“Better Man” is the twenty-second track on Taylor Swift’s re-recorded album ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ released in 2021. In the song, Taylor Swift tells herself that moving on from a horrible relationship was the best decision she could make in the situation. Sometimes, what’s broken cannot be fixed.
Taylor Swift re-recorded and released her 2012 album ‘Red’ after a fallout with her then-record label Big Machine. However painful has this been to Taylor, it gives us a few brand new tracks that she wrote for ‘Red’ album but never included in it. In the 2021 re-release of ‘Red (Taylor’s Version),’ we are blessed with some of these gems from the past. “Just a friendly reminder that I would never have thought it was possible to go back and remake my previous work, uncovering lost art and forgotten gems along the way, if you hadn’t emboldened me. Red is about to be mine again, but it has always been ours. Tonight we begin again,” wrote Taylor Swift, announcing the album.
Taylor Swift originally wrote “Better Man” for the ‘Red’ album but the song did not make the final cut for the 2012 release. Taylor ended up giving the song to the American Country band Little Big Town. They released their rendition of the song as a single from their eighth studio album ‘The Breaker’ in 2017. This performance ended up winning Little Big Town a Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.
Listen to “Better Man” by Taylor Swift
Buy ‘Red (Taylor’s Version) Album on Apple Music and Amazon
Taylor Swift “Better Man” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review
The song happens after the dust settles when a relationship has fallen apart. You just have to dust yourself and get yourself back up and move on. It helps this process if the relationship was flawed.
And I see the permanent damage you did to me
Never again, I just wish I could forget when it was magic
Taylor is scarred for life. A loveless relationship, a carefree attitude, or maybe a fake relationship from the start. This helps her move on. But it also makes her feel destroyed and betrayed by someone whom she thought was the one for life. Taylor wishes she could have walked away when things were magical so that she would only be left with magical memories. But nobody walks away when things are magical.
Taylor Swift spends sleepless nights contemplating how things could have gone so wrong. How could she be so blind and why did she fight till the end?!
I know the bravest thing I ever did was run
Most times, you have to put your sanity first. The heart can heal. The brain is a whole different beast.
Running away from a toxic situation is not being a coward. It’s the bravest thing you can do. It takes guts to let go of someone who you thought was the partner for life in exchange for your own sanity.
Taylor Swift only wishes he was a better man!
In the second verse of the song, Taylor sheds a little more light on her past relationship. He was a man who changed his mind like he changed his clothes. One day he was all in and the next he was folding his hand. One day it was sweet nothings and the next he was as cold as winter. When the sweet nothings also got scarce, Taylor had nothing to look forward to in this relationship.
In the bridge of the song, Taylor Swift sings that he would have been the One if he was a better man. But the word ‘better’ is quite open and very subjective. It could have been one flaw or a hundred that he could not get rid of. Either way, no one should have to settle for anything less than the ‘best.’ So Taylor has all the right to walk away from anything less than what she feels like she deserves.
Let us hear what you think about this song in the comments below. Check out the complete lyrics on Genius.