Summer Song Challenge, Day 73: Maeve

Prompt: "A song makes you want to write 1000 words about it"

Selected by Maeve

"All Too Well (10 Minute Version)"

Taylor Swift

Red (Taylor's Version), 2021

I've previously written about my ever-evolving fandom of Taylor Swift. The Eras Tour really won me over, and I think her storytelling is amazing. But at the same time, Taylor and I are the same age, and there's just something about her theater girl energy, performative yet "pick me" personality, that I just don't think we would be friends—which is fine. She's Queen Cringe, yet incredibly talented. The true Taylor paradox, I both appreciate her, yet still can roll my eyes when I see videos of her being "shocked" that the crowd knows all the lyrics to her songs.

As most people are aware, Taylor is now rerecording all of her old albums. When her old record label was sold to Scooter Braun, so were her masters. Anytime a song wanted to be used in a movie or TV show, it was not up to her, but in fact Braun (noted Kanye friend, and we all remember that whole shebang) and Braun would receive the licensing fee, not Taylor. Going forward, if Taylor rerecorded these albums, she would own the new masters, but she could also add other songs "From the Vault," and update the references and lyrics. It seems like a huge win-win for her. Not only are songs off of albums from fifteen years ago getting a second wave of popularity, but she's able to use her fame and growth as an artist to make these versions even stronger, whether that be by adding guest vocals or new backing tracks. It's an impressive feat and a great business decision.

My choice for this prompt is off of Taylor's rerecorded (aka "Taylor's Version") of Red. I don't think I'd ever listened to the whole album before the updated version. The singles were larger than life and inescapable. The lead single of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" is... tough. I remember hearing it for the first time and having a knee-jerk response that the song was so cliché, simple, and just... dumb. But also, who didn't know every word to "22" because they were also 22 at the time of its release and they too loved dressing like hipsters, but also were feeling "happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time." Once again, the Taylor paradox.

At the heart of Red (Taylor's Version) is an updated version of "All Too Well." This song is what I personally believe to be her magnum opus. The song is now ten minutes, doubling its previous length, but not only adding time, but so much depth. Not only a rumination on her original experience, but also it's interesting to have her add reflections that could clearly only have been achieved by revisiting this experience ten years later. Time both has and hasn't passed, but this experience resonates stronger than ever. As she sings, "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," Taylor is acknowledging that even though she's so far removed from the scenario, whether it be one year or ten years, she can't undo the damage it caused and how it changed her path forward. It's such a universal thought, every relationship impacts you going forward and you can’t go back to where you were before.

When this song was originally released in 2012, Taylor was writing about her experience being 20 in her first "real" relationship and most public relationship. This prompt has me googling Taylor Swift dating timelines... like, what am I doing here? She previously dated John Mayer, writing a lot of the Speak Now songs about him. Although, did they "date," or did she have a very public crush, get seen together a lot and probably just makeout a handful of times? Who knows, who cares, not diminishing her feelings or her songs, but I'm just saying there's a huge difference between how she describes that relationship, versus the one that's all over Red.

This whole album is about Jake Gyllenhaal, who Taylor Swift had a relationship with when she was 20 and he was 30. She makes it abundantly clear that all she wanted was for him to acknowledge that this relationship meant something and he never did: "We were always skipping town / And I was thinking on the drive down / Any time now, he's gonna say it's love / You never called it what it was." Granted, she was a child at the time and he was a grown ass man, so the power dynamic in this relationship was so uneven. It's heartbreaking for her to sing, "You said if we had been closer in age / Maybe it would have been fine / And that made me want to die." Essentially, he's using their age difference as an excuse for why she wouldn't understand things or could not relate to him. This very much could be true, but it's not as if he didn't know their age difference going in. Ugh, that makes me so mad. She does quote Dazed and Confused in the new additional lyrics, pointing out that this seems to be a cycle for Gyllenhaal, singing, "I'll get older, but your lovers stay my age."

Looking at the lyrics to this song, she's just romanticizing a fuck boy. Specifically when she details how they were off and on repeatedly and how he had a talent for knowing exactly when she had moved on, but if she reached out first, she was deemed crazy: "You never called it what it was / till we were dead and gone and buried / Check the pulse and come back / Swearing it's the same, after three months in the grave / And then you wondered where it went to / As I reached for you but / All I felt was shame / And you held my lifeless frame."

Taylor truly has a knack for detailing such universal experiences, by making them so specific. Does that make sense? Talking about how he "charmed my dad with self-effacing jokes / Sipping coffee like you were on a late night show" is such a precise circumstance, Gyllenhaal being a perennial talk show guest, but also it's universal because everyone can picture the magnetism one possesses when they can command a room with charisma and humility. Also, her lyricism shines through during the bridge singing, "And you call me up again / Just to break me like a promise / So casually cruel in the name of being honest." I know I shouldn't go on and on just quoting lyrics and then saying, "Wow! I love that," but identifying someone as "So casually cruel in the name of being honest" always hits me so hard. We all know so many people like that, the "I'm not being mean, I'm being honest" person who gets offended that you would get upset by their comment, and that fucking grinds my gears.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my favorite lyrics to this song are absolutely the new lyrics, "From when your Brooklyn broke my skin and bones / I'm a soldier who's returning half her weight / And did the twin flame bruise paint you blue? / Just between us, did the love affair maim you too?" There's so much layering within this section. I love that she's not only referring to the relationship as a war, but the idea of returning from war malnourished, but also the powerfulness of announcing she's returning half her weight because she lost that person. The twin flame concept is something that I believe is being overused culturally right now, but this song was at the forefront of that reference. Here she's asking if the pain and sadness of the relationship ending was also felt by Gyllenhaal, or if she was the only one in the relationship who cared enough to have those emotions. Additionally, I don't think these lyrics could have been written without time passing, but I think it's great introspective work on her part: "The idea you had of me / Who was she? / A never-needy, ever lovely jewel / Whose shine reflects on you." She's now realizing that all she was was a brief fling, arm-candy, that it wasn't the relationship she thought it was... but she remembers it (all too well, lol) and it meant something to her. Isn't that all that matters? If something means something to you, does it have to mean the exact same thing to the other person? It inevitably won't and I think the whole revamp of this song is about that discovery. She remembers every detail and everything because it changed her, he might not, but that doesn't disparage her feelings.

Do yourself a favor and check out the music video. It was Taylor's directorial debut—there are song-breaks and dialogue of what you can only assume are "based on real life events." She also cast two actors (Dylan O'Brien and Sadie Sink) who have a similar age difference, and it really is jarring to see.  

Also, just like... of course Jake Gyllenhaal has a "fuck the patriarchy" keychain.