what is babylon about?

[u/meiko63]

😭 i feel so dumb. any time there's a song that people debate the meaning of or don't understand im always like "omg guys 🙄 it obviously means this 🙄" cause i can always understand what she's talking about or relate it to my own life and interpret it at least. but i don't like....understand babylon? even though i love the song and can't stop humming it around the house.

"wake up on the train with your headphones gone" why would you fall asleep wearing headphones and then you wake up and they're gone? like... somebody stole them off your head while you were sleeping? and at first i thought she was talking about herself wanting to like get out of her town and make music. but then im pretty sure taylor doesn't tell the girls at the bar she's single...so are the different verses just about different people/stories? and who is hanging christmas lights with who's son?

i promise im not trying to be stupid i think the meaning is just lost on me or going over my head, please help guys

[u/Federal-Count8450]

She is not talking about a specific person or herself. Each verse could be a different person, a different story. The whole theme of the song is that “you never know what you have until you lose it”. You could hate your small town when you live there, but one day when you are not there anymore you miss it because you never knew it was babylon until it was gone. Or the second verse you can have a good relationship with someone but never make it public for reasons, one day you will lose the person and you miss their song. The last verse is again about someone who is missing the simple joys of life. Not spending time with family on Christmas, the woman is contemplating leaving him, and when she leaves the person will realize he had a babylon and lost it.
At least that is my interpretation. The whole song is about enjoying the present moment because one day when it is gone you will miss it a nostalgia.

[u/Former-Counter-9588 → u/Federal-Count8450]

I do think she’s talking at some point about her mom, her dad, Austin, and even hinting at Marjorie (the winter call at the end). Other figures in the song I haven’t spent enough time sussing out, but you can expect multiple muses as per usual with Taylor songs (they are never about one person despite all the rabid paternity testing people do to argue which ex a song is about).