English Teacher Explains Swift’s “Father Figure”Lyrics
The most hard-hitting track on Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl is the seething Father Figure. It’s the story of a pupil who surpasses his master…but does it have anything to do with her actual masters?
From the Scott Borchetta of it all to every hidden reference, let’s break this song down and pick apart the entire story.
I’m your Swiftie English teacher, and this is a deep dive into the lyrics of Father Figure, line by line.
- Title: Father Figure
- Track: 4, The Life of a Showgirl
- Written By: Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback & George Michael
- Pen: Fountain
Father Figure Narrative Synopsis
- POV: Multiple: the “father figure” narrates, then the protégé narrates
- Setting: In the present, looking back over the past
- Characters: The “father figure,” the “protégé”
- Mood: vengeful, angry, karmic
- Conflict: The “father figure” thinks he created his protégé, but the protégé really did all the work.
- Theme: Coming of age & twisted power dynamics
- Lesson: Don’t ever let someone else take credit for your hard work.
Who is Father Figure About?
Taylor hasn’t revealed explicitly who she had in mind when she wrote Father Figure, but many Swifties believe it’s about her former label manager Scott Borchetta.
Borchetta was a “father figure” to Taylor, but after she left his label Big Machine, he famously sold her masters to Scooter Braun.
Other songs rumored to discuss “the master’s heist” are my tears ricochet, hoax, mad woman, the lakes, and long story short.
Interpolating George Michael
This track is an interpolation of George Michael’s famous Father Figure, which is similarly about a power struggle between a father figure and his “son.” In that song, Michael writes about the “son” as a romantic partner, but Taylor has taken the romance out and inserted a business relationship.
Father Figure Lyrics Meaning: Line by Line
Please note, this is only my interpretation of Taylor Swift’s writing. Art is subjective, and the only person who truly knows what these lyrics mean – or what she intended them to mean – is Taylor herself.
What these lyrics mean to you is really what matters, and there is no single “correct” interpretation. I hope my annotations below I can simply point out things you may have missed, open the door to alternate meanings, and draw parallels between Taylor’s other lyrics and art.
Verse 1: The Savior Arrives
“When I found you, you were young, wayward, lost in the cold,” she begins in the first verse. We’re inside the point of view of the “father figure” now, but Taylor will switch up the POV toward the end.
If you’re thinking you’ve heard this story before, it’s a well-worn trope: a rich “savior” finds a vulnerable person in need of help. In his view, this person needs guidance. But as we’ll learn shortly, it’s all a game of exploitation.
“Pulled up to you in the Jag’,” he recalls, metaphorically sending his chariot to pick up this young person to whisk them away to a life of glamour. He “turned your rags into gold,” meaning he took something shabby and made it shine.
But to turn “rags” into gold also reminds us of the story of Rumpelstiltskin, popularized by the Brothers Grimm. In that fairytale, a father brags that his daughter can spin straw into gold. The greedy king kidnaps the daughter and locks her in a tower until she turns all his straw into gold. This is, of course, an impossible task. Until Rumpelstiltskin appears out of nowhere.
This elfin trickster says he can spin the straw into gold, but it’ll cost the girl: her necklace, her ring, and her firstborn child. She reluctantly agrees, the gold is spun, the king is satisfied, and everyone goes about their lives. But after the girl gives birth to a child, Rumpelstiltskin comes to collect. Unless she can guess his name, he says, he’ll take the baby. She does end up guessing and Rumpelstiltskin disintegrates before her eyes.
We can see several parallels between the story of Father Figure, Taylor’s professional life, and Rumpelstiltskin: they’re all stories about power struggles. But this fairytale also named the so-called “Rumpelstiltskin principle”, which states that true power lies in a name. If you can name something, you hold a position of power over it. So we have to ask, how powerful is the name Taylor Swift? It’s pretty powerful.
After the “father figure” whisks away the youngster, “The winding road leads to the chateau.” The metaphorical road to success will lead to riches, symbolized by the chateau. But important to note is that the father figure is in the driver’s seat. He’s in charge.
‘“You remind me of a younger me’,” the older man says to himself, “I saw potential.” But as is often the case with controlling parents, they’re trying to live out their failed dreams through their offspring. This father is no different.
Chorus 1: Pick Your Poison
“I’ll be your father figure,” he promises in the chorus, “I drink that brown liquor.” He’s establishing the power dynamic here. He’s older, as illustrated by his very adult choice of alcohol. He’s more worldly, and he’ll guide this protégé through the world. But as we’ll learn later, he doesn’t ever want his “son” to actually grow up.
If this song was intended as a tale about Taylor’s former label manager Scott Borchetta, this could be a clue: Borchetta owns Big Machine Distillery, which brews bourbon.
“I can make deals with the devil because my dick’s bigger,” he claims. He’s boasting that his ego, and his clout, are so oversized that he can sell souls willy-nilly, never seeing any real repercussions. He’s too big to fail, as illustrated by his “manhood.”
But in the context of Borchetta, and if Swift is the “son,” she’s pointing out that he can “make deals with the devil” precisely because he’s a man, and she’s not. Her position in the patriarchy is further explored in the songs Eldest Daughter, Cancelled, and The Life of a Showgirl.
“This love is pure profit,” he says slyly, finally saying the quiet part out loud. Now we can see his true intentions: he’s in it for the money, and sees his protégé as a cash cow. Calling it “this love” reveals this deception, too: he’ll disguise his greed as familial love.
“Just step into my office,” he beckons, like the big bad wolf. But by the time Little Red Riding Hood sees who he really is, it’ll be too late.
“I dry your tears with my sleeve,” he promises. He’ll pretend to be the caring “father” to get what he wants, but it’s really only a ploy to get the young boy to trust him.
“Leave it with me,” he assures his protégé. In business-speak, this just means ‘I’ll take care of it.’ But it’s a loaded phrase that will change meaning as the song goes on.
“I protect the family,” he promises. But as we’ve already found out, his idea of family isn’t based on love or caring. For him, “the family” is merely “pure profit.” He’ll only protect his own wealth.
Verse 2: False Father
“I pay the check before it kisses the mahogany grain,” our father figure narrates in the second verse. He’ll pick up the tab and take care of it, before the server comes and plops down the check on the mahogany table. The larger meaning is that he’ll take care of problems before his “son” even is aware of them.
“Said, ‘They wanna see you rise, they don’t want you to reign’,” he recalls telling his protégé. The industry, he claims, wants to see him entertain, but they don’t want him to have any real power. He’s keeping this power balance in check by cutting down any big ideas before they bloom.
“I showed you all the tricks of the trade,” he says, which basically means ‘I taught you everything I know.’ This echoes a line from Taylor’s prologue poem, “we learn these tricks of the trade.” But he’s not doing it out of the kindness of his heart. He wants payback.
“All I asked for is your loyalty,” he says, “My dear protégé.” This is vaguely threatening; ‘don’t cross me,’ he says, ‘because I built you up, and I can tear you down.’
It’s also infantilizing, the way he talks to this boy as “my dear protégé.” The boy’s identity is only in relation to the father figure, as if he doesn’t even have his own name.
Chorus 2: Slimy Savior
The first five lines of the chorus remain the same, but our narrator then changes the last line. Instead of “I dry your tears with my sleeve,” instead it’s “they’ll know your name in the streets.”
He promises fame, but he only promises that the boy will have notoriety. He doesn’t promise success, or legacy, or an adoring public. The quiet meaning is: ‘they’ll know my name, because I’m the one who created you.’
“Leave it with me,” he assures the boy, but this time it’s after “they’ll know your name.” Put together, it’s ‘leave your name with me. Leave your legacy with me. I own you.’
“I protect the family,” he promises again. But after all these vaguely and outright threatening promises, it feels mafia-coded. And what happens in organized crime? Those who dissent, or don’t play by the rules, are “taken out.”
This connotation will become clearer later on when we hear from the protégé’s point of view.
Bridge: The Protégé Grows Up
“I saw a change in you,” our father figure says in the bridge. It’s not ‘you’re growing up’ or ‘look how far you’ve come.’ It’s ‘you’ve changed, and I don’t like it.’
“My dear boy,” he demeans again, “They don’t make loyalty like they used to.” This is an indirect way of saying ‘you – and your generation – aren’t playing by the rules of the old guard.’
He’s upset because he’s losing control. The boy isn’t obeying anymore, but instead of their relationship evolving with time, the father figure just wants it back the way it was.
“Your thoughtless ambition sparked the ignition,” he says, “On foolish decisions which lead to misguided visions.”
“Thoughtless ambition” means that the boy has lofty aspirations, but the father figure thinks it’s silly or stupid. This stupidity, he believes, led to “foolish decisions” made on the basis of “misguided visions.”
The connotation is, ‘you were thinking on your own again, weren’t you? I told you that only I’m allowed to think thoughts about your career.’ But what he can’t see is that these “misguided visions” only look that way to him. For the boy, the path forward is perfectly clear. There’s just something in the way.
So what are those “misguided visions”? “That to fulfill your dreams, you had to get rid of me.” The boy thinks that the only way forward, to have the career and the life he wants, he has to sever ties with the controlling and abrasive “father figure.”
He’s right. And get rid of him he does, because it’s at this point that we no longer hear from the father figure. He disappears from the narrative altogether.
“I protect the family,” the protégé pops in. The boy – now fully grown – is now our narrator, and the rest of the story is from his perspective. He’s in control now, and he protects “the family”: his life, his legacy, his reputation, and his work.
Final Chorus: The Protégé’s Promises
“I was your father figure,” our protégé says in the final chorus. This power dynamic may have started in the opposite direction, but now the tables have turned. The student quickly surpassed the master.
“We drank that brown liquor,” he says. They were both the adults, and they both picked their poison together.
“You made a deal with this devil, turns out my dick’s bigger,” he quips. The father figure may have tried to sell the soul of the child, but now the protégé owns his own soul. And he’s coming back for more. He’s outgrown his teacher, and now he has more clout and more power.
“You want a fight, you found it,” he says, putting up his fists and ready to protect what’s his, “I got the place surrounded.” There’s no escape for this father figure turned enemy, because he’s thought of every angle. There’s nowhere he can turn for help.
“You’ll be sleeping with the fishes before you know you’re drownin’,” our protégé promises, pulling in another mafia-coded phrase. If he tries to cross his former student, he’ll be quickly and quietly “taken out.”
“Whose portrait’s on the mantle?” he reminds his former father figure. This is his house, and it always has been. ‘I built this,’ he says, ‘I built you. If it weren’t for me, you’d be nobody.’
“Who covered up your scandals?” he hints, slyly implying that he’s got enough dirt to bury his former father figure. ‘I hold all the cards,’ he says, ‘and you hold none.’
“Mistake my kindness for weakness and find your card cancelled,” he promises. He’s tougher than he looks, and while he may be kind, he’s never been weak. “Find your card cancelled” implies that the father figure is still on the payroll, but that can change with the flip of a switch.
But this could also allude to his business card, or calling card. In other words, his reputation. The “son” can ruin him if he so chooses.
“I was your father figure,” he reminds him again, “You pulled the wrong trigger.” Instead of firing with him, he fired at him. And that shot could trigger a full-out war.
“This empire belongs to me,” he closes out the final chorus. He built his own empire, and while the “father figure” may have jump started the whole business, he should never forget whose name is on the deed.
Final Post-Chorus & Outro: “I Saw Potential”
“Leave it with me,” the protégé repeats in the final post-chorus, but this time, it has an entirely different meaning: “this empire belongs to me, leave it with me.” ‘This is mine’, the protégé reminds him, and though they may have had a relationship in the past, he should never forget who really put in the blood, sweat and tears. They should never forget who holds the keys to the castle.
“I protect the family,” he repeats, “Leave it with me.” It’s not his “family” to protect any longer, because it never was in the first place. This time, “leave it with me” means, essentially, ‘get out of my family, and get out of my life. You’re done.’
“You know, you remind me of a younger me,” he speaks down to his former father figure, “I saw potential.” By this final line, the power dynamic has completely flipped on its head. We can see who was really the grownup all along.
The last line is absolutely devastating in the pettiest way: “I saw potential.” ‘You could have really been something,’ our protégé quips, ‘it’s just too bad you forgot who your boss was.’
The student has become the master, and the master has become the nobody.
More from The Life of a Showgirl
- The Fate of Ophelia
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Opalite
- Father Figure
- Eldest Daughter
- more coming, quick as I can…
