All Too Well Lyrics

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  • Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus
  • Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
  • Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
  • Use italics (<i>lyric</i>) and bold (<b>lyric</b>) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
  • If you don’t understand a lyric, use [?]

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About

Genius Annotation

Widely regarded as one of Swift’s best songs, “All Too Well” sees her picking up shards of memories after a gut-wrenching breakup. She jumps through time to reflect on her best and worst memories with her ex, making the listener feel as though they were there with the couple.

Swift told Pop Dust that she began writing the song in a soundcheck for her 2011 tour in support of Speak Now. Co-writer Liz Rose explained that the song was initially 10-15 minutes long before she helped Swift pare it down, and Swift shared some of the original lyrics in a deluxe edition of her 2019 album, Lover.

Many believe Swift took inspiration from her relationship with actor Jake Gyllenhaal — the secret message “Maple Lattes” is hidden in the song’s liner notes, and the two shared those coffees in November 2010. In a 2015 interview with Howard Stern, Gyllenhaal claimed to not know that Swift wrote a song about him, though she seemingly told Vulture he reached out to her after hearing the album.

“All Too Well” was the fourth song to contribute to Swift’s “Track Five pattern,” a pattern fans have noted where she puts one of the most emotive songs on an album as the fifth track. Previous examples were “Cold As You,” “White Horse,” and “Dear John.”

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What has Swift said about the song?
Genius Answer

Swift told Pop Dust:

The lyric I’m most proud of [on the album] is from ‘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.’ That was something I came up with while ranting during a soundcheck. I was just playing these chords over and over onstage and my band joined in and I went on a rant. Those were some of the lines I thought of. I was going through a really hard time then, and my band joined in playing, and one of the first things that I came up with, just, like, spat out, was ‘And you call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest.’

What is the artists relationship with the song now?
Genius Answer

Taylor spoke about her relationship with All Too Well before performing it at the concert that was recorded for her movie reputation Stadium Tour:

So this song is the song that, it’s weird because I feel like this song has two lives in my brain. In my brain there’s the life of this song where this song was born out of catharsis and venting, and trying to get over something, and trying to understand it and process it. And then there’s the life where it went out into the world and you [fans] turned this song into something completely different for me. You turned this song into a collage of memories of watching you scream the words to this song, or seeing pictures that you post to me of you having written the words to this song in your diary, or you showing me your wrist and you have a tattoo of the lyrics to this song underneath your skin. And that is how you’ve changed the song ‘All Too Well’ for me.

What has co-writer Liz Rose said about the song?
What certifications has the song received?
What lyrics did Swift take out of the final song?
Televised performances?
Credits
Background Vocals
Performance Rights
Mixing Engineer
Recorded At
Pain In The Art Studios (Nashville, TN)
Release Date
October 22, 2012
Songs That Interpolate All Too Well
View All Too Well samples
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