Track listing
cardigan
cardigan
Written by: Aaron Dessner & Taylor Swift
Vintage tee, brand new phone
High heels on cobblestones
When you are young, they assume you know nothing
Sequin smile, black lipstick
Sensual politics
When you are young, they assume you know nothing
But I knew you
Dancin’ in your Levi’s
Drunk under a streetlight, I
I knew you
Hand under my sweatshirt
Baby, kiss it better, I
And when I felt like I was an old cardigan
Under someone’s bed
You put me on and said I was your favorite
A friend to all is a friend to none
Chase two girls, lose the one
When you are young, they assume you know nothing
But I knew you
Playing hide-and-seek and
Giving me your weekends, I
I knew you
Your heartbeat on the High Line
Once in twenty lifetimes, I
And when I felt like I was an old cardigan
Under someone’s bed
You put me on and said I was your favorite
To kiss in cars and downtown bars
Was all we needed
You drew stars around my scars
But now I’m bleedin’
‘Cause I knew you
Steppin’ on the last train
Marked me like a bloodstain, I
I knew you
Tried to change the ending
Peter losing Wendy, I
I knew you
Leavin’ like a father
Running like water, I
When you are young, they assume you know nothing
But I knew you’d linger like a tattoo kiss
I knew you’d haunt all of my what-ifs
The smell of smoke would hang around this long
‘Cause I knew everything when I was young
I knew I’d curse you for the longest time
Chasin’ shadows in the grocery line
I knew you’d miss me once the thrill expired
And you’d be standin’ in my front porch light
And I knew you’d come back to me
You’d come back to me
And you’d come back to me
And you’d come back
And when I felt like I was an old cardigan
Under someone’s bed
You put me on and said I was your favorite
cardigan (songwriting voice memo)
cardigan (songwriting voice memo)
Written by: Aaron Dessner & Taylor Swift
[Spoken:]
Hey, so first of all I‘m obsessed with pretty much all these tracks and it was really hard to figure out like what I wanted to write first because I had thoughts for all of them. So unbelievable archives, I can’t believe you have this just like laying around, that’s ridiculous. These are unbelievable. But anyway the first one I, uh, was working something up for was the “Maple” one. And I came up with this thing and it’s probably gonna obviously like be sequencing differences like, you know, different lengths of different verses and whatever. But this is like a rough, uh, thing.
Vintage tee, brand new phone
High heels on cobblestones
When you are young, they assume you know nothing
Sequence smile, black lipstick
Sensual politics
When you are young, they assume you know nothing
But I knew you
Dancin’ in your Levi’s
Drunk under a streetlight, I
I knew you
Hand under my sweatshirt
Baby, kiss it better, I
And when I felt like I was an old cardigan
Under someone’s bed
You put me on and said I was your favorite
A friend to all is a friend to none
Chase two girls, lose the one
When you are young, they assume you know nothing
But I knew you
Living in a gold age
Sneaking to my bird cage, I
I knew you
Laughing like a damn fool
Breaking ever damn rule, I
And when I felt like I was an old cardigan
Under someone’s bed
You put me on and said I was your favorite
[Spoken:]
And then I have this like, there’s like a break, because I don’t really know what’s gonna happen here but I do have like uh. I think it’s here is where I was putting a bridge thing.
And to kiss in cars and downtown bars
Was all we needed
You drew stars around my scars
Now I’m bleedin’, now I’m bleedin’
[Spoken:]
We’ll work on that and not make it bad. And then, um, there’s all this time but when the like kind of major chores comes back in. I wait till then and then I start singing again. I don’t think it’s right now but here it is. The ending.
I knew you
Steppin’ on the last train
Marked me like a bloodstain, I
I knew you
Tried to change the ending
Peter leaving Wendy, I
I knew you
Dancing in your Levi’s
Drunk under a streetlight, I
I knew you
And when you were young, they assume you know nothing
But I knew you’d linger like a stolen kiss
I knew you’d haunt all of my what-ifs
The smell of smoke would hang around this long
‘Cause I knew everything when I was young
I knew I’d curse you for the longest time
I knew I’d wish you would’ve changed your mind
I knew you’d miss me once the moment died
And I knew love would make me lose my mind, mind…
[Spoken:]
And then, I don’t know, you let me know what you think. And, uh, that’s just like a rough idea of something. Let me know if you like it.