Is Taylor Swift's ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’ About Matty Healy? The Meaning Explained

25 April 2024, 13:36

Taylor Swift’s album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ has broken the hearts of fans across the world. But one track in particular has left fans shocked. Who is ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’ about and is it Matty Healy?

Taylor Swift’s double album release of ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ and ‘The Tortured Poets Department The Anthology’, on the 19th of April, broke the internet and certainly broke hearts.

The emotional rollercoaster the songs took Swifties on included Taylor’s journey of healing from her split from her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn.

While fans were expecting songs about Joe, as well as maybe a song or two about her current romance with Travis Kelce, what they didn’t expect was for Taylor to be have sung about her fling with lead singer of the 1975, Matty Healy.

• Read more: Matty Healy Breaks Silence On Taylor Swift's 'The Tortured Poets Department'
• Read more: Matty Healy 'Not Shocked' By Taylor Swift Songs Believed To Be About Him, His Family Insists

But that seems to be what she did, in tracks such as ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ and especially in ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.’

Is ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’ about Matty Healy?

All roads have led to yes, Taylor Swift’s ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’ was most likely about Matty Healy, however, we’ll never truly know, will we?

Taylor doesn’t exactly confirm who her songs are about, but her fanbase always seems to know. Let’s start with the track name, since it's a Taylor song we know it must have had a double meaning. But on a surface level, the title could have reflected that common misconception Matty is smaller than he actually is - heightwise. Matty himself has spoken in the past about his smaller stature.

The singer spoke to The Fader saying, “Everyone in [the 1975] is 6’4” and I’m 5’10”, so everyone thinks that I’m 5’5”.”

In fact, in an interaction with a fan posted on X, the musician claimed he was “sick to f**ing death of this”, about the assumption that he was 5’5”, exclaiming that he “is a big boy!”

But when we got down to the lyrics of the track itself, the first verse included the lines; “Gazing at me, starry-eyed / In your Jehovah’s Witness suit.”

If that wasn't a dead giveaway, we don’t know what would be. Matty’s iconic look has always been a close-cut black suit, white shirt and black tie, which could have been entirely comparable to a so-called ‘Jehovah’s Witness suit.’

Halfway through the song, Taylor sang “And I don't even want you back, I just want to know/ If rusting my sparkling summer was the goal?”

This aligned with the timeline when she was supposedly seeing Matty, which was in the summer of 2023. Her relationship with Matty was under much scrutiny from the public, with many of her fans not approving of them as a couple, and a large proportion turned on Taylor herself for her choice of partner.

In the song she sang the line, “Were you sent by someone who wanted me dead?”

This could have been her way of letting Matty know, that his association with her had affected her reputation. If you listened to ‘but daddy I love him,’ you’d have heard more of Taylor’s side in this narrative.

Perhaps Matty's rough exterior, sardonic tone and history with substance abuse had fans terrified of his influence on their pop princess.

Taylor could have been referencing Matty’s experience with addiction in the past when she sang, “You tried to buy some pills/ From a friend of friends of mine”.

Taylor Swift's 'The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived' Full 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]

The smallest man who ever lived
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 writin' 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

[Outro]

And in plain sight you hid
But you are what you did
And I'll forget you, but I'll never forgive

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