The Bravest of the #taylorswift Collection and Catalogue #redtaylorsversion #taylorsversion : The raw, original 10-minute version of “All Too Well”

Finally. The unreleased ten-minute original raw version of “All Too Well” (Taylor Swift, 2012 and 2021) was uploaded about 12 hours ago. Nine years ago, bandmembers saw how Taylor Swift wrote this simultaneously while she was riffing and jamming in rehearsal at the recording studio, her heart wrenching at something that nobody, none of the band members, could do anything about, while the sound engineer kept recording what was going on.

From the unreleased version:

“And there we are again

when nobody had to know

You kept me like a secret,

but I kept you like an oath

Sacred prayer

and we’d swear

to remember it

all too well…” (Taylor Swift, 2021)

After the session, her mother quietly went to the sound engineer and asked if he happened to have recorded the spontaneous composition and he said, of course, and gave her a copy. Taylor Swift has kept it since then — only the edited, sanitized, 5-minute version was released. (the part quoted above and half of the song was never released)

Here it is. It took a pandemic — i didn’t think she’d ever have the courage to release it, but she’s braver than that.

The unreleased parts, the bridges and the last half, are poignant.

In the closing bridge when she said :

“i’m a soldier…

who’s returning half her weight…”

– don’t you remember that most difficult time in your life,

when you feel like you’re losing blood

from all the tears you’re shedding everyday

you’re thinning out, turning into shredded parts

and you feel like you might disappear?

Yes, Taylor, we know how that feels —

we all remember it,