By Bernard Zuel
- The Hiddleswift has landed: Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston arrive in Australia
- Five Hiddleswift theories
Sometimes you can be forgiven for thinking that Taylor Swift invented the idea of writing about your exes and making hits from those breakups and heartbreaks.
Pilloried for having boyfriends, losing boyfriends, dumping boyfriends and then excoriating them in song, Swift has borne the brunt of accusations of publicity stunt dating – the latest being the "is it real or is it a new film clip?" trysts with is "he/isn't he the new Bond/", Tom Hiddleston – and milking her private life for public gain.
Yes, she may be writing about her ex, but that doesn't make Taylor Swift unique.Credit: Vogue/YouTube
To the first accusation? Who can say with any certainty until we see her next clip or project? To the latter? Well, duh, who hasn't? No, really, who hasn't? And we don't even mean Calvin Harris, a recent ex whose new production, Ole, may or may not be about Swift but will probably be the first time anyone has taken his lyrics seriously enough to ponder such a question.
The great Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell wove their relationships into countless songs. For him: Marianne Ihlen, of So Long Marianne, and Janis Joplin, of Chelsea Hotel, to name but two. For her: Graham Nash, of Carey, Sam Shepherd, of Coyote, and James Taylor, of See You Sometime, to name but three, including at least two, Nash and Taylor, who wrote about her in return.
Tom Hiddleston and Taylor Swift have arrived in Australia.Credit: MEDIA-MODE
Bob Dylan's marriage to Sara Lownds produced what would have been a career's worth of material for lesser writers, running the gamut of relationship songs from the beautiful optimism and desire of Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands and Lay Lady Lay to the tenuous state of Sara and on to the bitterness of the whole Blood On The Tracks album.
John Lennon's career was heavily populated with songs about those in his life, whether obscured (Norwegian Wood) or direct (Woman, one of many about Yoko Ono) and Paul McCartney happily wrote about Jane Asher in good times (And I Love Her, We Can Work It Out) and bad (I'm Looking Through You) and then Linda Eastman (Two Of Us, My Love, Lovely Linda).
More recently Justin Timberlake supposedly wrote Cry Me A River about one ex (Britney Spears, who rumour has it responded with her own song, Everytime) and may or may not have written about another ex in Cameron Diaz. And local songwriter and author Holly Throsby wrote one album about breaking up and a subsequent album about making up again, with her then partner.
The list - which could include Elvis Costello, Kanye West, Lucinda Williams, Paul Kelly and Beyonce - is endless of course. Much like the list of sins piled up at the door of Taylor Swift, who may well be a manipulative, controlling and not entirely to be trusted pop star, or partner, happy to make the most of her life in her songs and marketing and persona. But she's hardly alone there.
This furore wouldn't have anything to do with Swift being young, female and in control would it?