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So Long, London

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024)

“So Long, London” is track five on Taylor’s eleventh studio album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024). It was released on April 19, 2024, through Republic Records.

Background

Taylor released her tenth studio album, Midnights, on October 21, 2022, to widespread commercial and critical success, becoming the biggest album of the year. Midnights was eventually nominated for six Grammy Awards at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on February 4, 2024. The morning of the ceremony, Taylor teased the release of an album by changing her profile picture across all social media platforms to a black and white version of the already existing cover artwork of Midnights. This led to her fans speculating online that she was preparing to release reputation (Taylor’s Version), a forthcoming re-recording of her sixth studio album, reputation (2017). Taylor’s website also appeared to have crashed, replaced with the non-existent HTTP status code 321, as well as error code “hneriergrd”, which fans deciphered to be an anagram spelling “red herring”. They also analyzed the source code of her website and found hidden, foreign-language words, which they then translated into English. The words found would be revealed to be words in Taylor’s handwritten note for the album.

Taylor won the Grammy Awards for “Best Pop Vocal Album” and “Album of the Year” for Midnights a few hours later. In her acceptance speech for the former, she revealed a new studio album, titled THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, and announced its release date of April 19, 2024, which she had been keeping secret for nearly two years. Its cover artwork was subsequently posted on her social media accounts, along with a photograph of a handwritten note:

«And so I enter into evidence / My tarnished coat of arms / My muses, acquired like bruises / My talismans and charms / The tick, tick, tick of love bombs / My veins of pitch black ink / All's fair in love and poetry…Sincerely, The Chairman of the Tortured Poets Department.»

Taylor Swift

The album’s tracklist, including “So Long, London”, was revealed a day later.

Live Performance

“So Long, London” received its first live performance acoustically on piano on August 20, 2024, in London during one of Taylor’s shows on “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024).

Lyrics

[Intro]
So long, London
So long, London
So long, London

[Verse 1]
I saw in my mind fairy lights through the mist
I kept calm and carried the weight of the rift
Pulled him in tighter each time he was drifting away
My spine split from carrying us up the hill
Wet through my clothes, weary bones caught the chill
I stopped trying to make him laugh
Stopped trying to drill the safe
Thinkin, how much sad did you think I had
Did you think I had in me?
Oh, the tragedy…

[Chorus 1]
So long, London
You’ll find someone…

[Verse 2]
I didn’t opt in to be your odd man out
I founded the club she’s heard great things about
I left all I knew
You left me at the house by the Heath
I stoppеd CPR, after all it’s no use
The spirit was gonе, we would never come to
And I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free

[Chorus 2]
For so long, London
Stitches undone
Two graves, one gun
I’ll find someone…

[Bridge]
And you say I abandoned the ship
But I was going down with it
My white knuckle dying grip
Holding tight to your quiet resentment
And my friends said it isn’t right to be scared
Every day of a love affair
Every breath feels like rarest air
When you’re not sure if he wants to be there
So how much sad did you think I had
Did you think I had in me?
How much tragedy?
Just how low did you think I’d go?
Before I’d self-implode
Before I’d have to go be free

[Verse 3]
You swore that you loved me but where were the clues?
I died on the altar waiting for the proof
You sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days
And I’m just getting color back into my face
I’m just mad as hell cause I loved this place

[Final Chorus]
For so long, London
Had a good run
A moment of warm sun
But I’m not the one
So long, London
Stitches undone
Two graves, one gun
You’ll find someone…