[note: this is simply a prediction post, and does NOT contain any leaked content]
Finally almost back on schedule. Welcome back to 12 to 12, here with probably the weirdest title on The Life Of A Showgirl.
Wood. Nothing else. Just "W o o d". And it's a track 9, which are not talked about enough. We all know the track 5s are usually the most heartwrenching moments and track 6s are the more fun and bubblegummy songs, but I find it interesting that there's a trope across most of Taylor's track 9s - Should've Said No, You're Not Sorry, Enchanted, Stay Stay Stay, Wildest Dreams, Getaway Car, Cornelia Street, This Is Me Trying, Coney Island, Bejeweled, Guilty As Sin?... notice a pattern? I think track 9s are the "fearful" songs. The "will things work out between us?" songs, some about unrequited crushes, some about losing trust with someone while in a relationship, some about recovering from past relationships, and usually emotionally climactic in the context of the album.
Wood can have a lot of different meanings. A statue in the back of the New Heights podcast suggested a connection to Pinocchio so this might be the most likely meaning. Obviously there's Hollywood, something I was surprised to see Taylor only mentions in one song - White Horse has the iconic "this ain't Hollywood, this is a small town" line. There's Natalie Wood, another famous showgirl like Elizabeth Taylor that Taylor Swift could base a song off of. The superstition of knocking on wood for good luck is another possibility, something that was referenced in one of Taylor's pre-debut unreleased songs called Cross My Heart. And then there's wood being a common slang term for... yeah. That.
I think a common theme that ties most of those meanings together is a sort of fear in love, which also fits as a track 9. In the parallel songs post, I mentioned Rose - Messy (possibly my favorite k-pop song I've ever heard) which is in my opinion a rare and hard-to-achieve case of a song with a lot of fear and ache and emotional depth that also happens to be about... doing the thing. Taylor has done this really well in Dancing With Our Hands Tied, False God, Labyrinth, and most recently in TTPD's track 9, Guilty As Sin? and I think Wood will be a little like those songs. Musically, I've seen some people suggesting a connection to the Folklore and Evermore eras, and even more specifically the supposed unreleased album Woodvale which you all know by now I do not believe is real. Honestly, I think The Life Of A Showgirl might have a few ballads, like 1989's This Love or Reputation's New Year's Day, and this could be one of them. I do think it's interesting that this is the shortest song on the whole album, so that might make that theory less likely, but then again there is the gorgeous masterpiece that is I Look In People's Windows, the shortest song Taylor has ever released at just 2:12 that is also a ballad.
Conceptual songwriting for this was harder for me but I did it.
"Wooden figures watched through glass
They'll try to control but only we can do that now
Cuz we've been brought to life
Diamond rings, she'd make a great wife now
This city has a lot of pretty little dolls
But you see more in us as our flame burns
Let's knock on wood and hope this works"
That's all for now! Byeeeeeeeeee!
