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right where you left me

Bonus Track | evermore (2020)

“right where you left me” is the sixteenth song on the deluxe version of Taylor’s ninth album, evermore (2020). It tells the story of a heartbroken woman that can’t move on from the moment the love of her life left her for someone else.

Background and Release

Taylor created her eighth studio album, folklore (2020), as a set of mythopoeic visuals in her mind, a result of her imagination “running wild” while isolating herself during the Covid-19 pandemic. She surprised with the album’s announcement on July 23, 2020, and released it the next day. To satiate her craving to explore more of the “folklorian woods” she visualized in her mind, Taylor immediately developed another album as a conclusive counterpart to folklore, titled evermore. She wrote “right where you left me” days before the evermore album was supposed to be mastered. In that way it is similar to the songs “the 1” and “hoax” from folklore (2020). Taylor also wrote those tracks days before the album was supposed to be mastered. In an interview with Rolling Stone, producer Aaron Dessner recalled the moment he found out Taylor had written “right where you left me” and wanted to put it on the album:

«It’s a lot to mix seventeen songs, it’s like a Herculean task. And it was funny because I walked into the studio and Jon Low, our engineer, was mixing and had been working the whole time toward this. I was like, 'There are two more songs.' [The other one being 'happiness'] And he looked at me like, 'We’re not gonna make it.' Because it does take a lot of time to work out how to finish them. 'right where you left me' was something I had written right before I went to visit Justin [Vernon]. Taylor had heard it and wrote this amazing song to it. That is how she works — she writes a lot of songs, and then at the very end she sometimes writes one or two more, and they often are important ones.»

Aaron Dessner

Lyrical Theme

“right where you left me” is an acoustic guitar driven indie track. It has a heartbreaking theme of being unable to move on from a past relationship, feeling stuck in time, and thinking of a former partner all the time. The lyrics provide images of a woman sitting on her own in the corner of a restaurant, her appearance still the same while her past partner has long moved forward in life, and in time:

«'right where you left me' is a song about a girl who stayed forever in the exact spot where her heart was broken, completely frozen in time.»

Taylor Swift

Live Performance

“right where you left me” received its first live performance acoustically on guitar on July 28, 2023, in Santa Clara during one of Taylor’s shows on “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024). Aaron Dessner was the surprise guest and accompanied her on a second guitar.

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Friends break up
Friends get married
Strangers get born
Strangers get buried
Trends change
Rumors fly
Through new skies
But I’m right where you left me
Matches burn
After the other
Pages turn and stick to each other
Wages earned and lessons learned
But I’m right where you left me

[Pre-Chorus 1]
Help
I’m still at the restaurant
Still sitting in a corner I haunt
Cross legged in the dim light
They say, “What a sad sight,” I
I swear you could hear a hair pin drop
Right when I felt the moment stop
Glass shattered on the white cloth
Everybody moved on, I
I stayed there
Dust collected on my pinned up hair
They expected me to find somewhere
Some perspective but I sat and stared

[Chorus]
Right where you left me
You left me, no
You left me, no
You left me no choice but to stay here forever
You left me
You left me, no
You left me, no
You left me no choice but to stay here forever

[Bridge]
Did you ever hear about the girl who got frozen?
Time went on for everybody else
She won’t know it
She’s still 23 inside her fantasy
How it was supposed to be
Did you hear about the girl who lives in delusion?
Breakups happen every day, you don’t have to lose it
She’s still 23 inside her fantasy
And you’re sitting in front of me
At the restaurant
When I was still the one you want
Cross legged in the dim light
Everything was just right, I
I could feel the mascara run
You told me that you met someone
Glass shattered on the white cloth
Everybody moved on

[Pre-Chorus 2]
Help
I’m still at the restaurant
Still sitting in a corner I haunt
Cross legged in the dim light
They say, “What a sad sight,” I
I stayed there
Dust collected on my pinned up hair
I’m sure that you got a wife out there
Kids and Christmas but I’m unaware
Cause I’m right where
I cause no harm
Mind my business
If our love died young
I can’t bear witness
And it’s been so long
But if you ever think you got it wrong

[Chorus]
I’m right where you left me
You left me, no
You left me, no
You left me no choice but to stay here forever
You left me
You left me, no
You left me, no
You left me no choice but to stay here forever