john mayer yacht song

John Mayer's Drone Shot Of My Yacht is the song we didn't know we needed

He came up with the comedy track on his Instagram show Current Mood and it already sounds like a hit to us

John Mayer knows how to write earworm hooks. Need further proof? He's written a comedy song called Drone Shot Of My Yacht on his Instagram TV show Current Mood and we're already singing the chorus. Here's a clip…

If it’s stuck in my head, it might as well be stuck in yours. Here’s “Drone Shot of My Yacht,” as featured on last night’s @currentmood. John Mayer 💎 A photo posted by @johnmayer on Mar 30, 2020 at 4:40pm PDT

It's the song we didn't know we needed right now. And Current Mood is well worth a watch if you're uninitiated – offering featuring musicians Mayer admires as guests, plus David Chappelle musing on why people are stocking up on toilet paper right now. What more can you ask for? 

Dave Chappelle joined me on last night’s @currentmood and offered compelling insight as to why people stock up on toilet paper during times of crisis. John Mayer 💎 A photo posted by @johnmayer on Mar 18, 2020 at 10:55am PDT

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John Mayer’s ‘Drone Shot of My Yacht’ Becomes the Earworm of the Moment (Listen)

By Chris Willman

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Songwriters are straining to meet the moment as the coronavirus crisis intensifies — and John Mayer has definitely met this one with a new song, “Drone Shot of My Yacht,” that captures all the angst felt by billionaires as they wait out the pandemic, adrift on the high seas.

Although it doesn’t mention anyone by name, the tune satirizes the widely mocked photograph David Geffen shared, presumably shot by a drone, of his ocean exile. And it might be the catchiest song you’ll hear all season — no amount of mental hand sanitizer will scrub this earworm from your head.

The chorus: “Drone shot of my yacht / It’s all I got / I’m all alone on the water.” Verse: “Let me flex these specs / 456 feet, six or seven decks / And I know you all wanna stretch your necks / To see what I got on it / But I don’t even give a heck.”

View this post on Instagram If it’s stuck in my head, it might as well be stuck in yours. Here’s “Drone Shot of My Yacht,” as featured on last night’s @currentmood. A post shared by John Mayer 💎 (@johnmayer) on Mar 30, 2020 at 4:40pm PDT

Popular on Variety

Mayer premiered the song in the middle of his weekly live Instagram program Sunday, and it went over well enough that he released a minute-long version to his regular Instagram account.

On the Instagram show, which has alternately been known as “Current Mood” or “The Gentle Hours,” he introduced the song as part of a segment he said will be known as “Now Now,” which he said will be devoted to “whenever anybody tends not to understand the overall tenor of society right now of what we’re going through and gets called out for it.”

Said Mayer, “This weekend’s ‘Not Now’ goes to David Geffen, who posted an Instagram photo of himself on his boat saying he was isolated in the Grenadines. And I gotta tell you, I don’t know where were the Grenadines are. The most offensive thing to me in this post is assuming that I know where the Grenadines are.”

In the live show (which can be seen below — he sings and talks about the song between the 14- and 19-minute points), Mayer shares a few additional lines of what may be a longer song, like, “I bought that bitch in 2004 / I don’t need to take your … s— anymore.” He also threw in generous extra helpings of R&B melisma to round out his live rendition.

“Gotta get John Oates on that song,” he reads a viewer asking, reading comments off the screen. Mayer responds: “If anybody wants to cuts that song with me, it’d be really funny.” Make it so, the world commands.

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Review: John Mayer’s love letter to El Lay yacht rock is more than just easy nostalgia

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John Mayer’s savvy use of Instagram and TikTok has made him one of the very few over-40 guitar wizards to connect with kids from the generation (or two) behind his. Yet it’s easy to imagine that the most meaningful engagement he’s had on social media lately came with somebody in his mid-60s.

“Killer new track John,” Steve Lukather of Toto wrote in a comment on Mayer’s June 9 Instagram post about his latest studio album, “Sob Rock,” and its lead single, “Last Train Home.” Lukather, an architect of the highly chillaxed soft-rock sound developed in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, went on to praise Mayer’s “tasty playing” and to say that “Last Train Home” had the makings of “a smash” — the ultimate proof of concept for Mayer’s homage to the era of soulful white dudes, pastel color schemes and Bret Easton Ellis bestsellers.

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A pop heartthrob with a comedian’s wit and an instrumentalist’s chops, Mayer, 43, says he took up this style — think Don Henley, Steve Winwood, synthed-up Fleetwood Mac, non-God-mode Eric Clapton — because he found it comforting during the pandemic to be reminded of music he heard in his youth. You also get the sense, given his pre-COVID stint touring with members of the Grateful Dead, that he was eager to flex different muscles — and to hook into an already-blooming ’80s revival that counts Tame Impala and Thundercat among its practitioners. (A recent essay in GQ referred to this aesthetic, with its spirit of coolly laid-back adulthood, as “Spago rock” after Wolfgang Puck’s iconic L.A. eatery.)

From its picture-perfect album cover on down, though, “Sob Rock” — Mayer’s eighth studio LP and his follow-up to 2017’s “The Search for Everything” — is so crisply rendered that it achieves an almost art-project-like quality that transcends those emotional and commercial circumstances. In an interview with the Blackbird Spyplane newsletter, the singer spoke with characteristic precision about his vision, saying his goal was to “make a new record from archival cloth” — to “find a way not to reproduce something,” he added, “but continue to produce it from the original loom.”

Inspired, he’s said, by Quentin Tarantino’s casting various OGs in his movies, Mayer recruited ’80s studio standouts like keyboardist Greg Phillinganes and percussionist Lenny Castro to complement his usual players; their work provides just the right sparkle and groove to conjure the moment when blues-based rock was giving way to something shinier and more synthetic — a sonic manifestation of the affluent optimism of the day. (Don Was co-produced the album with Mayer.)

Even the record’s marketing material, including old-school billboards peppered around L.A., nail the exact fonts his predecessors would’ve used. “Make every drive a road trip,” one of the billboards reads — which, again, [chef’s kiss].

Of course, Mayer’s expert world-building — the latest act of curation by this discerning collector of high-end wristwatches — wouldn’t be nearly as fun to take part in if he didn’t fill the place with solid tunes, and “Sob Rock” has plenty of those. A restless romancer once known for his willingness to kiss and tell, Mayer here addresses his reputation as a crummy partner: “Some people ’round here been calling me crazy / Some people say I’ll never love someone,” he sings in “Til the Right One Comes,” which shimmers like an outtake from “Tango in the Night.”

But he also presents himself as a sensitive man who’s been mishandled by women; more than one song depicts him in a heroic light for having used those experiences to learn to change his ways, which feels like a very Don Henley approach to maturity.

As with Henley, what brings you around to Mayer’s side is his songwriting — the luscious melodies in “Why You No Love Me” and the Dire Straits-ish “Wild Blue” and the vivid images in “Carry Me Away” (“You carnivore, you loose cannon”) and “New Light,” where his self-pity takes this gorgeous shape: “I’m the boy in your other phone / Lighting up inside your drawer at home, all alone.”

In the wistful “Shot in the Dark,” one of several tunes with backing vocals from country star Maren Morris, Mayer longs for an ex by rhyming “I want you in the worst way” with “Is the gate code still your birthday?” — an instant-classic addition to the ranks of great monied L.A. love songs.

Then there’s “Shouldn’t Matter But It Does,” a strummy, slow-mo ballad about another broken relationship in which he ponders what might’ve been: “It could have been always / It could have been me / We could have been busy naming baby number three.”

Mayer’s sore-throat voice sounds so cooled-out in that one that you can almost picture him lying down as he sings. But with a wink of his eye — or, wait, is that a tear? — the tender and knowing “Sob Rock” is his testament to how hard it is getting easy right.

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John Mayer’s ‘Drone Shot of My Yacht’ Becomes the Earworm of the Moment (Listen)

Click here to read the full article.

Songwriters are straining to meet the moment as the coronavirus crisis intensifies — and John Mayer has definitely met this one with a new song, “Drone Shot of My Yacht,” that captures all the angst felt by billionaires as they wait out the pandemic, adrift on the high seas.

Although it doesn’t mention anyone by name, the tune satirizes the widely mocked photograph David Geffen shared, presumably shot by a drone, of his ocean exile. And it might be the catchiest song you’ll hear all season — no amount of mental hand sanitizer will scrub this earworm from your head.

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The chorus: “Drone shot of my yacht / It’s all I got / I’m all alone on the water.” Verse: “Let me flex these specs / 456 feet, six or seven decks / And I know you all wanna stretch your necks / To see what I got on it / But I don’t even give a heck.”

Mayer premiered the song in the middle of his weekly live Instagram program Sunday, and it went over well enough that he released a minute-long version to his regular Instagram account.

On the Instagram show, which has alternately been known as “Current Mood” or “The Gentle Hours,” he introduced the song as part of a segment he said will be known as “Now Now,” which he said will be devoted to “whenever anybody tends not to understand the overall tenor of society right now of what we’re going through and gets called out for it.”

Said Mayer, “This weekend’s ‘Not Now’ goes to David Geffen , who posted an Instagram photo of himself on his boat saying he was isolated in the Grenadines. And I gotta tell you, I don’t know where were the Grenadines are. The most offensive thing to me in this post is assuming that I know where the Grenadines are.”

In the live show (which can be seen below — he sings and talks about the song between the 14- and 19-minute points), Mayer shares a few additional lines of what may be a longer song, like, “I bought that bitch in 2004 / I don’t need to take your … s— anymore.” He also threw in generous extra helpings of R&B melisma to round out his live rendition.

“Gotta get John Oates on that song,” he reads a viewer asking, reading comments off the screen. Mayer responds: “If anybody wants to cuts that song with me, it’d be really funny.” Make it so, the world commands.

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John Mayer's absurdly catchy 'Drone Shot of My Yacht' is the coronavirus song we deserve

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Everyone wants to write the great coronavirus anthem but — apologies to Bono — there can only be one John Mayer.

On his Instagram Live program this weekend, Mayer premiered a parody song called "Drone Shot of My Yacht," in which he skewers billionaires sitting out the pandemic on their luxury boats. It was such a hit, Mayer then reposted a minute-long version later in the week, Variety reports :

"This weekend's 'Not Now' goes to David Geffen, who posted an Instagram photo of himself on his boat saying he was isolated in the Grenadines," Mayer had told fans of his inspiration . "And I gotta tell you, I don't know where the Grenadines are. The most offensive thing to me in this post is assuming that I know where the Grenadines are."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week 's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate , and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News , The Awl , Vice, and Gothamist , among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter .

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John Mayer Drops 'Drone Shot of My Yacht' Parody Song About Billionaire David Geffen - Listen!

John Mayer is poking fun at billionaire David Geffen ‘s viral yacht pic .

The 42-year-old “New Light” singer has released a parody track called “Drone Shot of My Yacht” following the 77-year-old businessman and philanthropist’s post.

If you missed it, over the weekend, David Geffen went private on Instagram after revealing that he has been isolating on a yacht in the Grenadines, which are islands in the Caribbean.

He received criticism for showing off his wealth and privilege as millions of other people are struggling with unemployment and healthcare workers are fighting for their lives while trying to save others as well.

“If it’s stuck in my head, it might as well be stuck in yours,” John captioned an Instagram video featuring his parody song and a slideshow of yacht photos. “Here’s ‘Drone Shot of My Yacht,’ as featured on last night’s @currentmood.”

“Drone shot of my yacht, it’s all I got, I’m all alone on the water,” he sings.

Listen here !

ICYMI, John Mayer also recently revealed the hilarious reason he wasn’t a part of that viral “Imagine” video .

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John Mayer’s 20 Best Songs: Critic’s Picks

In John Mayer's own words, "I don't make music for the club. I make music for the omelette on the Sunday after the club" -- a time when we're all the most honest with ourselves. Here, Billboard ranks…

By Becky Kaminsky

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Billboard ‘s most recent cover star John Mayer has been making music in the public eye for nearly 20 years. The singer-songwriter has won seven Grammys, scored the most No. 1s on Billboard ‘s Top Rock Albums chart of any artist (7), and notched 20 Hot 100 hits.

See latest videos, charts and news

Adult pop-rock is his bread and butter, and in his own words, “I don’t make music for the club. I make music for the omelette on the Sunday after the club” — a time when we’re all the most honest with ourselves.

How John Mayer Got a Grip on Fame -- and Intends to Bring 'Truth' Back to Music

The essence of John Mayer’s music is honest, nostalgic and raw. It is metaphorical yet direct. John Mayer makes music that describes what you’re going through, even if you don’t realize you’re going through something. He finds the metaphors and analogies that help life make sense, even when it doesn’t. 

Below,  Billboard  ranks John Mayer’s 20 best songs. 

20. “Why Georgia” ( Room for Squares , 2001)

Off Mayer’s 2001 debut album, Room for Squares,’ “Why Georgia” is an upbeat ode to coming of age and carving your own path. The song also gives us a preview of his effortless ability to toss unusual words into pop songs without sounding forced: “Either way I wonder sometimes about the outcome of a still verdictless life.” 

19. “Waiting on the World to Change” ( Continuum , 2006)

Releasing a mildly politically charged song was definitely a power move for John Mayer with his Continuum  lead single, but the song is something of an anti-anthem — while Mayer sings about waiting, the purposeful lack of urgency in his lyrics and vocals carries throughout the song. “Waiting on the World to Change” won the Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 2006. 

18. “Vultures” ( Continuum , 2006)

Mayer’s vocal range in “Vultures” is what makes the song so great. Traditionally known for his velvety, smooth voice, so when he actually flexes on a couple high notes, you can’t help but notice. With bold metaphors layered over funky piano and searing guitar solos, “Vultures” is quintessential John Mayer. 

17. “Clarity” ( Heavier Things , 2003)

“Clarity” was the second single off 2003’s Heavier Things,  and it did not disappoint. With smooth horns by the recently passed Grammy-winner Roy Hargrove, drums and piano by Roots legend Questlove, and Mayer’s infectious “ooOOooh, ooOOooh” sighs before each chorus, the song comes together for easy-listening perfection. 

16. “Gravity” ( Continuum , 2006)

“Gravity” is the perfect song for when you’re in your feelings. Here, we see John Mayer’s blues at the forefront of the song, keeping the singing to a minimum in favor of a heavy guitar solo — you can hear more of the pain and emotion in Mayer’s guitar than in his vocals. The artist himself seems to have a great deal of fondness for the song — he’s released it on three separate albums, and it won the Grammy for best solo rock vocal the third time out as a live version on 2008’s  Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles .

15. “Edge of Desire” ( Battle Studies , 2009)

John Mayer has a way of saying things one might be ashamed of and making them sound beautiful; in this case, “I want you so bad I’ll go back on the things I believe.” “Edge of Desire” questions how far you’ll go for love. His raw honesty crescendos to the point where he’s practically screaming, begging at the end of the track. The song also includes perhaps one of Mayer’s most creative lyrics: “Maybe this mattress will spin on its axis and find me on yours.”

14. “Bigger Than My Body” ( Heavier Things , 2003)

A feel-good song through and through, the prominent drums and bouncy guitar carry the track. Mayer also shares the sentiment that the best is yet to come: You’re capable of way more than what you or anyone else gives you credit for, and Mayer gets the message across without being cheesy or preachy. 

13. “No Such Thing” ( Room For Squares , 2001)

“No Such Thing” is the debut single that John Mayer burst onto the scene with, peaking at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and enduring as one of his signature hits. It’s the first of many time we hear Mayer sing of his parents and their inevitable aging, which he returns to on later albums. But the final takeaway of the track is about not taking yourself too seriously, while also not selling yourself short: “I’d like to think the best of me is still hiding up my sleeve.”

12. “Your Body Is a Wonderland” ( Room For Squares , 2001)

Mayer’s second career single peaked at No. 18 on the Hot 100, but more importantly, it was the first time America realized he could be seductive. With lines like “One mile to every inch of your skin like porcelain,” and his repetition of “I’ll use my hands,” John Mayer brought sex appeal to this acoustic ballad without making it feel dirty. 

11. “Who Says” ( Battle Studies , 2009)

“Who Says” is 100 percent an IDGAF song — albeit a fairly gentle one. It’s a middle finger to the naysayers, but Mayer’s smooth voice delivers the message inoffensively. The opening line “Who says I can’t get stoned?” gave Mayer an edge and a cool factor that he now exudes effortlessly. 

10. “Love on the Weekend” ( The Search For Everything , 2017)

This song is all about the simple pleasure of spending the weekend with the one you love. While most of Mayer’s best songs have a melancholy romanticism about them, this song is the opposite: He mixes simple sentiments like “I can’t believe I get to see your face” with signature multi-syllable surprises in the sweet lyrics, treating the listener to lines like “And I’ll be dreaming of the next time we can go into another serotonin overflow” — which automatically make you crave higher serotonin levels, something you’ve probably never thought about. What other pop song can say the same? 

9. “The Heart of Life” ( Continuum , 2006)

Sometimes, John Mayer’s voice is so lovely that it’s not hard to get whisked away by the sound. However, “The Heart of Life” is one of those songs that will make you emotional if you listen to the words — filled with lyrics like “Bad news never has good timing,” which basically amount to “It be like that sometimes.” The one liner “The heart of life is good” will instantly fill you with gratitude, no matter how complicated life can be.

8. “You’re Gonna Live Forever In Me” ( The Search For Everything , 2017)

The whistling at the introduction practically hits you over the head with nostalgia. It brings you to simpler times, and you just know it’s going to be something wholesome. You can hear and feel Mayer’s raw emotion as he sets up behind the piano this time, rather than his usual six-string, and as a listener you can’t help but adopt the same feelings. 

7. “Daughters” ( Heavier Things , 2003)

No one but John Mayer can make a song accusing a woman of having daddy issues sound so damn beautiful. Mayer’s recurring theme of how our parents affect our lives is carried through the song with folk-y guitar strums and gentle percussion. “Daughters” won the Grammy for song of the year in 2005, and it’s easy to see why.

6. “Emoji of a Wave” ( The Search For Everything , 2017)

Mayer’s song title for this track is super new-school, but the message is as classic as ever. This time, the singer-songwriter likens hardships in life and relationships to the cyclic nature of waves: They come and go, and you just have to accept them to get through it. The strings in the background really elevate the song to a new level, and the lyric “Your heart is where my head should be, the dissonance is killing me” is quintessential Mayer. 

5. “New Light” (Non-album single, 2018)

“New Light” ushers in a new era of John Mayer in many ways. For one, we hardly ever hear the singer pining for a lover, and especially not while stuck in the friend-zone. The funky single, co-written and produced by No. I.D., showcases a sound that Mayer has been working on over the last few years by collaborating with artists from all corners of the industry — Shawn Mendes and Travis Scott to name a couple — and the result is sonically unlike any other song in his catalog, but the mid-song guitar solo still brings us back to classic John Mayer. 

4. “Half of My Heart” ( Battle Studies , 2009)

By the time this song was released, Mayer had earned a reputation as something of a player. This song addresses that persona, but softens the blow by acknowledging that it takes two to make a tabloid romance. Mayer and famed eventual-ex Taylor Swift’s voices harmonize so well together that they sound like they were meant to be as one on the track. Mayer apparently felt the same way, revealing in a since-deleted tweet that Swift “would make a killer Stevie Nicks to my [Tom] ‘Petty’ of a song.” The harmonies between the two and piercing guitar riffs make for a perfectly-balanced hit, earning the hit single a Grammy nomination for best male vocal pop performance in 2010. 

3. “Stop This Train” ( Continuum , 2006)

“Stop This Train” addresses the anxieties we feel about growing up directly, by using a train as a metaphor for life. It’s a very, very real feeling that twenty-somethings often have trouble vocalizing — short of annoying words like “adulting” — but that’s why we have John Mayer to do it for us. He reflects on his own life, while again referencing his parents in a very blunt aspect of life we all must face: “Don’t know how else to say it, don’t want to see my parents go.”  

2. “Free Fallin’” ( Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles , 2008)

Mayer’s cover of Tom Petty’s 1989 classic  “Free Fallin’,” released as part of his Where the Light Is  live set, does complete justice to the incomparable original, but also breathes new life into the song by switching up the song’s melodies. Mayer’s vocal range gets the spotlight on the chorus, emphasizing the “singer” part of his usual “singer-songwriter” billing. Just as he did with his cover of Beyonce’s “XO” — both of which perennially rank among his top-streamed songs on Spotify — he manages to make a Tom Petty song into a John Mayer song.

1. “Slow Dancing In a Burning Room” ( Continuum , 2006)

“Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” is the ultimate John Mayer Song. “Slow dancing in a burning room” might be one of his most poignant metaphors, the imagery beautiful yet chaotic. The song brings layers of intimacy, from its lyrics to its slow-cooked groove, that set it apart even from his other best songs. Lines like “You’ll be a bitch because you can” are out of character for the singer, making the lyric that much more memorable. “Slow Dancing” takes a reverse format from many of his other most famous songs, ending with a series of questions (“Don’t you think we oughta know by now?”) rather than posing them from the outset. 

As a recorded highlight of 2006’s Continuum , the song is great, but when it’s played live, it’s an experience. Watching Mayer play the song in person is to see an artist truly immersing himself in his craft, and as a spectator it’s mesmerizing to watch. There’s no saying how long he’ll extend the guitar solo, or in which direction he’ll take it. John Mayer takes live music to a whole new level, and it’s one of the reasons why he’s being honored at Billboard ’s Live Music Summit on Nov. 13-14. 

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John Mayer Drops Parody Song About Billionaire David Geffen’s Viral Yacht Pic

“Drone shot of my yacht, it’s all I got, I’m all alone on the water…”

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Everyone staying at home all the time to avoid catching the novel coronavirus has given celebrities opportunities to create content they might otherwise never bother with, and John Mayer ‘s perfectly-executed parody song lampooning a tone-deaf Instagram post by billionaire David Geffen is an excellent example.

Mayer is one of the funnier celebs who doesn’t actually do comedy and he’s been doing a Sunday Instagram live show he first titled Current Mood. He recently retitled it The Gentle Hours  and Brobible describes it well , noting that it is “inspired by the time of day when the world seems to wind down for the evening; when the news cycle doesn’t smack you in the head with another depressing blow for the day.”  

Mayer introduced “Drone Shot of My Yacht” about 14 minutes into the 40-plus minute show, (you can watch the full-length episode above).

The song—”Drone shot of my yacht, it’s all I got, I’m all alone on the water”—is making fun of billionaire David Geffen, who in what he felt was an effort to encourage social distancing posted pics on social media of his massive yacht, stating that he was hiding out in the Grenadines. 

Instead, Geffen received tremendous blowback in the form of an avalanche of criticism from people who felt he was flaunting a massive amount of privilege at a time when many people are struggling with coronavirus-related job loss as well as the terrifying possibility of catching the most severe form of the bug. 

As Bloomberg notes:

Geffen’s Caribbean excursion is the latest revelation of how the crisis is affecting people unequally across the globe. While the world’s wealthy have fled to vacation homes, specially made bunkers or floating palaces, rank-and-file workers from nurses to supermarket cashiers have been left juggling childcare and risking infection working jobs deemed essential.

Geffen eventually had to make his Instagram private due to the backlash.

The thing about Mayer’s snarky song, which he says came to him immediately, is it’s actually a pretty nice little groove. 

Maybe he’ll put out a longer version everyone can chill to when enjoying photos of the beach and breakfast margaritas while still sheltering in place this summer. 

John Mayer wins Best Rock Video at 2021 MTV VMAs

The '80s-styled clip for Last Train Home beat out videos from the Foo Fighters, The Killers, Kings of Leon, Lenny Kravitz and Evanescence

John Mayer won the Best Rock Video award at this past weekend's MTV VMAs for his '80s-styled clip for Last Train Home .

The opening cut from his new album, Sob Rock , Last Train Home – as is the case for the whole album – boasts a heavy '80s yacht-rock influence, particularly from Toto, and their session king guitarist, Steve Lukather.

The song's video – which itself features Toto percussionist Lenny Castro and former Toto touring keyboardist Greg Phillinganes – is just as breezy, and reminiscent of the era, as the song itself.  

Based on the typically cheeky treatment Mayer wrote for the video – which he posted on Instagram upon receiving the award – that's exactly what the guitar virtuoso had in mind.

A post shared by John Mayer 💎 (@johnmayer) A photo posted by on

"I’m honored, and I’m way more excited than I’m acting," Mayer wrote of the honor on social media. 

"Everyone knows a great music video begins with a great music video treatment, and this – no joke – is the one I wrote and submitted to detail my exact artistic blueprint for what would become 2021 MTV VMAs Best Rock Video winner."

The video's popularity – it's accumulated over 9 million views on YouTube in the three months and change since its premiere – is indicative of the quality of Last Train Home as a song, which stands out even when you peel away the video's tongue-in-cheek, somewhat meme-y exterior.

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“The songs, compositionally, had to be strong on their own, no matter how you played them," Mayer recently told Guitar World in response to a question about the prevalence of '80s-style instrumentation and production on Sob Rock . 

"The songs don’t rely on the sounds, and that’s really important.  Last Train Home  works on an acoustic guitar and a vocal as well as it does behind the lens of this idea that, just for one record, I want to go back to what I might’ve sounded like in that era. But it’s still a song of mine." 

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Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player . Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded . Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.

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Yacht Rock: Album Guide

By David Browne

David Browne

Summer’s here and time is right for dancing … on the deck of a large nautical vessel. During the late Seventies and early Eighties, the radio was dominated by silver-tongued white-dude crooners with names like Rupert and Gerry, emoting over balmy R&B beats, swaying saxes, and dishwasher-clean arrangements. Though it didn’t have a name, the genre — soft rock you could dance to — was dismissed by serious rock fans as fluffy and lame. But thanks to a web series in the mid-2000s, the style — belatedly named “ yacht rock ” — has since spawned a satellite-radio channel, tribute bands, and a Weezer cover of Toto’s “Africa.” Is the modern love of the music ironic or sincere? Hard to say, yet there’s no denying yacht rock is a legit sound with a vibe all its own that produced a surprising amount of enduring music perfectly at home in summer. (John Mayer even tips his own sailor’s hat to the genre on his new “Last Train Home” single, and even the aqua-blue cover of his upcoming Sob Rock album.) The resumption of the Doobie Brothers’ 50th anniversary tour, postponed last year due to COVID-19 but scheduled to restart in August, is the cherry atop the Pina colada.

Boz Scaggs, Silk Degrees (1976)

Before yacht rock was an identifiable genre, Scaggs (no fan of the term, as he told Rolling Stone in 2018) set the standard for what was to come: sharp-dressed white soul, burnished ballads that evoked wine with a quiet dinner, and splashes of Me Decade decadence (the narrator of the pumped “Lido Shuffle” is setting up one more score before leaving the country). Add in the Philly Soul homage “What Can I Say,” the burbling life-on-the-streets homage “Lowdown,” and the lush sway of “Georgia,” and Silk Degrees , internationally or not, set a new high bar for Seventies smoothness.

Steely Dan, Aja (1977)

The sophisticated high-water mark of yacht, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s masterpiece is the midway point between jazz and pop, with tricky tempo shifts, interlocking horn and keyboard parts, and pristine solos. Not settling for easygoing period clichés, these love songs, so to speak, are populated by a sleazy movie director (the gorgeous rush of “Peg”), a loser who still hopes to be a jazzman even if the odds are against him (the heart-tugging “Deacon Blues”), and a guy whose nodding-out girlfriend is probably a junkie (“Black Cow”). The most subversive cruise you’ll ever take.

The Doobie Brothers, Minute by Minute (1978)

The Doobies got their start as a biker-y boogie band, but they smoothed things out for Minute by Minute . Highlighted by “What a Fool Believes,” the unstoppable Michael McDonald-Kenny Loggins co-write, the LP piles on romantic turmoil, falsetto harmonies, and plenty of spongy electric piano. But it also proves how much personality and muscle the Doobies could bring to what could be a generic sound. McDonald’s husky, sensitive-guy delivery shrouds the unexpectedly bitter title song (“You will stay just to watch me, darlin’/Wilt away on lies from you”)  and honoring their biker roots, “Don’t Stop to Watch the Wheels” is about taking a lady friend for a ride on your hog.

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Further Listening

Seals & crofts, get closer (1976).

The Dylan-goes-electric moment of yacht, “Get Closer” validated the idea that folkie singer-songwriters could put aside their guitars (and mandolin), tap into their R&B side and cross over in ways they never imagined. In addition to the surprising seductiveness of the title hit, Get Closer has plenty of yacht-rock pleasures. In “Goodbye Old Buddies,” the narrator informs his pals that he can’t hang out anymore now that he’s met “a certain young lady,” but in the next song, “Baby Blue,” another woman is told, “There’s an old friend in me/Tellin’ me I gotta be free.” A good captain follows the tide where it takes him.

Christopher Cross, Christopher Cross  (1979)

Cross’ debut swept the 1981 Grammys for a reason: It’s that rare yacht-rock album that’s graceful, earnest, and utterly lacking in smarm. Songs like the politely seductive “Say You’ll Be Mine” and the forlorn “Never Be the Same” have an elegant pop classicism, and the yacht anthem “Sailing” could be called a powered-down ballad. Fueled by a McDonald cameo expertly parodied on SCTV , the propulsive “Ride Like the Wind” sneaks raw outlaw lyrics (“Lived nine lives/Gunned down ten”) into its breezy groove, perfecting the short-lived gangster-yacht subgenre.

Rupert Holmes, Partners in Crime (1979)

The album that made Holmes a soft-rock star is known for “Escape (The Piña Colada Song),” which sports a made-for-karaoke chorus and a plot twist worthy of a wide-collar O. Henry. But what distinguishes the album is the Steely Dan-level musicianship and Holmes’ ambitious story songs, each sung with Manilow-esque exuberance. The title track equates a hooker and her john to co-workers at a department store, “Lunch Hour” ventures into afternoon-delight territory, and “Answering Machine” finds a conflicted couple trading messages but continually being cut off by those old-school devices.

Steely Dan, Gaucho (1980)

The Dan’s last studio album before a lengthy hiatus doesn’t have the consistency of Aja, but Gaucho cleverly matches their most vacuum-sealed music with their most sordid and pathetic cast of characters. A seedy older guy tries to pick up younger women in “Hey Nineteen,” another loser goes in search of a ménage à trois in “Babylon Sisters,” a coke dealer delivers to a basketball star in “Glamour Profession,” and the narrator of “Time Out of Mind” just wants another heroin high. It’s the dark side of the yacht.

Going Deeper

Michael mcdonald, if that’s what it takes  (1982).

Imagine a Doobie Brothers album entirely comprised of McDonald songs and shorn of pesky guitar solos or Patrick Simmons rockers, and you have a sense of McDonald’s first and best post-Doobs album. If That’s What it Takes builds on the approach he nailed on “What a Fool Believes” but amps up the sullen-R&B side of Mac’s music. His brooding remake of Lieber and Stoller’s “I Keep Forgettin’” is peak McDonald and the title track approaches the propulsion of Christopher Cross’ “Ride Like the Wind.” With his sad-sack intensity, McDonald sounds like guy at a seaside resort chewing over his mistakes and regrets – with, naturally, the aid of an electric piano.

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Kenny Loggins, Keep the Fire (1979)

Loggins’ journey from granola folk rocker to pleasure-boat captain embodies the way rock grew more polished as the Seventies wore on. Anchored by the percolating-coffeemaker rhythms and modestly aggro delivery of “This Is It,” another McDonald collaboration, Keep the Fire sets Loggins’ feathery voice to smooth-jazz saxes and R&B beats, and Michael Jackson harmonies beef up the soul quotient in “Who’s Right, Who’s Wrong.” The secret highlight is “Will It Last,” one of the sneakiest yacht tracks ever, fading to a finish after four minutes, then revving back up with some sweet George Harrison-style slide guitar.

Dr. Hook, Sometimes You Win  (1979)

Earlier in the Seventies, these jokesters established themselves with novelty hits like “The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone,’’ but they soon paddled over to unabashed disco-yacht. Sometimes You Win features three of their oiliest ear worms: “Sexy Eyes,” “When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman” and “Better Love Next Time,” all oozing suburban pickup bars and the somewhat desperate dudes who hang out there. The album, alas, does not include “Sharing the Night Together,” recently reborn by way of its sardonic use in last year’s Breaking Bad spinoff El Camino .

Carly Simon, Boys in the Trees  (1978)

As a trailblazing female singer-songwriter, Simon was already a star by the time yacht launched. Boys in the Trees features her beguiling contribution to the genre, “You Belong to Me,” a collaboration with the ubiquitous Michael McDonald. The Doobies cut it first, but Simon’s version adds an air of yearning and hushed desperation that makes it definitive. The album also packs in a yacht-soul cover of James Taylor’s “One Man Woman” and a “lullaby for a wide-eyed guy” called “Tranquillo (Melt My Heart),” all proving that men didn’t have a stranglehold on this style.

Anchors Aweigh

More smooth hits for your next high-seas adventure.

“BREEZIN’”

George Benson, 1976

The guitarist and Jehovah’s Witness made the leap from midlevel jazz act to crossover pop star with a windswept instrumental that conveys the yacht spirit as much as any vocal performance.

“WHATCHA GONNA DO?”

Pablo Cruise, 1976

Carefree bounce from a San Francisco band with the best name ever for a soft-rock act — named, fittingly, after a chill Colorado buddy.

“BAKER STREET”

Gerry Rafferty, 1978

Rafferty brought a deep sense of lonely-walk-by-the-bay melancholy to this epic retelling of a night on the town, in which Raphael Ravenscroft’s immortal sax awakens Rafferty from his morning-after hangover.

“REMINISCING”

Little River Band, 1978

The Aussie soft rockers delivered a slurpy valentine sung in the voice of an old man looking back on his “lifetime plan” with his wife. Innovative twist: flugelhorn solo instead of sax.

“WHENEVER I CALL YOU ‘FRIEND’ ”

Kenny Loggins and Stevie Nicks, 1978

After its ethereal intro, this rare genre duet grows friskier with each verse, with both Loggins and Nicks getting more audibly caught up in the groove — and the idea of “sweet love showing us a heavenly light.”

“LOTTA LOVE”

Nicolette Larson, 1978

Neil Young’s sad-boy shuffle is transformed into a luscious slice of lounge pop by the late Larson. Adding an extra layer of poignancy, she was in a relationship with Young around that time.

“STEAL AWAY”

Robbie Dupree, 1980

Is it real, or is it McDonald? Actually, it’s the best Doobies knockoff — a rinky-dink (but ingratiating) distant cousin to “What a Fool Believes” that almost inspired McDonald to take legal action.

“TAKE IT EASY”

Archie James Cavanaugh, 1980

Cult rarity by the late Alaskan singer-songwriter that crams in everything you’d want in a yacht song: disco-leaning bass, smooth-jazz guitar, sax, and a lyric that lives up to its title even more than the same-titled Eagles song.

“BIGGEST PART OF ME”

Ambrosia, 1980

Ditching the prog-classical leanings of earlier albums, this trio headed straight for the middle of the waterway with this Doobies-lite smash. Bonus points for lyrics that reference a “lazy river.”

“I CAN’T GO FOR THAT (NO CAN DO)”

Daryl Hall and John Oates, 1981

The once unstoppable blue-eyed soul duo were never pure yacht, but the easy-rolling beats and shiny sax in this Number One hit got close. Hall adds sexual tension by never specifying exactly what he can’t go for.

“COOL NIGHT”

Paul Davis, 1981

The Mississippi crooner-songwriter gives a master class on how to heat up a stalled romance: Pick a brisk evening, invite a female acquaintance over, and suggest . . . lighting a fire.

“KEY LARGO”

Bertie Higgins, 1981

Yacht’s very own novelty hit is corny but deserves props for quoting from not one but two Humphrey Bogart films ( Key Largo and Casablanca ).

“AFRICA”

The same year that members of Toto did session work on Michael Jackson’s Thriller, they released the Mount Kilimanjaro of late-yacht hits.

“SOUTHERN CROSS”

Crosby, Stills, and Nash, 1982

The combustible trio’s gusty contribution to the genre has choppy-water rhythms and enough nautical terminology for a sailing manual.

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By Sam Sodomsky

July 16, 2021

Let’s say you play your cards right and end up like John Mayer . Two decades in, you’ve amassed a solid run of hits and a devoted community of fans who will buy tickets any time you’re in town. You’ve got some baggage; who doesn’t? Some notable exes have painted damning portraits of you in a small playlist’s worth of songs, and you’ve said a couple indefensible things to the press that follow you like hellhounds wherever you go. At the same time, you’ve got a dignified side gig as the touring guitarist for a classic rock institution , the kind of role that you can age into gracefully, gainfully employed without ever having to step back into the spotlight. Where do you go next?

“I’m somewhere between a pop artist and a jam band—maybe closer to pop artist,” Mayer recently surmised , and this particular niche has thrust the guitar virtuoso from Billboard charts and magazine covers squarely into the Neil Young-buying-ownership-in-a-model-train-company phase of his career. (For Mayer, now 43, it’s all about luxury watches .) Yes, he’s got a new record, but even that seems like a hobby, something to pass the time. The earliest single arrived in spring 2018, because why not? The suave, undeniable “New Light” sounds no less relevant today than it did back then, and its inclusion proves that Mayer can work at his own pace—trends, release cycles, and global pandemics be damned.

None of this is to suggest that Sob Rock , his eighth studio album, is thoughtless. In fact, its vision is so complete and confident that it pretty much writes its own review. (Judging by the title, bargain bin stickers on the cover, and fake pull-quotes on the merch , the tone is not so enthusiastic.) To make this music, Mayer gave himself a prompt. Instead of an artist who dominated VH1 and frat houses in the early 2000s, what if he’d emerged during the classic rock era and found himself, decades later, as a late-career musician attempting to update his sound? “Pretend someone made a record in 1988 and shelved it,” he explained , “and it was just found this year.” It’s an intriguing concept until you realize that, even in his fantasies, John Mayer is making music doomed to be lost to time, sapped of inspiration and out of his element.

Before we get any further, I will note that the ’80s staples Mayer references on Sob Rock in overt, almost shockingly accurate ways represent a moment in popular music I have a lot of fondness for. It was a time when new technology allowed career artists to embellish their music with smooth, luxurious textures, better suited for the digital precision of CDs than the analog crackle of vinyl. Blockbusters like Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms , Steve Winwood’s Back in the High Life , and Don Henley’s The End of the Innocence —all contented statements from well-established rock acts in the mid-to-late-’80s—come to mind. There is a quiet triumph in hearing someone like Mayer using his substantial resources to recreate this sound, bringing in first-hand witnesses like producer Don Was, bassist Pino Palladino, and keyboardist Greg Phillinganes. If you’re going to go in, go all the way.

Nevertheless, it’s a crowded field. Over the past decade, indie lifers like the War on Drugs, Destroyer, Bon Iver, M83, Jenny Lewis, Cass McCombs, the Killers, and Tame Impala have all taken artful inspiration from roughly the same time period; upstarts like Westerman and Bullion have offered their own underground perspective on it; Taylor Swift herself studied the era for a next-level pop breakthrough, going so far as to name an album after a specific year; Weezer landed their biggest hit in ages with a cover of Toto’s “Africa.” In this context, once the novelty of its production wears off—the stadium synths and slick guitar solos, auxiliary percussion and yacht-paced, mid-tempo cruise— Sob Rock reveals itself to be just another John Mayer album, a work to be judged on its own terms.

This is the part of the review where I should dissect the songwriting, drawing attention to the ways that Mayer misses the mark. But does anyone need me to explain why it’s uncomfortable, maybe even offensive, to hear an adult man from Connecticut singing a chorus of “Why you no love me? Why you no even care?” in a song called “Why You No Love Me”? Do you want me to point out how, despite the Joshua Tree gravitas of the closing “All I Want Is to Be With You,” the melody sounds distractingly similar to “I Want It That Way”? Do you need a music critic to annotate the gaping hole at the heart of the quasi-confessional strummer “I Guess I Just Feel Like,” whose profound melancholy feels as vague as its title?

These are obvious flaws—all reasons why, unlike the records that inspired it, you probably won’t hear artists decades from now dreaming up their own Sob Rocks . But surprisingly—just like the music that inspired it— Sob Rock as a whole is immediate and embracing, peaceful and sparkling, like the ocean as viewed from an airplane window. The 10-song, 40-minute album goes down smooth and breezy; its faults are forgivable (except for “Why You No Love Me”) and its highlights are understated and fun. Listen to those elegant turnarounds from the chorus to the central riff of “Wild Blue.” Tune in for the slow build of “Shot in the Dark,” with a gorgeous, wordless accompaniment from Maren Morris and a staccato string part airlifted from the Blue Nile . Soak in the moment halfway through when Mayer proudly crosses the “Every Breath You Take” threshold, slipping from pro-forma romance—“I want you in the worst way”—to full-on stalker: “Is the gate code still your birthday?”

This willingness to be ridiculous—to merge his outsized personality with the tasteful, somewhat anonymous adult contemporary ballads he’s written since day one—feels like a small breakthrough. “When I’m making this record right now,” Mayer reported a few months back, “I’m laughing out loud. And I’m not even sure if it’s because I think it’s great, or because I think it’s insane.” The truth is he could have amped it up in both departments—more hunger to prove himself beyond his influences, more fearlessness to work outside his comfort zone. Even if this is one of his stronger albums, the whole thing feels self-consciously minor. When Mayer gets back on stage this summer, he’ll be accompanying Dead & Co. for another trek, ripping solos through their classics instead of standing by his new material. And, frankly, who can blame him?

Still, Mayer’s insight suggests that at the heart of Sob Rock lies a desire not just to satisfy himself but to actually delight himself, to elicit a new enthusiasm for his work. What other metric could there be for a John Mayer album in 2021? And if he doesn’t clear that bar then, really, what does he have? Always neurotic and aggressively self-aware, he has already buffered himself against criticism, appearing on the defensive before the album was even out: “I want to get in trouble. I want someone to tell me this is shit ,” he told Zane Lowe. “It’s called Sob Rock because it’s a shitpost .” But it’s not shit, and it’s not even that provocative. By design, Sob Rock is the sound of a man alone in his success, playing against himself on the world’s most expensive chess board—oohing and ahhing at his own prowess, scratching his chin meaningfully then cracking a joke when things get too intense. He seems comfortable and complacent. Never losing, never winning.

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A Guide to Every Song Taylor Swift Has Supposedly Written About Ex John Mayer: ‘Dear John’ and More

Taylor Swift knows there’s no better song inspiration than relationships — and she’s seemingly written several tunes about her whirlwind romance with John Mayer .

Sparks flew between the two after collaborating on Mayer’s 2009 single “Half of My Heart.” However, their relationship sparked some controversy for their large age gap as Mayer was 32 and Swift was 19 at the time.

Their age difference is something Swift not-so-subtly called out in her 2010 breakup track “Dear John” off her album Speak Now , singing, “Dear John, I see it all now, it was wrong / Don’t you think 19’s too young to be played by your dark, twisted games when I loved you so? / I should’ve known.”

Swift previously attempted to play coy when asked about penning the track about Mayer. “How presumptuous!” she told Glamour in October 2012. “I never disclose who my songs are about.”

In 2019, Swift announced she would be rerecording her first six albums — Speak Now included — after losing control of her masters to music manager Scooter Braun . Ahead of the July 2023 release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) , Swift encouraged fans to spread kindness online instead of hate. “I’m not putting this album out so that you should go and feel the need to defend me on the Internet against someone you think I might have written the song about 14 million years ago,” she said during a June 2023 stop on The Eras Tour before performing “Dear John.”

The night before the rerecorded album’s release, Mayer added fuel to the rumor fire by sharing a cryptic message via Instagram . In a slideshow of pics, he posted a snap of the words “Please Be Kind” written in the sky at one of his concerts.

Keep scrolling for every song Swift has reportedly penned about her and Mayer’s relationship:

Related: Taylor Swift's Song Lyrics Decoded: Celebs Featured in Her Songs

‘dear john,’ speak now (2010).

“Dear John” is perhaps Swift’s most notable song about Mayer , from the tune’s title to its scathing lyrics about their 13-year-age gap to the pain she experienced following their 2010 split. Fans have even noted that the track’s soft guitar sound is similar to that of Mayer’s own music.

Released eight months after their February 2010 split, Swift sings, “And you’ll add my name to your long list of traitors who don’t understand / And I’ll look back and regret how I ignored when they said ‘run as fast as you can.’” Prior to his romance with Swift, Mayer was linked to Jennifer Love Hewitt , Jessica Simpson , Minka Kelly and Jennifer Aniston .

Mayer later said in a June 2012 interview with Rolling Stone that the song “humiliated him” and made him “feel terrible.” He continued: “I didn’t deserve it. I’m pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.”

The following year, he released the song “Paper Doll,” supposedly about his relationship with Swift. “And if those angel wings don’t fly, someone’s gonna paint you another sky,” he sings, seemingly referring to the “Dear John” lyrics “You paint me a blue sky and go back and turn it to rain.”

‘The Story of Us,’ Speak Now (2010)

Swift previously told USA Today that her muses for “The Story of Us” and “Dear John” were the same person. “’The Story of Us’ is about running into someone I had been in a relationship with at an awards show, and we were seated a few seats away from each other,” she explained. “I just wanted to say to him, ‘Is this killing you? Because it’s killing me.’ But I didn’t. Because I couldn’t. Because we both had these silent shields up.”

The song seemingly details the aftermath of their awkward encounter at the 2010 CMT Awards in June 2010. “Now I’m standing alone in a crowded room and we’re not speaking / And I’m dying to know, is it killing you like it’s killing me yeah,” the lyrics state.

Swift goes on to compare their reunion to “a contest of who can act like they care less,” though she sings that she “liked it better when you were on my side.”

‘Ours,’ Speak Now (2010)

Unlike some of her other tracks seemingly about Mayer, “Ours” sheds a happier look on their relationship as it tells the story of a couple whose love persists despite other people’s objections. While the tune could be about Swift’s other romantic connections featured on Speak Now — such as Taylor Lautner or Joe Jonas — the song’s lyrics feature a description reminiscent of Mayer’s appearance.

“’Cause I love the gap between the teeth,” Swift sings in addition to mentioning the guy in the song has tattoos. Not only does Mayer have a gap between his two bottom front teeth but also a sleeve of tattoos on his left arm.

Related: Joe Jonas! Harry Styles! Inside Taylor Swift's Star-Studded Dating History

‘superman,’ speak now (2010).

Much like “Ours,” lyrics from the Speak Now deluxe edition track “Superman” feature a description many believe could be Mayer. “Tall, dark and beautiful,” Swift sings in the song, seemingly describing the appearance of the tune’s titular superhero.

The lyrics also state, “He’s not all bad like his reputation.” The same year as Speak Now ’s release, Mayer was heavily criticized after using the N-word and making misogynistic comments in interviews with Playboy and Rolling Stone .

‘I Knew You Were Trouble,’ Red (2012)

Swift continued to write about her past with Mayer on her fourth studio album, Red . While talking about the track “IKYWT” on Good Morning America , Swift described the song as about “kind of being frustrated with yourself because you have your heart broken and you knew when you first saw that person you saw all these red flags and you just went for it anyway.”

In the song’s chorus, she recalls that she knew someone — possibly Mayer — was trouble from early on in their relationship, and that she is ashamed for not recognizing it sooner.

‘Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,’ Midnights (2022)

More than a decade after the release of “Speak Now” Swift dropped one of her most scathing songs about Mayer on her 10th studio album, Midnights . “And I damn sure would’ve never danced with the devil / At 19, and the God’s honest truth is that the pain was heaven / And now that I’m grown, I’m scared of ghosts,” she sings in the tune’s chorus , referring to the age she was during their romance. “Memories feel like weapons / And now that I know, I wish you left me wondering.”

Perhaps the song’s most gut-wrenching lyric comes in the bridge as Swift sings, “If clarity’s in death, then why won’t this die? / Years of tearing down our banners, you and I / Living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts / Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first.”

Throughout the song, the Grammy winner also states that her fling with Mayer is something she regrets “all the time.”

‘Foolish One,’ Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (2023)

Though “Foolish One” didn’t make the track list of the original Speak Now album, Swift released the track as one of many vault songs on the album’s July 2023 rerecording. Much like “Dear John,” Swift continues to recall how she missed the red flags in her and Mayer’s relationship. “And I’ll look back and regret how I ignored when they said / ‘Run as fast as you can,’” she sings.

The lyrics also share insight into Swift’s emotions following their breakup and how she longed for reconciliation on Mayer’s part. “Foolish one / Stop checkin’ your mailbox for confessions of love / That ain’t never gonna come / You will take the long way, you will take the long way down,” she says in the song.

‘The Manuscript,’ The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology (2024)

The closing track on the bonus version of Swift’s 11th studio album contained many possible lyrical references to her and Mayer’s brief romance, including lines about the pair’s large age gap. “In the age of him, she wished she was 30 / And made coffee every morning in a French press,” Swift sings in the track’s second verse. “Afterwards she only ate kids’ cereal / And couldn’t sleep unless it was in her mother’s bed.”

After noting she went on to date “boys who were own age,” Swift seemingly tied in lyrics from Midnights’ “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” in which she referred to herself as a child while dating a grown man.

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“She thought about how he said she was so wise beyond her years / Everything had been above board / She wasn’t sure,” Swift belts.

Swift appeared to connect “The Manuscript” to another song about Mayer, “The Story of Us,” teasing that the song’s titular document could be about the story from the Speak Now track.

“Now and then I reread the manuscript / But the story isn’t mine anymore,” Swift concludes the song.

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