“Come in With the Rain” by Taylor Swift

The lyrics of Taylor Swift’s “Come in With the Rain” are, logically speaking, being relayed to an ex-boyfriend or former lover of the singer.

It is one of those types of stories where almost nothing is said overtly, but a lot is said underneath. For instance, in the chorus, the singer asserts that she is ‘too tired to call out the name’ of the addressee. That is to say she apparently wants him to come back but lacks the wherewithal to actually tell him so. Or more revealingly, she has apparently done so numerous times in the past to no permanent avail.

Taylor isn’t Begging

However, that is not to say that this reads like a case of a woman begging an estranged lover to return. Rather it comes off more like being indicative of a tumultuous relationship. Taylor doesn’t particularly come off as someone who has been left behind by her ex. Instead it seems as if they both have grown exhausted of the nature of the romance.

For instance, the bridge implies that the vocalist has done just about everything she can to make things work. Still the glue, if you will, is not there. And it doesn’t feel like the other party involved, the addressee, is just flat-out ignoring her. Instead we can postulate that he too, to some degree, tried to make things work or at least is willing to entertain her when she suggests such.

Or put otherwise, all those times she called, he likely did answer. But still, he didn’t stay. That is just testament to the fact that now things have reached a point where the singer wants him to return under his own initiative as opposed to being requested to do so. She is hoping that some force will bring him back – the rain as it is called.

“The Rain”

Perhaps “the rain”, considering how that metaphor is most-often used in song, alludes to some unfortunate event. Either way she is hoping that dude comes back to his senses, so to speak.

Indeed sometimes it may take a little rainfall for individuals to recognize just how much certain people in their lives love them. Or another way of looking at it is that him returning on his own, instead of being asked, proves that he loves her also.

So whether the addressee realizes it or not, the singer is ready and willing to receive him when he returns. But that being noted, she no longer possesses the wherewithal to ask him to actually do so.

In fact judging by the pre-chorus, this addressee we’re talking about here is far from an ideal partner. But still the singer’s undying love for him, waiting on a lover who may or may not return, serves as the thesis sentiment of the track. And the underlying implication would be something like it is his fault that the two of them are not currently together.

Writing and Release of “Come in with the Rain”

This is a track which Taylor Swift wrote alongside Liz Rose and produced in conjunction with Nathan Chapman. Both of those figures were regular collaborators of Tay Tay’s during the early, perhaps we can even say most-successful stage of her career.

The first issuance of “Come in With the Rain” was on 26 October 2009, as part of the deluxe, aka “Platinum Edition” of Fearless. And that album was brought to us by Big Machine Records.

In 2021 Fearless (Taylor’s Edition) came out via Republic Records. It is virtually the same as the Fearless (buttressed with six previously unreleased songs), albeit with the tracks therein having been re-recorded more recently. And there is also a “Come in With the Rain (Taylor’s Version)” to be found on that project.

The Re-recording of Taylor’s “Fearless” album

Taylor was prompted to re-record Fearless due to a beef she got into with Big Machine Records. This all goes back to when she was a teen and – like many young, aspiring musicians – was hungry for a record deal. This led to her singing a contract in which the master recordings of her first six albums all belonged to Big Machine.

That may not sound like a big deal in most cases. However, it is worth pointing out that with Fearless for instance, Taylor also wrote or co-wrote every single song on the album. Also she signed the aforementioned contract when she was just 15 years old, thus logically dealing with a party wiser than herself.

So fast forward about 15 years, and Big Machine Records decides that they want to sell the lot of those masters. They end up doing so to a company called Ithaca Holdings for a very-wealthy $300,000,000. But that move angers Taylor Swift for two primary reasons, even though she knows that business is business.

The Reasons

First off, she offered to buy them herself and was refused. And considering that she is a global superstar whose net worth is concurrently nearing $400,000,000, there is a good possibly that she could have actually afforded to do so.

Secondly, Ithaca Holdings is owned by Scooter Braun. Scooter Braun, as you may know, has been Justin Bieber’s since the Biebs got in the game and normally finds his own name in headlines. In other words, he manages musicians but at the same time is a celebrity himself, like people in the industry know him.

And Taylor clearly isn’t fond of Scooter (whose own personal net worth is, at the time, about the same as Swift’s). Also at one point Big Machine patriarch, Scott Borchetta, was like a father figure to her.

However, he sold her masters to him anyway. So she took that sale quite personally. And as a countermeasure, she has decided to re-record Fearless and the other five albums she put forth under Borchetta’s label.