WELBECK Taylor Swift - The Stories Behind the Songs Every single track, explored and explained.

by Annie Zaleski

The full story behind every single song Taylor Swift has ever released.

Covering eleven albums, more than 250 songs, hidden gems, cover versions, vault tracks and more besides, this is the definitive guide to Taylor Swift's incredible songbook and a celebration of one of music's greatest ever talents - from her self-titled debut to The Tortured Poets Department.

Award-winning music writer Annie Zaleski (Rolling Stone, Billboard, the Guardian) leaves no stone unturned as she explores the inspiration, production and legacy of pop's greatest back catalogue, delving into every era to tell the story of Taylor Swift's entire career through her music.

A journey through country, pop, indie and folk, this is the ultimate guide to the musical and storytelling genius of Taylor Swift.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, Biography, Reference, Pop Culture

240 pages, Hardcover

First published August 22, 2024

Reviews

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 4 out of 5]

"All is fair in love and poetry" is an oft-quoted Taylor Swift sentiment.

Taylor Swift - The Stories Behind the Songs: Every single track, explored and explained is chock full of the details behind each of Swift's songs and the book has many gorgeous, incredible photos of Swift performing and receiving awards. The Introduction indicates that Swift's songs are masterclasses in storytelling. Her songs bubble with determined optimism even in her darkest moments.

A few interesting things from the book:

* The song, Tim McGraw, took 15 minutes to write. It was her first US hit.

* Picture to Burn is about a breakup. Swift said that every time she plays it, it gets the largest crowd response.

* Swift wrote A Place in This World when she was 13. It's about being determined to discover where she belongs.

* The Outside was written when she was 12 and she felt like an outcast at school because music was so important to her.

* Tied Together With A Smile is about a friend who appears to have it all but is really struggling inside.

* Should've Said No was a completely last-minute addition to her album but it shot to number one on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart.

* The lyrics to Our Song was written for Swift's ninth grade talent show.

* The song Change was written the day after winning her first CMA award at age 17. It's about the uphill climb and being the underdog in a tough battle. This tune embodies Swift's tenacious personality and musical ambition and foreshadowed even greater things to come.

* Soon You'll Get Better is an emotional song about her mother's health.

* Karma was a last-minute Hail Mary song; it's about her relationship with Travis Kelce.

Author Annie Zaleski said that if Swift ever decided to switch careers, she would probably be a dynamic fiction writer. Swift has a gift for creating rich characters with vibrant back stories.

Highly recommend!

[Ursula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the concept and they have so many quotes from Taylor I hadn't heard before about certain songs. Some of the photos I feel are misplaced and there's a slight lack of continuity; they missed a "(featuring ...)" on one track, I felt "All Of The Girls You Loved Before" was in the wrong section as it was under Midnights rather than Lover. I thought it was dissapointing that they just summarised the whole of TTPD rather than going into each song like the rest of the book. But overall, I really like the book and would recommend for any Swifties.

[ninawkrainieksiazek · Rating 4 out of 5]

bardzo przyjemna książka, sporo ciekawych faktów. bardzo podobało mi się to, że o każdej piosence coś było powiedziane, także o tych, które nie znajdują się na żadnym albumie. myślę, że to idealny prezent na święta dla każdej swiftie.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a fantastic experience to go through the history of all my favourite songs, and to find "hidden treasures" that I will definitely listen to more in the future! ❤️

[Natalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totalne 5/5

[zloup · Rating 3 out of 5]

Point négatifs
- traduction pas très qualitative on sent que la ME a pas fait d'efforts
- je m'attendais à une explication plus approfondie des paroles et je trouve que le contexte des albums gagnerait à être plus mis en avant

Point positif
- très joli livre !! Bien mieux que la VO a mon humble avis
- ça reste une très grande rétrospective de la discographie de Taylor Swift et je pense c’ets un cadeau sympa pour une swiftie !

[Mom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book isn't wholly bad, I learned a great deal about Taylor Swift's songs and some of her life, but I would prefer reading a book from Taylor herself if she ever has time and would feel like it.

[Catarina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly love Taylor and this book was given to me when I was recovering from a small surgery. It was good because I was also in that period when the Eras Tour was over for me and it was that one thing I was waiting for so many years. So, although it was nothing new, it was really good to read about the songs that mean so much to me and also it was kind of a retrospective since I've been listening to Taylor's music since I was about 12 years old and I'm now 30.

[Subilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 – Bon, c'est un beau livre sur l'histoire cachée derrière CHAQUE chanson jamais écrite par Taylor Swift (Three Sad Virgins y figure, c'est pour dire). Ça se voit que l'autrice est fan de l'artiste, et ses descriptions sont respectueuses, basées sur des citations des personnes concernées et ne regorgent pas d'interprétations douteuses. On n'entre pas dans tous les détails, mais c'est une lecture qui m'a quand même appris des choses.

Mon seul problème c'est la traduction qui est très littérale, ça se lit difficilement selon moi, il y a des termes traduits et d'autres pas sans raison, c'est perturbant. Ça se voit aussi que la traductrice n'est pas vraiment fan, elle ne doit pas y connaître grand-chose à Taylor Swift et à la musique (une personne un temps soit peu informée connait le déroulement du concert et se doute que "Is it over now?" n'a PAS été performée lors d' «un concert surprise en partie acoustique» en Argentine, mais qu'elle a été jouée en tant que chanson surprise pendant la partie acoustique de The Eras Tour).

De plus, le travail d'édition en français aurait pu être revu. La traductrice mentionne James, la fille de Blake Lively et Ryan Reynolds, en tant que leur fils (dans la description de "Gorgeous") et ensuite en tant que leur fille (dans "betty"). Ce n'est pas si difficile de fact-check (il faudrait vérifier si le texte original se trompe aussi). Enfin, il aurait été aussi judicieux de ne pas écrire "le rappeur Ice Spice" au masculin, alors que la photo de LA rappeuse apparaît sous la description de la chanson concernée. 😅

[Carolina Santos]

if you are a swiftie you'll love this book

[Claudio Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Navegar por este livro enquanto ouvimos as musicas da Taylor tem a sua magia.

Embora não seja oficial, é como se trouxéssemos um pedacinho da Taylor Swift connosco, entendendo melhor o que se esconde por trás das suas músicas, dos seus poemas, dos seus pensamentos e do seu coração.

Annie Zaleski consegue capturar essa essência de forma envolvente, permitindo-nos sentir ainda mais próximos da artista.

Se já ouvimos All Too Well com a mesma intensidade que ela descreve os seus sentimentos, agora podemos entender melhor a complexidade de cada verso e sentir ainda mais a musica, com mais garra, com mais paixão...

[Emilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Treść - 5/5. Tego właśnie potrzebowałam! Kompendium wszystkich jej piosenek z analizą tekstu a dodatkowo historią ich powstawania.

Wydanie - 3/5. Niestety bardzo dużo błędów, no i to ,,pisemne spolszczanie" słów...

[pipa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fourth book I've read about Taylor Swift, and it's definitely the best!!

I've been a Swiftie since 2023 and instantly fell in love with Taylor's music and lyrics. While analyzing Taylor's lyrics is one of my favorite hobbies, this book gave me a deeper and more detailed understanding of Taylor's life, her songwriting, her relationships, and how she expresses her thoughts and feelings through beautiful melodies.

Taylor's mind is complex, mysterious, and at the same time, wonderful. The way she uses references, metaphors, and tells stories through her music is incredible. From upbeat songs like "22" and "ME" to sad ballads like "Champagne Problems" and "All Too Well," Taylor gives her all and pours all her emotions into the music she creates.

In conclusion, this book was a gift for all Swifties who commit to learning everything about their favorite singer and her discography. The images, the colors, the design, the organization and the information, everything in this book was perfect.

[Jules Lea (Taylor's version) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es una edición muy hermosa q merece mucho la pena comprar ❤️

Lo q le critico son algunas decisiones editoriales como no justificar los textos, errores muy obvios en TÍTULOS de las canciones y poner una foto de Matty Healy solo cuando nada q ver 🤨
Otras veces en el desarrollo de cada canción nombran datos q no son reales o, en la mayoría, no desarrollan como se debe. Hay canciones de Taylor q se pueden explicar de forma mucho más extensa y sólo se les da 1/3 de página…

Aún así, destacó la hermosa calidad del soporte y las fotos, descripciones y datos q si suman (q son bastantes). Me pareció muy refrescante el q también se analicen las composiciones musicales. Y cuando dice q habla de todas las canciones de Taylor, es xq posta nombra a TODAS JAJAJAJ AMÉ VER MONOLOGUE SONG Y THREE SAD VIRGINS 😂

[harrysnapper07!]

my dad borrowed this from mascot library for me and honestly i found it a pretty ok read
it covers every single song in her discography from debut until midnights with a four-page spread on tortured poets' (i know the author crashed out when ts announced that album right when the deadline for the final draft must've been due considering the copyright is 2024), with every song getting a paragraph (or sometimes more) describing its narrative and sound, with some speculation about whom it may be about also making the cut in some instances. though i found the discussion about production and instrumentation interesting, i wish it focussed more on possible interpretations of the song instead of just re-formatting the song into sentence form, with more detail on how the song fits into ts's discography. and as the book continued, the level of detail began to decrease, most notably for the folkmore and midnights eras, probably because for these albums there hasn't been the same level of "public speculation" to write about , though that was disappointing considering they are my absolute favourite albums and are incredibly rich with allusion's from ts' previous eras. there was also some good old comphet in the analysis which is sadly expected. though the book is 500 something pages there's many pages taken up with purely images which even though it was pretty cool it did annoy me at times as pictures from the wrong era made its way into a section and their formatting wasn't too great either.
but yeah pretty sick read to fan the flames of your ts hyperfixation

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a little hesitant going into this book since it wasn't written by Taylor but I was curious to see how it was collected and laid out. Some of this is really well done, using citated quotes throughout. It gives some good details on the songs. But then it's kind of hit and miss on the stories. Some are really short and others are a whole page. They added TTPD but it's more like just an acknowledgement to the album. Just a couple pages of writing in general, nothing like the breakdown of the other eras. Which, if you were going to add it, you might as well have taken the time to put work into that area as well.

Overall, it's a good book to enjoy little pieces of each song. I just wish we'd get something like this from Taylor herself. It would be epic.

[Chloe Bragança · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very very interesting look behind the scenes, new facts even for the most hardcore of Swifties, good for those who just love Taylor’s lyricism! Wish the section on TTPD was as in depth as the others, although the overview was still insightful!

[Maja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matty Healy Jumpscareee

[livasliwa]

sporo ciekawostek ale tez glupich bledow (1989 i the bolter 😐😐) i pls nie odzobacze tego dziwnego cienia na rece na okladce 😬 ogolnie cool takie 4,5/5 ⭐️ love u tay

[Darian Alysa · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a huge Swifty this was such a nice glimpse into her songs. A few were in the wrong sections though and I wish they went in depth on TTPD like they did with the rest of the albums/songs.

[amaira 🤍 (danny bear’s version) · Rating 5 out of 5]

~5 stars~
it was so nice to learn the meaning/context of every single song from taylor’s career!! loved it!! plus, the photos they chose to include were stunning!!!

[Robyn Worrall · Rating 4 out of 5]

not much to say about this - interesting if you're a swiftie🤣🫶🏼💗

[the best people in life are free · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love the Photos on it But i dont actually read because its boring

[Tess the Extreme Reader :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute must read for every Swiftie!!

[kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the little behind-the-scenes on how each song was crafted. Maybe I would’ve liked more tea on certain songs rather than an umbrella origin story, but I’ll take what I can get.

[vii · Rating 4 out of 5]

ostatnia książka przeczytana w tym roku więc musiała być potężna

[Megan Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much fun reading about what each song is truly about. Can't believe cardigan was originally going to be named "Maple".

[anaonitka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wspaniały zbiór. Pełen ciekawostek, rzetelnych opisów i pięknych zdjęć, choć niektóre z nich są moim zdaniem umieszczone w niewłaściwych miejscach. Ogromnie podobało mi się, że uwzględniono całokształt twórczości Taylor, dosłownie każdą piosenkę, niezależnie od tego, czy jest ona częścią jej dyskografii. Zastanawia mnie jedynie kwestia przyporządkowania "All Of The Girls You Loved Before" do ery Midnights, a nie Lover, jednakże autorka mogła się na to zdecydować kierując się datą wydania.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked the book because I was able to better understand the stories behind the songs of my favorite singer.

[Catarina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorei, mas infelizmente a tradução portuguesa tem muitos erros