“Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” is the latest rerecorded album from Taylor Swift. Unlike most other new-ish tracks, “Better Than Revenge” has a changeup.
Taylor Swift, known frequently as “Mother” by her adoring Swifties, is re-recording her first six albums and has been releasing them one by one. “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” was dropped first, followed by “Red (Taylor’s Version)”. Now it is “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)”‘s turn to shine!
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Taylor decided to re-record her first six albums after the masters for them got sold. By recreating these songs, she owns the new versions aka “Taylor’s Version” and gets to choose how they will be used, as well as gets the profits from them.
The plan has been to recreate each song as close to the original as possible, but “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” actually has a very noticeable lyric change in “Better Than Revenge.” Why? Don’t worry! We break it down for you!
Why did Taylor Swift change the lyrics in “Better Than Revenge”?
After a couple of fans got their hands on “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” early, they noticed one very noticeable change: some lyrics in “Better Than Revenge” had been rewritten. The original chorus is:
She’s not a saint and she’s not what you think
She’s an actress, whoa
She’s better known for the things that she does
On the mattress, whoa
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The new lyrics for the chorus now go:
She’s not a saint and she’s not what you think
She’s an actress, whoa
He was a moth to the flame,
She was holding the matches, Whoa
Fans discovered the lyric change before the album was even officially released on July 7, 2023. Due to an unfortunate music leak, the theories started early.
While Taylor has not spoken about this lyric change yet, people are speculating that it is because the “mattress” line is a bit misogynistic. After all, it does boil another woman down to her activities in bed.
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But by the time “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” comes out, it will have been almost 13 years since the original was released, and society has (hopefully) shifted to be less sexist. While we are sure that wasn’t Taylor’s intention at the time, she was just an 18-year-old girl who was mad about a breakup.
In the years following the original album’s release, Taylor has spoken publicly about her own experiences with misogyny and how they have affected her. She is definitely not that 18-year-old girl anymore. Everyone has moved on.
And while we totally understand why the lyrics were changed, we’re gonna miss the original just a little bit. After all, we do love a petty queen.
Source: https://www.distractify.com/p/better-than-revenge-lyric-change