I'll confess up front that I'm not a big Taylor Swift fan, and that's not a knock on those who are (less I get the Gyllenhaal treatment). However, having read about her performance on SNL of All Too Well, I decided to see for myself. It's quite a performance and I recommend any nascent or new to performing player to watch it closely.
As to the song itself, two thoughts come to mind. It's a beautiful song, particularly the lyrics, and as with all things musical, once out it becomes the providence of whoever is drawn to it.
The song is an ode to a failed romance and the poor way in which the singer, Swift, is treated by her lover. A young woman, deeply in love with a cad, who is cavalier with her feelings and those of her family. The music is fine but it is the lyrics, and Swift's delivery of them, that cut to the bone. They are that good. The ache, the longing, the heartbreak, the anger; it's all there. So it's easy to see why people, particularly her fans, which I'll hazard are mostly women, see themselves, or their experiences, in it.
That brings up the second part. Obviously, the song is Swift's: it chronicles an episode in her life that was to her very profound (I assume). This is evident in her delivery; there's no need for theatrics, it is simply her channeling her grief and anger (again, I assume). It is then remarkable, though probably expected, that her fans would take it upon themselves to excoriate Gyllenhaal (as well as his family and friends) for his treatment of her. I find this deeply ironic because there's no way they could top Swift's lyrics in its dissection of his behavior.
This brings in another point: since so many people don't actually know either Swift or Gyllenhaal (including me, hence the notes above), or have any first hand knowledge of their relationship 11 years ago, everything that impresses or offends them is of their own making; their own projection onto this pair that dated for a few months in 2010. Fame is an elusive thing with many wanting it and few finding it. Swift's song gives the listener all they'll ever need to see it as they want to: either of her and her honor (I suppose) or their own. It also seems pretty obvious that Swift doesn't mind her fans taking the ball and running with it. Whatever happened between her and Gyllenhaal, which she herself neither confirms nor denies, is left to the imagination of those who identify with it. For good or for bad.
I bring this up because I have a song on my latest album that talks about the freighted relationships we have with our musical idols, about how invested we become in them even as we know so little, truly, about them; that it is purely a projection, upon them, of how their music affects us. Consequently, I find the topic fascinating.
©2021 David William Pearce
