Taylor Swift - The Last Great American Dynasty - First Time Reacting!

[@irakhanna4097]

I think this song is more about patriarchy and double standards. A woman living her best life is vilified, and a man doing the same thing thing would be celebrated and applauded. I think she connects with that deeply. And, that’s what jack meant at the beginning, saying “it’s not about you, but it’s all about you”.

[@nickforell1]

Definitely a wonderful perspective. Thanks for bringing that to light for me.

[@Tal_reputation]

Rebekah Harkness was a real person. as per wikipedia she was: "an American composer, socialite, sculptor, dance patron, and philanthropistshe". Rebekah and Bill (who had an oil company) bought a beach house in Rhode Island where they hosted lavish parties with famous people and her neighbours used to hate on her for making so much noise. so when her husband, Bill, died, she had rumors spreading through town that Rebekah killed him and she got a reputation for being nasty. the song relates to Taylor because Taylor bought this house in 2013 and hosted parties who were disturbing the neighbours just like Rebekah's parties. that's where Taylor parallels her and Rebekah. how they both were talked about "ruining everything around" so basically Taylor wrote this song about the owners of the this house 50 years ago. in folklore there is a trilogy of songs where Taylor tells the story of 3 characters she made up. it's a story about a teenage love triangle where each song is sung from each character's perspective. the characters are James, Betty and Augusta/Augustine. Betty and James have been a couple while during the summer James had a thing with an unnamed girl which caused problems between Betty and James. The 3 characters songs are: "Cardigan, "Betty" and "August". the song "Cardigan" is from Betty's perspective on James and the unnamed girl ("chase two girls, lose the one" "I knew you'd miss me once the thrill expired And you'd be standin' in my front porch light" "But I knew you, Playing hide-and-seek and giving me your weekends") The song "August" is sung from the perspective of the "unnamed" girl James had a summer thing with her and the song "Betty" is sung from James's perspective, trying to win back Betty. Since you watched Cardigan already. here are the performances of 'August' and 'Betty': August: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmGqaWB7gZ6FhMU Betty: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p4THaWh9at-Ij5o Taylor wrote little parallels in all three songs like, for example in Betty Taylor sings: "I was walking home on broken cobblestones" while in the song Cardigan she sings: "High heels on cobblestones" that's just a small parallel so you'll see what I mean. Taylor wrote these three songs in mind to give the listener a sense of story being told Another high point in this album is 'Exile' which features Bon Iver. both the album version and the Long Pond performance are really good. I can't wait till you get to the song 'My Tears Ricochet' which is a song Taylor wrote about her fight with her former label CEO who sold her album masters behind her back while not giving an opportunity to bid on these masters to buy them from him (Taylor was on an independent record label all of her career. from 2005 to 2018. so when she was 15 to 28 y.o.) that's why she's re-recording all of her 6 first albums. that were owned by former record label in order to take back control over her music. she can re-record all of them because she's writing all of her songs so she has songwriting credits and rights on all of her songs. so she can perform them but not getting paid from all the streaming royalties when people listen to the old albums. that's why she's re-recording all of her 6 first albums. Also,5 months after she released "olklore" Taylor released a "sister album" to folklore (as she called it) named 'evermore' and it's a continuation of folklore where Taylor has stated she and her producers couldn't stop writing after the release of folklore. Just a a few quick facts about the album 'folklore': Taylor began writing it in late April 2020 and released it on July 2020. so she and her 2 producers (who are the ones she's talking with in this movie long pond) made this album in 4 months work! folklore gave Taylor her 3rd "Album Of The Year" grammy and Taylor became the first female artist in history to win 3 "Album of The Year" grammy awards. Taylor just won another grammy yesterday for best music video for her song 'All Too Well (10 minute version)

[@nickforell1]

I read this a couple of times to make sure I absorbed everything you said. I don’t want to spoil myself too much but the information regarding Taylor mirroring Rebekah is super important. Appreciate you!

[@Tal_reputation]

@@nickforell1 oh, shit. I'm sorry!! Sorry for rambling too much! Thank you for giving Taylor a chance. It's fun to see someone new who don't know Taylor's work a chance.. Thank you!

[@meznasa]

i love when she turned the song to be about her in the last chorus (there goes the loudest woman this town is ever seen) god i love it

[@Muton230]

The last chorus where she says she had a marvelous time ruining everything is so funny because her neighbors HATED her when she moved into Holiday House. They tried to push her out of the neighborhood and said that she was ruining their quiet life. I LOVE that she added that into this song

[@bluaurora8635]

She was singing about the woman who owned the house before her, and she sees so many similarities between them, like how they are loud, throw parties, and have marvelous times ruining things 😊

[@nickforell1]

Yeah, I ended up correcting this in the next video! Blind reactions often lead to my own interpretation haha. Then I get some education from viewers :)

[@bluaurora8635]

@@nickforell1 you’re doing an amazing job and you pick up a whole lot for a first listen. I like how you listen to and talk about the lyrics!

[@markjo9626]

@@nickforell1 Glad to see that Nick.

[@sandra969]

love this song

[@emmavink]

The song is about an ordinary "middle class divorcee" marrying Bill Harkness, the heir to the Standard Oil (yeah, the one confounded by Rockerfeller) company. money. Her husband died 7 years into the marriage. She basically blew the rest of the fortune establishing a presigeous ballet company, being a patron to various arts. throwing lavish parties, betting, gambling and playing cards with celebs like Salvador Dali. She was quite a woman 😊

[@tiffylew]

Fun fact: Rebecca was very close to Salvador Dali as the line about playing cards with him suggest. He spent a lot of time at Holiday House. They ended up having a falling out, but seem to have reconciled at some point because he designed the urn her ashes were placed in which cost a whopping $250,000 at the time it was made 😳

[@nickforell1]

Wow that is a fun fact haha!

[@yousra8728]

It wasn't her heart that gave out it was her husband's heart that gave out and she was blamed for it, the two guys she's with at the start are the producers of the album jack antonoff and Aaron dessner, this was her first time working with Aaron but she's worked with jack on albums before the first one being 1989 and the last one being her latest midnights

[@nickforell1]

Okay, that makes wayyyy more sense 😅. Love the education! Her producers seem very supportive

[@yousra8728]

@@nickforell1 love the reactions !!!

[@somethingXyouXmiss]

The two guys co wrote and produced the album (and its sister Evermore) with Taylor! They are Aaron Dessner (of The Nationals) and Jack Antonoff (of Fun. and the Bleachers)

[@nickforell1]

I love the National. Taylor is deserving of such a talented team then.

[@liaboyd8464]

Look up Rebecca Harkness. She was a real person, and Taylor bought her house decades later. The story itself is epic, but the underlying message is how the patriarchy treats women, both back in Rebecca's time and still today

[@nickforell1]

Yes, I did end up looking her up. Such a brutal story and one that was common. Glad Taylor chose to bring this to light

[@3407]

i've really enjoyed binging the few Taylor videos you've put out so far. can't wait for more. the last great american dynasty (tlgad) is a top 3 folklore song for me personally. i love how it highlights the way society negatively reacts to a woman living a "high life" while when a man does it it's considered okay. so about the producers: long hair guy is *Aaron Dessner* he's the guitarist from a popular indie band called "The National", he's also a producer, songwriter and a multi instrumentalist. short hair guy, is *Jack Antonoff.* he's a very popular producer. both of these guys were a huge part of this record. also, if you're going in order, here's the actual tracklist, because i believe you've missed the first track. 1. the 1. 2. cardigan. (done) 3. the last great american dynasty. (done) 4. exile (feat. Bon Iver). 5. my tears ricochet. 6. mirrorball. 7. seven. 8. august. 9. this is me trying. 10. illicit affairs. 11. invisible string. 12. mad woman. 13. epiphany. 14. betty. 15. peace. (done) 16. hoax. 17. the lakes - bonus track. glad you enjoyed tlgad.

[@nickforell1]

Thank you, I appreciate you being here! Oh wait, I listen to the national. That's amazing. Nothing like raw talent surrounding each other to produce incredible music.

[@3407]

@@nickforell1 you're welcome! that's really interesting, because first of all TASTE and also the national are actually featured on a Taylor song from her album "evermore", it's called "coney island". it would be interesting to see you react to their collab at some point.

[@nickforell1]

@@3407 We are all capable of surprising people! Thanks for tipping me off to that collab, it's now on my radar

[@O___________0]

People say this is her most straightforward and literal song, but I disagree. I think in her “deep” songs the metaphors and symbolism are always easy to interpret ( I love them, but they’re really obvious), yet this one has so many deeper messages, and the interpretation and lessons are subtextual within the literal story she’s telling. A true gem and one of my favourite songs by her.

[@melindatintle9728]

Loved this. I love this song. And I love watching her emote when she sings. Loving these reactions!

[@ChampagneRayn]

Ha!! I’ve been watching your NF and Ren reactions and decided to see what else was on your channel and was surprised when I came across this. My husband is an acoustician and he is who designed the studio they are in. That’s Aaron Dessner’s studio…The Long Pond in upstate New York (Hudson Valley). Both of her albums “Forklore” and “Evermore” were recorded there…as well as this Disney+ documentary. Nice reaction!!! 🙂🙏💜✌️

[@nickforell1]

Wow, what a small world then! He did an amazing job with that studio. It has a very warm feel to it and the way sound resonates is top notch. Really glad you found your way to the Taylor videos!

[@Violet316]

The house in question, Taylor had bought in 2013, but I heard that she recently sold it. Note: The article I read has since disappeared so she must still own it.

[@lkcullen1918]

She actually still lives there. Although mostly her parents spend time there, they're always spotted around town in the summer

[@Violet316]

@@lkcullen1918 I tried to find the article and it seems to have disappeared, I hate it when people put out fake articles.

[@Tswifter4ever]

Great gatsby is one of Taylors favorite stories

[@nickforell1]

She’s got great taste!

[@ianjavier9423]

the writer is herself hahahaha

[@Regina_Filanji]

The way she writes... I had a marvelous time ruining everything. Love it... How it's her song, Rebeccah's & also anyone who literally ruined everything before... but hey, had some fun in the process.

[@MCP920]

Yes they do.

[@zimbahanwa2996]

new sub here😍

[@nickforell1]

Thanks for subbing :)

[@checkmattee222]

I was hoping you'd react to the music video first before seeing the long pond version, but it's good either way

[@randystalnaker6700]

You did get Taylor bought THAT house?

[@nickforell1]

Yes! Someone explained it to me

[@randystalnaker6700]

@@nickforell1 I should have known, you are so good at it all, sorry

[@jamesstephen3841]

Taylor bought the house.

[@Violet316]

Be careful listening to the lyrics. Amazing that so many people say Taylor can't sing.

[@Reema-tz9ek]

What I think about Taylor music that she do everything she write sing produce her music and direct her music video she do all of it and you don’t see this in a lot of resent artist

[@nickforell1]

Completely agree!

[@marirezende8478]

The husband's heart gave out, not hers

[@reemy8245]

I think will be better if you react to video lyric of the song then live will be more watchable

[@nickforell1]

I do like the visuals of the pond sessions. I might keep a copy of the lyrics on hand though so I can look at them while i go. Thank you for the feedback!

[@markjo9626]

Boy You got this song totally wrong. Give it another listen and react again.

[@Violet316]

You don't have to dissect every aspect, it is better to listen for a little longer before trying to figure it out.

[@nickforell1]

I'll keep that in mind!