Perhaps the most quoted, most universally adored line in ‘All Too Well’ is this tragic line from the first bridge section of the song, and for good reason. “You called me up again just to break me like a promise/so casually cruel in the name of being honest…” Towards the end, Taylor switches from the line “I remember it” to the accusatory “you remember it” - a simple, effective embrace of her own agency, and her ex’s role in the demise of this relationship. Not only does she let us know what happened to the scarf, but she pulls each vignette back into the spotlight towards the end of the song ( “Wind in my hair, you were there, you remember it all/down the stairs, you were there, you remember it all”), mimicking the cruelty of memory the way these painful moments linger for hours in the middle of a sleepless night or flicker for seconds even on a good day. The task of the lyricist is to relay as much evocative information and detail as possible, within an economical, catchy verse or chorus - and the remarkable thing about ‘All Too Well’ is the vivid nature of the imagery, how much detail Taylor has managed to fit into her tight, expository verses, and how neatly the story is wrapped up by the end of the song. One of the most difficult things to master as a pop songwriter is this kind of concise storytelling. She then takes us through the flashbacks - in the car, dancing in the kitchen in the refrigerator light, chatting with her lover’s mother then devastatingly, crucially, bookends the fate of the scarf - kept by her ex in an attempt to hold on to lost innocence - in the final moments of the song. Taylor establishes the scarf’s location in the first verse, and it’s the first indication that we get as the listener that this relationship is now over. How I Learnt To Stop Worrying And Love Taylor Swift's 'Fearless' It’s long, particularly for a pop song, clocking in at five minutes and 29 seconds - and it subverts the traditional ‘verse-pre-chorus-chorus’ pop song structure in quite an interesting way. In some ways, ‘All Too Well’ is an unusual fan favourite it was never a single, and never got a music video.
The purest distillation of this artistic development can be heard on ‘All Too Well’ - everything that makes Taylor Swift’s songwriting so affecting, so impressive, is on show.
That’s not to say her earlier albums aren’t incredibly well written - but Red is on a whole new level, one that really only comes from a songwriter’s age and experience. The album Red is generally considered to be the first Taylor Swift album that looked at love with a truly critical, mature, almost cynical eye - as opposed to her earlier records which were focused very much on chaste, romantic fairytales. In the Taylor Swift universe, ‘All Too Well’ is a certified fan-favourite. The Evolution Of Taylor Swift In 20 Essential Tracks
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