Taylor Swift – Getaway Car (Lyrics Review and Song Meaning)

“Getaway Car” is the ninth song off of Taylor Swift’s sixth studio album ‘Reputation.’ The song equates a falling relationship to being with a crook. Taylor Swift demonstrates some serious lyrical skills in this track.

Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift together wrote and produced the track, and it has a naturally flowing slick crooked touch to the song. The lyrics describe how this romance was doomed from the start, but they still proceeded, ignoring all the red warnings. Taylor even brings in the popular wicked romance of Bonnie and Clyde to describe their relationship with each other.

Watch Taylor Swift Perform “Getaway Car” Live on ‘Reputation Tour’

https://youtu.be/jOlbSDO2XoA

Lyrics Review and Song Meaning of “Getaway Car”

A ‘getaway car’ is a vehicle used by criminals to escape the crime scene as soon as possible. Taylor draws inspiration for the song from the infamous criminal couple Bonnie and Clyde, who got shot by the police while fleeing away in a Ford Deluxe car in 1934.

Verse 1

Popular belief is that this song is about her very short affair with actor Tom Hiddleston. In a weird twist of irony, Tom Hiddleston plays more crooked roles than otherwise in his movies.

Taylor says she met this person at the best of times. This could mean that Taylor met Tom Hiddleston at Met Gala 2016, and she was dating Calvin Harris at the time. Calvin and Taylor were having an exceptionally good relationship and this ‘worst of crimes’ had to happen. Somehow Tom vexed Taylor or vice versa, and it all went southside afterward.

Taylor Swift paints a picture of how her meeting with Tom Hiddleston happened. They just accidentally met each other at the event and she believes she blew his mind. Something proving this was said by Tom later on;

“I was on a table with Taylor Swift and The Weeknd was playing and she said, ‘The thing about these parties is nobody gets up to dance. We’ve got to dance for The Weeknd’, so we got up and danced. I sat next to her at dinner that night and she’s very charming, she’s amazing.”

All were dressed in their suits and ties and white lies flew around in the drunken air. Shades of gray represent a middle ground between good and bad. She was uncertain what she was doing was right or wrong. She wanted to leave him, but she was paralyzed without a reason.

Pre-chorus

These lyrics of “Getaway Car” mention how it all began to fall apart. She remembers very specifically how things unfolded, like marking ‘X’ on a map.

‘Old Fashioned’ is a cocktail made out of whiskey. She knew from the very first sip of alcohol they sipped together, that they were doomed from the start. But she anyway jumped into it, possibly as a rebound from her much-documented relationship with Calvin Harris. This was like shooting a shotgun in the dark. A shotgun has a scattered bullet range and a shot in the dark would be even worse to miss the target-or at least the impact would be minimal. So, Taylor went into this relationship without big hopes.

Chorus

The chorus of “Getaway Car” is very catchy and describes the current situation of their relationship.

Tom was the ‘getaway car’ to the breakup with Calvin Harris. They were moving on so fast, that Tom even met Taylor’s parents within a month. They were going so fast, yet they were going nowhere.

Taylor says this downhill relationship comes as no surprise to her, thinking about the place they first met-at Met Gala-a place that does not signify any long-term relationship context.

Verse 2

Taylor Swift calls this the ‘great escape.’ It is unclear if Taylor was feeling suffocated in her relationship with Calvin Harris that she needed such an escape. However, this led to a situation of a love-triangle, when her ex came after the two of them. Calvin Harris Tweeted some mean tweets about Taylor Swift after the breakup, which would have pushed Taylor to write such a lyric. She calls this situation a ‘circus’ and there is no love in a circus of a love story-it was just entertainment for the spectators.

Calvin Harris later apologized for his harsh online behavior.

“And a circus ain’t a love story
And now we’re both sorry (we’re both sorry)”

Bridge

These lyrics of “Getaway Car” tells us how Taylor got back on track.

They were like Bonnie and Clyde, running from her ex. But she betrays the getaway car driver. She calls him and herself traitors. She might be feeling guilty for bringing Tom in the middle of her relationship with Calvin and she might be feeling back about the fact that Tom came in between Calvin and her relationship. So she gives the boot to the getaway car driver and sneaks out.

Finally, Taylor leaves the getaway car driver in a motel, steals his car and leaves him forever. There have been no resurfacing of Taylor and Tom after their short-lived relationship.

Taylor Swift does an amazing job in tying up her personal life with a Pop culture reference of Bonnie and Clyde to narrate an interesting story in “Getaway Car.” We abslutely love how she infused her life experience into the song and made it seem like a story out of a fiction.

What do you think about the song and the lyrics? Do you have a different interpretation of the lyrics? Let us know in the comments below.

 

Full Lyrics to “Getaway Car” by Taylor Swift

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Buy ‘Reputation’ Album on iTunes and Amazon

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