So heart-breakingly beautiful.
So why did I decided to have an edition of Music Monday for All Too Well alone? Because there's a lot of things I wanted to say about this song, and I thought this meme is the perfect place to do so.
The first time I heard All Too Well, it occurred to me that this was such a long song. Not that it's a problem to me. The lyrics are honest, which is not surprising coming from Taylor, but as the song grew on me--which I never realized it did until I found myself wishing it to be the next track on my shuffled playlist, and if it don't I would play it anyway. I realized that I'm singing it with Taylor and it seemed like I was feeling the things that she felt when writing and recording it. I never had a boyfriend, and my heart never broke like hers did, but I felt it.
There's a strong emotion coming from this song and I can feel it to my soul. There are few songs and artists can do this to me, but All Too Well..and Taylor Swift? Just perfect. I'm not even sure if I wanted to cry every time I hear this, or get mad and throw things, or let my heart break into pieces, or sigh out of the beautifully-written heartbreaking song.
The lyrics:
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.
'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 about 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,
And 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
***
My thoughts and feels about the lyrics:
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.
- The first verse alone is like a door opening to story that was supposed to be private, but invited us all in. Coz you know, "something 'bout it felt like home somehow."
Oh, your sweet disposition and my wide-eyed gaze.
- This is one of my favorite lines. I can really relate to it. Always the wide-eyed girl.
'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.
- Just...hauntingly beautiful.
You tell me 'bout your past, thinking your future was me.
- That's a clever one. I don't know if I'd give the credit to the guy or Taylor. It's a shame the vision of their future was long gone.
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.
- Sweet, sweet memory. Gets me teary-eyed.
Maybe we got lost in translation, maybe I asked for too much,
And maybe this thing was a masterpiece 'til you tore it all up.
- Somehow reminds me of her previously recorded songs, White Horse and Forever and Always.
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.
- The climax of the song. I loved this part and many people have said that they did too. Was it bad to love a heartbreaking line?
But you keep my old scarf from that very first week
'Cause it reminds you of innocence and it smells like me
- *sigh*
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
- I agree that he really lost that one real thing he'd ever known. Because Taylor is, for me. And I won't lost her in my heart. Even as the years go by, I will remember her. Because she's one of the few people that gave me reality even in the midst of dreaming and fantasizing about fairytales. (I often escape from reality through her songs and found myself in another reality. Yet it's not bad at all.)
This is her recent performance of All Too Well, which is at the Grammy's 2014.
News spread around Twitter yesterday that she'll be releasing All Too Well as a single after her performance at the Grammy's. I am happy for another step Taylor is taking and that a lot of people (outside the Swifties fandom) will be able to hear this achingly beautiful song, but that's the thing. I'm going to share it with the world. All Too Well was one of the few things I'm treasuring. This song is like a gem to me, and call me selfish but I don't want to share it. It's like, you have this piece of you and you have no choice but to share it to the world when all you want is to keep it to yourself. That's what I felt, and still feeling.
So why did I wrote this post to tell how beautiful and how I loved this song? It's because no matter I wanted to keep this all to myself, I want to let it out and tell the whole world how proud am I to Taylor (I sound like her mother. But don't worry, it's a die-hard fan thing) for writing this song (oh gosh, does this make me look like a witch? Because I might as well said I'm glad that she experience such heartbreak. No, that's not it!) and even though it hurts too much, she's able to give justice to it, let her fans feel it, and get over it. Not to mention, write it in a clever and beautiful way--and I'm sure I have said that a hundred times already, but that's what I felt and I can't help it if it's really beautiful and heartbreaking and emotional and heartfelt and stunning.
