Taylor Swift might just need to cross her fingers—or, perhaps, knock on wood—that her mother, Andrea Swift, doesn't catch wind of the real meaning lurking beneath her risqué lyrics. When the Grammy-winning superstar dropped "The Life of a Showgirl" on October 3, fans were left stunned upon discovering that her track "Wood" is brimming with lines that hint rather pointedly at a certain, shall we say, anatomical feature of Taylor's fiancé, Travis Kelce. However, the singer underscored the significance of the song's double entendres, highlighting how some unsuspecting listeners—her own mother included—remain blissfully unaware of the song's saucier undertones.
"She thinks the song is all about superstitions, which, in a way, it is," the Grammy winner quipped with a mischievous grin during her October 6 appearance on SiriusXM’s Morning Mash Up. "That's the beauty of a double entendre. You can serve it up to people, and it just sails right over their heads."
She went on to explain, "You see in that song what you want to see." The recurring line "I ain't got to knock on wood" seems innocent enough at first glance, and her allusions to falling stars and black cats initially lend credence to the song's supposed focus on superstitions. Yet, other lyrics steer the narrative in a decidedly different direction.
While some references, like "magic wand," might still elude the average listener's notice, others are far more difficult to overlook. Take, for instance, the lines: "Redwood tree / It ain't hard to see / His love was the key / That opened my thighs." Even if Andrea found it tough to brush off that particular verse, Taylor clarified in a video that the song isn't solely a candid exploration of her intimate life with her soon-to-be husband.
"It’s a love story," the 35-year-old artist elaborated in an Amazon Music explanation. "[It’s] about using popular superstitions, good luck charms, bad luck charms, and all these different ways we've decided things are good luck or bad luck—like knocking on wood and seeing a black cat—as a plot device." She then added, with a hint of sarcasm lacing her voice, "That is the way I've explored this very, very sentimental love song."
