Warren wanted a Beach Boys thing for this one, and Carl Wilson and Billy Hinsche came in, with Carl arranging the vocal parts. The other harmony vocalists (credited as the "Gentlemen Boys") were Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Zevon's longtime backers Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon, and Linda Rondstadt/Stone Poneys guitarist Kenny Edwards.
Long handwritten note
Deep in your pocket
Words, how little they mean
When you're a little too late
I stood right by the tracks
Your face in a locket
Good girls, hopeful they'll be and long they will wait
We had a beautiful magic love there
What a sad beautiful tragic love affair
In dreams
I meet you in warm conversation
We both wake
In lonely beds
In different cities
And time
Is taking its sweet time erasing you
And you've got your demons
And darlin' they all look like me
'Cause we had a beautiful magic love there
What a sad beautiful tragic love affair
(Oh-uh)
(Oh-uh)
Distance, timing
Breakdown, fighting
Silence, the train runs off its tracks
Kiss me, try to fix it
Could you just try to listen?
Hang up, give up
For the life of us we can't get back
A beautiful magic love there
What a sad
Beautiful tragic
Beautiful tragic
Beautiful
What we had a beautiful magic love there (uh-uh)
What a sad beautiful tragic love affair
We had a beautiful magic love there
What a sad beautiful tragic love affair
Deep in your pocket
Words, how little they mean
When you're a little too late
I stood right by the tracks
Your face in a locket
Good girls, hopeful they'll be and long they will wait
We had a beautiful magic love there
What a sad beautiful tragic love affair
In dreams
I meet you in warm conversation
We both wake
In lonely beds
In different cities
And time
Is taking its sweet time erasing you
And you've got your demons
And darlin' they all look like me
'Cause we had a beautiful magic love there
What a sad beautiful tragic love affair
(Oh-uh)
(Oh-uh)
Distance, timing
Breakdown, fighting
Silence, the train runs off its tracks
Kiss me, try to fix it
Could you just try to listen?
Hang up, give up
For the life of us we can't get back
A beautiful magic love there
What a sad
Beautiful tragic
Beautiful tragic
Beautiful
What we had a beautiful magic love there (uh-uh)
What a sad beautiful tragic love affair
We had a beautiful magic love there
What a sad beautiful tragic love affair
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by thrwmyhrtawy., jojoinpink54, PinkInk, sheerio12
Sad Beautiful Tragic Lyrics as written by Taylor Alison Swift
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Spirit Within
Bertoldi Brothers
Bertoldi Brothers
Grand Theft Auto
Insane Ian
Insane Ian
The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
Techno Ted
Audioslave
Audioslave
Techno Ted may be a person who caused Chris incredible emotional pain & trepidation as well as moments of peace & happiness but now is removed and awaiting his fate. Darling may be a different person who is also free of him and can live her life free of Ted's tyranny. "In between all the laughing, and daydreams ... lies: a desert of truth" Lies are like a desert or the omission of Truth: Where there were Lies then Truth was absent. The song, "Techno Ted", may be a cathartic celebration of the downfall of this person.
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
Thursday
In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Taylor penned this hushed, intimate number when she was sitting on her tour bus after a show thinking about a relationship that ended several months previously. She explained to Billboard magazine: "The feeling wasn't sadness and anger or those things anymore. It was wistful loss. And so I just got my guitar and I hit on the fact that I was thinking in terms of rhyming; I rhymed magic with tragic, changed a few things and ended it with what a sad beautiful tragic love affair. I wanted to tell the story in terms of a cloudy recollection of what went wrong. It's kind of the murky gray, looking back on something you can't change or get back."
Red covers the whole spectrum of emotions and this cut lies at one end of the range. "I'm 22," Swift told Billboard magazine. "I'm all over the place, so my record is all over the place. Part of this record is acknowledging [that] all these emotions are very loud and very different from one another. At one end of the spectrum you have 'Sad Beautiful Tragic,' which is a breakup song in the form of a funeral march, and you also have 'Never Ever Getting Back Together Again', which is a breakup song in the form of a parade."