‘Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus’ lyrics: What does this Taylor Swift song mean — and who are these people?
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Taylor Swift’s “Tortured Poets Department” album is filled with songs titled after proper names, including “Robin,” “Cassandra,” “Peter” and “thanK you aIMee.” There’s one curious song also called “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” that has listeners looking closely.
This is the 20th track on the double album of “Tortured Poets” and right at the beginning we get the sole mention of our title names, Chloe, Sam, Sophia and Marcus.
Revisit our live coverage of the release of “The Tortured Poets Department.”
What is this song about though? Well, this one is lyrically dense and seems to be Swift tortured by the “what ifs” of a past romance and the ghost of that person haunting her. We have a reference of a “hologram” stumbling into her apartment, followed by the lines, “Hands in the hair of somebody in darkness/ Named Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus.” It’s unclear who these people could be, though perhaps Swift is simply saying this “somebody” could be anybody with any name.
Another part of the song has Swift singing about a person battling addiction, while she shapes herself into the person they want her to be: “You needed me, but you needed drugs more/ And I couldn’t watch it happen/ I changed into goddesses, villains and fools/ Changed plans and lovers and outfits and rules/ All to outrun my desertion of you.” (Swift’s songs are often autobiographical, she has said in the past, and Swifties have searched for clues in “Tortured Poets” songs that hint at her exes, including Matty Healy and Joe Alwyn. Healy has been open about his struggles with addiction.)
Swifties have also spotted a lyric that calls back to another song of Swift’s titled “Maroon,” off her 2022 album “Midnights.” She sings: “So if I sell my apartment/ And you have some kids with an internet starlet/ Will that make your memory fade from this scarlet maroon?”
Read the full lyrics of “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” here:
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
