Wow! This is a lot of people in a tiny office!
I love it
I'm Taylor, Welcome to my Tiny Desk
Concert!
Wow It's great to be in DC
You guys have
anything exciting going on the past few weeks?
Any possible changes in play?
Do us a favor : give a round of applause to NPR for putting this whole thing on
Tiny Desk is like one of my favorite
corners of the internet...um and I always love seeing like
it's an opportunity for artists to decide a
different way to showcase their music and so
and so you're kind of inundated by overwhelming
opportunity and choices like I was
I just decided to take this as an opportunity to show you guys
how the songs were sounded when I first wrote them
So it's just me...there's no dancers...unfortunately
Um "chuckle"
So, you know, I have this album that just
came out called LOVER
[cheers]
Real happy you like it
It's one of those albums where I wrote everything on
one instrument first, so
it's really fun to pick songs to do acoustically
because they all started out that way
Um...and...There's a song that I had wanted to write
conceptually for a very long time, because
Over the course of my life it occurred to me that we have
a bit of a double standard issue in our society
It's something I've thought about about million times
a day for the last years of my life
and I was always wondering, like
Can I write a song about this? Is there a concise
and catchy way to write a song about this?
What angle would I take
if I were to write a song about this?
And so I decided that the most fun thing to do would
be to decide what my life would be like
And what people would say about my life
if I did all the same things
But if I was a man
♪ The Man ♪
♪ I would be complex, I would be cool ♪
♪ They'd say I played the field before I found someone to commit to ♪
♪ And that would be okay
for me to do ♪
♪ Every conquest I had made would make me more of a boss to you ♪
♪ I'd be a fearless leader ♪
♪ I'd be an alpha type ♪
♪ When everyone believes ya ♪
♪ What's that like? ♪
♪ I'm so sick of running as fast as I can ♪
♪ Wondering if I'd get there quicker if I was a man ♪
♪ And I'm so sick of them coming at me again ♪
♪ Cause if I was a man, then I'd be the man ♪
♪ I'd be the man ♪
♪ I'd be the man ♪
♪ They'd say I hustled, put in the work ♪
♪ They wouldn't shake their heads and question how much of this I deserve ♪
♪ What I was wearing, if I was rude ♪
♪ Could all be separated from my good ideas and power moves ♪
♪ And they would toast to me, Oh
Let the players play ♪
♪ I'd be just like Leo
in Saint-Tropez ♪
♪ I'm so sick of running as fast as I can ♪
♪ Wondering if I'd get there quicker if I was a man ♪
♪ And I'm so sick of them coming at me again ♪
♪ Cause if I was a man, then I'd be the man ♪
♪ I'd be the man
Yeah ♪
♪ I'd be the man
Yeah ♪
♪ What's it like to brag about raking in dollars
And getting b*tches and models? ♪
♪ And it's all good if you're bad
it's okay if you're mad ♪
♪ If I was out flashing my dollars
I'd be a bitch, not a baller ♪
♪ They'd paint me out to be bad
So, it's okay that I'm maaaaaaad ♪
♪ I'm so sick of running as fast as I can ♪
♪ Wondering if I'd get there quicker if I was a man ♪
♪ And I'm so sick of them coming at me again ♪
♪ Cause if I was a man ♪
♪ Then I'd be the man ♪
♪ I'd be the man
Yeah ♪
♪ I'd be the man ♪
♪ Oh ♪
♪ Cause I'm so sick of them coming at me again ♪
♪ Cause if I was a man ♪
♪ I'd be the man ♪
♪ I'd be the man ♪
♪ I'd be the man ♪
♪ If I was a man ♪
♪ Then I'd be the maaan ♪
Thanks guys
So...Um
So..Um There's a song that I wrote on the album that I knew
as soon as I wrote it it was going to be the tittle track
Just....And it was like
Writing songs is strange cause it never happens
exactely the same way
But sometimes it happens in a way that it feels like this weird
like haunting that you can't really explain
Like you don't know where these ideas came from
and you feel like you don't work at all to write it
And that's the best part - that's the best kind of song...Um
And then there most days, you show up,
and the idea doesn't
And that's where craft you have to kind of know the craft of it, you have to scrounge your brain for something to write
Because you're not always going to be inspired, and that's okay...um
There's a really good Elizabeth Gilbert Ted Talk about that,
it's like...one of my favorite things to cry while watching
Um, but yeah, like with this song, it was one of those
weird moments where I was just like : Okay this is just
middle of the night...
I'm like in my PJs, like stumbling to the piano because I got
this idea, and the song just happened really quickly
There's a line in the song that I'm really proud of...um
and the line says :
With every guitar string scar on my hand I take
this magnetic force of a man to be my lover
And that line is really special to me because um
I've spent quite a bit of time writing breakup songs
And uh...songs about things not turning out the
way you wanted them to
Or songs about what you thought would be love and it
turned out to be not that at all or
You know just kind of the struggle of life...I find songwriting
is really just a cathartic therapeutic thing for me
And so there are a lot of things I've written about in life
that were just the harder things I had to go through so
I took that as a metaphor for like...you know
the times when I was learning to play guitar and I'd like
play until my fingers bled when I was a kid
And I still have the marks from that
You know all the times I'd be changing a string and it would pop and I still have scars from that
Um...but it's also a bigger metaphor for like in life,
you accumulate scars, you accumulate hurt
You accumulate moments of you know learning and
disappointment, and struggle and all that
And if someone's gonna take your hand,
they'd better take your hand, scars and all
Um...So this is called LOVER
♪ Lover ♪
♪ We could leave the Christmas lights up until January ♪
♪ This is our place, we make the rules ♪
♪ And there's a dazzling haze ♪
♪ a mysterious way about you, dear ♪
♪ Have I known you twenty seconds, twenty years? ♪
♪ Can I go where you go? ♪
♪ Can we always be this close forever and ever? ♪
♪ You take me out, You take me home ♪
♪ You're my, my, my, my ♪
♪ LOVER ♪
♪ We could let our friends crash in the living room ♪
♪ This is our place, we make the call ♪
♪ I'm highly suspicious that everyone who sees you wants you ♪
♪ I've loved you three summers now, honey, I want 'em all ♪
♪ Can I go where you go? ♪
♪ Can we always be this close forever and ever? ♪
♪ And I take me out, take me home ♪
♪ You're my, my, my, my ♪
♪ LOVER ♪
♪ Ladies and gentlemen, will you please stand? ♪
♪ With every guitar string scar on my hand ♪
♪ I take this magnetic force of a man to be my ♪
♪ LOVER ♪
♪ And my heart's been borrowed and yours has been blue ♪
♪ All's well that ends well to end up with you ♪
♪ Swear to be over-dramatic and true to my LOVER ♪
♪ And you'll save all your dirtiest jokes for me ♪
♪ And at every table, I'll save you a seat ♪
♪ Can I go where you go? ♪
♪ Can we always be this close forever and ever? ♪
♪ Take me out, take me home ♪
♪ You're my, my, my, my ♪
♪ Oh, you're my, my, my, my ♪
♪ Darling, you're my, my, my, my ♪
♪ LOVER ♪
Thanks guys
You guys ever have costume changes at Tiny Desk?
Um..so...over the course of the years that I've done
interviews...Um...
which is I think probably or years now
Um...
I've gotten a question over and over again that I think has has
like the potential to seriously deteriorate my mental health
Um...The question is, "What will you ever do if you
get happy? What will you write about?"
Will you just never be able to write a song again?
It's an interesting question
Um...and you know in the the interviews, when I would get
that question as a young person
I'd kind of be like, 'Well, I started out writing songs about
stuff I had no idea about
Like I started writing songs when I was years old
and they were usually about heartbreak"
I had no idea what I was talking about, but I had watched
movies and I had read books, so I would grab inspiration from character dynamics, as you do
Um...and so I would say in the interviews, "Oh, I'd probably just do that!"
If stuff is going on in the world that not just happening
to me, like maybe I could get inspiration from that
But then I'd go home and I'd be like : [blank stare]
What would happen if I was ever happy?
Would I not be able to do the thing that I love the most in the
world? Like would that...is that? Oh my...Oh my god!
Would I not be able to write breakup songs anymore? I love
breakup songs! They're so fun to write!
Um...and so then I happened to be writing this album Lover, which is a very, very happy, romantic....
Um...album, and I started, like in my life, a few of my friends were going through break ups, and we were talking
it's like the kind of break up where you need to talk to your
friend all the time because they need to talk about it
all day, every day
So I was having a lot of conversations about break ups
I watched movies that were really like:
well-done about break ups, In some of the books
I was reading there were some good break ups happening
And this all culminated in me waking up one day with all these
like heartbreak lyrics in my head and I was like
"It's still here! Yes!"
Um...So I ended up writing a song that was a break up song on the Lover album, and I was like :
This song is my proof that...you know...you don't have to stop
writing songs about heartache and misery
Which for me is incredible news
So this is called : Death by a Thousand Cuts
♪ Death by a Thousand Cuts ♪
♪ My, my, my, my ♪
♪ My, my, my, my ♪
♪ Saying goodbye is death by a thousand cuts ♪
♪ Flashbacks waking me up ♪
♪ I get drunk, but it's not enough ♪
♪ Cause the morning comes and you're not my baby ♪
♪ I look through the windows of this love ♪
♪ Even though we boarded them up ♪
♪ Chandelier's still flickering here ♪
♪ Cause I can't pretend it's okay when it's not ♪
♪ It's death by a thousand cuts ♪
♪ I dress to k*ll my time, I take the long way home ♪
♪ I ask the traffic lights if it'll be alright ♪
♪ They say, "I don't know" ♪
♪ And what once was ours, is no one's now ♪
♪ I see you everywhere, the only thing we share ♪
♪ Is this small town ♪
♪ You said it was a great love, one for the ages ♪
♪ But if the story's over, why am I still writing pages? ♪
♪ Saying goodbye is death by a thousand cuts ♪
♪ Flashbacks waking me up ♪
♪ I get drunk, but it's not enough ♪
♪ Cause the morning comes and you're not my baby ♪
♪ I look through the windows of this love ♪
♪ Even though we boarded them up ♪
♪ Chandelier's still flickering here ♪
♪ Cause I can't pretend it's okay when it's not ♪
♪ It's death by a thousand cuts ♪
♪ My heart, my hips, my body, my love ♪
♪ Tryna find a part of me that you didn't touch ♪
♪ Gave up on me like I was a bad drug ♪
♪ Now I'm searching for signs in a haunted club ♪
♪ Our songs, our films, united, we stand ♪
♪ Our country, guess it was a lawless land ♪
♪ Quiet my fears with the touch of your hand ♪
♪ Paper cut stings from our paper-thin plans ♪
♪ My time, my wine, my spirit, my trust ♪
♪ Tryna find a part of me you didn't take up ♪
♪ Gave you so much, but it wasn't enough ♪
♪ But I'll be all right, it's just a thousand cuts ♪
♪ I get drunk, but it's not enough ♪
♪ Cause you're not my baby ♪
♪ I look through the windows of this love ♪
♪ Even though we boarded them up ♪
♪ Chandelier's still flickering here ♪
♪ Cause I can't pretend it's okay when it's not ♪
♪ No, it's not ♪
♪ It's death by a thousand cuts ♪
♪ My body, my love, my trust ♪
♪ But it wasn't enough, it wasn't enough, no, no ♪
♪ I ask the traffic lights if it'll be alright ♪
♪ They say, "I don't know" ♪
Thanks guys!
I have three that I don't...
She's giving her guitar picks to kids :
"You can Sell them on eBay"
Um...So...I was trying to think of what songs to do for this
Um...and you get I think four, so I was [excited noises]
And so I was thinking about how it's autumn, and Um...
that's my favorite "Chuckle" season...um
and people on the internet have been kind enough like
in like in amongst the people who care about my music have
been kind enough to associate autumn with one of
my albums called RED
And...Um...You know it's just a very autumn-y album, and
so I was thinking about that how it's so nice
the crisp fall air is happening
and...um ...you know, I don't google myself ever
I recommend you don't do it either
But my dad does! And he will send me links to thinks and
every once in awhile I'll see them, and that's
the only way I get my news
Um...But he sends me these lists that are like very nice
...um...like ranking my songs, that's really nice for people to do
I really love that people do that and I find it really nice and
I'm grateful that people care enough to rank my songs
There's one song that like I'm particularly proud of because
when the RED album came out there was this one song on the album where I was like
I'm the only one who loves this song this much,
but it's only because it happened to me, it was personal
No one else is going to like
"All Too Well" as much as like
And when it came out of the album, slowly but surely over
the course of that album's life and beyond
You know you guys have made that song something that was way more than I ever thought the life of that song would be
and like I've had so much fun playing it in concert and screaming it with you guys like and yeah
So the fact that the song went out into the world so you
make it so it's always
I think it's usually number # on any list saying what my songs are, which is great
and I'm happy that like my opinion lines up with your opinion
on that because that was probably my favorite song on RED
Um...and so I figured that I would play it for you
Before I do play it for you, I just wanted to say thank you so much for having me, this is really amazing to get to do this
I'm honored that I was invited, and the fact that this many
people would want to cram into the space
I really I understand the sacrifices that were made for me today
So...Um...here's a sad song...about fall
♪ All Too Well ♪
From RED ALBUM
♪ I walked through the door with you,
the air was cold ♪
♪ But something 'bout it felt like home somehow ♪
♪ And I left my scarf there at your sister's house ♪
♪ And you've still got it
in your drawer even now ♪
♪ Your sweet disposition
and my wide-eyed gaze ♪
♪ We're singing in the car,
getting lost Upstate ♪
♪ Autumn leaves falling down like
pieces into place ♪
♪ I can picture it after all these days ♪
♪ And I know it's long gone ♪
♪ And that magic's not here no more ♪
♪ And I might be okay ♪
♪ But I'm not fine at all ♪
♪ Cause there we are again
on that little town street ♪
♪ You almost ran the red
cause you were looking over at me ♪
♪ Wind in my hair, I was there
I remember it all too well ♪
♪ Photo album on the counter
your cheeks were turning red ♪
♪ You used to be a little kid
with glasses in a twin sized bed ♪
♪ Your mother's telling stories
about you on a tee ball team ♪
♪ You taught me 'bout your past
thinking your future was me ♪
♪ I know it's long gone ♪
♪ And there was nothing else I could do ♪
♪ I forget about you long enough ♪
♪ To forget why I needed to ♪
♪ Cause there we are again in the
middle of the night ♪
♪ We're dancing around the kitchen
in the refrigerator light ♪
♪ Down the stairs, I was there
I remember it all too well ♪
♪ Maybe we got lost in translation
maybe I asked for too much ♪
♪ Maybe this thing was a masterpiece
'til you tore it all up ♪
♪ Running scared, I was there
I remember it all too well ♪
♪ Hey, and you call me up again
just to break me like a promise ♪
♪ So casually cruel
in the name of being honest ♪
♪ I'm a crumpled up piece of paper lying here ♪
♪ Cause I remember it all, all, all...too well ♪
♪ Time won't fly, it's like I'm paralyzed by it ♪
♪ I'd like to be my old self again
but I'm still trying to find it ♪
♪ After plaid shirt days and nights
when you made me your own ♪
♪ Now you mail back my things and I
walk home alone ♪
♪ But you keep my old scarf
from that very first week ♪
♪ Cause it reminds you of innocence
and it smells like meee ♪
♪ You can't get rid of it
cause you remember it all too well ♪
♪ Cause there we are again
when I loved you so ♪
♪ Back before you lost
the one real thing you've ever known ♪
♪ It was rare, You were there
You remember it all too well ♪
♪ Wind in my hair, you were there
you remember it all ♪
♪ Down the stairs, you were there
you remember it all ♪
♪ It was rare, You were there
You remember it all too well ♪
Thanks for having Me!
Taylor Swift - NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert (2019)
Moderator: Maskath3