Songfacts®:

• The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when James W. Marshall found a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. John Augustus Sutter and James Marshall tried to keep the discovery a secret, but when President Polk announced the discovery on December 5th of that year, thousands of miners flocked to California in hopes of becoming rich.
  
  Here, Taylor Swift sings of the jealousy she feels of being attracted to a good-looking guy who's too in-demand. She is one of many women looking to secure the treasure.
• Swift has used the color gold to describe her love for her boyfriend Joe Alwyn on several previous occasions. On Folklore's "Invisible String" she uses the color to tie herself to her romantic partner, but here she uses gold to convey a different emotion: jealousy.
  
  Cause I don't like a gold rush, gold rush
  I don't like anticipatin' my face in a red flush
  I don't like that anyone would die to feel your touch
  Everybody wants you
  
  The lyric echoes a similar jealous feeling on 2019's "Lover," where Swift worries that she might have competition for Alwyn's hand:
  
  I'm highly suspicious that everyone who sees you wants you
• Swift recognizes she has to stop fantasizing about the good-looking man as there's too much competition. In realizing she needs to snap out of her daydreaming, the songstress calls back the name of Evermore's sister record, Folklore.
  
  My mind turns your life into folklore
  I can't dare to dream about you anymore
  
  This is the only song on either Folklore or Evermore where Swift actually says "folklore."
• This track is the closest to a pop song on Evermore. That makes sense as it is in the only tune on the record produced by Jack Antonoff rather than Aaron Dessner. While Antonoff contributed to 11 out of the 18 tracks on the singer's pop-rock Lover album, Dessner produced 11 of Folklore's 16 tracks, which feature more bare-bones arrangements.
• I see me padding 'cross your wooden floors
  With my Eagles t-shirt hanging from the door
  
  Swift grew up in Pennsylvania before her family moved to Nashville, Tennessee, so she could pursue a career in country music as a teenager. When this song came out, many fans wondered if Swift was referring to the Philadelphia Eagles football team or the '70s rock band the Eagles.
  
  While addressing the crowd at her concert staged at the Lincoln Financial Field - the home stadium of the Philadelphia Eagles - on May 12, 2023, the singer-songwriter answered the burning question. "I did see the debate about how a lyric says, 'With my Eagles T-shirt hanging from the door,'" Swift stated. "I saw some people wondering if it was the band Eagles or the team the Eagles. I love the band the Eagles. But guys, like come on. I'm from Philly. Of course, it's the team."