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Peter

Bonus Track | THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY (2024)

“Peter” is track twenty-eight on THE ANTHOLOGY, the double album edition of Taylor’s eleventh studio album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024). It was released on April 19, 2024, through Republic Records.

Background

Taylor released her tenth studio album, Midnights, on October 21, 2022, to widespread commercial and critical success, becoming the biggest album of the year. Midnights was eventually nominated for six Grammy Awards at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on February 4, 2024. The morning of the ceremony, Taylor teased the release of an album by changing her profile picture across all social media platforms to a black and white version of the already existing cover artwork of Midnights. This led to her fans speculating online that she was preparing to release reputation (Taylor’s Version), a forthcoming re-recording of her sixth studio album, reputation (2017). Taylor’s website also appeared to have crashed, replaced with the non-existent HTTP status code 321, as well as error code “hneriergrd”, which fans deciphered to be an anagram spelling “red herring”. They also analyzed the source code of her website and found hidden, foreign-language words, which they then translated into English. The words found would be revealed to be words in Taylor’s handwritten note for the album.

Taylor won the Grammy Awards for “Best Pop Vocal Album” and “Album of the Year” for Midnights a few hours later. In her acceptance speech for the former, she revealed a new studio album, titled THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, and announced its release date of April 19, 2024, which she had been keeping secret for nearly two years. Its cover artwork was subsequently posted on her social media accounts, along with a photograph of a handwritten note.

Live Performance

“Peter” received its first live performance acoustically on piano on May 17, 2024, in Stockholm during one of Taylor’s shows on “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024).

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Forgive me, Peter
My lost fearless leader
In closets like cedar
Preserved from when we were just kids
Is it somethin’ I did?
The goddess of timing
Once found us beguiling
She said she was trying
Peter, was she lying?
My ribs get the feeling she did

[Pre-Chorus 1]
And I didn’t wanna come down
I thought it was just goodbye for now

[Chorus]
You said you were gonna grow up
Then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up
Thеn you were gonna come find mе
Said you were gonna grow up
Then you were gonna come find me
Words from the mouths of babes
Promises oceans deep
But never to keep
Oh, never to keep

[Verse 2]
Are you still a mind reader?
A natural scene stealer?
I’ve heard great things, Peter
But life was always easier on you
Than it was on me
And sometimes it gets me
When crossing your jet stream
We both did the best we could do
Underneath the same moon
In different galaxies

[Pre-Chorus 2]
And I didn’t wanna hang around
We said it was just goodbye for now

[Chorus]
You said you were gonna grow up
Then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up
Then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up
Then you were gonna come find me
Words from the mouths of babes
Promises oceans deep
But never to keep
Never to keep

[Bridge]
And I won’t confess that I waited, but I let the lamp burn
As the men masqueraded, I hoped you’d return
With your feet on the ground, tell me all that you’d learned
‘Cause love’s never lost when perspective is earned
And you said you’d come and get me, but you were twenty-five
And the shelf life of those fantasies has expired
Lost to the “Lost Boys” chapter of your life
Forgive me, Peter, please know that I tried
To hold on to the days
When you were mine
But the woman who sits by the window
Has turned out the light

[Final Chorus]
You said you were gonna grow up
Then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up
You said you were gonna grow up
Then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up
You said you were gonna grow up
Then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up
Then you were gonna come find me
Said you were gonna grow up
Then you were gonna come find me
Words from the mouths of babes
Promises oceans deep
But never to keep