September 8, 2012

• Ronan

  Taylor Swift’s new single is about a cancer victim she befriended, a child who died and in whose honor she decided to write a song to donate to charity.

  ‘Ronan’ is kind of sloppy, but on the other hand, that gives it a fragile authenticity.

  I remember your bare feet down the hallway
  I remember your little laugh
  Race cars on the kitchen floor
  Plastic dinosaurs, I love you to the moon and back

  I remember your blue eyes looking into mine like we had our own secret club
  I remember you dancing before bed time then jumping on me waking me up
  I can still feel you hold my hand
  Little man, from even that moment I knew
  You fought it hard like an army guy
  Remember I leaned in and whispered to you

  Both lyrically and musically, it starts off slow and simple, even awkward. The extreme simplicity of the terms echoes the simple thoughts of the child.

  Come on baby with me
  We’re gonna fly away from here
  You were my best four years

  I remember the drive home when the blind hope
  Turned to crying and screaming, “Why?”
  Flowers piled up in the worst way
  No one knows what to say about a beautiful boy who died

  This is, rightly, transformative. The lyrics shift to the passage of time, to the contrast of now to then, and the music shifts as well. Regarding the subject’s most sacred space, the open secret of death, the song returns a frank admission that there really is nothing good to say.

  And it’s about to be Halloween
  You could be anything you wanted if you were still here
  I remember the last day when I kissed your face
  I whispered in your ear

  Come on baby with me
  We’re gonna fly away from here
  Out of this curtained room in this hospital
  We’ll just disappear
  Come on baby with me
  We’re gonna fly away from here
  You were my best four years

  What if I’m standing in your closet trying to talk to you?
  What if I kept the hand me downs you won’t grow into?
  And what if I really thought some miracle would see us through?
  But what if the miracle was even getting one moment with you

  The theme of lost potential is built and expanded upon – again, very simply, very basically, but the subject matter is such that it’s enough.

  Come on baby with me
  We’re gonna fly away from here
  Come on baby with me
  We’re gonna fly away from here
  You were my best four years

  I remember your bare feet down the hallway
  I love you to the moon and back

  It doesn’t really end with some grand resolution, because life doesn’t end with one. People are left with their memories and thoughts of the deceased.

  Ronan is imperfect, but its imperfection is strictly a technical one. On the whole – on the matter of artistic vision and license, on the matter of taste – Taylor Swift has not made any misjudgments.

  • 9:30 pm
  • 3 Comments