The release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) marks the next stage of Taylor Swift’s ambitious re-record of her back catalogue.
Speak Now was the US superstar’s third studio album, released in 2010 through Big Machine Records.
Swift first embarked on the re-recording of her first six albums after the master recordings were acquired by the prominent talent manager Scooter Braun when he bought her former label, much to her fury.
I’m VERY excited to show you the back cover of Speak Now (my version) including the vault tracks and collaborations with Hayley Williams from @paramore and @falloutboy. Since Speak Now was all about my songwriting, I decided to go to the artists who I feel influenced me most… pic.twitter.com/UJOqUNfCGp
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 5, 2023
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The masters have since changed hands again, after a deal with investment firm Shamrock Capital, but Swift has continued with a bid to regain ownership of the music by creating new versions of the songs.
Swift signed with Universal Music in 2018 in a deal said to give her control of her master recordings.
She has already recorded new versions of her previous albums Fearless and Red.
She still has to release new versions of 2006 self-titled debut album, 2014’s 1989 and 2017’s Reputation, although it is thought that the work on 1989 has already been done.
The re-release of Speak Now will bring Swift’s brief 2009 relationship with John Mayer back into the spotlight.
The pair reportedly started dating at the end of 2009, when she was 19 and he was 32, and ended in early 2010.
Speak Now features the track Dear John, with lyrics that blast an older partner who toyed with her emotions, including: “Dear John, I see it all now that you’re gone. Don’t you think I was too young to be messed with?”
The song is widely considered to be a pastiche of Mayer’s own style of music, featuring a lengthy guitar solo that bears a striking similarity to his riffs.
Three years later, he appeared to reply with his own track Paper Doll, singing about a girl who didn’t know herself.
Fans have speculated that the Speak Now re-record, which includes six previously unheard tracks “from the vault” will feature other songs that reference Mayer.
It fills me with such pride and joy to announce that my version of Speak Now will be out July 7 (just in time for July 9th, iykyk 😆) I first made Speak Now, completely self-written, between the ages of 18 and 20. The songs that came from this time in my life were marked by their… pic.twitter.com/oa0Vs5kszr
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) May 6, 2023
Another of Swift’s former flames, Taylor Lautner, tweeted that he was “praying” for Mayer after the Speak Now release was announced.
However, Swift made a plea to her fans not to cyberbully her exes on her behalf prior to performing Dear John for the first time in 11 years at a show on her current Eras tour.
She told the audience: “I was hoping to ask you, that as we lead up to this album, I would love for that kindness and that gentleness to extend onto our internet activities.
“I’m 33 years old. I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19 except for songs I wrote and the memories that we made together.
“What I’m trying to tell you, is that I am not putting this album out so that you can go and should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about 14 million years ago. I do not care. We have all grown up. We’re good.”
The vault tracks include collaborations with Fallout Boy and Hayley Williams from Paramore.
Swift is currently in the middle of her Eras tour, which will come to Ireland and the UK in 2024.
Really can’t contain my excitement because… we’re adding 14 new shows to The Eras Tour. And I get to travel the world doing shows with @paramore!! Hayley and I have been friends since we were teens in Nashville and now we get to frolic around the UK/Europe next summer??? I’m… pic.twitter.com/kl1aijxR2o
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) July 5, 2023
On Thursday it was announced she was adding 14 more stops in the UK and Europe, including dates in London, Liverpool and Edinburgh, as well as three dates now in Dublin – June 28th to 30th.
The US megastar was already due to play the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on June 28th and 29th, but has now added a Sunday show.
There has been speculation online that this may rule her out of appearing at the 2024 Glastonbury festival, which also falls on these dates.
Swift was previously scheduled to perform at the world-famous festival in Somerset in 2020, but the festival was cancelled amid the coronavirus pandemic.
