Taylor Swift's unreleased suicide note song: Tracks the world was never meant to hear... including one her co-writer said is 'the most chilling he's ever heard'

Taylor Swift skyrocketed to fame with iconic ballads about love and her struggles with fame - but hidden deep within her song vault is a collection of unreleased tracks that take her repertoire to 'chilling' and dark new depths.

Now, a new book tracking the 36-year-old hitmaker's early years reveals those never-heard songs, including one with such a 'horribly tragic ending' that it left a collaborator reeling in shock. 

Eight secret tracks, which are laid bare in the forthcoming Taylor Swift: The Debut Years, are among hundreds Swift wrote between 2003 and 2006 when she was a teenager still trying to break into the country music scene.

The most disturbing song - Dark Blue Tennessee - references a suicide note and was inspired by Swift's love of the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet, according to Emily Yahr, the Washington Post pop culture correspondent and author of the new book.

The song, which Swift co-wrote with longtime collaborator and mentor Robert Ellis Orrall on a piano in his Nashville living room, included 'one of the most chilling vocals he's ever heard,' the book notes.

The ballad, which Yahr described as being a sinister version of Swift's Love Story if it had a 'horribly tragic ending,' is among the hundreds of songs Swift has opted not to release - despite her prolific output spanning 12 albums over a two-decade stretch. 

Orrall, who wrote half a dozen unreleased songs with Swift, mentored her and was a major influence on her career, was among those that Yahr spoke to for the new book, which is due out on October 6.

According to Orrall, another artist asked to record Dark Blue Tennessee and there were numerous conversations at Sony Music about it several years ago. 

But after Swift said the song was 'very special' to her, she ultimately declined, leading Orrall to think she might one day record it herself. 

According to online versions of the lyrics of the song, Blue Tennessee includes the line: 'She almost called him on the night that he wrote, these simple words on his goodbye note.'

The song was actually a favorite of Swift's father, Scott, but Orrall thinks that the dark subject matter is why it didn't make the debut album. 

While Swift is known to write songs about people in her life, there is no hint as to the name of the person who was the inspiration for the unreleased track Brought Up That Way.

It's described as being about someone Swift knew who was killed by a drunk driver.

Swift co-wrote the ballad at the age of 15 with Tammy Hyler, according to the book. 

Again, her father loved the song - as did Swift's mother, Andrea - but record label CEO Scott Borchetta, who was in charge of promotion for the debut album, thought it was 'simply too sad' to put on there. 

Meanwhile, other never-before-released songs showed off Swift's unique ability to distill her teenage experiences into lyrics that could resonate with her fans. 

Love the Hell Out of You - a track she penned with songwriters Sarah Buxton and Victoria Shaw - was about not loving someone enough to exorcise their inner demons. But the mere hint of anything satanic meant it did not make the debut album, according to the book. 

'I was like: "You sure there are no other ideas?" I thought: "Well, this song will never go anywhere because she's way too young…but those are the kinds of deep thoughts she had even as a kid," Shaw, who co-wrote Garth Brook's mega hit The River, said.

Being With My Baby, which Swift wrote with Brett Beavers, was about 'young love when it feels like you're the only two people in the world,' the book says.

And I Know What I Want was written with Blair Daly at his home recording studio in October 2005. It was about how Swift likes her 'music loud and her trucks big,' Yahr wrote, and how she 'doesn't want a boy who thinks the world revolves around him.'

The session went so smoothly that Daly recalled them being completely finished with it when Swift's mother arrived at to pick her up that same day.

Another song, titled Firefly, was about trying to hold onto somebody you love but they keep getting away.

Meanwhile, This Is Really Happening was about two people falling in love and echoed the Killers' song Midnight Show.

Another track, Me and Britany, was a 'tale of the beauty and pain of a childhood friendship changing over time,' Yahr writes.

Co-writer Sharon Vaughn, who has worked with hit singers like Waylon Jennings, said in the book that it was drawn from Swift's 'personal experience,' though the identity of 'Britany' was not clear.

Speaking in 2006, Swift said that during her early recordings she wrote prolifically because she was determined to be taken seriously.

As she put it, Swift acted like she was a '35-year-old songwriter writing every day like it was my job.'

Despite her youth, Swift said she wanted to 'prove to people that that was what I was serious about.'

Meanwhile, Swift's fans have been so dedicated to the flurry of unreleased songs that soon after the singer's first album came out in 2006, Swifties started creating forums where they could swap tracks that had not officially come out. 

At some point the forum became password protected and those with access became known as the 'Inner Circle' who have access to the rarest of demo recordings. 

Remarkably, they never leaked any of the songs out of loyalty to Swift - and the site has since been deleted. 

Fans are now hoping that they will get a glimpse of unreleased songs next month on the 20th anniversary of the release of her debut album, titled Taylor Swift.

On fan forums, there is intense speculation that Swift will release a Taylor's Version of the record. 

In recent years, Swift has re-recorded versions of four of her early albums after the masters ended up in the hands of music manager Scooter Braun, though she later bought them back. Just last week, she released the deluxe version of her 2025 album, The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, with four additional songs.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Swift for comment.