Taylor Swift - Would've, Could've, Should've (Official Lyric Video) | Reaction

He was 32, she was 19. She put this song out when she was 32 and made it the 19th song on her album.

Important to know: John Mayer at the time lived in a refurbished church, there were stained glass windows. It's also good to know that Midnights is basically sleepless nights over the course of her life. So while yes, this does haunt her, I don't think she's necessarily dwelling on it as much as this reads as. Like when you have intrusive thoughts even though you're past it for the most part, 'memories feel like weapons' for sure.

“Whatever he did” it’s called grooming. This song is so hauntingly beautiful

The visceral reaction a LOT of people (mostly women) have at "give me back my girlhood it was mine first" is why she is a lyrical genius (and a sad commentary on our culture)

“John Mayer…I don’t like you…yOuR bOdY iS a WoNdErLaNd…eerrrr whatever it is you used to be doin…” I actually laughed out loud.

If you’re wondering why the song is called “would’ve, could’ve, should’ve” and there’s no “should’ve” in this song, is because all of her should’ves are in the prequel song, Dear John (Taylor’s Version)

John Mayer has always been problematic but one vivid interview that I have in my brain is when he went on the Ellen show and was asked about Taylor. Ellen goes on to say that she’s sweet, innocent and she hopes that she stays that way. John Mayer proceeds to say “I’ll make sure she doesn’t”. Like this is a 32 year old man who knew exactly what he was doing to someone who idolized him.

I love the "John Mayer, I don't like you" HAHAHAHA perfect

“Give me back my Girlhood, it was mine first!” Bar! That’s a bar! And some dudes wonder why so many women ride for Swift. She’s out there in glitter and guitar taking bullets for them! On. The. Daily! Unapologetically feminine. 🤷‍♂️😎💯

the thing that's most telling to me is there is literally an interview where he describes seeing taylor off drawing in a corner or something and he described her as looking "childish" and "like a little kid" and HE STILL DIDNT SEE A PROBLEM DATING HER (but also wtf is childish about drawing? what a pathetic person)

If anyone wrote the lyric “I regret you all the time” about me I’d never recover

Dear John was the prequel to this song, her live performance of it is excellent. Her age definitely shows. Wish you would have watched both in tandem.

John Mayer is def a piece of work. Jessica Simpson wrote about how he treated her so bad she started drinking. He’d known for being manipulative and mean. Amazing song and so relatable. Dear John tells the story from right after it happened. This was written years later, but experiences like that changes you to the chore and she describes it so well.

He was 32 and she was 19. She's saying he stole her innocence. The line "Give me back my girlhood it was mine first" always makes me cry. 🥺 Also she put the song out when she was 32 and it is the 19th track on her CD. 😭😭

‘You a bucket head a** boy’ IM CRYINNNNG that was hilarious. She even said while on tour don’t harass him because it’s in the past.. when she sang Dear John. She clearly doesn’t want him getting hated for it but xyz dis how she feel🤷🏼‍♀️ I also think Should’ve Could’ve would’ve is an excellent song for young women to listen to that way they DONT make the mistake. Taylor owns her ‘mistakes’ and wishes the best for young women

You can get over the person easily, but it's hard to get over how it changed you. "I miss who I used to be".

"whatever he did"... yes, he dated a teenage girl as a THIRTY TWO YEAR OLD MAN. And you can imagine what also occurred for a teenager in a relationship with a grown man. I think while she has healed from it for the most part before writing this... the child in her needed to finally get these words out, as the grown woman she is now, when she is FINALLY grown enough to fully understand the situation from an adult perspective who can appreciate how WRONG it was for him to have that relationship. The power dynamics between a teenage GIRL and a grown MAN are were so wrong but even more intense than they'd be if the genders were flipped, just given our current culture. You saying 'I don't LIKE YOU' was... beautiful. lol, yep. That's about the truth of it.

You HAVE to watch Dear John live on Speak Now tour. It's the OG John Mayer song. This one she wrote once she turned 32, which was the age he was when he dated her.

Something else to understand is that her relationship with Mayer was from roughly 2009-2010 and he was super-famous at the time and she was so young and more newly famous. 2009 is also the year that Kanye interrupted her at the MTV Awards, which affected her for years and resulted in her going into hiding for a while and a lot of songs. After Mayer, she dated Jake Gyllenhaal briefly, which was nearly as big of an age gap and was also toxic from what's been written. More recently she was screwed over by Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun in the selling of her catalog, which is why she's done all the re-recordings with the vault songs added in. If they weren't 💩💩to Taylor then they wouldn't have had songs written about them. As her Vigilante lyric goes "don't get mad, get even". Most Swifties have been losing their minds over Taylor dating Travis Kelce because we see that finally, she's with someone who seems protective of her and proud to be seen and associated with her instead of trying to dim her light. We just want her to be happy.

"Memories feel like weapons." Wow. I get that one. 😢