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Taylor Swift ~Might~ Have Written ‘All Too Well’ During Her Speak Now Tour’s PH Stop

Taylor Swift ~Might~ Have Written ‘All Too Well’ During Her Speak Now Tour’s PH Stop

Nov 15, 2021   •   Meryl Medel

A few eagle-eyed Filipino Swifties have caught onto a fun yet heartbreaking theory about pop queen Taylor Swift. Fan favorite song “All Too Well” could have been drafted while the singer-songwriter was in the Philippines for her Speak Now World Tour! Here’s what fans have found:

 

The release of Red (Taylor’s Version)

Last Friday, Swift dropped the much-awaited re-recording of her 2012 album Red. Released when the singer was only 22 years old, the album saw Swift’s first experiments in branching out of her traditional country-pop sound. It is also the same album that listed the song “All Too Well” a.k.a. Swift’s magnum opus, according to most of her fans and even some music experts.

For the love of “All Too Well”, Swifties pieced together a rough timeline of the singer’s writing the song back in 2011 based on information they drew from different sources.

 

Clue #1: Behind the song

In an interview with Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums podcast on Red, Swift shared how “All Too Well” first came about and how that song was the very first one she wrote for the album.

“It was a day when I was just like a broken human walking into rehearsal just feeling terrible about what was going on in my personal life,” the singer began. “And I walked in and I remember we had actually just hired David Cook, who is now my band leader ever since then. But it was, I think it was his first day meeting me, and I think I ended up just playing four chords over and over again and the band started kicking in, like Amos Heller on bass and people started playing along with me. I think they could tell I was really going through it. And I just started singing and riffing and sort of ad-libbing this song that basically was ‘All Too Well’.

The singer continued, “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.’ I ended up taking it home and listening to it, and I was like, ‘I actually really like this.’” And now we’re pretty sure many fans are thanking Swift’s sound guy for burning a CD of that impromptu session.

 

Clue #2: Snippet of the first draft

taylor swift all too well - first draft
Photo of a page from Lover. Credit to r/TaylorSwift.

In the physical deluxe versions of Swift’s 2020 album Lover, she shared pages from her diaries and even initial drafts of her hit songs — including “All Too Well.” A snippet of the first draft was included in Version 1 of Lover’s deluxe edition. The draft was dated “February 2011.” And you know what Swift was doing in February 2011?

 

Clue #3: Speak Now World Tour in the Philippines

In February 2011, Swift just launched her Speak Now World Tour, starting with the Asia leg. Which is probably why she said she was “walking into rehearsal” instead of the studio. She confirmed this anecdote in a more recent interview with Jimmy Fallon.


The Asia leg included Singapore (Feb. 9), South Korea (Feb. 11), Japan (Feb. 13, 16–17), Philippines (Feb. 19), and Hong Kong (Feb. 21). So it could’ve been any of these dates really. But what made fans think she wrote it in the Philippines?

 

Clue #4: Band leader David Cook

Based on Swift’s anecdote shared with Rolling Stone, fans pinned down a range of dates when this could’ve happened — which is when David Cook first joined Swift’s band.

A quick Google search would result in a Taylor Swift Fandom Wiki page saying “David Cook joined the band in 2011, his first show playing in the Philippines. [sic]” There were no sources cited though, so we’re not too sure about how credible this claim is. However, another fansite (theswiftagency.com) claimed that Cook performed with Swift in January 2011 in Mexico.

 

Clue #5: Snippet of the final draft

taylor swift all too well - final draft
Photo of a page from Lover. Credit to r/TaylorSwift.

Despite these discrepancies, we’re pretty sure that Swift was — at the very least — in the middle of writing “All Too Well” while she was on tour in the Philippines. Because she was working on the song from February to March 2011, as shown in her diary pages from the Lover album.

 

Fans have a lot of feelings

Filipino Swifties find this new theory fun and heartbreaking at the same time. For one, the fan favorite song might’ve come to fruition when Swift was here, but on the other hand, she was pretty heartbroken that time and fans felt that, too.

 

All Too Well (10 Minute Version) = 10 minutes of tears and heartbreak

In the re-recorded album, the singer-songwriter released the ten-minute version of the song, officially lengthily titled “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault).” It also came with a short film starring Dylan O’Brien and Sadie Sink and written and directed by Taylor Swift herself. Watch it here:

 
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Meryl finds joy in music, movies, museums, and making her way around the world.

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