called a conceit. That is correct. So this poem is a conceit. Nice. Yeah. It is an extended metaphor using the New Year's Day in the New Year's Eve and New Year's Day as metaphorical for transitions in their lives. Okay. That's it. We're not. Any of that leftover champagne? Oh, I guess we ought to do the rest. Okay. Um, the chorus, I like the first line of the chorus personally. Yeah. Yeah. Don't read the last line. Don't spoil the journey. You know, um, and it made me think, because this is how my mind works, of people who read last lines. No, that's crazy. You think it's crazy to do that first? Yeah. No, I've heard of people doing that. They'll go to like the final page and like look to see how it ends. And I'm like, well, what, why are we even reading? You just called me crazy. You're crazy. You do that? I have done it before. Yes. Oh dear. Why do you, why, why? So it's usually in a, in a novel that doesn't matter to me. Okay. Okay. Okay. So I'm both a serious reader and a reader for entertainment and engagement. Right. I think most people are. So sometimes I pick up a book to read it seriously, to really get at its guts and think about it. Um, and then I pick up a really bad sci-fi novel just because I know I can read it in a couple of hours and it's going to be fun. And you're going to escape from whatever real life is happening. Yeah. And then a couple of years ago, I picked up the Rogers, the last knees, princes of Ember series. Okay. And, and I mean, it's like 150 pages in big print. Oh. And so you can read it in an hour and a half. And, and I read all of them and it was a, you know, and it was just fluff and lots of fun. Did you really read the last page first? Yeah. I got to where I would say, okay, what's the last page? That is so funny. Yeah. It's like never occurred to me to do that. Yeah. Um, well, if you've ever seen when Harry met Sally, okay, Harry tells Sally that he goes to the last page to look at the last line. Yeah. Um, brilliant film by the same filmmaker as, um, oh gosh, uh, Princess Bride. Yeah. And he just died and he just passed away. Rob Reiner. Yeah. Yeah. Brilliant filmmaker. And Harry met Sally. If you've never seen it, check it out. Um, but I thought about great last lines too. Okay. Okay. So like one of my favorites is, um, Dickens, uh, Tale of Two Cities frequently read in high school because it's short. Yeah. And you know, most of his novels are big thousand page novels. Uh, this one and hard times are both fairly brief. And, uh, so it starts out famously. It was the best of times. It was worst of times, uh, because he's talking about two cities, London and Paris during the, uh, the terrible, um, Paris uprisings of 1789 to 92 or 94. Um, you know, the French Revolution. Yeah. And, um, so it was the best of times in Princess London. Yeah. It was the worst of times in Princess Paris. Um, but at the end are protagonists sacrificing himself on the guillotine. And so he says, Tiz afar better thing I do now than I have ever done before. Yeah. Tiz afar better resting place I go to now than I've ever known before. You know, it's great last line. That's good. Yeah. Um, I have to stop you there because, um, I know you always bring it back to Dickens, but, um, this album reputation is the, is what getaway car, getaway car is on reputation and getaway car is the one that starts out. It was the best of times. It was the worst of crimes. Oh yeah. Oh, that's fun. Yeah. It's always about Dickens. Yeah. You knew that or Jane Austen. Yeah. It's like how I always bring everything back to Taylor. It's fine. That's true. That's what we do. I could go to, um, Hemingway. Okay. So Hemingway's got a great last line. Um, in the sun also rises. So in the sun also rises, um, our protagonist Jake, uh, was in World War one and I did this. That means he got his genitalia shot off. And, um, can I say that? You can say that. Is my, is the algorithm going to pick that word up? You're fine. Okay. Uh, maybe he just got his tail shot off. Um, and, and he and the girlfriend are like lying in bed, I don't know, fully clothed because they can't do anything. And she is talking about Lady Brett is saying, Oh, it would have been perfect. It would have been perfect. Jake, if you hadn't had your injury and, um, the last line of the novel, I mean, Jake knows that she is not perfect. And he knows that ultimately things wouldn't have worked out. And he says, isn't it pretty to think so? Okay. Well, I love that. Okay. On another Taylor Swift song on folklore, she says, isn't it just so pretty to think? Oh really? Oh, well, maybe she read, I don't know. Maybe she read, gosh, we're just wandering all around the song and maybe she read the sun also rises, you know, um, I have used that line time and again, whenever, you know, like people will come to me and say, you know, well, we should have done it this way. And my, and my response is, isn't it pretty to think so? Oh my gosh. And no one ever gets it. It's the last line. I would have assumed you were talking about Taylor Swift. No. Oh yeah. Most of the, most of the stuff I say that sounds smart is actually a quote. Not from your head. No, no. Okay. Back to the song. Don't read the last page. I think she means don't spoil the journey, right? Live life for the moment. You know, we're going to, we're going to go day by day. Obviously last night was New Year's Eve. Today's a new day. Yeah. Let's keep it new and fresh. Yes. Okay. But I do like the whole, when Harry met Sally or things like that. Yeah. Okay. So, but I, but I stay when you're lost and I'm scared and you're turning away. Oh, so it's like a resolution, a promise. Yeah. So when things are beginning to unravel, when things are beginning to come apart a little, I'll stay. I want your midnight's. Okay. So what happens at midnight on New Year's Eve? You celebrate and you kiss. That's correct. You kiss, you celebrate. It is the culmination of the party. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I think the line I want your midnight's is about wanting him in his sadness so that midnight would be a metaphor for his depression. But I think it's also, you know, what happens at midnight? I want your love in our private moments. I want the kiss on New Year's Eve. You know, I think there are a lot of ways you can read the line. Yeah. That's interesting that you said, gosh, you're doing so much here. I know you said we don't have a lot to talk about, but you're like bringing up, you're bringing up a lot for me. Okay. So you said like his depression, like his blow moments, and that is a theme for the person who this song is maybe inspired by the relationship she was in at this time. There's a theme of him. I told you she uses blue a lot to like talk about him because he had blue eyes, but then he also had like struggled with mental health issues. And so that kind of takes through through her catalog as she's singing about him, writing about him. She talks about his depression a lot. Okay. And that's kind of crazy that you just said that. So maybe the song's getting more interesting for me. Yeah. I don't know. But also then, you know, like five years later, she put out a whole album called Midnight's. Yeah, I remember that. I wondered if, if there were some clues to that coming because she says over in verse three, you and me for evermore. And of course I knew about the evermore album. Yeah. Half a year ago, I never heard of it. But, you know, since you have edified me. Yes. Yeah. So you've got evermore and you've got Midnight's. I knew there was an album titled Midnight's. Yeah. And I love this line. Like I think that's such a, I think that's just such a fun way to phrase it. Like I want your Midnight's, but I'll be, you know, here the next day or whatever. And I always like held on to that. And so whenever the Midnight's album came out, I was like, wait, what is she doing? We already talked about this, you know? Yeah. Well, so it's so ambiguous. Am-ambiguous. Am-ambiguous. Yeah. It's, yeah, it'll make no sense to me because I mean, it does make sense because it, it, the duality of meaning is that Midnight is kind of like that depressive moment. She's going to be there for him when he's turning away. But also, you know, Midnight is the culmination of the party for New Year's. Yeah. It's also, it's, yeah. So it's the, the negative in like the regular life, but in this one specific moment, it's the party. Yeah. In this context, it's a party. So I want both Midnight's. I won't, you know, and then she, she clarifies that a little bit in the last line of the chorus by saying, I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year's Day. You know, like I'll be there for the after party. Yeah. I'll be there for that, that time when it's just drudgery for the after for the downtime. Yeah. Yeah. So, so I like that, you know, I, I like the, the confluence of it. The confluence of images there. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do it. You squeezed my hand three times. Okay. My mama told me she did. Miss coats. She told me when she held my hand, she squeezed it three times. It meant I love you. I love you. That's right. Daniel Tiger also told me. Oh, did he really? Yeah. Daniel Tiger in, um, you know, in that TV show. With, in the neighborhood. I do know Daniel Tiger because of your grandchildren. Oh yeah. Yeah. If you have to go potty stop. That's what I remember. That's, I don't keep running because. But, um, yeah, I mean, I love that show. I mean, that guy's, that guy was a genius, I think, and, and, uh, wonderful human being. Yes. Um, and, you know, Daniel Tiger is supposed to be a four year old essentially. And he said, he sings a song about a lot of ways to say, I love you. And I would swear in one of the episodes, he says, uh, you squeezed my paw three times. Oh, that's so cute. In that sweet. So, I know. He's going to go home and squeeze my dog. He's boss. Mr. Daniel stripey tiger. I do. I do. I love that show. I'm sorry. It's just so cute. And he does so many wonderful things with it, you know, so yeah, I, it's a, it's a cute line. I think it's, uh, should remind us all of, of the quiet, simple ways we tell one another, we love each other. Yeah. So, uh, and very intimate. Um, and then she says, but you squeeze it three times in the back of a taxi. So you don't have to make your love public. Um, uh, which is a great poem, the, um, in by John Dunn, John Dunn talks about how much he loves his wife and how he doesn't have to, uh, profane their love by making it public to everyone because she knows it. And yet he wrote a poem and published it. But that's also interesting because the reputation album came out when Taylor had been like hiding for a year because, um, she got canceled and she, she like went away and she was in this new relationship that we didn't know about. And okay, I feel like you're like really doing a lot with this song. So this, this album, all unbeknownst to me, this album was like born out of this like secret moment where she was like living and she says in like one of her, the, the first documentary that she came out with talking about this time, she was like, no one physically saw me for a year and their relationship was like very private. He would never talk about her. That's like a problem. But, um, it was just like, yeah, I never picked up on that. Like in the back of the taxi is like, no one can see us here. This is private. Like we're not even actually saying anything. Right. They're just signaling their love by three little squeezes of Daniel Tiger's paw. And I'm sorry, where are they again? Um, on a road in the back of a taxi on a road. You know, last week I mentioned the number of time cars shows up and getaway car and Tiz the damn season and champagne problems. And here we are a new year's day. Wow. I know, I know. I think that's pretty cool. I think if you maybe if you go back through her, her songs or poems and take a look at how many times she uses cars, you know, I don't think that it's systematic necessarily. I think it's emblematic of our car culture. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and so I think it's interesting how, and I do wonder if there is a, you know, if you could list the number of ways that she uses cars, you know, because in Tiz the car season, the car fogs up and so she's using it as imagery. She's using it as a possible link to like make out in a car, getaway car. It's a different type of use. It's escapism. Here it's used as an image of privacy. That's so interesting. Yeah, I think it is. You know, I would, I would write about that. Yeah. I wonder if she also uses it like I've talked before about how hallways come up a lot as in like songs where it's like maybe a relationship is ending or something and they're going down a hallway. So it's like place A to place B in the hallways in the middle. And that's also kind of the same with a car. Like a car takes you down, down a road down from place to place. Yeah. So yeah, as long as you're working with cars, then you should read the next line and I can tell that's going to be a long road. And so, you know, I think you should probably look at roads and cars and see the ways that she used them. Yeah. So I'm not going to do that, but someone out there, get best. Get busy, you know, I mean, it is, it is interesting that she, well, I mean, I would be, it would be fun to go back through and do a systematic review of those words. Yeah. I mean, I've done that with, I did have a paper on Shakespeare when I talked about orality and literacy in Shakespeare and his use of books as an image in his plays. And so you go back through every single play and look at the way that he uses books. Yeah. And it turned out to be a really interesting paper. So yeah, I think you go through your songs and look at cars and roads. Okay. Yeah. And see how, how she uses them. But she says, I'll be there if you're the toast of the town, babe, or if you strike out and you're crawling home, which sounds like for better or worse to me. Yeah, it sure does. Yeah. So this, it does feel promissory, you know, it feels like a resolution to me. Yeah. And it's a little bit cliched. You're the toast of the town or you strike out and crawling home. So she's, she's stacking her cliches one on top of another. And usually she's a little bit more deft about handling her cliches, you know, that she uses idiomatic phrasing with a twist. Yeah. You know, like you said, it was the best of times. It was the worst of. Crimes. So she takes that, that cliched phrase now and she gives a little twist. She doesn't do that here. But I can, but I take the point. The point is that she's making a promise. I also like using toast of the town, like on New Year's at midnight, you know, you're going to toast like to your new year. So that's kind of fun. Yeah. That's kind of fun to like bring that back. Yeah. I hadn't read that into it. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. So. I do. This is a side note, but I do remember when this album came out, she was, this was when she would still like, she was pretty active and she would answer people's questions on, on online and somebody was like, and this was probably either a person who is from a foreign country. So they don't understand English isn't their first language or they're really young and they never heard the phrase toast of the town. And they were like, what does this mean? I don't understand. And she answered and she was, she used emojis and she was like, like this and use the two clinking emojis and then the two glasses clinking and she goes, not this with like a piece of bread. And that is stuck every time I hear this line, I think of her response to that. I'll see if I can find it and put it on the screen, but this is very silly. Like why is that in my head? I don't know. You know, it's funny because I was, this is a little off the song, but I'm going to tell the story and you can edit it. So one of my favorite students ever, ever was a guy named Yolmo and he was from El Salvador. And he had come to America when he was in ninth grade as a political refugee and he did not know English. And so he was in high school in, you know, ESL, ESOL classes, trying to learn English. And then he came to college and he was amazing, just amazing. I won a whole bunch of scholarships and he works for the United States State Department now naturalized citizen. But the first time I met him, he came to one of our honor society meetings and I used the expression, well, that's all water under the bridge now. And he came up to me when we had a break and he said, what does it mean? And I said, what does what mean? And he had a notebook filled with all these idiomatic phrases. Oh my gosh, it's so cute. It's so great. And the guy was just brilliant and he was nonstop. You know, and he showed it to me and I said, oh, water out of the bridge, something that's been completed that you can't pull back water under a bridge. And he went, oh, yeah, I get it. It is funny. Like there's just these things that we hear and we just we just know them because we just know them. You know, they've been in our vocabulary forever, but we also don't really know like the origins of those a lot of times. You know, we just say things, you know, Yama, if you're out there, love you. You've always been my favorite. You know that. He is great. Okay. So yeah, the little cliched, but, you know, again, you take our point and I like, I like your point about being the toast of the town to reference the New Year's Eve party. Yeah. Don't read the last page and before that and I but I stay when it's hard or it's wrong or I'm making mistakes. So again, very promissory, very resolutionary. I want your midnight. I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year's Day. Then you get to the refrain and this is my consistent plea for someone to write about memory. I think we need to do an episode on memory and talk about what memory is, how it's built, what short term, long term operational memory are and talk about John Locke's theory of memory and why I'm so fascinated by it and why as a historian, I'm so interested in it. But in this song, she says, hold on to the memories. They will hold on to you and she says it three times. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze three times and I will hold on to you. So I think that is supposed to be a verbal image of that squeezing of the hand. Yeah, agreed. Yeah. And I liked that. That line is that feels very Taylor. I was talking about like the most Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift lyrics and that might be one. Hold on to the memories. They will hold on to you. And then the the poem is pretty much over. Yeah. Well, we just have this bridge. The bridge. That's right. Please don't ever become a stranger again. That's a bit of a cliche and I wondered if it was like the lost love from last week's. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Tis the damn season. Don't be a stranger, but I only see you once every Christmas. Yeah, yeah. When I have to come home. Whose laugh I could recognize anywhere. And again, I felt echoes of the smile in Tis the damn season. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So I know because they're both holiday and we did them back to back. Yeah. You know, I couldn't seem to to separate their intertextuality. Yeah. Between the two of them. Yeah. And then please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere. And then she goes back to the glitter on the floor and the girls and the candle wax and you and me forever more ever more. Did you say? And again, very promissory. Don't read the last page. And then this is a little bit different. I stay when it's hard or it's wrong or we're making mistakes for better or worse. I want your midnight's cleaning up bottles. Hold on to the memories. What's different is the outro where she takes the memories refrain and intermixes it with the coral or the, you know, the bridge, the bridge. So you get one line from one one from the other one. So it goes back and forth. So you get the intermixing of don't be a stranger and to the memories and the laugh I could recognize and hold on to the memories and don't be a stranger and hold on to the memories. It's all about memory. I liked the intermixing. I feel like I feel like we didn't need the extra chorus, the extra refrain, you know, as a poem. I understand she's trying to accomplish something else in the song. Yeah, you know, as a poem, I think the redundancy makes a little bit weaker. Right. Agree. But yeah, I do like the outro, the mixing of the which I think we talked about her doing that in another song. And now I can't remember which one it was. Yeah, I can't remember either. But you're right. Enchanted. At the end. No, maybe not. But it where they she just mixes. She takes two different quadrains and she shuffles them like a deck of cards. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, the whole poem is a conceit, you know, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day are metaphorical images of the passage of life, you know, the years that go by. And the, you know, the promissory note that she signs is that she will be there for all those years for all those memories, no matter what they bring. Yeah, even if it's bad or hard or that's right, wrong or whatever. Right. So there you go. You ready to listen? Yeah, I'm interested to listen. I want to know what an after party song sounds like. I know what a party song sounds like. I'm not quite sure how I think of an after party song. Okay, we will we're going to listen to the album version and then I think I might have you listen to from the reputation tour. At the piano, she did a mashup of two, three songs, two of them, you know, one of them, you don't. Okay. Clean. Okay. New Year's Day. And then one called Long Live. That's from Speak Now. But it's pretty fun the way she weaves them together. So I think we might listen to that. Okay, let's do it, Alegna. Okay, we'll be right back. Gotcha. Okay, give me your thoughts on New Year's Day. Well, I have to admit, I like the song. I mean, as a song, it's really good. Yeah, I mean, I liked the way her voice goes when she sings Hardwood Floor and then Night Before. I really liked the, I didn't recognize how it was very rhythmical. She sings it rhythmically. So she sings it sometimes with Anapest, sometimes with Dactyls. There's nothing like consistent, but it was very rhythmical. I kept trying to see if it was a, if I could scan it in a systematic way and I can't, but she sings it that way, which makes it kind of pretty. Okay, interesting. Yeah. And then the hold on to the memory. Yeah. So she verbally holds on. And then the please don't, you know, who's laugh, please don't, you know, the way her voice stresses the word laugh and laugh and don't and don't. And I love the outro, the mashup between, you know, the two previous quadranes that where she, I didn't know she's. Yeah, she actually overlaps. She overlaps them when she sings them. Yeah. So you can't do that when you read. Right. And I couldn't tell it. I mean, I couldn't have known that that's where she was going to go when she sang it. But when she sang it that way, it's beautiful. Yeah. So forget that part about me saying she needs to get rid of that. Nothing better than a Taylor piano song though. Yeah. Oh, I mean, I think so. It's, it's really lovely. Yeah. Yeah. As a song, really lovely. It's, it just sounds very, to me, it feels very like a hopeful new beginning where it's not a new beginning. Like they've been in this relationship, but it's like, you know, this is a new, a new chapter we're in maybe or something. It's a new year's day. Yeah. And like we're going to just keep going and we're going to stick around and yeah, I don't know. It just feels very, I just, I just think it's really beautiful. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of simple, but, but the beauty of the song belies the simplicity of lyrics. So I think I like the song more than I like the poem. Yeah. It's just kind of, yeah, I feel like that's only happened like one other time. Yeah, I like it. I'm ready to rate this baby. Okay, let's do it. All right. For New Year's Day from Reputation, lyrical strength. You know, I thought it was strong 95. Okay. Um, narrative and structure. I liked the conceit. I liked the extension of the metaphors, the before and after, the here and the now, the, the promissory element. So I'm, I'll say another 95. Okay. Um, production and atmosphere. See now as a song, I really liked it. Like I would listen to that song again. Yeah. And, and, you know, probably out there, many of you have said I'm already full blown, swifty. And to be really honest with you, some of these songs I have listened to an angel plays them for me. And then I go, Oh, that was nice. And I have not never again. I would pull this one up and listen to it. Yeah. Yeah, I would. So, um, you know, only because in my, in my great high seeing and knowing, um, I, I think it's good. I'd say 99. I mean, I would listen to it again. All right. Yeah. Um, lore and literary references. Um, you know, not a lot of, not a lot of literary references or lore going on here. Um, you know, pretty much New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, before and after party, party. Um, maybe I don't, I hate to give it an 80 because I like an 88 or something because I like the song, you know, so maybe a 90. Okay. And then emotional impact. I thought it was very sweet. And any song that makes me think of Mr. Rogers neighborhood. Yeah. Yeah. Or, or Charles Dickens. Winners. It's kind of your winner. So, um, I don't know if it's, uh, it had a big emotional impact, but I thought it was very sweet. I would, I would play this for my wife and say, uh, and then hold her hand and squeeze it three times. So a 97. Okay. That gives us a 95. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, I think it's a, almost a better song than it is a poem. Yeah. Yeah. So that's fun. Well, happy New Year. Happy New Year. Happy New Year, folks. Sorry we didn't wear our headbands the whole time. They're a little annoying. Yeah. Maybe I'm gonna wear my wife bought these, but. It's a little crooked. Yeah. I know. Um, yeah. So everybody needs to stay tuned for when your, um, Instagram account is active. Yeah. Maybe don't look for drunk. Drunk. Drunk Al Derry. Um, but yeah, that's exciting. 2026 is taking Uncle Jerry to new heights, to new social media. That's right. Okay. Anything else? I don't think so. I do hope everyone has a great year. Yes. Yeah. This will be the year that we really take off, you know, that's right. All of us collectively. And watch Mr. Rogers and be kind to each other. Yeah. Treat each other like neighbors. Exactly. Okay. Um, make sure you're subscribed everywhere. Um, please go ahead and rate and review on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you can, wherever you listen. Um, you can follow the podcast on Instagram and Tik Tok to keep up at Swifty and Scholar Pod. You can follow me at Angela Wyatt McDowell on Instagram and someday I'll have something to say here for our Drunk Al Derry, but for now he's here watching Daniel Tiger. That's right. Okay. Bye. Bye.