Taylor Swift’s new song “Babylon” brings a big historical symbol to describe the arc of one relationship that ends before a person realizes how good it was.
It’s part of four new songs Swift dropped as part of her “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore” album on Sept. 25.
“Babylon” is told in the second person, with Swift singing to directly to “you.” That “you” is described as a man who left home — a “small town,” to be specific. He’s said to be an ambitious “libertine” who later “longs for home.”
When he meets a girl who loves him, it “stopped you cold.” He kept her at arm’s length, though, and kept things “never official.” But in a flash forward during the bridge, Swift sings that “you” seemingly went on to start a family, but he misses the most important parts. She sings about a vignette of a woman hanging Christmas lights with the subject of the song’s son and later calling her mom to say, “It’s not working/ It’s just not worth it if we’re not what he wants.”
That all culminates in an explanation of the song’s chorus, which describes the subject on a train with his “headphones gone,” realizing the song he thought he hated, he actually loves.
“Then that melody is all you want/ You never knew that it was Babylon/ ‘Til it was gone,” Swift sings.
Taken alone, the song implies that Babylon is an idyllic setting, set in the past and something to perpetually long for. But the reference has a storied history. The city is referenced in more than a few pop songs, including a 1998 hit by David Gray and a 2020 song by Lady Gaga.
More from ‘The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore’Wait, What is Babylon?
Babylon was an ancient city located in the middle of what is now Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Amanda Podany, a professsor emeritus of history at California State Polytechnic University, tells TODAY.com Babylon is associated with the idea of ruin. Alexander the Great, as legend has it, razed the city, though Podany says that might not have been the case. Still, the legend persisted.
“There’s plenty of evidence for Babylon continuing to be an important place for hundreds of years after that. But again, that sort of went into the popular consciousness as a metaphor for ruin, as a metaphor for something glorious that that fell,” she says.
Its place in pop culture was potentially solidified in the Bible.
“In the Bible, Babylon gets really bad press,” Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, professor at the University of Cardiff, tells TODAY.com. “It is the ultimate City of Sin; Babylon is the Mother of Harlots; it is home to the Whore of Babylon, whose reign will usher in Armageddon and bring about the Apocalypse.”
But he says the city was actually one of the most sophisticated in the ancient world.
“It was the first ever metropolis, with an enormous multi-cultural population. It was the centre of arts, literature, culture, and industry. It was New York, Paris, Bangkok, Los Angeles and London rolled into one. There was no city on earth to rival it. Babylon was the Mother of All Cities,” he says.
But Podany doesn’t think the Babylon in this song is associated with sinfulness or ruin.
“She seems to be using it as a stand-in for that place that you didn’t realize was the best until you left it or lost it. So she’s choosing, I think, to not view Babylon as representing its kings (some of whom were, yes, imperialistic and brutal), or its supposed wickedness; she’s looking past all the layers of misunderstanding that have accumulated on the word Babylon,” she said.
In a twist Podany called interesting (and perhaps not intentional), she’s associating Babylon with nostalgia, “in the way ancient Babylonians would have indeed felt about the place 3,000 or 4,000 years ago, perhaps when they were traveling far away.”
She continued, “Babylon would have been remembered as a beloved home.”
Read the Lyrics to Taylor Swift’s ‘Babylon’
The casino doesn’t like when you run the tables
And though the box is wrapped up nice, it’s just a cage to you
Those electric fences buzz
The stallion flees the stable
And that small town’s even smaller now in your rear view
You ran with all the wild things
A liberated libertine who then longed for home
‘Cause it’s where you’re from
Aunt Virginia with a church dress on
No elbows on the table
And the neighbor’s lawn always looked better
Your hand-me-down sweater should’ve been from the mall
And you hate this song
But you wake up on the train with your headphones gone
Then that melody is all you want
You never knew that it was Babylon
‘Til it was gone
Give the people what they want, then you keep it movin’
Make your plans and friends, a stranger’s makeup on your tie
Twenty watches in the safe ‘cause your time is money
Love is ice upon the ladder that you need to climb
She captured your attention, so free of all pretension
It stopped you cold
Because she loved you so
Pretty as a picture that you didn’t post
Lookin’ at you like you’re made of solid gold
Never official
You mention you’re single to the girls at the bar
You hate this song
But you wake up on the train with your headphones gone
And then that melody is all you want
You never knew that it was Babylon
‘Til it was gone
You’re using nostalgia as a weapon to hurt yourself
But darling, you end up hurting everybody else
The self-harm of never being where you are
It’s bedtime, but you’re sitting in your car
You’re missin’ all the best parts
And they’re all at home
She’s hangin’ Christmas lights with your son
Sneak into the bathroom to call her mom
And say, “It’s not workin’
It’s just not worth it if we’re not what he wants”
But you love this song
You wake up on the train with your headphones gone
Then that melody is all you want
You never knew that it was Babylon
And now, it’s almost gone
Aunt Virginia with a church dress on
No elbows on the table (It’s almost gone)
And the neighbor’s lawn always looked better
Your hand-me-down sweater should’ve been from the mall
But you love this song
You wake up on the train and you’re all alone
Then that memory is all you want
You never knew that it was Babylon
‘Til it was gone