The Outside
Taylor Swift (2006)
Background and Lyrical Theme
«This is one of the first songs I ever wrote, and it talks about the very reason I ever started to write songs. Some days, I woke up not knowing if anyone was going to talk to me that day. I think every person comes to a point in their life when you have a long string of bad days. You can choose to let it drag you down, or you can find ways to rise above it. I came to the conclusion that even though people hadn’t always been there for me, music had. It’s strange to think how different my life would be right now if I had been one of the cool kids.»
In one of her editions of Lover (2019), Taylor shared her journal entry from February 14, 2004: “I woke up and perfected/tweaked this new song I wrote yesterday called “Someone Loves You” — It basically says that no matter what you’ve done or where you are in life, somewhere someone loves you. I wrote another one called “Outside” — It’s about being left out in the cold and being — well, an outsider. I don’t know if it’ll go anywhere, but it made me feel better.”
Lyrical Theme
«I wrote that about the scariest feeling I've ever felt: going to school, walking down the hall, looking at all those faces, and not knowing who you're gonna talk to that day. People always ask, 'How did you have the courage to walk up to record labels when you were 12 or 13?' It's because I could never feel the kind of rejection in the music industry that I felt in middle school.»
Live Performance
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
I didn’t know what I would find
When I went looking for a reason
I know I didn’t read between the lines
And, baby, I’ve got nowhere to go
I tried to take the road less traveled by
But nothing seems to work the first few times
Am I right?
[Chorus]
So how can I ever try to be better?
Nobody ever lets me in
I can still see you, this ain’t the best view
On the outside looking in
I’ve been a lot of lonely places
I’ve never been on the outside
[Verse 2]
You saw me there, but never knew
I would give it all up to be
A part of this, a part of you
And now it’s all too late so you see
You could’ve helped if you had wanted to
But no one notices until it’s too late to do anything
[Breakdown]
So how can I ever try to be better?
Nobody ever lets me in
I can still see you, this ain’t the best view
On the outside looking in
[Final Chorus]
I’ve been a lot of lonely places
I’ve never been on the outside
So how can I ever try to be better?
Nobody ever lets me in
I can still see you, this ain’t the best view
On the outside looking in
I’ve been a lot of lonely places
I’ve never been on the outside
| Album | Taylor Swift | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Released | October 24, 2006 | |||
| Written | February 14, 2004 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 3:29 | |||
| Label | Big Machine Records | |||
| Songwriter | Taylor Swift | |||
| Producer | Nathan Chapman Robert Ellis Orrall | |||
TAYLOR SWIFT CHRONOLOGY | ||||
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