I suppose I ought to be a little embarrassed that I had never heard of Taylor Swift until 2015.
It was February that year and my wife, my son and I went to a concert at Symphony Hall in Atlanta. The performer was Jackie Evancho, whose genre is called classical crossover. She was just 14 then, but was definitely a wonderful singer. Toward the end of the concert, she said she wanted to do something just for fun.
She sang “Blank Space,” which had been released the previous autumn as part of Swift’s “1989” album.
I thought it was a cute song and I asked my son about it. Within a week, I purchased “1989” off iTunes.
I enjoyed “Blank Space” on YouTube and also found several songs off earlier albums that I thought were quite nice — “Stay Stay Stay,” “Mean” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
At my age, there really aren’t that many singers or groups I enjoy whose careers started in years beginning with a 2.
In the last seven years, concerts I’ve seen were Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney and John Prine. All are past 70 and Prine is actually dead.
The youngest I’ve seen in that time is 59, but is a stand-up comedian. I love Eddie Izzard, but he is what passes for young to me.
I’ll top them all on February 24th, if the person I have tickets for is still alive. If you think that sounds odd, well, Frankie Valli is 87.
So enjoying Taylor Swift is a welcome departure for me.
But I found myself reading about a song from her “Red” album that she had reworked, changing a song that had been a little more than five minutes into one that was twice that long. “All Too Well” was ostensibly about memories of a love affair Swift had with actor Jake Gyllenhaal.
“You kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath …”
This is an amazing song, one that I spent an hour listening to six times. I’ve written posts before that essentially add up to my 142 favorite songs. I probably ought to wait till I have a little perspective, but I have a feeling this would at least jump into the top 20 and maybe even higher.
Swift’s fans are called Swifties.
I might be one of the oldest ones.