What's The Real Meaning Of Timeless By Taylor Swift? Here's What We Think
It's finally here! Taylor Swift has dropped the highly-anticipated revamped version of her 2010 album "Speak Now," and, boy, was "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" worth the wait. The star first opened up about her plans to re-record the collection of songs on Instagram in May, sharing alongside the cover art for the updated version of the album, "I first made Speak Now, completely self-written, between the ages of 18 and 20. The songs that came from this time in my life were marked by their brutal honesty, unfiltered diaristic confessions and wild wistfulness. I love this album because it tells a tale of growing up, flailing, flying and crashing ... and living to speak about it." She also confirmed that there would be not one, not two, not three, but a whopping six unreleased songs being added to the tracklist as her special From The Vault extras. The six tracks are songs the star initially wrote for the album, but decided for one reason or another not to include them in the final tracklist.
As with any Swift album drop, in the hours since it was released into the world, Swifties have been fiercely listening to the songs (which, until now, had never officially been released) as the whole world works out exactly what the tracks are about. Or, in some cases, who the songs may just be about. One of those that has everyone putting their investigation caps on? "Timeless."
Taylor Swift sings about a love for the ages on Timeless
So, what's "Timeless" about? Taylor Swift opens the song by sharing how she found a box of old photos in an antique shop and then calls her lover to explain that, when she was looking through them, she saw the two of them. She then imagines what their lives together would have been like had they been born decades earlier, singing, "On a crowded street in 1944 / And you werе headed off to fight in the war / You still would've been mine / We would have been timeless / I would've read your love letters every single night / And prayed to God you'd be comin' home all right." She then shares how she feels she and her partner were meant to find one another, and would have been together even in another life. She then sings about seeing photos of a couple in the 1950s and shares how even if she'd been forced into a marriage with someone else, she still would have found her true love. Adorable!
Towards the end of the track, Swift tells her partner how she's going to love them for the rest of her life, and how they'll have their own photos for someone to find. She sings, "I'm gonna love you when our hair is turnin' gray / We'll have a cardboard box of photos of the life we've made / And you'll say, 'Oh my, we really were timeless.'"
Timeless may have been inspired by Taylor Swift's grandparents
As if the story in the stunning "Timeless," which features a nod back to Taylor Swift's earlier country-influenced music, wasn't sweet enough, there's been some speculation the track may have been inspired by her own grandparent's relationship. It's thought that Swift's maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, and grandfather Robert Finlay, may have been in the star's mind when she was writing the song with Jack Antonoff, as the official lyric video for the track shared to YouTube features photos of Marjorie. That sweet detail had plenty of fans gushing online, as Swifties took to Twitter to share thoughts and how the song also relates to their own lives. "Oh my, so 'Timeless' is about her grandparents?? i got goosebumps, this is so beautiful," one fan tweeted alongside a link to the lyric video.
Other fans had further theories about the inspiration behind the song, though. One person suggested in a tweet, "So about 'Timeless': I think the 1944 story is about her paternal grandparents (since we know her paternal [grandpa] fought in the war) and the other verse is about her maternal grandparents." Another fan noted on Twitter that, while Swift's grandparents may have been in her mind when she wrote the song, the actual lyrics probably take a little more creative license. Whoever, if anyone, actually inspired the song though, it sure does make the perfect sentimental closer to "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)."