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Dear John Lyrics

Then were the nights when my days once revolved around you;
Counting my footsteps, praying the floor won't fall through again.
My mother accused me of losing my mind but I swore I was fine.
You paint me a blue sky and go back and turn it to rain.
And I lived in your chess game, but you changed the rules every day.
Wonderin' which version of you I might get on the phone tonight.
Well, I stopped picking up and this song is to let you know why.

Dear John,
I see it all now that you're gone.
Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?
The girl in the dress, cried the whole way home.
I should've known.

Well, maybe it's me and my blind optimism to blame.
Maybe it's you and your sick need to give love and take it away.
And you'll add my name to your long list of traitors who don't understand.
And I'll look back in regret, I ignored when they said, "Run as fast as you can."

Dear John,
I see it all now that you're gone.
Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?
The girl in the dress, cried the whole way home.
Dear John,
I see it all now, it was wrong.
Don't you think nineteen's to young to be played by your dark, twisted games
when I loved you so?
I should've known.

You are an expert at sorry and keeping the lines blurry and never impressed by me acing your tests.
All the girls that you've run dry with tired, lifeless eyes 'cause you burned them out.
But I took your matches before fire could catch me so don't look now.
I'm shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town.

Dear John,
I see it all now that you're gone.
Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?
The girl in the dress, cried the whole way home.
I see it all now that you're gone.
Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?
The girl in the dress wrote you a song.
You should've known.
You should've known.
Don't you think I was too young?
You should've known.
Song Info
Submitted by
morgz0102 On Oct 22, 2010
65 Meanings

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Cover art for Dear John lyrics by Taylor Swift

Taylor has said numerous times that Speak Now is about the last two years of her life. So I'm betting that this is about John Mayer ... especially considering the song 'Story of Us' is about an ex-boyfriend she sees at an award show and how it's killing her that he is avoiding her. The secret message for that song is 'CMT AWARDS' ... and Lautner and Jonas would have never been to thsoe. So,I do think it's about Mayer. And the details fit him so well .. the people warning her, her being so young (why else would she mention her age if he wasn't older than her/), the blatant disrespectful way he destroys so many women that he dates. Mayer is known for being awful in relationships. it all matches up.

As far as the song itself -- I'm going to agree with a lot of people and say it sounds like emotinoal abuse. She was deeply hurt by him. It sonds like he was manipulative and kept her on her toes and she never knew what to expect out of him. But, I love in the end how she says that she took his matches before fire could catch her. It's like saying she got away before she really got burned all the way. And when she says she's shining live fireworks over his sad empty town .. that suggest that she is able to see how she went wrong and she can work on getting happy .. while Mayer is still miserable and alone, because of his cruel treatment towards the people he dates.

Thsi song is so raw and it captures a feeling that is very hard to pin down in words .. it's like you're grasping for something for so long and you keep working at it becasue you're so hopeful and then finally you look around and see all the destruction and how hurt you got from it all. That probably didn't make any sense. But I do adore this song and how it's written, the melody, her voice, the lyrics .. all of it. Beautiful.

@rainbowxx7 What a lovely interpretation, NOW I get it!!!!!

Cover art for Dear John lyrics by Taylor Swift

It's about John Mayer. I don't know the details but he's a douche either way and always has been.

I don't get why it's taking people so long to realize that.

All is fair in love and war. John Mayer is one of the few very talented guitar players left in a generation that only wants catchy tunes like this song here. I love how you know John Mayer is a douche. You talk to him a lot?

All is fair in love and war. John Mayer is one of the few very talented guitar players left in a generation that only wants catchy tunes like this song here. I love how you know John Mayer is a douche. You talk to him a lot?

All is fair in love and war. John Mayer is one of the few very talented guitar players left in a generation that only wants catchy tunes like this song here. I love how you know John Mayer is a douche. You talk to him a lot?

Cover art for Dear John lyrics by Taylor Swift

I love how you can hear so much emotion in this song.

It's about how she started having a relationship with someone who she'd been warned about. but she ignored whatever they had to say because she was "optimistic" about the situation and was falling for this guy (John Mayer) anyways. Seems like the relationship had a lot of ups and downs where he was trying to control her and have the upper hand. Then Taylor ended up getting hurt, so she stopped answering his phone calls before he could do more damage.

Now SHE sees how she was naïve and too young. which is what makes john Mayer a huge douche, because he is so much older than taylor, HE should've have know. Plus he's a manipulative bipolar womanizer. His music isn't all too bad though, I'll give him that.

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"manipulative bipolar womanizer"DAMN,do u know him personally to know this info..TELL US HOW U REALLY FEEL!!ha

hey mostwanted, it's great that you know him well enough to know that he's NOT that!!!! honestly, nobody knows anything about celebrities. we just know what their image is. people should shut up and get a life of their own instead of living vicariously through the lives of people they don't even know.

Cover art for Dear John lyrics by Taylor Swift

Her voice is just amazing in this. In some of her songs I think she can be a little high pitch, but this is just perfect. Her voice actually gets better by each album :D

Cover art for Dear John lyrics by Taylor Swift

GO TAYLOR! John Mayer may be a good musician, but personally I have no respect for him. This is OBVIOUSLY about him, and I think he deserves it, the other girls he's screwed around with haven't had the opportunity to write a song about it :)

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Cover art for Dear John lyrics by Taylor Swift

This is about john mayer. even the music she CHOOSE to use is john mayer riffs. it sounds like a john mayer song. all of his songs have about the same music. I love john mayer and no every single one of his songs from the last two cd's by heart and i can't even tell the difference from the songs until he starts to sing the words. This was when they sang "Half of my Heart" together. Besides, she hasn't been to high school in years. She writes her songs from what is current in her life.

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i'm glad somebody else picked up on that. the song is almost out of place on the album because the arrangement is so similar to 'Gravity'. the draw organ in the background, the blues leads, it was certainly intentional.

I agree. I feel like Taylor's song all song about the same. On every album and for this song to have such strong guitar riffs is completely out of place on the album.

I'm too am glad y'all picked up on this!!! the guitar riff/draw organ is EXACTLY like mayer's style!! so clever of her to put these in here. I've taken many courses in UC Berkeley's music department, and I can honestly say she is a musical genius, unlike many artists out there. This song makes me cry when I listen to it... like her song "Love Story" when he finally proposes to her... Anyway, this song is amazing and gives me even more respect for her. And I'm a huge John Mayer fan, even with his occasionally chauvinistic lyrics ("you'll be...

Cover art for Dear John lyrics by Taylor Swift

Whether this song is about John Mayer or not really isn't important in my opinion. It's a perfect and beautiful description of an emotionally abusive relationship. Very sad.

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Yes, and it's so much more common than people know and it is very, very real. Often girls cry and people think it's just teen stuff. No one is warning girls about Narcissistic Personality Disorder and the games and abuse that go with it. The sad thing is, the victimizer keeps coming back for years and years after and the girl often keeps getting sucked in.

Cover art for Dear John lyrics by Taylor Swift

"And I lived in your chess game, but you changed the rules every day." I've been in a similar relationship, unfortunately.

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Cover art for Dear John lyrics by Taylor Swift

Perfect song to describe being used, too... I just got out of a particularly confusing relationship where, when I moved home, he'd disappear for days at a time only to reappear. I was like a drug addict waiting for a hit. My mother told me I was acting crazy, and I still held onto some hope that it'd be okay.

In the end, he lied. About everything. Even the reason he dumped me. And everyone saw it but me. I lashed out because I'd been holding it in for weeks and weeks, apologized... And he acted like he was the victim, and used my own pain to hurt me even more.

I'll be where he is next spring, and I can't wait to "shine like fireworks", seeing as the best revenge is to be better.

Memory
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@sweetestdownfall you dont need that piece of shit

Cover art for Dear John lyrics by Taylor Swift

I don't really like Taylor Swift, but this is a perfect description of the emotionally abusive relationship I was in at nineteen. It's amazing what you see in retrospect (the things that yes, my mother said I was crazy for not seeing).

Literally everything here is on point:

He was my world, and that world would be a completely different place every day. I never knew when something I did would upset him, and when he was upset, it was awful for everyone. My mom & all my friends told me to run, that he'd never change, that I deserved better, but I was convinced that we just needed to get through this "rough spot" (that lasted a year and a half of our two-year relationship) and it would all be fine. Friends of his said this was nothing new to him, that he pulled similar nonsense on every previous girlfriend and many friends (the ones he claimed were crazy and clingy and never knew or understood him like I did).

Every time he would lose control and go psycho on me (We had to call the cops on him multiple times for trying to hurt me or himself) he would apologize and say it would be better, and make vague promises and expect it to all be water under the bridge when he never forgave me for a single thing. I was crazy in love with him, and he was playing mind games.

19 really is too young to go through all that. I definitely feel for her.

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