Taylor Swift - Taylor's Versions (Re-Recordings Official Thread) Album • Page 200

Obviously we'll disagree here, but overall there are three major additions from standard to 10 minute version. First is the "tossing car keys" section, second is "alls well that ends well" and third is "punchline" and outro.

I can't understand, in any world, how someone who is a fan of Taylor would NOT want the second section in the song, it contains so many great little flourishes, lyrics, additions which I truly miss when they aren't there. The first section is the one that I most understand people not liking the addition of, fuck the patriarchy is a bit forced in, etc etc. I get it, but I still personally like it. And the third section, it just adds some really nice ending vibes and an air of the fall and everything the song brings in. I now think the original version feels so stunted at the end, I really like the end.

All this being said, I have always loved long songs with multiple sections and would love to hear her do an entire album of 10+ min songs, so maybe it's a me thing

 

I would love to hear a 10 minute song from her that isn't an extended version of an already perfect song.

 

Ten minutes version is good if I need a 30 minute walk and know I need to listen to it 3 times to hit the mark. Which happened approximately once

 

It would be cooler if she hadn’t worked so hard to make it go number one. It feels like for a significant portion of her fanbase, that’s essentially the primary version of the song now.

 

The “kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath” line is a fantastic addition.

 

I’ve always loved how she delivers the “and I know it’s long gone and there was nothing else I could do” line in that sad girl autumn version. That one is the one I go back to for sure

 

I’ve been noted on multiple sites that I find the original ATW too be way overrated and kind of boring. Boy was I wrong. The 10 minute version is so unnecessary. Having the 10 minute version actually has me appreciate the original that much more.

I personally think the “original 10 minute” version was a poorly recorded soundcheck thing. So when she went back to it she probably couldn’t understand half the lyrics (rawness/coming up with them on the spot). She then ruined the whole thing (in my eyes) with the revisionist lyrics she added.

was it cool for the song to get a moment (Billboard #1, SNL, and Eras tour)? Yes, but it’s one thing where I basically checkout of the fandom.

 

they've always felt like 1 (the original) and 1a(10 minute version) to me. both good in different ways. some days you just want more, y'know?

 

What I really love about the original is that it's such an effective scene setter. It really conjures up the feel and vibe of this autumn getaway they had together, and essentially tells the story of the relationship through the lens of those memories alone. All the actual "scenes" are from that same time, and then everything else is post-breakup reminiscing and regret. So, my fundamental problem with the 10-minute version is that it gives you the actual "coming apart" moment of the relationship, which is the 21st birthday party, in a way that completely warps the song for me. The original is the perfect balance of happy and sad, in a way that becomes all the more melancholy because of how those things are juxtaposed. The 10-minute version adds all these sad, tortured details and asides, but I find it so much less moving because it loses all the balance that makes the original magic.

On top of that, I just think she loses the melody. The original has this tight Liz Rose country song construction, where all the storytelling fits neatly into this lovely, memorable melody. That's something good country songwriters are better at than just about anyone. In the elongated version, I just feel like the melody either gets repeated too many times (the entire 21st birthday scene) or ditches it for something less compelling (the awful "I was never good at telling jokes" section).

Really, the only addition that I think fits nicely into both the lyrical structure AND the melodic phrasing of the song is "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." Everything else belongs on the cutting room floor.

 

I also think I'm just so attached to the original, and have listened to it so many hundreds of times, that it will never not be weird to hear new things inserted around/in between the existing framework of the song. There's a momentum to the original, both in how its structured and in how it's embedded into my brain from repeat listens, that gets completely fucked by the rewrite.

See also: why I still prefer to the theatrical versions of the Lord of the Rings movies to the extended versions.

 

The one bit of true magic in there, which we discussed plenty back when this came out!

 

Extended LOTR forever!!

 

I've never watched the extended ones, is that bad.

 

my man

 

Never seen LOTR

 

It's petty, but my biggest problem with the 10 minute version is that it's (probably) faked. The whole idea was that it was this awesome thing that existed from the start that got pared down in making the final album version. I love that shit - how many songs have you heard an early live version of and obsessed over only to be ultimately disappointed by the recorded version? This was supposed to be the opposite of that, an even bigger better version of arguably her best song that existed all along but was chopped for editing's sake. But the patriarchy line really breaks the illusion and for me just makes it feel kind of pointless.

 

I feel like a lot of the vault songs are definitely just partial demos reworked with her modern songwriting sensibilities which I think she was transparent about unless I made that up which is possible. But I don't go back to many of them because not many of them "feel" like that era to me. It's cool she's revisiting older songs with her current lens but they don't rly hit me. She used to have a rly tight concise storytelling style where she could build a lil world with just a few lines. All too well 10 min just reads like her current more long-winded style of writing so it doesn't actually feel like Red era but I think it's fine. I just don't go back to it a lot

Exception being I Bet You Think About Me which I stan and should've been bigger imo.

 

1989 vault just sounds like she had extra Midnights songs

 

Lady Gaga just put out a song that sounds more like it came from those 1989 vaults than Taylor

 

The title ‘Sad Girl Autumn Version’ actually sums up my internal headspace on any given day.

 

Anyone clowning about the snake necklace in here? My wife is. I’m suspicious, always.