I guess you really did it this time
Left yourself in your warpath
Lost your balance on a tightrope
Lost your mind tryin' to get it back

Wasn't it easier in your lunchbox days?
Always a bigger bed to crawl into
Wasn't it beautiful when you believed in everything?
And everybody believed in you?

It's alright, just wait and see
Your string of lights is still bright to me
Oh, who you are is not where you've been
You're still an innocent
You're still an innocent

Did some things you can't speak of
But at night you'll live it all again
You wouldn't be shattered on the floor now
If only you had seen what you know now then

Wasn't it easier in your firefly-catchin' days?
And everything out of reach, someone bigger brought down to you
Wasn't it beautiful runnin' wild 'til you fell asleep?
Before the monsters caught up to you?

It's alright, just wait and see
Your string of lights is still bright to me
Oh, who you are is not where you've been
You're still an innocent

It's okay, life is a tough crowd
Thirty two is still growin' up now
Who you are is not what you did
You're still an innocent

Time turns flames to embers
You'll have new Septembers
Every one of us has messed up too

Lives change like the weather
I hope you remember
Today is never too late to
Be brand new

It's all right, just wait and see
Your string of lights are still bright to me
Oh, who you are is not where you've been
You're still an innocent

It's okay, life is a tough crowd
Thirty two, is still growin' up now
Who you are is not what you did
You're still an innocent
You're still an innocent

Lost your balance on a tight rope, oh
It's never too late to get it back



Lyrics submitted by sinshereinsong

Track duration: 05:02

"Innocent" as written by Taylor Swift

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Innocent song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:Ama\ing song
    Flag lyricseyeson May 08, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This ballad by American country pop artist Taylor Swift is from her third studio album, Speak Now. Taylor debuted the song at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010.


    The song is about someone who has lost his path their life, but whose "streaming lights are bright to me." Various media reported after Swift's VMA performance that the song is about Kanye West, who caused controversy at the previous year's award show. The rapper upset Taylor when he came on stage and grabbed the microphone from her when she was accepting the award for Best Female Video. She said about the songs she wrote for Speak Now: "For me, I write everything that I live, so you got to give yourself a little bit of time to live a lot of things so you can write about a lot of things, and my only option is to write about what I've been through and what I've lived, so thankfully, in the past two years, I've experienced a lot of things that I've been dying to write about and a lot of things that I wanted to say in the moment that I didn't."


    Taylor confirmed in an interview with New York Magazine that the song was inspired by the 2009 MTV VMA incident where Kanye West interrupted her acceptance speech. "I think a lot of people expected me to write a song about him. But for me it was important to write a song to him," she said.
    Asked how the incident affected her, Taylor responded, "It doesn't really add anything good if I start victimizing myself and complaining about things. Because I'm proud of that performance at the VMAs last year, where my fans helped me get through it.
    And there was a lot that went down backstage that I will always be thankful for, and the fans in the subway [where she sang 'You Belong With Me' shortly after the incident] know exactly what happened that night.
    I feel everything," she added. "I've never had this thick skin... It's not like I am bulletproof in any sense of the word."


    The song takes a conciliatory tone towards West, painting him as "32, and still growing up now." Taylor told Billboard magazine she only penned the tune after taking several months to reflect on how she really felt. "It took a while to write that song," said the singer. "That was a huge, intense thing in my life that resonated for a long time. It was brought up to me in grocery stores and everywhere I went, and in a lot of times in my life, when I don't know how I feel about something, I say nothing. And that's what I did until I could come to the conclusion that I came to in order to write 'Innocent.' Even then, I didn't talk about it, and I still don't really."


    Taylor discussed her performance of this song at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on her website: "The song 'Innocent' is about something that really intensely affected me emotionally. It took a while to write this one. I was fortunate enough to get a chance to perform this song on the VMAs, and that's the first time that anyone ever heard it. Putting out an album called Speak Now where you're supposed to say what you feel when you know how you feel, I felt that performing that song on that particular award show was appropriate. I hope everybody likes this one."
    Flag musicrocks13on November 11, 2012   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning:Have actually just listened to the lyrics closely again now and I have suddenly realised that actually 'you' she refers to is herself I think. After the VMA incident, she was obviously really upset (hence she hasn't really spoken about that time and refuses to do so to this day) and it took her a while to realise that it wasn't her fault that he did what he did. Perhaps she realised that her successes were having an impact on other artists and not everyone was going to be happy for her. I can imagine that this would have kept her up at night:
    'But at night you live it all again
    You wouldn't be shattered on the floor now
    If only you had seen what you know now then'
    And also it would have hit her confidence hard ('shattered on the floor'), the tight rope being the fine line you have to walk to remain successful - she thought she had lost it:
    'You lost your balance on a tight rope
    But its never too late to get it back'

    The 32 reference is that people are always going to be growing up, no matter how old they are - no one ever stops growing up and learning lessons.
    Flag horsemadhorsegalon April 04, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:Wow... why is everyone so against this being about Kanye? I think that makes even more meaningful. I think lyrically as well as musically this song is a big step away from being considered "teenybopper" and it's probably my favorite song on Speak Now. It probably has less to do with the Kanye incident itself but more to do with everyone's hostile and never-ending reactions to it. She doesn't like to tell her thoughts about things to the press, but she'll write it into a song. To me, this song is about being the bigger person and shows how mature she has become. I love the imagery and metaphors/similes. Her voice sounds really pretty as well and not strained like it can sometimes.

    Favorite lines:

    "Wasn't it easier in your firefly catching days?"

    "Time turns flame to embers/You'll have new Septembers"
    Flag jojoinpink54on March 12, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I don't think this song is about John Mayer. Well the most obvious reason is that before she performed this song at the VMAs one year, a video of the whole Kanye West incident played... Also, her secret message for this song is, "life is full of little interuptions". And Kanye West was 32 when it happened, and he told Taylor that he was 32, but still growing up. Which is in the song. And also, the incident was in September, and she says in the song, "you'll have new Septembers".

    But anyway, I love this song. It's really good. It's just about how we all make mistakes, but they don't define who we are, we're still innocent. xD
    Flag gracewilliams1996on January 28, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song reminds me so much of Demi Lovato...
    Flag erinnwhoaxoon December 21, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Until the line "32 and still growing up now" line, I thought it could be applied to the many service-members returning from war with PTSD and living with memories of war. Most people I've met who've been there don't want to talk about what happened, but remember all the time.

    "Did some things you can't speak of,
    But at night you'll live it all again"
    Flag Smittyon December 17, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I have just recently started listening to and enjoying Taylor's music, and to me this song means something completely different (and so much more) than any VMA discrimination could. In fact, I'm really surprised that no ones really thought outside of the VMA box

    To me this song is about someone who's been to jail...
    Three months ago I may have thought differently, but now my perspectives on innocence and justice have changed. Right now I'm waiting for my boyfriend to get out.

    His string of lights is still bright to me.
    Flag huguetteon September 23, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I don't think Taylor ever would have wasted her time writing this song about Kanye. Never once did I think it was about him. I think it's very clearly about John Mayer. Taylor doesn't know Kanye like that and let the VMA thing roll off her back because she's mature like that. As stated in previous comments, John Mayer was 32 at the time when she wrote this and I think she chose to play it at the VMAs because everyone would see her emotion and hear it, plus it's one of her best songs. It's very clear her relationship with John was much more involved than any of us really know, and if you've ever seen John Mayer and the way he acts when he's being himself, he is much like a child and is still growing up. This is so serious and so much more revealing than an "I forgive you Kanye for cutting me off and embarrassing yourself." Come on people.
    Flag letsracethedreamon August 15, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:"Life is Full of Little Interruptions"

    Hmm... John Mayer? I think not.

    But I relate to this song so well. Oh my God, this song is amazing.

    'Guess you really did it this time
    Left yourself in your war path
    Lost your balance on a tight rope
    Lost your mind trying to get it back'

    I did some things that I regret that ruined me. I felt like I jumped off a tightrope into a deep hole filled with dark blacknes... There was nothing to catch me, nothing to make me see that I wasn't falling, I was stopped, suspended in midair, blind and hurt. (See Starts With Goodbye and Lessons Learned by Carrie Underwood)

    'Wasn't it easier in your lunchbox days
    Always a bigger bed to crawl into
    Wasn't it beautiful when you believed in everything
    And everybody believed in you'

    I know, I'm thirteen, but I don't want to grow up. I want to go back in time and redo somethings. I want to be back in 6th grade when everything was perfect. I thought that there were so many things that I would change back then, but looking back now, I would give anything to relive that year again with the same mistakes as long as I didn't have to go on to seventh grade, where I made the worst mistake of my life. I know you people who are like 20 and 30 will say I have no idea what I'm talking about and I probably don't, but I just hate myself for doing what I did.

    'It's alright, just wait and see
    Your string of lights is still bright to me
    Oh, who your are is not where you've been
    You're still an innocent'

    I wish this was true. I wish my best friend would say this to me. Maybe then I would be able to start to forgive myself for what I did. I know I'll never fully forgive myself for doing it, but I might somewhat if I knew she did.

    'Did some things you can't speak of
    But at night you live it all again
    You wouldn't be shattered on the floor now
    If only you had seen what you know now then'

    I did somethings, as you know, that I don't tell anyone about. No one, not even my mother or my current best friend, knows how much I regret what I did, how I wish I could change it. I stay up at night and cry myself to sleep because I feel so bad now. Now I'm shattered on the floor. And trust me, if I had known what the consequences would have been, I would not done it.

    'Wasn't it easier in your firefly catching days
    When everything out of reach someone bigger brought down to you
    Wasn't it beautiful running wild 'til you fell asleep
    Before the monsters caught up to you'

    I still wish I could go back to those days when everything was fun, when I still believed in myself, when I was so blissfully happy and I didn't care about anything...

    'It's okay, life is a tough crowd'

    Trust me, I know. You make one HUGE mistake (or hundreds of little ones, however you want to think of it) and suddently you've ruined your whole social life.

    'Time turns flames to embers
    You'll have new Septembers
    Every one of us has messed up too
    Minds change like the weather
    I hope you remember
    Today is never too late to be brand new.'

    I made that huge mistake at the start of seventh grade, in September, so that's kind of irionic. But it's nice to be reminded that we've all messed up, that I'm not the only one going through this pain, that I can try to be better, that maybe, somehow and someway, I can start over.

    'Lost your balance on a tight rope
    It's never too late to get it back'

    I hope this is true. I'm not certain right not, but I hope it is.



    BTW, it's AT NIGHT, not TONIGHT in did somethings you can't speak of but... ect.
    Flag songslikethisrokon May 31, 2011   Link

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