Patti Smith performs on stage at Sentrum Scene on June 20, 2023 in Oslo, Norway. Per Ole Hagen/Redferns
Patti Smith has acknowledged being named alongside Dylan Thomas on Taylor Swift‘s “The Tortured Poets Department,” the title track from the prolific pop poet’s 31-song anthology released on Friday (April 19).
“You’re not Dylan Thomas/ I’m not Patti Smith/ This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel/ We’re modern idiots,” Swift broods out loud in the chorus of the track, on which she asks her lover who else will be there to hold him and to know him in the way that only she does, then just answers the question herself: “Nobody. No-f—ing-body.”
Friday night, Smith sent a note Swift’s way via her Instagram page, where she shared images of herself reading Dylan Thomas’ Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, a collection of his short stories first published in 1940.
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In fittingly poetic form, Smith posted:
“This is
saying I was
moved to be
mentioned in
the company
of the great
Welsh poet
Dylan Thomas.
Thank you Taylor.”
Swift’s Tortured Poets Department mentions various artists in the lyrics heard throughout the double set. Smith and Thomas’ names come up first on “The Tortured Poets Department” (song), which also brings up a personal conversation about Charlie Puth — plus references to Jack Antonoff and Lucy Dacus, associates from Swift’s social circle.
As the album goes on, listeners will pick up on the obvious name-drops of Clara Bow and Stevie Nicks on the song “Clara Bow. “Guilty as Sin?” opens with a line about The Blue Nile’s “The Downtown Lights,” and anthology track “The Black Dog” sets the atmosphere in its reference of a song by The Starting Line.
Nicks makes a genuine mark on The Tortured Poets Department, having penned a poem “For T — and me…” that Swift opted to print and showcase on the album case.
See Patti Smith’s message to Taylor Swift below.
