"The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" is the fourteenth track from American singer and songwriter Taylor Swift's eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, released on April 19, 2024 through Republic Records.
Background[]
"The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" is rumored to be written about Matty Healy, with references to their situation made within the lyrics, and the performance of the song during The Eras Tour.
Lyrics[]
[Verse 1]
Was any of it true?
Gazing at me starry-eyed
In your Jehovah's Witness suit
Who the fuck was that guy?
You tried to buy some pills
From a friend of friends of mine
They just ghosted you
Now you know what it feels like
[Chorus]
And I don't even want you back, I just want to know
If rusting my sparkling summer was the goal
And I don't miss what we had, but could someone give
A message to the smallest man who ever lived?
[Verse 2]
You hung me on your wall
Stabbed me with your push pins
In public, showed me off
Then sank in stoned oblivion
'Cause once your queen had come
You'd treat her likе an also-ran
You didn't measure up
In any measurе of a man
[Chorus]
And I don't even want you back, I just want to know
If rusting my sparkling summer was the goal
And I don't miss what we had, but could someone give
A message to the smallest man who ever lived?
[Bridge]
Were you sent by someone
Who wanted me dead?
Did you sleep with a gun underneath our bed?
Were you writing a book?
Were you a sleeper cell spy?
In fifty years will all this be declassified?
And you'll confess why you did it
And I'll say, "Good riddance"
'Cause it wasn't sexy once it wasn't forbidden
I would've died for your sins
Instead I just died inside
And you deserve prison, but you won't get time
You'll slide into inboxes and slip through the bars
You crashed my party and your rental car
You said normal girls were "boring"
But you were gone by the morning
You kicked out the stage lights, but you're still performing
And in plain sight you hid
But you are what you did
And I'll forget you, but I'll never forgive
The smallest man who ever lived
Audio[]
Live performances[]
A shortened version of "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" was added to The Eras Tour setlist as the sixth song of the The Tortured Poets Department set and the thirty-seventh song of the setlist.
.jpg "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived (The Eras Tour).jpg (80 KB)")
Trivia[]
- "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" is the only song of Swift's to be in 7/4 time and the only one to be in a mixed meter. A mixed meter song is where the time signature changes throughout the song, and in this example, the rest of the song is in 7/4 time but the bridge switches to 4/4.
| THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT | ||
|---|---|---|
| "Fortnight" • "The Tortured Poets Department" • "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" • "Down Bad" • "So Long, London" • "But Daddy I Love Him" • "Fresh Out The Slammer" • "Florida!!!" • "Guilty as Sin?" • "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" • "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)" • "loml" • "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart" • "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" • "The Alchemy" • "Clara Bow" | ||
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