There’s nothing quite as jarring as jamming out to your favorite song only to realize mid-verse that one of your favorite lyrics has been changed.
Then again, this problem is really only unique to Taylor Swift fans, as the multi-platinum Grammy Award-winning pop star is currently on a quest to re-record all of her previous albums, including her 2010 tour de force Speak Now.
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), the third album of Swift’s to be re-recorded, is currently hot off the press. As Swifties all around the world awake from their slumber to celebrate one of the singer’s most beloved albums, some are battling a severe case of denial after a lyric from the song “Better than Revenge” has become obsolete overnight.
“She’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress” is a lyric in the song’s chorus that has long been a favorite among Swifties for supposedly throwing shade at Camille Belle, the actress Joe Jonas dated immediately after breaking things off with Swift.
Now, however, the lyric is no more. Instead, it’s been substituted with “He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches.” Still, the old lyric is such a hit among fans that some have even got it pressed on their T-shirts ahead of seeing Swift perform on The Eras Tour, but now that it’s been changed, lives have been altered.
“I got so many compliments on it too,” said TikTok user @ryanfairf when he realized that the shirt he wore to The Eras Tour was basically a relic. Poor guy. Imagine the devastation of being the only person in the crowd celebrating the things you do on the mattress when it was supposed to be a group effort. Sigh.
Despite Swift supposedly changing the lyric to be more inclusive and less “slut shame-y,” Swifties are divided over the news. No one ever said anything about re-recording leading to lyric changes!
Swift has not commented on the change yet in any interview or formal statement, nor is she likely to. In true Taylor fashion, it’s much more likely that she will quietly re-re-release the old lyrics on a special edition of the album, perhaps in partnership with Target or through her own website, as has been done in the past.
Then again, Taylor’s a big girl now. She can do whatever she wants, including changing lyrics to her own songs. After all, isn’t that kind of freedom the whole point of the re-releases?