Taylor Swift Discreetly Added a Lyric to Her Song ‘My Tears Ricochet’
On Taylor Swift‘s album folklore, “my tears ricochet” is the album’s famed fifth track. Swift released the album on July 24, 2020, and “my tears ricochet” is one of the most emotional songs on the album. On Nov. 25, 2020, Swift released a concert documentary on Disney+ called folklore: the long pond studio sessions. While performing “my tears ricochet” during folklore: the long pond studio sessions, Swift added a lyric to the song.
Taylor Swift added a lyric to ‘my tears ricochet’ in the performance
With “my tears ricochet,” Swift tells the story of a betrayal. In the song, the ghost of a dead woman sees her murderer has decided to attend her funeral while haunting the event. Throughout the song, the ghost ruminates that her murderer is affected by her death despite being the one to kill her.
In the studio version of the song, Swift ends the song with the lyrics: “You had to kill me, but it killed you just the same / Cursing my name, wishing I stayed / You turned into your worst fears / And you’re tossing out blame, drunk on this pain / Crossing out the good years / And you’re cursing my name, wishing I stayed / Look at how my tears ricochet.”
During folklore: the long pond studio sessions, Swift added a lyric to the end of the song that gave the song’s metaphorical message a literal meaning.
“And you’re tossing out blame, drunk on this pain / Crossing out the good years / And you’re cursing my name, wishing I stayed / Look at how my tears ricochet / Yeah, look at how my tears ricochet / Look at all of my tears, turning into your tears,” Swift sang during folklore: the long pond studio sessions.
How Taylor Swift fans reacted to the lyric change
Because Swift’s music can be interpreted in so many different ways, fans of the singer-songwriter frequently discuss her music on social media.
In a Reddit thread, Swifties debated the “Look at all of my tears, turning into your tears” lyric that Swift added to “my tears ricochet” in folklore: the long pond studio sessions.
“this is probably the only song on folklore where i exclusively listen to the long pond version and not the studio version. the long pond version sets the tone so much more effectively!!! you really hear just how sad the lyrics are,” one fan wrote on Reddit.
Another fan wrote on Reddit, “Eh. I like both versions respectively and wouldn’t change a thing about the original. Before Long Pond, many were still confused about MTR’s meaning. This sub was filled with confused people prior, as well as a ton of realization after. I think she included it for clarification.”
“… For me personally it takes the metaphor of the song and just outright explains it to you that the ricochet is her tears turning into his, and I think for me some of the poetry of the line is lost from that,” a Reddit user wrote.
What is ‘my tears ricochet’ about?
A few months after releasing folklore, Swift sat down for an interview with Entertainment Weekly. In the interview, Swift explained that at its heart, “my tears ricochet” is about feeling betrayed by someone you love.
“All of a sudden this person that you trusted more than anyone in the world is the person that can hurt you the worst. Then all of a sudden the things that you have been through together, hurt. All of a sudden, the person who was your best friend is now your biggest nemesis, etc. etc. etc.,” Swift told Entertainment Weekly.
She added, “I think I wrote some of the first lyrics to that song after watching Marriage Story and hearing about when marriages go wrong and end in such a catastrophic way. So these songs are in some ways imaginary, in some ways not, and in some ways both.”
