Song Info: All Too Well 10 Minute Version Song is sung by Taylor Swift & lyrics written by Taylor Swift.
All Too Well 10 Minute Version Lyrics Meaning
In an interview with Good Morning America in 2012, Swift explained that “All Too Well” was the most difficult song to write on Red because it took her a while “to filter through everything she wanted to say.” She also revealed that the song was originally 10 minutes long (hence why she decided to release a 10-minute version nine years later.) “It started out being a 10-minute song, which you can’t put on an album,” she said.
Swift told Rolling Stone in 2020 that the song wasn’t planned and came from a day where she was “feeling terrible” about her “personal life.” “It was a day when I was just, like, a broken human, walking into rehearsal just feeling terrible about what was going on in my personal life,” she said. “I just ended up playing four chords over and over again, and the band started kicking in. People just started playing along with me… I think they could tell I was really going through it.”
She continued, “I just started singing and riffing and ad-libbing this song that basically was ‘All Too Well.’ It literally just was that song, but it had probably seven extra verses and it included the f-word…My sound guy was like, ‘Hey, I burned a CD of that thing you were doing in case you want it.’ I ended up taking it home and listening to it,” she went on. “And I was like, I actually really like this, but it definitely is like 10 minutes long and I need to pare it down, so I’m going to call [cowriter and long time collaborator] Liz Rose.”
As for who “All Too Well” is about, it’s well-known among fans that most of Swift’s songs on Red are about her ex-boyfriend, Jake Gyllenhaal, whom she dated from October 2010 to January 2011. The most damning clue the song is about Gyllenhaal is the lyric where Swift sings, “Walked through the door with you. It was cold, but something ’bout it felt like home somehow and I left my scarf there at your sister’s house. And you still got it in your drawer even now.”
According to reports at the time, Swift spent Thanksgiving 2010 with Gyllenhaal’s family, including his sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal. In an interview on Watch What Happens Live in 2017, Maggie responded to claims she’s the “sister” in “All Too Well.” “I never understood why everybody asked me about this scarf. What is this?” she said. “I am in the dark about the scarf. It’s totally possible. I don’t know. I have been asked this before.”
All Too Well 10 Minute Version Lyrics
I walked through the door with you, the air was cold
But something ’bout it felt like home somehow
And I left my scarf there at your sister’s house
And you’ve still got it in your drawer, even now
Oh, your sweet disposition and my wide-eyed gaze
We’re singing in the car, getting lost upstate
Autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place
And I can picture it after all these days
And I know it’s long gone and
That magic’s not here no more
And I might be okay, but I’m not fine at all
Oh, oh, oh
‘Cause there we are again on that little town street
You almost ran the red ’cause you were lookin’ over at me
Wind in my hair, I was there
I remember it all too well
Photo album on the counter, your cheeks were turning red
You used to be a little kid with glasses in a twin-sized bed
And your mother’s telling stories ’bout you on the tee-ball team
You tell me ’bout your past, thinking your future was me
And I know it’s long gone and
There was nothing else I could do
And I forget about you long enough
To forget why I needed to
‘Cause there we are again in the middle of the night
We’re dancing ‘round the kitchen in the refrigerator light
Down the stairs, I was there
I remember it all too well, yeah
Maybe we got lost in translation
Maybe I asked for too much
But maybe this thing was a masterpiece
‘Til you tore it all up
Running scared, I was there
I remember it all too well
And you call me up again
Just to break me like a promise
So casually cruel in the name of being honest
I’m a crumpled up piece of paper lying here
‘Cause I remember it all, all, all
Too well
Time won’t fly, it’s like I’m paralyzed by it
I’d like to be my old self again, but I’m still trying to find it
After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own
Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone
But you keep my old scarf from that very first week
‘Cause it reminds you of innocence and it smells like me
You can’t get rid of it
‘Cause you remember it all too well, yeah
‘Cause there we are again when I loved you so
Back before you lost the one real thing you’ve ever known
It was rare, I was there
I remember it all too well
Wind in my hair, you were there
You remember it all
Down the stairs, you were there
You remember it all
It was rare, I was there
I remember it all too well
