Taylor Swift’s best B-Sides, live tracks, and covers from ‘Delicate’ to ‘Bette Davis Eyes’
Attitude goes beyond the hits to unearth hidden musical treasures of Taylor Swift.
By James Hodge
Anyone else eagerly awaiting the announcement of the UK and European tour dates for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour? For now, we’ll have do with watching what we can on TikTok and listening to the album on repeat so we’re word perfect for when she does arrive this side of the pond.
As part of this, we’ve taken a look at Taylor’s best B-sides and perhaps less well-recognised tracks and live versions.
Original version: ‘the lakes’
Swift‘s songwriting prowess was historically overlooked. However, the original production of bonus track ‘the lakes’ reveals her poetic, romantic influences in this epic, melodramatic number with its swooping strings and moody acoustics.
Feature track: ‘Renegade’
Indie folk band Big Red Machine featured Swift on this 2021 record — their first UK single. Only reaching number 73 in the charts, this upbeat acoustic track sees Swift calling out the misdemeanours of her lover, coolly lamenting that he needs to “get [his] shit together”.
Live track: ‘The Man’
‘The Man’ is often considered Swift’s feminist anthem. This live version, recorded in Paris, reveals just how loved the track is, with fans singing along loudly as Swift proclaims that life would be easier had she been born male and given the advantages of the opposite sex.
Seeb remix: ‘Delicate’
Taylor is yet to venture into dance music, but if this summery remix is anything to go by, she should! ‘Delicate’, originally a synthy, mid-tempo seduction number featuring heavy vocoder, is transformed into a playful, dreamy floor-filler.
Cover: ‘Bette Davis Eyes’
Originally a new-wave soft-rock track made popular by Kim Carnes, Taylor Swift reimagined this track on her Reputation tour. Playing the original hook on the guitar, the acoustic rendition gives a new sense of vulnerability and purity to the lyrics, introducing this classic number to an upcoming generation of pop lovers.
This feature first appeared in the May/June issue of Attitude Magazine – out now.