Congratulations on MIDNIGHTS your brand new album, which is smashing ALL prior records, for sales, for any album, ever!!
From comments from your fans, regarding the song KARMA, seems to me many believe some lyrics are referring back to this event, in 2009:
Not only was Ms. Swift shocked and humiliated, but BEYONCE was NOT at all pleased, by this uncalled for ‘upstaging of a young talent, just out of her teens’.
However, it occurs to me, Taylor could have ‘turned the entire event’ not upside down, but right side, up.
By simply ‘turning the other cheek’
As she probably was taught in the Christian heritage…and offered Beyonce the award, as Kanye had recommended.
NOW….that really would have set the SOCIAL MEDIA abuzz…
However, that response would have illustrated, in a very real way, before millions of viewers…
What the Sermon on the Mount teaches.
As Matthew, the former tax collector for the Romans, had become a fervent follower, disciple, of ‘Joshua ben Joseph of Nazareth’…and penned in Matthew 5:39-40
‘if they take your shirt, give them your cloak, also..
What IF…you just handed him the man on moon trophy along with the microphone!!
Imagine…what A REACTION…that would have generated.
As a budding SCREENWRITER, the WHAT IF’s are scenarios I tap into the keyboard to put on paper, 2,000 years after parchments were used. The WHAT IF’s that most folk never consider…for scenes in FILMS.
Now, if the scene I just wrote up…had unfolded on stage in 2009…Not only would there have been, initially, a SHOCK and AWE moment…to be captured for posterity…
But it would show great FAITH and HOPE on Ms. Swift’s part, that this taking or not taking this ‘award trophy’…would NOT have the slightest influence on the rest of her career, or her life.
Could of said: “Surely, I’ve been blessed…gifted… with vast talents, in song writing, singing, playing musical instruments, acting, dancing, etc.
So…no big deal…let BEYONCE have the ‘award’. And, any other awards, trophies, etc….presented to me in the future, I will NOT clutch onto, very tightly, either!”
NOW…some 13 years or so later…a new hit concerning ‘Karma’ is fresh out….topping the musical hit charts.
SHOCK and AWE…of a different type….
‘Karma…is a god? Is a cat? A gad darn acrobat?”
IS THIS what is being offered up to young adoring fans, post pandemic covid-19…many of whom lost loved, grandpas, grandmas, significant others, etc.
Many fans are suffering from anxieties, fears, emotional, psychic traumas…need remedial education, after losing years of studies in traditional classroom settings…
Fentanyl deaths have skyrocketed…about 100,000 D.O.A. last year in just the USA, alone. Maybe more, this year…Fentanyl laced drugs, often looking like candy, multi-colored, sort of like Skittles, now being ‘peddled’ on the streets, wqrld-wide.
The illegal drug trade is now like playing Russian Roulette. Kids need to be warned about the risks, the dangers…by INFLUENCERS, they look up to as heroes and heroines).
Frankly, I’m disappointed…in your championing Karma, in the face of all the ways, fans could be encouraged to DO something TRULY GOOD…like loving our neighbor(s) as we do ourselves…the second of the Great Commandments, of the 1st Century travelling preacher from Nazareth, proclaimed, who impacted ALL of World History.
On a more personal note, modern times…
James Taylor, wrote this song, a bit before your birth…early 70s, …FIRE and RAIN….would be fabulous time for a ‘cover’ by Taylor Swift…IMHO.
May I humbly request, during your upcoming tour, to promote new songs on MIDNIGHTS…
Would you please include a cover of this James Taylor song…LIVE…in concert? Please? Por favor?
After all, your parents had chosen, that name, Taylor, out of thousands of choices for other names, for their new baby girl.
And WHY was this unique first name, chosen??— To honor James Taylor’s musical style, and lyrics, which had an influence on their lives, and my generation.
Just a simple WIKEPEDIA visit, will explain what James Taylor was struggling with, at the time, he wrote this song:
First, drug addiction, to heroin, he was in rehab, trying to save his life, so not to throw his life away, because of an Overdose…O.D.’s which have claimed the lives of FAR too many Rock stars, movie stars, etc. over the decades.
Second, his fledgling band, had failed…crashed and burned… to put it in 1986 TOP GUN terminology
Third, his dear friend, Suzanne, had committed suicide. He found out 6 months later, because he was so badly depressed and struggling with addictions, his loved ones did not feel he needed to be burdened with tragic, sad news she was gone, at the actual time of her death.
A song…especially relevant for the days we live in…now.
Hoping and Praying somehow this brief essay reaches you.
From the keyboard of the Gray Panting
