This Writing Tip Explains Why “All Too Well” is Taylor Swift’s Best Song
--
During a performance for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series last year, Taylor Swift addressed something I’ve known for quite some time: her best song is “All Too Well.”
Several media outlets have ranked Taylor’s songs over the years, and “All Too Well” is almost always at #1. Here’s a quote from a write-up in Rolling Stone by Rob Sheffield:
“You can schaeden your all over the celebrity she reputedly sings about, but on the best day of your life you will never inspire a song as great as freude ‘All Too Well.’ Or write one.”
And this is not an unpopular opinion. Every Swiftie knows that “All Too Well” is an absolute masterpiece. It’s on her fourth album, RED, and it happens to be one of her longest songs at 5 minutes and twenty-seven seconds.
From the first line, you cling to her every tragic word. Taylor said she loves screaming the lyrics together with her fans at her shows.
As someone who has always been in awe of Taylor’s writing, I wanted to analyze what makes “All Too Well” her best work. She has over 150 songs in her catalogue, so what’s different about this one?
Storytelling Through Lyrics in “All Too Well”
I recently read a book called How to Write Short by Roy Peter Clark, which has an entire chapter about storytelling through song lyrics. It’s fascinating to see how songwriters are able to paint storylines, evoke emotion, and illustrate such vivid details through a single line or verse.
But it was another book that really helped me understand what “All Too Well” gets right.
In Stories That Stick by Kindra Hall, she explains the components that make a great story. One of them is this: great stories ZOOM IN on the details.
A common storytelling mistake is speaking in generalities, which makes our writing too vague. When you zoom in, you drill down to the specifics. This is where the magic happens.
