Taylor Swift’s ‘But Daddy, I Love Him’ Lyrics Are a Scathing Response to Fans Against Her Dating Matty Healy
Taylor Swift’s brief summer fling with Matty Healy upset some of her fans, in part because Healy has a history of problematic comments. His controversial remarks about Ice Spice, women, and even Swift herself had concerned them. Swift said nothing about their public appeals to her to stop dating Healy...until now.
In her song “But Daddy, I Love Him,” from The Tortured Poets Department, Swift revealed the anger she felt about them.
In the song’s most brutal verse, she sings, “I’ll tell you something right now / I’d rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning / I’ll tell you something about my good name, it’s mine alone to disgrace / I don’t cater to all these vipers dressed in empaths’ clothing.”
This outrage isn’t terribly surprising, given a source spoke to People in June about how Healy’s public scandals did not factor into Swift’s opinion of him. They didn’t cause the former couple’s breakup either.
“He likes to provoke a response out of people,” the source said. Then they addressed fan concern for the singer, saying Swift is “a grown woman more than capable of forming her own opinions about people. No one forces her into anything, especially not these days. She’s on top of the world.”
Swift’s “But Daddy, I Love Him” lyrics say a lot about her feelings that summer. Not only do they offer a rare scathing comment to some “judgmental” fans (“all these vipers dressed in empaths’ clothing,” as she put it), but they show Swift’s own dark humor and willingness to poke fun at the public’s perception of her.
Swift did this before in her song “Blank Space.” She explained of its premise in 2016:
It got pretty out of control there for a couple of years.... Every article was like, “Taylor Swift, standing near some guy—watch out, guy!”... My first reaction was to be like, That’s a bummer. This isn’t fun for me. But then my second reaction ended up being like, Hey, that’s actually a really kind of interesting character they’re writing about. She jet sets around the world, collecting men, and she can get any of them... but she’s so clingy, so they leave and she cries and then she gets another one in her web and she traps them and locks them in her mansion and then she’s crying in her marble bathtub surrounded by pearls. So I was like, I can use this.
Read Swift’s latest commentary in her full “But Daddy, I Love Him” lyrics below, courtesy of Genius. Swift has several songs about her Healy romance on The Tortured Poets Department, including the album’s titular track (link to Erica’s explainer). Learn more about Swift and Healy’s full history here.
Verse 1:
I forget how the west was won
I forget if this was ever fun
I just learned these people only raise you
To cage you
Sarahs and Hannahs in their Sunday best
Clutchin’ their pearls sighing, “What a mess”
I just learned these people try and save you
'Cause they hate you
Pre-Chorus:
To high a horse for a simple girl
To rise above it
They slammed the door on my whole world
The one thing I wanted
Chorus:
Now I’m running with my dress unbuttoned
Scrеamin’, “But, daddy, I love him”
I'm having his baby, no, I'm not
But you should see your faces
I’m telling him to floor it through thе fences
No, I’m not coming to my senses
I know it’s crazy
But he's the one I want
Verse 2:
Dutiful daughter all my plans were laid
Tendrils tucked into a woven braid
Growing up precocious sometimes means not growing up at all
He was chaos he was revelry
Bedroom eyes like a remedy
Soon enough the elders had convened down at the city hall
Pre-Chorus:
“Stay away from her,” the saboteurs
Protested too much
Lord knows the words we never heard
Just screeching tires of true love
Chorus:
And I’m running with my dress unbuttoned
Screaming, “But daddy I love him”
I’m having this baby
No, I’m not, but you should see your faces
I’m telling him to floor it through the fences
No, I’m not coming to my senses
I know it’s crazy
But he’s the one I want
I’ll tell you something right now
I’d rather burn my whole life down
Than listen to one more second of all this bitchin’ and moanin’
I’ll tell you something ’bout my good name
It's mine alone to disgrace
I don’t cater to all these vipers dressed in empaths’ clothing
Bridge:
God save the most judgmental creeps
Who say they want what's best for me
Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see
Thinking it can change the beat of my heart when he touches me
And counteract the chemistry
And undo the destiny
You ain’t gotta pray for me
Me and my wild boy
And all of this wild joy
If all you want is gray for me
It's just white noise
It's just my choice
Verse 3:
There’s a lot of people in town that I bestow upon my fakest smiles
Scandal does funny things to pride but brings lovers closer
We came back when the heat died down
Went to my parents and they came around
All the wine moms are still holding out
But fuck ’em, it’s over
Chorus:
Now I’m dancing in my dress in the sun and
Even my daddy just loves him
I’m his lady
And oh my God you should see your faces
Time, doesn’t it give some perspective
I know you can’t come to the wedding
I know it's crazy but he’s the one I love
I'll tell you something right now
You ain’t gotta pray for me
Me and my wild boy, and all of this wild joy
He was chaos, he was revelry
If all you want is gray for me
It’s just white noise, it’s my choice
Outro:
Screaming, “But daddy, I love him”
I’m having this baby
No, I’m not
But you should see your faces
And oh my God, you should see your faces
He was chaos, he was revelry
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