The Red Tour, March 29th, 2013

Lyrics

When you are at a Taylor Swift concert at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey And you are alone And you are surrounded by girls between the ages of 12 and 16 (With the occasional father chaperone interspersed, sitting down And on his 3rd beer before the opening act, Trying to forget this night before it starts) And you are a 21-year-old male Wear the shirt that you bought in the lobby, the one where Taylor is pressed onto the front in orange, on fire, guitar slung to her waist Fix your glasses, your hair, pop a breath mint This is your night Do not sit down. Not once. You are short and teenage girls are taller than you The seat is uncomfortable anyway When her silhouette appears, shadowed onto the curtain which will in a moment fall To her feet in humility As she stands, feet shoulder-width apart, one hand on her waist, the other holding the microphone at a 45 degree angle upward from her mouth, her neck arching back, her voice flying to the rafters or to the sky or to God Breaking into the first notes of "State of Grace," the opening track from this album, her magnum opus Lose your fucking mind When she hurtles through "Holy Ground," possibly your favorite song on the album Lose your voice And darlin' it was good Never looking down And right there where we stood Was holy ground Even when the teenage girls around you pretend they're too cool to dance along or show any emotion (despite mouthing along to every word) Because they think they're above all of this (Despite their skeletons clearly clawing out of their skin to swarm the stage) Do not remember that adolescent fear, how to hide every pleasure or joy Instead, remember all the boys you did not kiss in high school Remember the CDs (Taylor Swift, Christina Aguilera, P!nk, Kelly Clarkson) that you hid Under your bed and only listened to when your mother was at the supermarket Remember how you loved to dance but never would Remember how you hated the way you loved and who you loved Remember who taught you how to love How to hold a boy's name under your tongue and whisper it to the rain Remember whose music you memorized And when she erupts into the bridge of "All Too Well," seated at the red piano, Cry, and remember you once kissed a boy in public and the world did not crumble Remember how this woman's songs taught you that love is wild and beautiful and red And don't you ever forget the words. Ever.