The song 'Fortnight' by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word 'fortnight' shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
Fat man sitting on a little stool
Takes the money from my hand while his eyes take a walk all over you
Hands me the ticket, smiles and whispers good luck
Cuddle up angel, cuddle up my little dove
We'll ride down, baby, into this tunnel of love
Well, I can feel the soft silk of your blouse
And them soft thrills in our little fun house
Then the lights go out and it's just the three of us, yeah
You, me and all that stuff we're so scared of
Gotta ride down baby into this tunnel of love
Well, there's a crazy mirror showing us both in five D
I'm laughing at you you're laughing at me
There's a room of shadows that gets so dark brother
It's easy for two people to lose each other in this tunnel of love
Well, it ought to be easy ought to be simple enough, yeah
Man meets woman and they fall in love
But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough
And you've got to learn to live with what you can't rise above
If you want to ride on down, down in through this tunnel of love
Tunnel of love
This tunnel of love
This tunnel of love
Takes the money from my hand while his eyes take a walk all over you
Hands me the ticket, smiles and whispers good luck
Cuddle up angel, cuddle up my little dove
We'll ride down, baby, into this tunnel of love
Well, I can feel the soft silk of your blouse
And them soft thrills in our little fun house
Then the lights go out and it's just the three of us, yeah
You, me and all that stuff we're so scared of
Gotta ride down baby into this tunnel of love
Well, there's a crazy mirror showing us both in five D
I'm laughing at you you're laughing at me
There's a room of shadows that gets so dark brother
It's easy for two people to lose each other in this tunnel of love
Well, it ought to be easy ought to be simple enough, yeah
Man meets woman and they fall in love
But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough
And you've got to learn to live with what you can't rise above
If you want to ride on down, down in through this tunnel of love
Tunnel of love
This tunnel of love
This tunnel of love
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
Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
The Tunnel of Love is a metaphor for the journey a man takes when following the path of marriage with his new bride. The Tunnel of Love is an old amusement ride, usually found in the lower-budget "carnivals" and smalltime fairs. In the ride, two lovers would sit closely together in a small "boat" and ride through an indoor cavern that was plunged in darkness. The boat would twist and turn through the dark, following the current of a narrow river, while dimly lit mannequins and models would occassionally appear. In a sense, you were largely helpess on the ride...you were at the mercy of the darkness, you had no control over the controls of the boat, and you never knew what lay around the next sharp turn - "Then the lights go out and it's just the three of us, yeah you me and all that stuff we're so scared of".
Springsteen uses this ride as a metaphor for a new marriage. The feelings of fear, helplessness, nervousness, the unpredictability that come with the vows and new obligations. Two people are embarking on a journey that neither one has even been on before - "Cuddle up angel cuddle up my little dove and we'll ride down baby into this tunnel of love".
The final third of the song is where the true "meat" lies - "It's easy for two people to lose each other in this tunnel of love". In the darkness, with the rocky waters and sharp turns in the river, it is easy to fall apart, to let fear and mistrust come between you, and quite easily make you lose your way.
The song ends with two offerings from Springsteen - he gives us warning, followed by sage wisdom. His warning to his audience is that "...it ought to be easy, ought to be simple enough - Man meets woman and they fall in love...But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough". Perhaps riding down the "Tunnel of Love" isn't the sweet, innocent and fun-filled ride that we all hope and dream it is.
Finally, Springsteen offers some wisdom, and it is the final line that provides the home run in this song: "You've got to learn to live with what you can't rise above if you want to ride on down in through this tunnel of love".
Amazing song. Great solos and breaks that are just dripping with pain and emotion. The music is accented with fairground side effects, and in a chilling twist, the song fades to the sound of screams. Screams of helplessness, fear, anticipation and nervous energy. Do we take them literally as the sounds of a group of customers enjoying the thrills and scares of of a rollercoaster? Or are these screams indicating the fear and discomfort of serious commitment?
Excellent analysis. Thank you.