Would've, Could've, Should've

Dear John, Swifties are convinced a bonus track on Taylor Swift's new album Midnights is about a certain older, guitar-playing ex-boyfriend from 13 years ...

“SHOTS WERE FIRED.” And then during the bridge, “Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first.” “I damn sure would’ve never danced with the devil at 19,” she sings on the four-minute track. … Don’t you think 19 is too young to be played by your dark twisted games?” Her third album, Speak Now, released that year, included a devastating ballad pointedly titled “Dear John,” in which she lamented, “Don’t you think I was too young to be messed with? [pop](https://www.billboard.com/t/pop/) star shocked fans who were already reeling from the 12 a.m.

CLEVELAND, OHIO - OCTOBER 30: Taylor Swift performs onstage during the 36th Annual Rock. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images.

On “Dear John,” Swift admits that their relationship was wrong, but on the bridge of “Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve,” she now explicitly states she regrets their time together. “If you would've blinked, then I would've/ Looked away at the first glance/ If you tasted poison, you could've/ Spit me out at the first chance/ And if I was some paint, did it splatter/ On a promising grown man?/ And if I was a child, did it matter/ If you got to wash your hands?,” she sings. “I would've stayed on my knees/ And I damn sure never would've danced with the devil/ At nineteen/ And the God's honest truth is that the pain was heaven/ And now that I'm grown, I'm scared of ghosts/ Memories feel like weapons/ And now that I know, I wish you'd left me wondering.” On that song, she expresses concern for the age gap, writing explicitly, “Don't you think nineteen is too young?” a lyric that’s now 21, that song has emerged as “Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve,” one of the seven bonus tracks added to the album’s expanded edition, and which appears to address one of Swift’s earliest relationships: her rumored 2010 romp with John Mayer. Produced by Aaron Dessner, “Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve” finds Swift expressing regret about the relationship, calling him a “ghost” from her past, while also opening up about the finer details during their time together, and skewering their age-gap.

Swifties think Taylor Swift's 'Midnights' bonus track — "Would've, Could've, Should've" — is about her romance with John Mayer — and how much she regrets ...

“I would’ve stayed on my knees and I damn sure never would’ve danced with the devil at 19,” Swift sings. But perhaps the most poignant lyrics come in the bridge, when Swift pleads, “Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first.” While Swift hasn’t commented on the speculation (and knowing her history, likely never will), fans have noticed additional hints that the song could be about Mayer. “And the God’s honest truth is that the pain was heaven / And now that I’m grown, I’m scared of ghosts / Memories feel like weapons / And now that I know, I wish you’d left me wondering.” Therefore, it comes as no surprise that fans are telling him to “sleep with one eye open” while praising the bonus track. The pair reportedly dated in 2009 and split after a few months, but their brief relationship is rumored to have inspired songs from Swift’s 2010 album Speak Now, most notably the six-minute confessional ballad [“Dear John,”](https://www.bustle.com/articles/200094-john-mayer-can-hate-december-13th-without-it-being-about-taylor-swifts-birthday) in which she asks, “Don’t you think I was too young to be messed with?”