"All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" by Taylor Swift, Saturday, November 13, 2021

Last year we got two new Taylor Swift records. This year, we get two re-recorded records. In April, we got Taylor's Version of Fearless. Yesterday, Swift dropped a new version of Red, expanding the 65 minute original album to 130 minutes of the original plus tons of new songs. When Taylor announced that one of her songs was "like 10 minutes long" fans began to speculate that they would finally get to hear the album's gem "All Too Well" in its original form.  The 5:29 track was already one of Swift's longest songs, but she revealed to Rolling Stone in 2020 that the original song was whittled down from a 10-minute song that contained explicit lyrics--off brand for Taylor at the time. Along with the release of Taylor's version of Red, the singer released a 15-minute short film to accompany the new version of "All Too Well" and there was too much to talk about for this not to be the song of the day.

I LEFT MY SCARF THERE AT YOUR SISTER'S HOUSE. I think I had heard this song before, but I never really listened to it until today. I watched the music video, which was a compelling interpretation of the song. I remember hearing that the song was rumored to be about Swift's short-lived relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal, but I've never been much for celebrity gossip. I couldn't care less about celebrity sightings at the Hollywood 7-Eleven, and I'm certainly not keeping up with Kim and Pete Davidson. But Taylor Swift's lyrics remind me that celebrities are people too. They're not just flat characters until we see them on the screen. Taylor takes us back to the fall of 2010, when she started dating Gyllenhaal in the peak of his fame. Jake was 30, Taylor was 20. A previous relationship between Swift and John Mayer had an even bigger age gap: Taylor 19, Mayer 32. Like Mayer, whose relationship with Taylor is allegedly chronicled in the song "Dear John," Gyllenhaal broke Swift's heart, despite the relationship lasting only two months. The intimate details about this relationship are poignantly described in the lines of this song, pulling the listener into an engaging romantic-comedy style romance. It reminds listeners of break-ups and the red flags too often overlooked. It makes listeners think of the good times before the bad.

YOU KEPT ME LIKE A SECRET, BUT I KEPT YOU LIKE AN OATH. Hosts of Spotify's The Ringer: Every Single Taylor Swift Album Nora Princiotti and Nathan Hubbard talk about the disjointed sound of Red. The hosts argue that Red served a purpose to prepare her fans for her pop career, while linking her music to her old genre. The songs alternate between country and pop, between producers, and between musical ideas. The lead single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" established a relationship with Shellback and Max Martin that would score Swift her first Hot 100 #1 hit. Her work with Ed Sheeran, Jack Antonoff, Snow Patorl's Gary Lightbody would continue throughout her career. But the conceptual reason Swift's Red alternates between Country and Pop was that she wanted to convey the emotional rollercoaster of unhealthy relationships. Gyllenhaal, who didn't even come to Swift's 21st birthday party, hasn't talked much about his relationship with the young singer. The lyrics of "All Too Well" portray a young girl in love with an older man, but the older man doesn't take her seriously. The video shows an argument between the couple. The girl is upset that the man ignores her when he is with his friends, even brushing away her hand. He then claims he didn't do that. Whether or not the details of the Taylor-Jake relationship are accurately portrayed in "All Too Well," the song reminds listeners that there is a reason we fall for "that guy" with all of his flaws. The way he makes us feel when we're alone is different than when we're together in public. And while it may be fun to be a secret for a little while, the oath will certainly be broken by someone in an unhealthy relationship.

Read “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) [From the Vault]” by Taylor Swift on Genius.