Taylor Swift knows “All Too Well” how much her fans love the heartbreaking Red ballad. Turns out, the five-and-a-half minute song was once double as long.
On the Nov. 17 episode of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums podcast, Swift shared the origins of “All Too Well,” the first song she wrote for her 2012 album. The star noted that it all began with an ad-libbing session in the studio.
“It included the F-word and basically I remember my sound guy was like, ‘Hey, I burned a CD of that thing that you were doing in case you want it.’ And I was like, ‘Sure,'” she explained. “I ended up taking it home and listening to it. And I was like, ‘I actually really like this but it definitely is like 10 minutes long and I need to pare it down.'”
She and songwriter Liz Rose ended up cutting down seven extra verses, and “All Too Well” was born. “That was a very serendipitous creation of a song,” Swift concluded.
Swifties will have to wait and see if the 10-minute original version is ever released. The pop star is currently in the process of re-recording her first five albums after ownership of her back catalog has changed hands for the second time in 17 months.
