8 Things We Learned From Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour Book’
Taylor Swift‘s The Eras Tour Book was released at Target in the U.S. on Black Friday (Nov. 29). Hardcover and 256 pages long, the coffee table book is jam-packed with concert photos to look through — and it gives an overview of The Eras Tour that includes some facts about the concert’s journey that will be new to even the most dedicated fans.
“I decided to create the longest, most ambitious show I’d ever even attempted. Averaging at 3 hours and 15 minutes, with 45 songs played. My goal was for every fan to leave that show knowing I gave them absolutely everything I had,” Swift writes, in part, in her introduction to The Eras Tour Book.
The table of contents shows that the book is organized by era, just as the tour’s set list is. Each era is commemorated in words by Swift and beautiful concert photography.
There’s also a section in the book about what happens behind the scenes, including pages that credit her band members, backup vocalists and dancers; glimpses at Swift in rehearsal and backstage; visual tributes to her mic and guitar collections, and her wardrobe — plus sketches and illustrations of her various Eras outfits.
It took stops at two Targets to secure both the book and the new The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology vinyl Friday morning in-store, where both were exclusively released in-person (ahead of an online release set for the following day, Saturday, Nov. 30). The first Target had plenty of books in stock on a large display with the Target-exclusive CD version of the album, but had already sold all its vinyl copies to the early birds. The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology vinyl was available at the second Target, where all new Swift items were kept behind the customer service desk instead of arranged on a floor display.
Here’s what we’ve learned from The Eras Tour Book after getting our hands on Swift’s latest release. Warning: This list contains spoilers from the tour book.
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The ‘Next Era’ Is On Her Mind
Swift says her “beloved Eras Tour” was “the most wondrous tour of my life.” While at the time of her book’s release Eras is not quite over yet, with three more dates to go in Vancouver from Dec. 6-8, the star’s choice to sign the prologue of The Eras Tour Book with “See you next era… Taylor” makes it easy for one’s mind to wander. What’s coming next from the artist, who’s made history across multiple genres and sectors of the music industry since launching a career as a songwriter in Nashville, something around 20 years ago? What’s happening right now, as the Eras Tour comes to a close in late 2024, that might hint at her next era? She’s surely several steps ahead while we wonder.
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The ‘Tortured Poets’ Rover Has a Driver Underneath Swift’s Platform
It’s not sparkling dust, cosmic love or any element of alien abduction that powers the moving platform transporting Swift around the stage during Tortured Poets performance “Down Bad.” Although the moment is staged to feel mystical and magical, a member from the star’s tour crew is what keeps her moving. “The ‘rover’ platform I travel on actually is operated by a crew member, who lays inside the platform and drives it from inside,” Swift reveals in her book.
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It Looks Kind of Cozy Inside the Cleaning Cart
At some point early on in The Eras Tour, fans came to realize that Swift had an unexpected entrance to the main stage before the clock counts down to her opening number. Concertgoers won’t be spoiled before her official stage entrance because she is sneakily wheeled to the stage while enclosed in a box labeled as a cleaning cart.
The Eras Tour Book features a picture of Swift comfortably sitting inside the “cleaning cart,” which is minimally decked out with twinkly lights, framed cat art, a printout of the “animal of the day” (Meredith), a photo of the city she was probably playing the night the photo was taken and more.
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Why ‘Enchanted’ Is the One Song to Rep ‘Speak Now’
Speak Now lovers have wondered why “Enchanted” is the one song from Swift’s third album to have a permanent place on The Eras Tour set list. Swift explains: “I chose the epic ‘Enchanted’ to represent this album because it was always my favorite song on the album.” In The Eras Tour Book she also writes that “Enchanted” is meant to “elicit that midsummer haze of intrigue we feel when we lock eyes with someone across a room.”
As the story goes, Swift’s working title for the album was originally Enchanted.
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The ‘Vigilante Shit’ Chair Dance Is Her Favorite to Perform
Not only is the sexy dance number “Vigilante Shit” Swift’s favorite — the late-in-the-show performance of the Midnights track is her top moment of the entire concert, she writes in The Eras Tour Book. Of “my favorite moment of the night,” she says, “It’s just the most fun I’ve ever had, that one. The chair choreography! The catty, vengeful, mischievous personas we get to try on and play with.”
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Her Dancers Learned How to Checkmate for ‘Mastermind’
“For ‘Mastermind,’ we recreate a chessboard and when I signal the dancers to move to different spots on the board, they actually create the exact sequence for a checkmate,” Swift points out of a clever bit of choreo in her Midnights set. Unless you’re a chess pro, this exact replica of the move that’s revealed in her tour book is likely news to you, too. The concept lines right up with lyrics from the song: “And the touch of a hand lit the fuse/ Of a chain reaction of countermoves/ To assess the equation of you/ Checkmate, I couldn’t lose.”
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There’s a Sweet Surprise Inside the ‘22’ Hat
Each night of The Eras Tour, one lucky fan becomes the proud new owner of the black bowler hat Swift wears during her performance of “22.” Often it’s a very excited, very young fan who gets surprised with this coveted concert memorabilia and a hug from the star, which Swift writes “warmed my heart every night.” A fun fact about this wonderful moment is revealed in her tour book: The inside of the hat even has Swift’s autograph.
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Swift Always Knew How She Wanted to Open The Eras Tour
There were no questions on Swift’s mind when it came to the opening lyric of her first tour in years. As she explains in her book, “I aways knew the Lover era should open the show, and specifically the line ‘it’s been a long time coming.’ Because it had been! I’d never gotten to tour the Lover album and so this was a brand new era we were creating.” The Eras Tour launched in 2023, after Swift’s highly anticipated Lover Fest dates, originally scheduled for 2020, were postponed and eventually canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the time between what would’ve been Lover Fest and what became The Eras Tour, she recorded and released three albums (Folklore, Evermore and Midnights) and added another to her discography before Eras ended (The Tortured Poets Department).
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