The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024)

“The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” is track fourteen on Taylor’s eleventh studio album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024). It was released on April 19, 2024, through Republic Records.
Table of Contents

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:

«And so I enter into evidence / My tarnished coat of arms / My muses, acquired like bruises / My talismans and charms / The tick, tick, tick of love bombs / My veins of pitch black ink / All's fair in love and poetry…Sincerely, The Chairman of the Tortured Poets Department.»

The album’s tracklist, including “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” was revealed a day later.

Live Performance

Starting with the European leg, which kicked off in May 2024, Taylor added “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” to the regular setlist for her sixth headlining tour, “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024).

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 50 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

[Outro]
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.

General Information
ArtistTaylor Swift
AlbumTHE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT
ReleasedApril 19, 2024
Recorded2023
StudiosLong Pond (Hudson Valley)
Electric Lady (New York City)
Tiny Telephone (Oakland)
Smilo Sound (Orcas Island)
Sterling Sound (Edgewater)
GenreAlternative
Length4:05
LabelRepublic Records
SongwritersTaylor Swift
Aaron Dessner
ProducersAaron Dessner
Taylor Swift
THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT CHRONOLOGY
I Can Do It With A Broken HeartThe Smallest Man Who Ever LivedThe Alchemy
Song Certification
"Platinum" certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. Signifying 1,000,000 units sold.
Song Artwork
Live Performance
Lyric Video
Official Audio