Tell Me Why
Taylor Swift Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning | Line by Line Meaning
And you might think I'm bulletproof, but I'm not
You took a swing, I took it hard
And down here from the ground I see who you are
I'm sick and tired of your attitude
I'm feeling like I don't know you
You tell me that you love me then you cut me down
And I need you like a heartbeat
But you know you got a mean streak
Makes me run for cover when you're around
And here's to you and your temper
Yes, I remember what you said last night
And I know that you see what you're doing to me
Tell me why
You could write a book on how to ruin someone's perfect day
Well I get so confused and frustrated
Forget what I'm trying to say, oh
I'm sick and tired of your reasons
I got no one to believe in
You tell me that you want me, then push me around
And I need you like a heartbeat
But you know you got a mean streak
Makes me run for cover when you're around
And here's to you and your temper
Yes, I remember what you said last night
And I know that you see what you're doing to me
Tell me why
Why, do you have to make me feel small
So you can feel whole inside
Why, do you have to put down my dreams
So you're the only thing on my mind
Well I'm sick and tired of your attitude
I'm feeling like I don't know you
You tell me that you want me then cut me down
I'm sick and tired of your reasons
I've got no one to believe in
You ask me for my love then you push me around
Here's to you and your temper
Yes, I remember what you said last night
And I know that you see what you're doing to me
Tell me why
Why, tell me why
I take a step back, let you go
I told you I'm not bulletproof
Now you know
The song "Tell Me Why" by Taylor Swift is a reflection of a deteriorating relationship. The lyrics depict a situation where the protagonist has taken a chance on the relationship, but now feels that it is crumbling down. She's disillusioned and sad and cannot fathom why the relationship is falling apart. She feels like she doesn't know her partner anymore, leading to frustration and confusion. The song describes how her partner's attitude is getting worse, to the point where he demeans her dreams to make himself feel superior. The song is about insecurity, getting belittled and feeling like you're at the mercy of a partner who has a significant mean streak.
The song's verses are seemingly about a partner who loves her and then puts her down when he is angry. She feels helpless, like a small person in front of her partner's towering temper. She expresses her vulnerability and helplessness to withstand these attacks, which have left her bruised and battered emotionally. The song's chorus portrays the tug of war between her need for the partner's love and her fear of his temper, which she feels has gotten worse over time. She knows in her heart that she needs to walk away, but her heart and mind are at war. The song's main message is to empower the protagonist to walk away from this detrimental relationship.
Line by Line Meaning
I took a chance, I took a shot
I took the risk of falling in love with you
And you might think I'm bulletproof, but I'm not
You might think I can handle anything, but I’m vulnerable
You took a swing, I took it hard
You hurt me deeply with your words or actions
And down here from the ground I see who you are
I see your true nature and realize you're not who I thought you were
I'm sick and tired of your attitude
I'm fed up with the way you treat me and others around you
I'm feeling like I don't know you
I don’t recognize the person you’ve become
You tell me that you love me then you cut me down
You verbally or emotionally hurt me despite claiming to love me
And I need you like a heartbeat
I feel like I can’t live without you
But you know you got a mean streak
You have a cruel and unkind side to you
Makes me run for cover when you're around
I avoid being near you or interacting with you because of your behavior
And here's to you and your temper
I acknowledge and remember how explosive and unpredictable you can be
Yes, I remember what you said last night
I still carry the emotional weight of the hurtful things you said to me recently
And I know that you see what you're doing to me
You're aware of how your behavior is affecting me negatively
Tell me why
I want to understand your motivations and reasons for hurting me
You could write a book on how to ruin someone's perfect day
You have a talent for destroying people’s positive experiences or moods
Well I get so confused and frustrated
I feel overwhelmed and upset when trying to deal with you
Forget what I'm trying to say, oh
I struggle to communicate my thoughts and feelings to you
I'm sick and tired of your reasons
I've had enough of your excuses and justifications for your hurtful behavior
I got no one to believe in
I feel alone and without support in dealing with you
You tell me that you want me, then push me around
You express interest in me but then treat me badly
Why, do you have to make me feel small
Why do you have to belittle or diminish me to feel good about yourself?
So you can feel whole inside
You’re attempting to fill a void inside of yourself by putting me down
Why, do you have to put down my dreams
Why must you mock or discourage my ambitions and aspirations?
So you're the only thing on my mind
You want me to focus solely on you and not pursue anything else
You ask me for my love then you push me around
You demand my affection but then treat me poorly
Here's to you and your temper
I acknowledge and remember your explosive and unpredictable nature
Now you know
I've made it clear that I won’t tolerate being mistreated
I take a step back, let you go
I'm distancing myself emotionally from you and ending this relationship
I told you I'm not bulletproof
I made it clear that I have my own vulnerabilities, too
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, OLE MEDIA MANAGEMENT LP, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Liz Rose, Taylor Swift
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, Swift relocated to Nashville, Tennessee in 2004 to pursue a career in country music. She broke into the country music scene with her eponymous self-titled debut studio album, "Taylor Swift" in 2006, which included the singles "Teardrops on My Guitar" and "Our Song". Read Full BioTaylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her narrative songwriting, which is often inspired by her personal life, has received widespread media coverage and critical praise.
Born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, Swift relocated to Nashville, Tennessee in 2004 to pursue a career in country music. She broke into the country music scene with her eponymous self-titled debut studio album, "Taylor Swift" in 2006, which included the singles "Teardrops on My Guitar" and "Our Song". Swift also released the holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection, later titled as "The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection" in October 2007.
Swift rose to mainstream prominence with her second studio album, "Fearless" (2008), a country pop record with crossover appeal. Aided by the top-five singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", Fearless was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Swift's third studio album, "Speak Now" (2010), blended country pop with elements of rock and featured the top-ten singles "Mine" and "Back to December".
Drawing inspiration from various pop, rock, and electronic genres, Swift's fourth studio album "Red" (2012) saw her transcending her country roots. She completely moved to pop with her synth-pop fifth studio album, "1989" (2014), and expanded the electropop sound on her next two studio albums, "reputation" (2017) and "Lover" (2019), which respectively embraced urban and retro styles. The four albums spawned a string of international top-five singles, including "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", "I Knew You Were Trouble", "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", "Bad Blood", "Look What You Made Me Do", "ME! (feat. Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco)", "You Need to Calm Down", and "Lover".
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Swift experimented with folk and alternative rock on her eighth and ninth studio albums, "folklore" and "evermore" (both 2020), whose lead singles "cardigan" and "willow" topped charts around the world. She also released the critically acclaimed documentaries Miss Americana and Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions that year. Swift's tenth studio album Midnights (2022) marked her triumphant return to pop after two folk albums. The album set the record for biggest first day and first week ever on Spotify, spawned the hits Anti-Hero and Lavender Haze, and sold over 1.5 million copies in its first week becoming not only the biggest debut of the decade but also Swift's biggest debut ever. She would make history by becoming the first artist to occupy the entire top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 with tracks from Midnights.
Swift began re-recording her back catalog in November 2020, as a result of a publicized dispute with talent manager Scooter Braun and her former label Big Machine, regarding the acquisition of the masters of her back catalog. In April 2021, Swift released a re-recorded issue of her 2008 album Fearless, titled "Fearless (Taylor's Version)". It debuted at number one in the US. Swift continued releasing re-recorded versions of her back catalog in November, 2021 with the release of Red (Taylor's Version), a 30 track re-issue of her 2012 critical smash. The album debuted at #1 in the US, spawned the #1 hit All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault), and broke the record at the time for biggest first day for a female album on Spotify. Red (Taylor's Version) was a critical and commercial hit, and proved that Swift's ambitious plan to re-record her first 6 albums was well worth it.
Along with the release of Red (Taylor's Version) came All Too Well: The Short Film (2021), Swift's filmmaking debut. The 15 minute romantic drama was based on the lyrical content from Swift's 2012 fan favorite "All Too Well" starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O'Brien. It had a limited theatrical release in major cities, and Swift held special screenings of the film throughout 2022 at various film festivals. In December, 2022 Taylor announced that she would be making her feature directorial debut with Oscar-winning studio Searchlight Pictures.
Swift has released several songs for film soundtracks. She co-wrote two songs for the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack— "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" and "Crazier", and contributed two songs to the Valentine's Day soundtrack, including the single "Today Was a Fairytale", which was her first number one on the Canadian Hot 100, and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. She also contributed two original songs to The Hunger Games soundtrack album: "Safe & Sound - from The Hunger Games Soundtrack", co-written and recorded with The Civil Wars and T-Bone Burnett, and "Eyes Open". "Safe & Sound" won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. In 2013, Swift recorded "Sweeter than Fiction", a song she wrote and produced with Jack Antonoff for the One Chance film soundtrack, which received a Best Original Song nomination at the 71st Golden Globe Awards. Swift and English singer Zayn Malik, mononymously known as Zayn, released a single together, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever", for the soundtrack of the film Fifty Shades Darker (2017). She also recorded an original song called "Beautiful Ghosts", which she wrote with Andrew Lloyd Webber for the Cats's soundtrack (2019). In 2020, Swift's documentary Miss Americana featured the song "Only the Young" which was written after the 2018 United States elections. In 2022, she released an original song titled "Carolina" for Where The Crawdads Sing (2022) inspired by the novel written by Delia Owens.
With sales of over 200 million records worldwide, Swift is a best-selling music artist. Her accolades include 11 Grammy Awards (including three Album of the Year wins), two Brit Awards (including a Global Icon award), an Emmy Award, 28 [https://guinnessworldrecords.com/]Guinness World Records, 32 American Music Awards (the most wins by an artist), and 23 Billboard Music Awards (the most wins by a woman). She ranked eighth on Billboard's Greatest of All Time Artists Chart (2019) and was listed on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time (2015). Swift has been included in various power rankings, such as Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world (2010, 2015 and 2019) and Forbes Celebrity 100 (placing first in 2016 and 2019). She was named Woman of the Decade (2010s) by Billboard and Artist of the Decade (2010s) by the American Music Awards.
Cade Bowman
Its insane how she stayed so true to the original sound and still made everything so much better.
r2dcore
I'm only realizing this now 💙
Welcome to the animal channel and farm
Ik right
Ved
@Sweetmuffins0018 She sounds sweet in Lover, Folklore, Evermore and many songs on this Fearless TV but there are these few songs where it seems like they tuned the voice too much and it seems like it's a cover by someone with a similar voice :/
Sweetmuffins0018
@Emiley Mack They actually do if she wants people to listen to the remastered versions and not the original recordings. I mean, she could have changed them all up entirely since it’s her right to do so. However, it wouldn’t really benefit her in any way because then shows, movies, radio stations, etc. that want to use it are going to use the original and not a completely different version that people aren’t used to or may not recognize. It also would make the fans turn to and stream the originals instead because they want to listen to the versions they’re used to and not something different. If they do, they’re putting more money into Scooter Braun’s pocket and nobody wants that.
Sweetmuffins0018
@Ved I honestly thought that I was the only one who felt that way. That’s the only song on the whole album that as soon as I heard it I could tell it was definitely a re-recording. I’m not saying it’s bad or there’s anything wrong with it, before the more aggressive fans come after me 😂 I’m just saying that is the one song that there’s no denying that it’s re-recorded. It almost sounds like someone else with a voice almost identical to hers did a cover of it. There’s something that feels off about it, aside from the obvious that her voice has matured, but I can’t pinpoint or explain it exactly.
Yukio's Music
I actually like this version a little better than the first version. I like how she put more power into the word "love" at 2:34.
r2dcore
💙
Gurleen kaur
@VioletEmerald thnk uuu
VioletEmerald
@Gurleen kaur a person having a mean streak is an idiom which means a person has a tendency to often act in a mean way.