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 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 looking over 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-size bed
And your mother's telling stories 'bout you on a 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 dance around 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

Hey, 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


Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by andreaaaa

All Too Well Lyrics as written by Elisabeth Wagner Rose Taylor Alison Swift

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

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All Too Well song meanings
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  • +2
    General Comment

    The first song that Swift wrote for Red, she penned the tune in 2011 with Liz Rose, one of her co-writers on her first three albums. The heart-wrenching break-up tune came after a six-month writing block that followed a particularly painful ending of a relationship. "There's a kind of bad that gets so overpowering you can't even write about it," she told USA Today of that time. "When you feel pain that is so far past dysfunctional, that leaves you with so many emotions that you can't filter them down to simple emotions to write about, that's when you know you really need to get out."

    Swift was asked by The Daily Beast if she ever felt guilty regarding writing about an ex. She replied: "I take these songs and these people who inspire these songs on a case-by-case basis. If there were someone who was a good person, I'm not going to write something bad about them. But if they handle a situation in a way that really messed up my life for a while, that's what I'm going to write about. For me, I've never changed the reason I write a song. Songs for me are like a message in a bottle. You send them out to the world and maybe the person who you feel that way about will hear about it someday."

    Taylor is a noted fan of singer/songwriter Matt Nathanson of "Come On Get Higher" and "Run" fame, to the extent that she has been known to perform with the lyrics of his song "Modern Love" written on her arm. Fans have pointed out the similarity between a lyric in this song ("And I forget about you long enough to forget why I needed to"), and a line from Nathanson's 2003 tune "I Saw," ("And I'll forget about you long enough to forget why I need to").

    Maybe Taylor wanted to pay homage to Nathanson or it may be simply unconscious plagiarism on her part. However, Nathanson seems to believe it to be plagiarism. According to the Gawker site, he posted a tweet after the rumors first surfaced that was subsequently deleted, in which he wrote, "She's definitely a fan, and now she's a thief."

    musicrocks13on November 11, 2012   Link

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