Samuel Johnson on London

“So (So) long (Long), London (London)”

Uncle Jerry frames the song's London register by citing Samuel Johnson's famous remark, recorded by James Boswell, that to tire of London is to tire of life. Taylor's title-line operates in conversation with this culturally embedded quote: the speaker is saying so long to London (and to the life she built there), and the act of leaving carries the weight of Johnson's framing of London as the place where all of life can be found.