Who Is Lucy on Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Song? The Puzzling Reference Explained
Taylor Swift is not afraid to name names in her songs and her 2024 track “The Tortured Poets Department” has some very specific references. The one name drop that has fans asking questions is when Taylor sings about a woman named Lucy on the title track. Who is this mystery woman?
Who Is Lucy on Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Song?
Lucy appears to be a reference to Lucy Dacus from the band Boygenius.
“You told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave and I had said the same to Jack about you, so I felt seen,” Taylor sings on the song. Fans have speculated that the lyrics are about Taylor’s fling with Matty Healy in 2023 and the controversial singer was once friendly with Lucy and her bandmates.
However, when Matty used Lucy’s name in a social media post that also included an offensive slur, she did not shy away from calling him out. He wrote on X, “I told Lucy Dacus that Boygenius inspired me and George [Daniel] to start a new band called ‘Girlretard.’ I don’t really hear from her that often.”
In a highly-praised response, Lucy clapped back, “You don’t hear from me at all.” Matty followed up the exchange by writing, “Yeah this never goes well does it,” and then deactivated his account.
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Who is Jack on Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Song?
The above lyric also mentions Taylor spilling her thoughts to a man named Jack, who is likely her friend and collaborator Jack Antonoff. Jack cowrote and produced “The Tortured Poets Department” and several other songs on the album.
Who Are Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith on Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Song?
Another lyric also mentions Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith, as Taylor sings, “I laughed in your face and said, ‘You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith. This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel, we’re modern idiots.’”
Dylan, who died in 1953 at the age of 39, and Patti, who is still alive as of the release of TTPD, are famous poets. Both poets lived at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City, along with other famous writers.
What Is Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Song About?
The title track of TTPD is one of the songs that has fans talking the most. While many considered Taylor and Matty’s relationship to be nothing but a fling or situationship, this song is the first evidence that she was seemingly very invested in the brief romance.
In the second verse, Taylor appears to reveal Matty as the subject of the song when she sings, “You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate. We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist. I scratch your head, you fall asleep like a tattooed golden retriever.” Matty has many tattoos and has been seen smoking in public many times.
Toward the end of the song, the Grammy winner appears to reveal just how serious she was about her relationship with Matty. “Everyone we know understands why it’s meant to be, ‘cause we’re crazy,” she says. She also hints that she got giddy about the possibility of marriage with the singer, adding, “At dinner you take my ring off my middle finger and put it on the one people put wedding rings on and that’s the closest I’ve come to my heart exploding.”
