"Epiphany" (stylized as "epiphany") is the thirteenth track from American singer and songwriter Taylor Swift's eighth studio album, folklore, released on July 24, 2020, through Republic Records.
Background[]
Swift confirmed the existence of the song through social media on July 23, 2020.
Lyrics[]
[Verse 1]
Keep your helmet, keep your life, son
Just a flesh wound, here's your rifle
Crawling up the beaches now
"Sir, I think he's bleeding out"
And some things you just can't speak about
[Chorus]
With you, I serve
With you, I fall down, down
Watch you breathe in
Watch you breathing out, out
[Verse 2]
Something med school did not cover
Someone's daughter, someone's mother
Holds your hand through plastic now
"Doc, I think she's crashing out"
And some things you just can't speak about
[Bridge]
Only twenty minutes to sleep
But you dream of some epiphany
Just one single glimpse of relief
To make some sense of what you've seen
[Chorus]
With you, I serve
With you, I fall down, down
Watch you breathe in
Watch you breathing out, out
With you, I serve
With you, I fall down, down
Watch you breathe in
Watch you breathing out, out
[Outro]
Only twenty minutes to sleep
But you dream of some epiphany
Just one single glimpse of relief
To make some sense of what you've seen
folklore: the long pond studio sessions[]
In folklore: the long pond studio sessions, Swift and Aaron Dessner discussed the meaning behind the song:
| “ | Swift: "I think I really felt like there should be a string moment on the album because we were towards the end of it, and it was all very piano and acoustic. And you're so good with string arrangements, and, you know [Bryce Dessner] is-- I mean, a genius. And I kinda felt like there should be a moment where there's a song that was unlike anything I'd done before and could really exercise that muscle that I know you have.
When I heard it, I remember thinking, 'Maybe I wanna tell a sports story.' 'Cause I had just watched The Last Dance, and I was thinking all in terms of sports and winners and underdogs and things like that, but actually, what I had been doing really frequently up until that point was I had been doing a lot of research on my grandfather who fought in World War II at Guadalcanal which was an extremely bloody battle, and, you know, he never talked about it. Not with his sons, not with his wife. Nobody got to hear about what happened there. And so, my dad had to do a lot of research, and he and his brothers did a lot of digging and found out that my granddad was exposed to some of the worst situations you could ever imagine as a human being. And so, I kind of tried to imagine what would happen in order to make you just never be able to speak about something. When I was thinking about that, I realized that there are people, right now, you know, taking a twenty-minute break in between shifts at a hospital, who are having this kind of trauma happen to them right now, that they will probably never want to speak about, you know? And so, I just kind of thought, like, this is an opportunity to maybe tell that story." Dessner: "The way you weave that together, where there's remembrance, and bearing witness to your family's history, but then recognition of who the heroes are today, it's so moving. And I tried-- The sense of harmony in that song is really different than other songs. And again, it was as though we did it in the same room and worked out the chords and everything. And how you sing to it feels different than any other song. It was another moment where it felt like I was just thankful to be a musician. Or like, 'This is why I play music.' You know, something like--" Swift: "Yeah, I felt that way with this song too, where it was just like, 'How did this slot into place and come together?' I often feel with this album, there have been times in my life where things have fallen apart so methodically, and I couldn't control how things were going wrong, and nothing I did stopped it. And it felt like I'd just been pushed out of a plane and was, like, scratching at the air on the way down, and I felt like the universe is just doing its thing. It's just dismantling my life, and there's nothing I can do. And this is a weird situation where ever since I started making music with you, I felt like that was the universe forcing things to fall into place perfectly, and there was nothing I could do. It's one of those weird things that makes you think about life a lot, where this lockdown could've been a time where I absolutely lost my mind, and instead I think this album was a real flotation device for both of us." |
” |
Live performances[]
"epiphany" was performed as a surprise song on The Eras Tour on March 9, 2024, as part of a mashup with "mirrorball".
| folklore | ||
|---|---|---|
| "the 1" • "cardigan" • "the last great american dynasty" • "exile" • "my tears ricochet" • "mirrorball" • "seven" • "august" • "this is me trying" • "illicit affairs" • "invisible string" • "mad woman" • "epiphany" • "betty" • "peace" • "hoax" | ||
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