10 Perfect Hit Songs That Are Insanely Long
6. All Too Well - Taylor Swift
By this point, anyone interested in talking about the meaty gossip behind Taylor Swift’s songs about her exes have really missed the point. Taylor wears her heart on her sleeve most of the time, and these songs are just a reflection of who she is as a person, not just some tabloid drama that she thinks is going to sell records. She tended to not share as much after Red though, but she had some unfinished business when the re-recording process started.
In the first stages of writing All Too Well, Taylor was just using a traditional piano ballad setup, as she talks about her ex tearing her heart to pieces and recounting the specific times she went out with him and her scarf that he still has at his house. You have to remember that you’re only looking at the surface level on the original album, and the re-recorded version is the real deal, sprawling it out to over 10 minutes as she adds more and more verses.
This was originally supposed to be the version heard on the original album before the higher ups came in, but this version of the song packs much more of a punch. You can almost feel that anger from beyond the speakers, seeing Taylor in the studio and bringing in one more verse because of just how much pain she still feels towards this guy. It may be a little excessive, but emotions demand to be felt, and this 10 minute version almost feels like a creative catharsis.