Lucky Lady: Taylor’s Tantalizing “Wood” Lyrics, Explained
The cheekiest track on The Life of a Showgirl is Taylor’s tantalizing track 9, Wood. The lyrics list a whole lot of superstitions, turning them into hilarious double entendres and detailing just how “lucky” her new man is.
But is this song all lighthearted sexual jokes? Or is there something deeper going on? Let’s find out.
I’m your Swiftie English teacher, and I’m going to break down the lyrics of Wood for you, line by line.
- Title: Wood
- Track: 9, The Life of a Showgirl
- Written By: Taylor Swift, Max Martin & Shellback
- Pen: Glitter Gel Pen
Wood Narrative Synopsis
- POV: First person (“I), narrated by our “showgirl”
- Setting: In the present, looking back at past lovers and comparing them to her newfound love.
- Characters: Narrator (cheeky showgirl), subject (whose “manhood” is the subject of the song’s layered superstitions).
- Mood: Lighthearted, silly, steamy
- Conflict: Our showgirl was unsatisfied in love, and used superstitions to try to turn her luck around.
- Inciting Incident: “Until you put your hand on mine”.
- Lesson: Superstitions are all well and good, but when you actually find satisfaction, it won’t be because you crossed your fingers for it.
Wood 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: Find a Penny, Pick it Up
“Daisy’s bare naked, I was distraught,” she begins the first verse. This daisy is now “naked” because she’s been plucking the petals in this superstitious fortune-telling ritual. Instead of “bare”, the word “naked” begins the sexual themes that will run throughout the rest of the lyrics.
This isn’t the first time she’s alluded to this childhood game, as in You’re On Your Own, Kid, she says, “I picked the petals, he loves me not.” Here, she repeats the game over and over again, hoping for a different result. And that’s the definition of insanity, which she describes as “distraught.”
“He loves me not, he loves me not,” she repeats twice. This mirrors Wishlist : “I thought I had it right, once, twice, but I did not.” Twice before she thought she’d be loved, and twice she was wrong.
“Penny’s unlucky, I took him back,” she continues, alluding to the old rhyme, “find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you’ll have good luck.” Some believe that finding the penny heads up is good luck, and tails up is bad. Our narrator seems to have found it in the unlucky position, and takes back an old lover amidst this spate of bad omens.
Her bad luck continues: “And then stepped on a crack, and the black cat laughed.” Stepping on a crack is also considered bad luck, and according to the old rhyme, “step on a crack, break your mother’s back.”
The black cat crossing her path is also considered bad luck in some cultures. But black cats are considered good fortune in others. Whatever this cat is, good or bad, it laughs at her misfortune. She can’t catch a break, no matter how many cracks she avoids.
Pre-Chorus 1: Fingers Crossed
“And baby, I’ll admit I’ve been a little superstitious,” she says in the pre-chorus, in the understatement of the century. Not only has she laid out all of her superstitions in the previous verse, but we know that Taylor herself is heavy into numerology, astrology, and has the “lucky number” 13.
“Fingers crossed until you put your hand on mine,” she continues. She was crossing her fingers, hoping that her luck would turn around in the love department. It all changed when he metaphorically placed his hand on hers, uncrossing her fingers and calming her nerves. Her luck has finally turned around.
“Seems to be that you and me, we make our own luck,” she says of this new relationship. They don’t need all these superstitious rituals, because their combined power is stronger than luck.
“A bad sign is all good,” she says from the comfort of this newfound happiness, “I ain’t gotta knock on wood.” She’ll shrug off any bad omens from here on out. She no longer needs to “knock on wood” to bring herself luck.
But this last line also sets up the central metaphor/double entendre of this song, which she’ll expand upon later.
Chorus: When You Wish Upon a Star
“All of that bitchin’, wishing on a falling star,” she reflects on her past yearnings in the chorus, “Never did me any good.” Her previous longing, as detailed in Midnights and TTPD, was her attempt at trying to turn the tides.
To wish upon a star is an old superstition, but the phrase was popularized by Disney’s 1940 animated feature Pinocchio. In the New Heights podcast in which Taylor announced The Life of a Showgirl, a Pinocchio figurine sat behind them on the shelf.
The full lyrics of that song are:
When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Fate is kind
She brings to those to love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true
-“When You Wish Upon a Star”, by Leigh Harline & Ned Washington for 1940’s Pinocchio
This old song perfectly sums up the themes of this album: a sudden change of fate, longings fulfilled, and the prophecy changed. All of these previous wishes “never did me any good”, she says, because fate was always in charge.
“I ain’t got to knock on wood,” she repeats. She no longer has to tempt fate, or ward off bad luck, because what she always wanted is now right in front of her.
“It’s you and me forever dancing in the dark,” she continues, alluding to both bedroom activities and the iconic Bruce Springsteen song Dancing in the Dark.
That song, like much of The Life of a Showgirl, was Springsteen’s confession that fame isn’t always fulfilling. He searches for inspiration in love when his professional life hits a roadblock, hoping that even scraps of romance will help him reach contentment.
“All over me, it’s understood,” she concludes the chorus, “I ain’t got to knock on wood.” As they “dance in the dark,” her lover is “all over me.” But this can also read as ‘it’s all over for me,’ as in, ‘I don’t need to go searching anymore, because I’ve found everything I want.’
Post-Chorus & Verse 2: Tall “Trees”
“Forgive me, it sounds cocky,” she slyly slips into innuendo in the post-chorus, “He ah-matized me and opened my еyes.” Up until now, the sexual innuendo has been present but not as obvious. But here in the post-chorus, she goes full steam ahead.
“It sounds cocky” is a double entendre that on one hand means ‘sorry, I don’t mean to be boastful.’ But on the other hand, it refers to his “manhood,” which she’ll detail much further in the lines that follow.
“He ah-matized me” alludes to hypnotism, which ties into the mystical, superstitious themes of this song. But what she means (but doesn’t say out loud) is ‘he dick-matized’ me, or he showed me pleasure in the sheets that I didn’t even know was possible.
“Opened my eyes” describes this newfound world of sexual gratification, but also describes how this new lover has changed her entire outlook regarding superstition and fate.
“Redwood tree, it ain’t hard to see,” she continues. Here the innuendo isn’t subtle at all: she compares his “manhood” to a “redwood tree.”
One of the largest living organisms on the planet, redwoods are known for their “new heights”, as well as their…girth. “It ain’t hard to see” is a cheeky nod to how large and obvious this endowment is.
“His love was thе key that opened my thighs,” she closes the post-chorus. Here, she’s both talking about sexual pleasure and his romantic love for her: they go hand in hand. She’s finally found “a best friend who I think is hot.”
“The key that opened my thighs” means he’s not only incredible in the sack, but he’s also found the key to her heart. If it’s “locked inside my memory, and only you possess the key,” beyond the door is pleasure and happiness beyond both of their wildest dreams.
“Girls, I don’t need to catch the bouquet,” she says in the second verse that follows, “To know a hard rock is on the way.” She alludes to nuptials, and the wedding superstition that whomever catches the bride’s bouquet will be the next to get married.
She doesn’t need that superstition any longer, she says, because she knows “a hard rock is on the way.” Not only is this literal, and predicts what actually happened in her personal life (she wrote this song before Travis proposed, with a very “large rock”), but it’s also another double entendre. An engagement ring is on the way, but so is a very still piece of “manhood.”
Pre-Chorus 2: Magician’s Spell
“And baby, I’ll admit I’ve been a little superstitious,” she repeats in the second pre-chorus, “The curse on me was broken by your magic wand.”
The “curse”, as detailed in her previous song The Prophecy, was broken by this “magician” entering her life. With a wave of his “magic wand” (a redwood tree by any other name), the spell is broken, and our princess is saved.
“Seems to be that you and me, we make our own luck,” she repeats, then changes the line that follows: “New Heights of manhood, I ain’t gotta knock on wood.”
New Heights is, of course, Travis and Jason Kelce’s popular podcast, on which Taylor has appeared. This is also a double entendre, and another metaphor for his “manhood”. But there’s also something sincere about this lyric.
As a reply to The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, he’s the tallest man who ever lived. And he’s tall not only in his “manhood,” but also in his ability to make her happy. He’s confident and secure in himself, and this love reaches “new heights” of what she thought was possible.
The chorus and post-chorus repeat, and by the end, we can see that for our showgirl, the sky is the limit when it comes to happiness and contentment. There are no more cracks to step on, or pennies to toss, or daisies to pluck.
She no longer has to knock on the hollow wood of any other man, because what she has standing right in front of her is solid, and secure, and immovable. And as full of innuendo and humor as this song is, it’s also sweet. She wished upon a star, and then all the stars aligned.
More from The Life of a Showgirl
