You said the way my blue eyes shined,
Put those Georgia stars to shame that night
I said: “That’s a lie”
Just a boy in a Chevy truck,
That had a tendency of gettin’ stuck,
On backroads at night
An’ I was right there beside him all summer long
An’ then the time we woke up to find that summer’d gone

But when you think: Tim McGraw,
I hope you think my favorite song
The one we danced to all night long:
The moon like a spotlight on the lake
When you think happiness,
I hope you think: “That little black dress”
Think of my head on your chest,
An’ my old faded blue jeans
When you think Tim McGraw,
I hope you think of me

September saw a month of tears,
An’ thankin’ God that you weren’t here,
To see me like that
But in a box beneath my bed,
Is a letter that you never read,
From three summers back
It’s hard not to find it all a little bitter sweet,
An’ lookin’ back on all of that, it’s nice to believe:

When you think: Tim McGraw,
I hope you think my favorite song
The one we danced to all night long:
The moon like a spotlight on the lake
When you think happiness,
I hope you think: “That little black dress”
Think of my head on your chest,
An’ my old faded blue jeans
When you think Tim McGraw,
I hope you think of me

And I’m back for the first time since then:
I’m standin’ on your street,
An’ there’s a letter left on your doorstep,
An’ the first thing that you’ll read:

Is: “When you think: Tim McGraw,
“I hope you think my favorite song”
Some day you’ll turn your radio on,
I hope it takes you back to that place
When you think happiness,
I hope you think: “That little black dress”
Think of my head on your chest,
An’ my old faded blue jeans
When you think Tim McGraw,
I hope you think of me
Oh, think of me,
Mmmm

You said the way my blue eyes shined,
Put those Georgia stars to shame that night
I said: “That’s a lie”

________

As has been said, Taylor’s songs are, basically, high school poetry. Taken as this, it makes sense for her to choose a currently popular fellow country singer as a poetic device in one of her love songs. The implication is, of course, they were dancing to one of his songs the night they fell in love, so she’s telling the person she is singing to that she hopes when he thinks back on her, he has positive memories, regardless of anything negative that may have gone on between them; and she uses McGraw as (how Fenzel would put it) a form of metonymy (or is synechdoche better?) for the entire set of memories. She’s putting her eggs in the basket of hope that her listeners will be able to associate their own lives with this, for teenagers aren’t the only ones that are “reminded” of some aspect of their lives “every time” they encounter something they have somehow, for some reason, associated with that aspect in their minds. Smells, sounds, sights, songs- being exposed to one can open a floodgate of memories if the connection and memories are strong and powerful enough. Swift’s hope is that when his memories are triggered by McGraw, the young man she danced with will be happy about them.

I found this endlessly amusing for some reason but also kind of wierd. I don’t know the context but how many times are you going to directly mention a specific celebrity in your album? Though I’m also wondering why I find this less acceptable than the 24 mentions of Dre. But I guess with old school rap (I’m guessing that’s what it is from the album) mentioning Dre is like a necessary hommage, like praying to Mecca or something.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo!_MTV_Raps

And speaking of learning something new, apparently this show featured a “Doctor Dre” that of course was not the Dr. Dre of NWA fame.

Counting all the choruses seperately, I got:
Watch 78
Me 76
Crank 55
Dat 53
Soulja 52
Boy 52
now 44
you (ahem, YOOOOOOOUUUUU!!!) 37
Ho 25

Anyway, I loved this article. We had to use this sort of analysis for Shakespeare in English class in college, and it’s amusing to see it applied to pop-culture. I think that, in addition to “yo” being a bid for attention, the fact that “Dre,” “Ren” and “Compton” show up so frequently says something about hip-hop’s very self-conscious character.