Taylor Swift's new recording "Speak Now" (Taylor version) Featuring six previously unheard "from the vault" tracks, as well as old deep cuts she hasn't acknowledged in over a decade. The Grammy winner wrote "Innocent" in the wake of Kanye-gate, when Kanye West stormed the stage at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards and interrupted Swift after winning Best Female Video speech, declaring that "Beyoncé made the best video ever." The world was outraged and their careers were never the same.
On "Innocent," Swift sent a message of forgiveness to the rapper, explaining that what he did to her doesn't define his entire life. "It's okay, just wait and see, your string lights are still bright to me," she sings softly in the chorus. "You're not who you used to be, you're still an innocent person." She compared the incident to losing your balance while walking on a tightrope, singing, "We all screw up, too." The most obvious reference to West comes in the second half of the chorus, when Swift sings, "32 and still growing," because he was already 32 when he stormed onto the VMA stage.
On "Speak Now," Swift included a secret message in the liner notes of the album's CD booklet. In "Innocent," she writes, "Life is full of little distractions," a nod to West's notorious distractions. Years after the incident, the two reconciled, and in a twist, Swift even presented West with the Video Vanguard Award at the 2015 VMA Awards, and their saga began there. But all it took was one music video for their public feud to be reignited, so it wouldn't be surprising if Swift no longer understands the lyrics to "Innocent."
Swift premiered "Innocent" before the release of "Speak Now ," performing it live at the 2010 VMAs the year after the disaster, without any prior announcement. West ended the ceremony with a debut performance of "Runaway," which was positioned as a response to the incident, although it also referenced his behavior in previous relationships, warning others to "run away as soon as possible." But since that night, Swift has seemingly distanced herself from "Innocent," and her performance has become difficult to track on the internet, even on her or MTV's official channels.
Even more interestingly, Swift hasn't performed "Innocent" live since the 2010 VMA Awards, causing it to be dropped from her Speak Now tour slate for next year and never to appear on her subsequent tours middle. She hasn't even included the song as one of her nightly "secret songs" on her ongoing Eras tour yet (but since she just extended the tour through August 2024, there's plenty of time to change that). This means that Swift's re-recording of "Innocent" for "Speak Now" (Taylor's version) is her first public acknowledgment of the song since 2010. Nearly 13 years later, as she re-records "Speak Now ," it will certainly be surreal to hear that "Innocent (Tyler's Version)" is released on July 7.
