Taylor released her song “Happiness” in 2020 on her Evermore album. Before researching for this blog post, I had never heard the song. As a huge Taylor fan, this is a rare occurrence- but I was more than eager to listen to the song when I was researching the lyrics for this blog post. I can now say I have found one of my new favorite songs, does Taylor ever disappoint? The song contains several references to The Great Gatsby and is one of the more depressing songs on the album despite the title. The song explains how moments of happiness can still be found at the turbulent end of a relationship and remains in memories, this can relate to Jay Gatsby and Daisy. Speaking for myself I definitely would’ve cried to this song if I had found it post-breakup, so it’s probably for the best I am just now starting to listen to it.
The great Gatsby refernce that stood out to me the most in the song is the reference to a girl being a fool, the lyrics stating,
“I hope she’ll be a beautiful fool
Who takes my spot next to you”
In this lyric, Taylor is explaining that she hopes the next girl who is with her partner is naive, this directly parallels a Daisy quote from the novel. The quote is Daisy talking about her future daughter, “she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
Taylor also uses the term “green light” in her lyrics. The term is also used in The Great Gatsby to describe Gatsby’s belief in their ability to achieve his dreams and to allude to the idea of the American Dream. Taylor uses it in her lyrics to express her partner’s yearning for forgiveness just as Gatsby desperately wished to have Daisy back as his lover.
“All you want from me now
Is the green light of forgiveness
You haven’t met the new me yet
And I think she’ll give you that”
The song repeats the verse “you haven’t met the new me yet” in the chorus. I personally interpret this as her also finding happiness in the relationship even after she has grown out of it, which is a beautiful thing. She refers to his new partner as a “fool”, to also infer she was also once a fool to love him, but is a new version of herself now.
Unlike Taylor, gatsby was never able to find the version of himself who was no longer in love with Daisy, that being said the song still has multiple parallels to the novel and has made its way into my current playlist.