Tim McGraw (Taylor Swift & Liz Rose)
- "This song means so much to me, that's why we wanted it to be the
first track on the album. The idea for this song came to me in math
class. I just started singing to myself `When you think Tim McGraw.'
The concept for this song hit me, because I was dating a guy who moved
away, and it was going to be over for us. So I started thinking of
things that I knew would remind him of me. The first thing that came to
mind was that my favorite song is by Tim McGraw. After school, I went
downtown, sat down at the piano, and wrote this with Liz Rose in
fifteen minutes. It may be the best fifteen minutes I've ever
experienced."
Picture To Burn (Taylor Swift & Liz Rose)
- "Before I sing this song, I always try to tell the audience that I
really do try to be a nice person... but if you break my heart, hurt my
feelings, or are really mean to me, I'm going to write a song about
you. Haha. This song is the perfect example."
Teardrops On My Guitar (Taylor Swift & Liz Rose)
- "I used to have a huge crush on this guy, who would sit there every
day talking to me about...another girl: how beautiful she was, how nice
and smart and perfect she was. And I sat there and listened, never
meaning it any of the times I said `Oh, I'm so happy for you.' I guess
this is a good example of how I let my feelings out in songs, and
sometimes no other way. And I've never been afraid of using names. I
love this song because of its honesty and vulnerability. To this day,
they are still together and he has no idea about this song."
A Place In This World (Taylor Swift & Robert Orrall & Angelo)
- "I wrote this song when I was thirteen and had just moved to
Nashville. It was tough trying to find out how I was going to get where
I wanted to go. I knew where I wanted to be, but I just didn't know
how to get there. I'm really happy this is on the album, because I feel
like I finally figured it out."
Cold As You (Taylor Swift & Liz Rose)
- "I wrote this song with Liz, and I think the lyrics to this song are
some of the best we've ever written. It's about that moment where you
realize someone isn't at all who you thought they were, and that you've
been trying to make excuses for someone who doesn't deserve them. And
that some people are just never going to love you. We were halfway
through writing this when I started singing `And now that I'm sitting
here thinking it through, I've never been anywhere cold as you'."
The Outside (Taylor Swift)
- "This is one of the first songs I ever wrote, and it talks about the
very reason I ever started to write songs. It was when I was twelve
years old, and a complete outcast at school. I was a lot different than
all the other kids, and I never really knew why. I was taller, and
sang country music at karaoke bars and festivals on weekends while other
girls went to sleepovers. Some days I woke up not knowing if anyone
was going to talk to me that day. I think every person comes to a point
in their life when you have a long string of bad days. You can choose
to let it drag you down, or you can find ways to rise above it. I came
to the conclusion that even though people hadn't always been there for
me, music had. It's strange to think how different my life would be
right now if I had been one of the cool kids."
Tied Together With A Smile (Taylor Swift & Liz Rose)
- "One of my best friends is absolutely beautiful. She goes to beauty
pageants and wins everything. Girls want to be her and guys want to be
with her. I wrote this song the day I found out about her eating
disorder. It completely blew my mind, and this one was tough to write,
because I wasn't just telling some sad story. This was real. This song
is basically about the girls I know, and the difficult things I saw
them go through. I've never seen this song as a lecture. It's really
about how no matter what my friends go through, I'm always going to love
them."
Stay Beautiful (Taylor Swift & Liz Rose)
- "After hearing my songs, a lot of people ask me, `How many
boyfriends have you HAD?' And I always tell them that more of my songs
come from observation than actual experience. In other words, you don't
have to date someone to write a song about them. This is a song I
wrote about a guy I never dated! Wow, right? Haha. This song is about a
guy I thought was cute, and never really talked to him much. But
something about him inspired this song, just watching him."
Should've Said No (Taylor Swift)
- "Just being a human being, I've realized that before every big
problem you create for yourself, before every huge mess you have to
clean up, there was a crucial moment where you could've just said no.
This is a song I wrote about a guy who never should have cheated on
me."
Mary's Song (Oh My My My) (Taylor Swift & Liz Rose & Brian Maher)
- "I wrote this song about a couple who lived next door to us. They'd
been married forever and they came over one night for dinner, and were
just so cute. They were talking about how they fell in love and got
married, and how they met when they were just little kids. I thought it
was so sweet, because you can go to the grocery store and read the
tabloids, and see who's breaking up and cheating on each other (or just
listen to some of my songs, haha). But it was really comforting to
know that all I had to do was go home and look next door to see a
perfect example of forever."
Our Song (Taylor Swift)
- I just sat down one day with my guitar and got in a groove, and went
with it. I like to write about how music affects people, and this was
fun to write because it's about a couple who DOESN'T have a song. I
like the banjo and you really can't go wrong with banjo. I wanted it to
be last on the album, because the last line of the chorus is `play it
again'. Let's hope people take it as a hint to go ahead and play the
album again. Haha!"
FEARLESS (Sophomore Album)
Fearless (Taylor Swift, Liz Rose, Hillary Lindsey)-
This is a song about the fearlessness of falling in love. No matter
how many break up songs you write, no matter how many times you get
hurt, you will always fall in love again. When I wrote “Fearless,” I
wasn’t dating anyone. I wasn’t even in the beginning stages of dating
anybody. I really was all by myself out on tour and I got this idea for
a song about the best first date. I think sometimes when you’re
writing love songs, you don’t write them about what you’re going
through at the moment, you write about what you wish you had. So, this
song is about the best first date I haven't had yet.
Fifteen (Taylor Swift)-
I wrote this around the story line of my best friend from high school,
Abigail. I started everything with the line “Abigail gave everything
she had to a boy who changed his mind” and wrote everything else from
that point, almost backwards. I just decided I really wanted to tell
that story about our first year of high school because I felt in my
freshman year, I grew up more than any year in my life so far.
Love Story (Taylor Swift)-
This is a song I wrote when I was dating a guy who wasn't exactly the
popular choice. His situation was a little complicated, but I didn't
care. I started this song with the line "This love is difficult, but
it's real." When I wrote the ending to this song, I felt like it was
the ending every girl wants to go with her love story. It’s the ending
that I want. You want a guy who doesn’t care what anyone thinks, what
anyone says. He just says, “Marry me, Juliet, I love you, and that’s
all I really know.” It’s sort of told in a character kind of thing,
where it’s Romeo and Juliet, and it’s not me saying that I’m getting
married or anything...but I think it’s fun to write about it.
Hey Stephen (Taylor Swift)-We
were recording at John McBride’s (Martina McBride’s husband’s) studio
and he was like, ‘My kids are dying to meet you. Do you think that you
could say hi to them?’ I said, ‘Sure, have them come and hang out while
we’re recording.’ So his daughters and their friends from school –
there were about ten of them there – they all came into the studio when
we were recording “Hey Stephen” and they loved it. They were singing
along with it by the end of it.
White Horse (Taylor Swift, Liz Rose)-I
actually wasn’t going to put this song on the album. I was going to
wait for the third album because I really felt like we had the
“sadness” represented on this record. Then my agency out in LA set up a
meeting with executive producers Betsy Beers and Shonda Rhimes at
Grey’s Anatomy because that’s my favorite show. It would just be a
dream come true to have a song on it. So, I played them “White Horse.”
It was just me and my guitar and they freaked out. They loved it. They
said, “We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.” For a while, we
didn’t know if we were going to put it on the record because if it
wasn’t going to be on the show, then we weren’t going to put it on the
album. Then they called and said they were very interested in the song.
We recorded it right away, sent it off to them, and they put it in!To
me, “White Horse” is about what, in my opinion, is the most
heart-breaking part of a break-up – that moment when you realize that
all the dreams you had, all those visions you had of being with this
person, all that disappears. Everything after that moment is moving
on.. But that initial moment of "Wow, it's over" is what I wrote "White
Horse" about.
You Belong With Me (Taylor Swift, Liz Rose)-I
came into the writing session with Liz Rose and said….I’ve got this
idea. I had overheard a friend of mine talking to his girlfriend and he
was completely on the defensive saying, “No, baby...I had to get off
the phone really quickly...I tried to call you right back...Of course I
love you. More than anything! Baby, I’m so sorry.” She was just
yelling at him! I felt so bad for him at that moment.So I came
up with the first line “You’re on the phone with your girlfriend,
she’s upset, going off about something that you said,” and I ran that
into the story line that I’m in love with him and he should be with me
instead of her. It just became this whole picture. It was really fun
for us to write the line, “She wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts.”
Breathe (Taylor Swift, Colbie Calliat)-It’s
a song about having to say goodbye to somebody, but it never blames
anybody. Sometimes that’s the most difficult part. When it’s nobody’s
fault.i was a huge fan of Colbie’s record. When it came out, I
fell in love with the way that she makes music. I contacted her
management right away and I asked if I could write with her and, sure
enough, Colbie had a date coming up in Nashville where she was going to
be playing a show and she had the day off. I think she sounds
beautiful on it. I’m so excited to have her voice on my album.
Tell Me Why (Taylor Swift, Liz Rose)-I’d
been talking to a guy I’ve never “officially” dated. Sometimes it’s
the hardest thing when you have all these dreams of dating them, and
you’re getting close, but it doesn’t work out. He would say things that
would make me go, “Did you just say that?” It bothered me so much
because he would say one thing and do another, do one thing and say
another. Because he didn’t know what he wanted, he would just play all
these mind games.So I went over to write with Liz and was just
ranting and raving about how this guy is such a flake and such a jerk
sometimes, and so cool other times. I was like, “Liz, I don’t know
what’s up with this guy!” So I just started playing the beginning, “I
took a chance, I took a shot. And you might think I’m bulletproof, but
I’m not.”
You’re Not Sorry (Taylor Swift)-It
is about this guy who turned out to not be who I thought I was. He
came across as prince charming. Well, it turned out prince charming had
a lot of secrets that he didn’t tell me about. And one by one, I would
figure them out. I would find out who he really was. I wrote this when
I was at the breaking point of, “You know what? Don’t even think that
you can keep on hurting me.” It was to a point where I had to walk
away.
The Way I Loved You (Taylor Swift, John Rich)-I
got this idea for a song about being in a relationship with a nice guy
who is punctual and opens up the door for you and brings you
flowers...but you feel nothing. The whole time you’re with him, you’re
thinking about the guy who was complicated and messy and frustrating.So
I brought that idea, the title and where I thought the song should go
to John. He was able to relate to it because he is that complicated,
frustrating messy guy in his relationships. We came at the song from
different angles. It was just so cool to get in a room and write with
him because he really is an incredible writer.
Forever & Always (Taylor Swift)-“Forever
& Always” is about when I was in a relationship with someone and I
was just watching him slowly slip away. I didn't know why, because I
wasn't doing anything different. I didn't do anything wrong. He was
just fading. It’s about the confusion and frustration of wondering why?
What changed? When did it change? What did I do wrong? In this case,
the guy I wrote it about ended up breaking up with me for another girl.
Guess I know why he was fading..
The Best Day (Taylor Swift)-I
wrote this song on the road and didn’t tell my mom about it. I decided
that I was going to keep it a secret and give it to her as a surprise
for Christmas. I wrote it in the summer and then recorded it secretly
with the band in the studio. After it was done, I synched the song up
to all these home videos of her, and my family.She didn’t even
realize it was me singing until halfway through the song! She didn’t
have any idea that I could possibly write and record a song without her
knowing about it. When she finally got it, she just started bawling
her eyes out.
Change (Taylor Swift)-At
one point, I began to understand that it would be harder for me on a
smaller record label to get to the places and accomplish the things
that artists were accomplishing on bigger record labels. I realized
that I wouldn’t get favors pulled for me because there weren’t any
other artists on the label to pull favors from. It was going to be an
uphill climb and all that I had to encourage me was the hope that
someday things would change. That things would be different. After so
many times of just saying that to myself over and over, I finally wrote
it down in a song.
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