The ultimate guide to every song on 'Red (Taylor's Version)'

Written by: Taylor Swift

Produced by: Christopher Rowe, Taylor Swift

Secret message: "I love you doesn't count after goodbye."

Fan lore: Although Swift has never named names when it comes to ex-inspired songs (save for perhaps "Forever & Always"), fans presume that this bittersweet opener has roots in her whirlwind romance with Jake Gyllenhaal. The two were first linked in October 2010 and reportedly split just before the year ended.

In "State of Grace," Swift sings of an unexpected, transformative relationship. Most notably, she uses the phrase, "twin fire signs, four blue eyes." Both Swift and Gyllenhaal have blue eyes, and both were born during Sagittarius season, which is a fire sign.

Trivia: "State of Grace" was played as the opening song during the Red Tour in 2013 and 2014. Critics have compared its anthemic rock sound to U2.

An acoustic version was included on the deluxe version of "Red," as well as "Red (Taylor's Version)." Swift has said it was an intentional reimagining of the song, rather than a raw demo, since she felt a mellowed sound changed the emotion of the lyrics.

Best lyrics: "Love is a ruthless game, unless you play it good and right."

Written by: Taylor Swift

Produced by: Christopher Rowe, Taylor Swift

Secret message: "SAG."

Fan lore: It's long been suspected that Gyllenhaal is the main antagonist-slash-love-interest who appears throughout "Red," and the title track's secret message certainly supports this theory. As previously noted, Gyllenhaal is a Sagittarius, which is often abbreviated as "Sag" in online astrology communities.

Trivia: Physical copies of Swift's 2019 album "Lover" included scanned excerpts from old diaries, which revealed that "Red" was written during a red-eye flight to Nashville on September 7, 2011. It was recorded the following day, when Swift journaled, "I'd love to name my next album 'Red.'" (She later described the experience as "a real turning point" for the album.)

Swift's use of the color to symbolize "powerful," unstable passion would return in the "Lover" closing track "Daylight," apparently inspired by her current long-term relationship with Joe Alwyn: "I once believed love would be burning red, but it's golden."

Best lyrics: "Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street / Faster than the wind, passionate as sin / Ending so suddenly."

Written by: Taylor Swift, Dan Wilson

Produced by: Dan Wilson

Secret message: "Won't stop till it's over."

Fan lore: This song's secret message is taken from The Temper Trap's 2008 indie anthem "Sweet Disposition," whose chorus ends with the couplet, "Won't stop 'till it's over / Won't stop to surrender."

This points to Harry Styles, who has a slightly incorrect version of the lyric tattooed on his arm.

Styles and Swift were first linked in the fall of 2012, though it's unclear when they actually began dating. The Temper Trap's guitarist Joseph Greer confirmed that Swift and Styles shared a love for the band.

"We were doing an awards ceremony in Australia and Taylor Swift was playing at it and she was dating Harry Styles at the time," Greer told Daily Hive in 2016, adding that Swift asked the band to write the lyrics to "Sweet Disposition" as a present for Styles. "And so we were thinking, 'Shit, do we write the right one?'"

However, the secret message could also be another nod to Gyllenhaal. On "All Too Well," Swift sings, "Oh, your sweet disposition / And my wide-eyed gaze / We're singing in the car, getting lost upstate."

Trivia: Swift told USA Today that "Treacherous" was inspired by "a person that I knew, from the minute I saw him, that it would end in fiery, burning wreckage," which suggests a connection with "I Knew You Were Trouble."

She cowrote the song with Dan Wilson, who she knew as a member of the rock band Semisonic, of "Closing Time" fame.

"I've always wanted to work with him," she said during an acoustic session with fans. "We wrote a song about when you're falling for someone and you know that it's dangerous, and you know that it could really, really, really, really, really just annihilate you if it were to not work out — and it could possibly not work out, and it probably won't work out, but you go for it anyway."

Best lyrics: "Nothing safe is worth the drive / And I would follow you, follow you home."

Written by: Max Martin, Shellback, Taylor Swift

Produced by: Christopher Rowe, Taylor Swift, Shellback

Secret message: "When you saw me dancing."

Fan lore: Styles has long been the presumed subject of this song, a theory fueled by Swift's performance at the 2013 BRIT Awards.

Asked if it was difficult to perform with her ex-boyfriend watching, Swift told the UK's Sunday Times Magazine, "Well, it's not hard to access that emotion when the person the song is directed at is standing by the side of the stage watching."

As far as the public is aware, Styles was Swift's only ex in the audience that night.

However, Styles probably didn't inspire this song, even if Swift came to associate it with him later. The couple's split wasn't reported until early 2013, a few months after "Red" was released and several months after "I Knew You Were Trouble" was written.

The more likely culprit is John Mayer, who already had a reputation as a womanizer when Swift dated him briefly in 2009. She was 19 and he was 32.

Trivia: Swift told Time that she wrote this song's melody on the piano, then enlisted dubstep producers Max Martin and Shellback to help it sound "as chaotic as that emotion felt."

"I can't really say I've studied it or anything," Swift said of the genre. "I didn't even know that that's really what we were doing with the track — I just knew I wanted it to sound a certain way. And that's what people have been calling it."

Best lyrics: "And the saddest fear / Comes creeping in / That you never loved me / Or her, or anyone, or anything."

Written by: Taylor Swift, Liz Rose

Produced by: Christopher Rowe, Taylor Swift

Secret message: "Maple latte."

Fan lore: Coffee dates became a hallmark of Swift's public-facing relationship with Gyllenhaal. In November 2010, a headline from People magazine announced, "Taylor Swift & Jake Gyllenhaal Share Thanksgiving Maple Lattes."

Around the same time, they were photographed sipping coffee in Brooklyn with the actor's sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal. Sources claim the couple celebrated Thanksgiving that year at Maggie's apartment nearby.

In "All Too Well," Swift describes leaving a scarf at her ex's sister's place, though Maggie has denied being in possession of such an accessory.

In the extended version, Swift adds more fuel to this theory by singing, "your Brooklyn broke my skin and bones."

She also seems to nod to the former couple's age gap: "You said if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine / And that made me want to die." Swift was 20 when they began dating, while Gyllenhaal was 29.

Trivia: "All Too Well" was the first track Swift wrote that made it onto "Red." According to her interview with USA Today, it was conceived nearly two years prior to the album's release, though it took some time to complete.

Swift said she came up with some of the song's most "pointed" lyrics while she was "ranting during a soundcheck."

"I was just playing these chords over and over onstage and my band joined in and I went on a rant," she told Popdust. "One of the first things that I came up with, just, like, spat out, was, 'And you call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest.'"

The day "Red" was released, Swift revealed on "Good Morning America" that "All Too Well" — still the longest song on the album at five minutes and 27 seconds — had been trimmed dramatically.

"It took me a really long time to filter through everything I wanted to put in the song without it being a 10-minute song, which you can't put on an album," she said, adding that she asked her longtime cowriter, Liz Rose, to help refine the lyrics.

"She had a story to get out, so we just sat down and started going through it piece by piece, and as she sang all these things, I just wrote down what I thought were the important pieces that hit," Rose told Yahoo! in 2014.

Fans have been begging to hear the full song for nearly a decade, and finally, "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault)" was included as the last track on "Red (Taylor's Version)."

Some of the never-before-heard lyrics are clearly connected to other songs on the album, most notably "The Moment I Knew" ("It's supposed to be fun turning 21") and "State of Grace" ("Did the twin flame bruise paint you blue?").

Best lyrics: "After plaid-shirt days and nights when you made me your own / Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone / But you keep my old scarf from that very first week / 'Cause it reminds you of innocence and it smells like me."

Written by: Max Martin, Shellback, Taylor Swift

Produced by: Christopher Rowe, Taylor Swift, Shellback

Secret message: "Ashley Dianna Claire Selena."

Fan lore: This song's secret message is pretty plain: "22" is dedicated to Swift's close friends at the time, most likely stylist Ashley Avignone, "Glee" star Dianna Agron, jewelry designer Claire Kislinger, and singer-slash-actor Selena Gomez.

Trivia: Swift told Billboard that age 22 was her "favorite year" thus far, describing the time as "carefree" mixed with "indecision and fear."

"I like all the possibilities of how you're still learning, but you know enough. You still know nothing, but you know that you know nothing. You're old enough to start planning your life, but you're young enough to know there are so many unanswered questions," she said.

The song is the spiritual successor of "Fifteen," the second track on Swift's sophomore album "Fearless."

"I learned a lot of lessons the hard way and [15] was a vulnerable age," she told The Daily Beast. "And 22 is a vulnerable age, but you're a little more brave. You're a little more ready to take risks and live with the consequences."

Best lyrics: "We're happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time / It's miserable and magical."

Written by: Taylor Swift

Produced by: Christopher Rowe, Taylor Swift

Secret message: "Wrote this instead of calling."

Fan lore: Some theorize the standard edition of "Red" is thematically split in half: eight songs about losing and mourning love, then eight songs about finding and appreciating love.

In this interpretation, "I Almost Do" marks an essential shift. Swift still sings from a place of longing; she describes her urge to reconnect with an ex and give their relationship another try. Ultimately, however, it's a song about leaving dysfunctional love in the past.

Theoretically, this leads to her breakthrough in the next song, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," when Swift ditches her doubts and embraces her new path.

Trivia: "I Almost Do" seems to match Swift's real-life resolve when it comes to breakups.

"I'm a really good girlfriend," Swift told the UK's Sunday Times Magazine. "But I'm a nonexistent ex-girlfriend."

Best lyrics: "I bet it never, ever occurred to you / That I can't say hello to you and risk another goodbye."

Written by: Max Martin, Shellback, Taylor Swift

Produced by: Christopher Rowe, Taylor Swift, Shellback

Secret message: "When I stopped caring what you thought."

Fan lore: Swift famously adopted a British accent when she performed this song at the 2013 Grammy Awards, leading some to believe it was inspired by Styles. However, Gyllenhaal is the more probable suspect.

Swift has hinted at a connection between the album's title track and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." She told VH1's "Storytellers" that the former was written about a passionate relationship, which wavered between "love and affection" and "jealousy and anger and frustration and 'you didn't call me back' and 'I need space.'" In the latter, Swift sings, "We hadn't seen each other in a month when you said you needed space."

Trivia: "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was the lead single from "Red" and became Swift's first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The pop earworm marked a significant shift in Swift's career, as she was still known primarily as a country singer. Swift said her intent was to stick it to an ex who "made me feel like I wasn't as good or as relevant as these hipster bands he listened to."

"So I made a song that I knew would absolutely drive him crazy when he heard it on the radio," she told USA Today. "Not only would it hopefully be played a lot, so that he'd have to hear it, but it's the opposite of the kind of music that he was trying to make me feel inferior to."

The spoken-word bridge was organically born when Swift went on a "rant" in the studio after a surprise visit from her ex's friend. She began explaining her recent breakup to Martin and Shellback, and her monologue was recorded as "a voice memo on someone's iPhone."

"It was Max's idea to just pop it in," she told Yahoo! Music. "It was one of those moments that took the moment before we wrote the song and incorporated it into the song, so it was really exciting."

Best lyrics: "You would hide away and find your peace of mind / With some indie record that's much cooler than mine."

Written by: Taylor Swift

Produced by: Christopher Rowe, Taylor Swift

Secret message: "Daydreaming about real love."

Fan lore: "Stay Stay Stay" is widely presumed to be fiction, much like the imagined characters and storylines that populate Swift's eighth and ninth albums, "Folklore" and "Evermore."

Trivia: This song paints the key to "real love" as straightforward and fun, punctuated by the sound of Swift laughing at the end of the recording. Her simple request to "stay" acts as a foil to the hot-and-cold relationship described in the previous track.

Swift would revisit this concept in "All You Had to Do Was Stay," the fifth track on her 2014 album "1989."

Best lyrics: "All those times that you didn't leave, it's been occurring to me / I'd like to hang out with you for my whole life."

Written by: Gary Lightbody, Jacknife Lee, Taylor Swift

Produced by: Jacknife Lee

Secret message: "LA on your break."

Fan lore: This secret message could allude to Swift's final public outing with Gyllenhaal, when they were spotted driving together in Los Angeles. According to reports at the time, when Swift flew back to Nashville to celebrate her birthday, Gyllenhaal remained in California to promote his new film, "Love and Other Drugs."

Moreover, the song's lyrics mirror the on-again-off-again dynamic described in "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," though filtered through a far more somber lens. Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody seems to serenade Swift from Gyllenhaal's perspective.

Trivia: Swift said "The Last Time" was inspired by an experience with an "unreliable guy."

"My visual for this song is, there's a guy on his knees sitting on the ground outside of a door. And on the other side of the door is his girlfriend, who he keeps on leaving — and he keeps coming back to her, but then he leaves again," she told NPR. "It's a really fragile emotion you're dealing with when you want to love someone, but you don't know if it's smart to."

According to Lightbody, "The Last Time" was written and recorded in just nine hours.

"[Swift] works really fast. She's extraordinary," he told Rolling Stone. "We actually did that song, wrote it and recorded it in a day. And that was the version of it on the record, which is very rare."

Best lyrics: "You wear your best apology / But I was there to watch you leave."

Written by: Taylor Swift

Produced by: Jeff Bhasker

Secret message: "When you came to the show in SD."

Fan lore: This song's secret message and reminiscent lyrics imply it was inspired by a less recent ex. At the time of the album's release, her latest tour was for "Speak Now," and she performed in San Diego on October 20, 2011.

Interestingly, Joe Jonas was spotted in the audience at two of Swift's shows during the Speak Now World Tour, both in California. Is it possible that he also attended her show in San Diego? Plenty of fans think so.

"Holy Ground" is about seeing a past relationship with new eyes and coming to appreciate its value. Swift and Jonas had a notoriously messy breakup in 2008, but managed to mend things in the years since. There's even reason to believe that Swift sent Jonas and Sophie Turner a present when the "Game of Thrones" star gave birth to their first child.

One lyric, in particular, offers strong support to the Jonas theory: "For the first time, I had something to lose." To the public's knowledge, Jonas was Swift's first serious boyfriend.

Moreover, the bridge ("I don't wanna dance unless I'm dancing with you") could be a callback to "Last Kiss," the 13th track on "Speak Now," which many presume to be about Jonas ("I'm not much for dancing, but for you I did").

Trivia: Swift said she wrote "Holy Ground" right after seeing the ex-boyfriend in question.

"Years had gone by and I finally appreciated a past relationship for what it was, rather than being bitter about what it didn't end up being," she said. "I was sitting there thinking about it after I'd just seen him, and I was just like, 'You know what? That was good. It was good having that in my life.'"

She also said she "immediately" wanted the song to be produced by Jeff Bhasker, who is best known for his work with Kanye West on "808s & Heartbreak" (2008), "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (2010), and "Watch the Throne" (2011).

Best lyrics: "Took off faster than a green light, go / Hey, you skip the conversation when you already know / I left a note on the door with a joke we'd made / And that was the first day."

Written by: Taylor Swift

Produced by: Christopher Rowe, Taylor Swift, Paul Mirkovich

Secret message: "While you were on a train."

Fan lore: This could definitely be another ode to Gyllenhaal, though some fans have noted a tonal similarity between "Sad Beautiful Tragic" and "Back to December," the third track on "Speak Now," which Taylor Lautner has confirmed he inspired. The two dated for a few months in 2009 and broke up in early 2010.

Trivia: Swift wrote "Sad Beautiful Tragic" on her tour bus during the Speak Now World Tour, which began in February 2011 and ended in March 2012.

She told Billboard it was inspired by a relationship "that ended months and months before," describing the emotion as "wistful loss."

"I wanted to tell the story in terms of a cloudy recollection of what went wrong. It's kind of the murky gray, looking back on something you can't change or get back," she said, recalling the "dark gray" feeling of "missing him" described in the title track.

Best lyrics: "And time is taking its sweet time erasing you / And you've got your demons, and darling, they all look like me."

Written by: Taylor Swift

Produced by: Jeff Bhasker

Secret message: "Wouldn't you like to know."

Fan lore: This secret message is likely a nod to Swift's ever-expanding fame and distaste for tabloid fodder. Swift is open about her policy not to name her muses, and during the "Red" era, she was consistently tight-lipped when asked about her private life.

"I like the way the stories of my relationships sound to music more than the way they look in print, in gossip columns or in me talking about them in interviews," she told USA Today. "I think it's a better way of telling the stories."

Trivia: "The Lucky One," a semi-autobiographical song about stardom, bears a striking similarity to "Lucky" by Britney Spears. In fact, Swift covered "Lucky" at her show in Louisiana during the Speak Now World Tour.

Swift makes it clear in the song's very first line that she is not the protagonist in this story ("New to town with a made-up name"). The fictional tale seems inspired by a patchwork of female starlets, including Spears, Joni Mitchell, and Kim Wilde.

At the time, Swift was in talks to portray Mitchell in a big-screen adaptation of Sheila Weller's book "Girls Like Us," a biography of Mitchell, Carole King, and Carly Simon. (The project was "squelched" by Mitchell herself.)

"The Lucky One" also interpolates a melody from Wilde's 1988 single "Four Letter Word." The British pop star famously left music to pursue a career in landscape gardening, which Swift appears to reference in the song's third verse ("They say you bought a bunch of land somewhere / Chose the rose garden over Madison Square").

Best lyrics: "And they tell you that you're lucky, but you're just so confused / 'Cause you don't feel pretty, you just feel used / And all the young things line up to take your place."

Written by: Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift

Produced by: Butch Walker

Secret message: "Hyannis Port."

Fan lore: This song is widely seen as an ode to the "green eyes and freckles" of Conor Kennedy, whom Swift began dating the summer before she released "Red."

In August 2012, the new couple was spotted kissing in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. It was shortly after Swift purchased a house nearby. According to People, Ethel Kennedy owned a house across the street from Swift's property, which she sold in March 2013.

Trivia: Swift and Sheeran wrote the song while sitting on a trampoline in Swift's backyard.

"I was like 'Hey, I just got a trampoline. You want to see it?' And so, he brought the guitar for some reason," she told MTV. "We ended up writing an entire song out there. For portions of the song, [we were bouncing around] 'cause it's a trampoline and it's fun, and the combined maturity level of both of us is 8 years old."

Best lyrics: "'Cause all I know is we said, 'Hello' / And your eyes look like coming home."

Written by: Taylor Swift

Produced by: Christopher Rowe, Taylor Swift, Paul Mirkovich

Secret message: "For Ethel."

Fan lore: N/A

Trivia: We don't need theories for this one. Swift confirmed that "Starlight" was inspired by an old photo she saw of Ethel and Robert Kennedy as teenagers.

"I get a lot of style inspiration from the 1960s, so I'll go and look at black and white pictures, and look at [photos from the] '50s and '60s, and I came across this picture of these two kids dancing at a dance," she told the Wall Street Journal. "It immediately made me think of how much fun they must have had that night. It was back in the late '40s."

"I ended up reading underneath that it was Ethel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy," she continued. "So I just kind of wrote that song from that place, not really knowing how they met or anything like that."

The song was written from Ethel's perspective, made clear by the lyrical references to "Bobby," meeting in 1945 at just 17 years old, and teaching 10 kids "how to dream." (In reality, the couple raised 11 children.)

It's unclear whether Swift was already dating the couple's grandson when she wrote "Starlight," but the lyric about having "snuck into a yacht club party" could be a cheeky nod to rumors that she and Conor crashed his cousin's wedding.

"I think that story was based on the biggest misunderstanding, 'cause I would never knowingly show up somewhere that I thought I wasn't invited to. And I would never want to upstage anybody," she told Rolling Stone of the incident.

Best lyrics: "I said, 'Oh, my, what a marvelous tune' / It was the best night, never would forget how we moved."

Written by: Taylor Swift

Produced by: Christopher Rowe, Taylor Swift

Secret message: "I wear heels now."

Fan lore: "Begin Again" seems to complete the Kennedy trilogy on "Red," though the couple reportedly split just before the album's release.

The song also works as a worthy thesis for Swift's songwriting career. Despite the breakups and disappointments that saturate her lyrics, she has always maintained a steadfast belief in love itself.

"The way I look at love is you have to follow it, and fall hard, if you fall hard," she told Rolling Stone at the time. "You have to forget about what everyone else thinks. It has to be an us-against-the-world mentality. You have to make it work by prioritizing it, and by falling in love really fast, without thinking too hard. If I think too hard about a relationship I'll talk myself out of it."

Trivia: Swift tends to end her albums with an emotional, optimistic ballad ("Change," "Clean," "New Year's Day," "Daylight").

"Begin Again," the original closer on the standard edition of "Red," fits in this tradition. It's perhaps the only true love song on the tracklist. Swift described it as an "epiphany" and a "rebirth" in an interview with Yahoo! Music.

Best lyrics: "You said you never met one girl who had as many James Taylor records as you, but I do."

Written by: Taylor Swift

Produced by: Christopher Rowe, Taylor Swift, Paul Mirkovich

Secret message: N/A

Fan lore: "The Moment I Knew" is the first of three original bonus tracks on the album's deluxe edition, which excludes it from the liner notes included with physical copies of the album.

But fans still think it's pretty clear who inspired this heartbreak anthem; Swift confirmed the song was written about her 21st birthday party, which she called "the worst experience ever." She was dating Gyllenhaal at the time, who was a no-show to the festivities. Their split made headlines just a few weeks later.

Even Rolling Stone claimed "100% confidence" that Gyllenhaal inspired this "nakedly confessional song."

Trivia: Swift told New York Magazine that "most of 'Red'" was written about one guy, who reached out after its release.

"He was like, 'I just listened to the album, and that was a really bittersweet experience for me. It was like going through a photo album,'" she said. "That was nice. Nicer than, like, the ranting, crazy e-mails I got from this one dude."

"It's a lot more mature way of looking at a love that was wonderful until it was terrible, and both people got hurt from it — but one of those people happened to be a songwriter," she added.

Best lyrics: "What do you do when the one who means the most to you is the one who didn't show?"

Written by: Dan Wilson, Taylor Swift

Produced by: Dan Wilson

Secret message: N/A

Fan lore: Many fans believe this song was inspired by Styles, though others say it's about a brief fling with Zac Efron.

Swift was spotted on a "flirty dinner date" with the "High School Musical" actor in January 2012. The following month, they appeared together on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" to promote their film "The Lorax," but denied dating rumors.

Throughout the next few months, Efron appeared in various cities for work events — including New York and London, which are both cited as inconvenient locations in "Come Back... Be Here."

In truth, this song could be about anyone. The central theme is physical distance, which is a reoccurring obstacle in celebrities' dating lives.

Trivia: Swift said "Come Back... Be Here" is about "falling for someone and then they have to go away for work."

"They're traveling, you're traveling, and you're thinking about them, but you're wondering how it's gonna work when there's so much distance between you," she told Yahoo! Music.

At a release party for "Red," Swift also described the song's subject as "a guy that I met," rather than an ex-boyfriend.

Best lyrics: "The delicate beginning rush / The feeling you can know so much / Without knowing anything at all."

Written by: Taylor Swift

Produced by: Elvira Anderfjärd

Secret message: N/A

Fan lore: This song is also rumored to be about Efron, who was reportedly dating Lily Collins during his flirtation with Swift — though it feels like it could apply to plenty of Hollywood men.

In "Girl at Home," Swift chastises someone for "crossing so many lines" while he's spoken for. She also says he'd be making "a fine proposition" if she herself hadn't been cheated on, suggesting a connection with the "Red"-era song "Babe," which seems to tell the story of Swift's own betrayal.

Trivia: Swift said "Girl at Home" was simply written about "a guy who had a girlfriend."

"I just felt like it was disgusting that he was flirting with other girls," she told Yahoo! Music.

Best lyrics: "Call a cab, lose my number / You're about to lose your girl."

Written by: Maya Thompson, Taylor Swift

Produced by: Christopher Rowe, Taylor Swift

Secret message: N/A

Fan lore: N/A

Trivia: This heart-wrenching ballad was written in 2012 from the perspective of Maya Thompson, whose 3-year-old son had recently died of neuroblastoma. Swift based the lyrics on posts from Thompson's blog, Rockstar Ronan, and credited the Arizona mom as a cowriter.

In a post from September 2012, Thompson described getting a phone call from Swift, asking for her permission to perform the song at the televised Stand Up to Cancer benefit.

"I was a blubbering mess telling her how much this meant to me as she was helping me keep your memory alive and helping me to do amazing things," she wrote. "How if I had to pick my dream person to be tied to your name, it would be her because she is full of so much pure goodness, just like you."

"Ronan" was not included on the original version of "Red." It was released on iTunes after the benefit performance and all proceeds were donated to cancer research.

Swift has performed the song just one other time in 2015, when Thompson attended her concert in Glendale, Arizona during the 1989 Tour.

After Scooter Braun took control of Big Machine Records in 2019, acquiring the legal rights to Swift's entire discography thus far, Thompson voiced her discomfort with his ownership of "Ronan" on Twitter.

In a follow-up blog post on July 30, 2021, Thompson revealed that Swift had asked for her permission to rerecord "Ronan" for "Red (Taylor's Version)."

"Red was an album of heartbreak and healing, of rage and rawness, of tragedy and trauma, and of the loss of an imagined future alongside someone," Swift told Thompson via email. "I wrote Ronan while I was making Red and discovered your story as you so honestly and devastatingly told it."

"My genuine hope is that you'll agree with me that this song should be included on this album," she continued. "As my co-writer and the rightful owner of this story in its entirety, your opinion and approval of this idea really matters to me, and I'll honor your wishes here."

Thompson told Insider that she was shocked yet thrilled by Swift's request.

"The only place Ronan belongs is with Taylor. And just the fact that it was a possibility of him being somewhere else was, as a mom and that's my child, and that was just, I couldn't even," she said. "It was just unbearable to think about."

"Knowing that he's with Taylor and that's his home and that's where he belongs, it means everything to me."

Best lyrics: "It's about to be Halloween / You could be anything you wanted if you were still here."

Written by: Taylor Swift

Produced by: Aaron Dessner, Taylor Swift

Secret message: N/A

Fan lore: This song thematically corresponds to "Red" and "All Too Well," both presumably inspired by Gyllenhaal. All three illustrate the tragic irony of breakups, which are most painful if you can remember when the relationship was "magic."

In the second pre-chorus, Swift sings, "You're talking down to me like I'll always be around." This recalls the second verse of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and Swift's memories of being made to feel "inferior" by her ex.

Trivia: "Better Man" was recorded and released by country group Little Big Town (Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbrook) years after it was cut from the original "Red" tracklist.

"We've been friends with her forever," Fairchild said of Swift in 2016. "She emailed Phillip one night and she said, 'Hey, I keep thinking about this song that I wrote and wondering if it might be for y'all. So listen to it and see what you think.'"

"We kept coming back to it and couldn't get away from it," Sweet added. "It was sticking with us, too, so we had to cut it."

When asked why Swift didn't keep the song for herself, Schlapman replied, "We didn't ask. We just said, 'Thank you very much, we'll take it.'"

The song won best country duo/group performance at the 2018 Grammy Awards.

Best lyrics: "I hold onto my pride because these days, it's all I have / And I gave you my best and we both know you can't say that."

Written by: Taylor Swift

Produced by: Aaron Dessner, Taylor Swift

Secret message: N/A

Fan lore: This song explores the connective link between "15," which Swift wrote when she was 18 years old, and "22," its spiritual successor. In the chorus of "Nothing New," Swift sings, "How can a person know everything at 18, but nothing at 22?"

Trivia: In a diary entry dated March 2, 2012, released with physical copies of "Lover," Swift revealed that she wrote "Nothing New" while traveling from Sydney to Perth.

She composed the song using an Appalachian dulcimer, a stringed folk instrument that she bought just before her flight. The purchase was inspired by Joni Mitchell, who apparently played the same kind of instrument throughout her fourth album "Blue."

"I've been thinking a lot about getting older and relevancy and how all my heroes have all ended up alone," Swift wrote, coining a line nearly identical to one she would eventually use in her 2019 single "The Archer."

Swift said she wrote "Nothing New" about "being scared of aging and things changing and losing what you have," and transcribed a lyric that was ultimately scrapped: "I'm getting older and less sure of what you like about me anyway."

"It's a really vulnerable song, but I think it's important to say," she added.

Swift voiced similar fears in her 2020 documentary "Miss Americana."

"We do exist in this society where women in entertainment are discarded in an elephant graveyard by the time they're 35," she narrated. "Everyone's a shiny new toy for like, two years. The female artists that I know of have reinvented themselves 20 times more than the male artists. They have to, or else you're out of a job."

She described this external pressure as, "Be new to us. Be young to us, but only in a new way, and only the way we want, and reinvent yourself, but only in a way that we find equally comforting, but also a challenge for you."

She added: "As I'm reaching 30, I'm like, I want to work really hard while society is still tolerating me being successful."

Best lyrics: "It's a fever dream / The kind of radiance you only have at 17."

Written by: Pat Monahan, Taylor Swift

Produced by: Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift

Secret message: N/A

Fan lore: Though it's unclear who among Swift's exes were unfaithful ("Her lips on your neck, I can't unsee it"), it would make sense if multiple songs from the "Red" vault were directed towards Gyllenhaal.

Swift said the album was originally "about one relationship," but she ended up "scratching" several breakup songs in the last six months of the creative process to make room for more optimistic compositions.

"That first year is like a development phase," she told Yahoo! Music. "And then you go into year two, and you have new experiences and learn all kinds of new lessons. And there are still some things that are very heartbroken on the record. But there are also shades of different kinds of things that I was inspired by, different layers of emotion, different levels of emotion."

Trivia: "Babe" was released as a single in 2018 by country duo Sugarland (Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush) with Swift as a featured vocalist. She also starred in the music video as a red-haired romantic rival.

"[Taylor] reached out. We [have] obviously known each other for many years. When she was first getting started we had just had our first little EP out, called 'Premium Quality Tunes,'" Nettles told Billboard. "She still has a copy of it that we signed for her whenever we played a couple of shows together."

"She was excited we were getting back together and reached out and said, 'Hey, I have a song,'" Nettles continued. "That is a short list, ladies and gentleman, of people to whom she has said, 'Hey, I have a song, you want to sing it?' So we said, 'Yeah!'"

At the time, Swift confirmed that she had cowritten the song with Train's Pat Monahan while making "Red."

Best lyrics: "Your secret has its consequence and that's on you, babe."

Written by: Max Martin, Shellback, Taylor Swift

Produced by: Elvira Anderfjärd, Shellback

Secret message: N/A

Fan lore: The mention of "freckles and bright eyes" in this song's first verse echoes the "green eyes and freckles" line in "Everything Has Changed," which suggests Kennedy's influence.

Fans were also quick to note a thematic connection between "Message in a Bottle" and "Come Back... Be Here," particularly in the bridge.

"How is it in London? / Where are you while I'm wondering / If I'll ever see you again?" Swift sings, referencing the same city and describing a similar yearning as in the previous deluxe track ("I guess you're in London today / And I don't wanna need you this way").

Alternatively, these details could point to Styles, who hails from England and also has green eyes.

Trivia: Swift used the phrase "message in a bottle" throughout the "Red" era to describe her approach to songwriting.

"I've never changed the reason I write a song. Songs for me are like a message in a bottle," she told The Daily Beast. "You send them out to the world and maybe the person who you feel that way about will hear about it someday."

She echoed this sentiment during the final stop on her Red Tour: "I think for me, a question that I get asked sort of a lot is: How do you write a song? Like, where do you start? I just imagine that I am putting a message in a bottle and sending it out into the ocean."

Best lyrics: "Time moves faster, replaying your laughter, disaster."

Written by: Lori McKenna, Taylor Swift

Produced by: Aaron Dessner, Taylor Swift

Secret message: N/A

Fan lore: Several lines indicate that "I Bet You Think About Me" was inspired by the same man as "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," presumably Gyllenhaal.

Once again, Swift addresses an ex that made her feel inferior, out of step with his "upper-crust circles" and "cool indie music concerts." She also rehashes his need for "space."

It seems he blamed their relationship issues on being "too different." Swift underscores this point in the third verse, juxtaposing her ex's childhood in "a silver-spoon gated community" in Beverly Hills with her own upbringing on a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania. Indeed, Gyllenhaal was raised in Los Angeles by two parents in the filmmaking industry.

Trivia: Chris Stapleton is also a featured artist on Adele's "30," slated for release just one week after "Red (Taylor's Version)." Asked how these powerhouse collaborations came about, Stapleton replied simply, "They called and I answered."

"Those are calls you pick up and say, 'What shall I do? OK, cool.' That's how that goes," he told press at the 2021 Country Music Association awards.

Best lyrics: "I bet you couldn't believe / When you realized I'm harder to forget than I was to leave."

Written by: Mark Foster, Taylor Swift

Produced by: Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift

Secret message: N/A

Fan lore: "Forever Winter" feels like a prelude to "Better Man," with the former written in the midst of a strained relationship and the latter written in retrospect. In both songs, Swift describes staying up all night into the wee hours of the morning, fretting about a man who was painful to love.

In "Forever Winter," she calls to check in at 3 a.m. while he's spiraling, and again at 5 a.m. when he's drunk. She begs him not to leave her.

In "Better Man," she sings, "I wish it wasn't 4 a.m., standing in the mirror / Saying to myself, 'You know you had to do it' / I know the bravest thing I ever did was run."

"Forever Winter" also shares thematic similarities to "Renegade," a song Swift wrote with Aaron Dessner and recorded for Dessner and Justin Vernon's band Big Red Machine. The song was released on July 2, 2021, less than one month after Swift announced "Red (Taylor's Version)" would be her second rerecorded album.

Trivia: Although "Forever Winter" was left off the original "Red" tracklist, Mark Foster (of pop-rock band Foster the People) revealed he'd written a song with Swift a few months before its release in 2012.

"It's a really cool song," he told Fuse. "We kind of just went into it casually, like let's just jam and just have fun, and something really cool came out of it."

"We'll see what happens with it," he continued. "She's been writing a lot for her next record. But it was a lot of fun working with her, she's super talented."

When the tracklist for "Red (Taylor's Version)" was announced, Foster described Swift as "one of our generation's most prolific and talented artists" and praised her for "trailblazing a new way for artists to own their masters."

Best lyrics: "I pull at every thread trying to solve the puzzles in his head / Live my life scared to death he'll decide to leave instead."

Written by: Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift

Produced by: Aaron Dessner, Taylor Swift

Secret message: N/A

Fan lore: According to Sheeran, the two friends wrote "Run" about one week before "Everything Has Changed." This timeline would suggest that "Run" was also inspired by Kennedy.

The lyric "We shouldn't be in this town" could refer to the secret message for "Everything Has Changed," which was "Hyannis Port." Swift and Kennedy were photographed there together multiple times, leading to heavy scrutiny from the press.

"Run" could then be seen as a reaction to the difficulties of nurturing and protecting a relationship in the public eye, a concept she would explore thoroughly on her next album, "1989."

Trivia: Sheeran said he assumed Swift would include "Run" on the initial release of "Red" rather than "Everything Has Changed," but she chose the latter instead.

"'Run' was always my favorite one, but 'Everything Has Changed' just ended up sounding better, 'cause I think we produced them differently," he told Capital FM.

"So 'Run' has just been there for years and years and years, and I've never really wanted to nudge Taylor about it, because it's her song and her thing," he continued. "But I've always been secretly hoping that one day she'd be like, 'Hey, this one was cool.'"

Best lyrics: "My so-called friends, they don't know / I'd drive away before I let you go."

Written by: Amund Bjørklund, Espen Lind, Taylor Swift

Produced by: Espionage, Tim Blacksmith, Danny D

Secret message: N/A

Fan lore: The second verse of "The Very First Night" features two clear callbacks to previous tracks, "All Too Well" and "The Last Time," both suspected to be inspired by Gyllenhaal.

"But don't forget about the night out in LA / Dance in the kitchen, chase me down through the hallway," Swift sings.

The secret message for "The Last Time" was "LA on your break," while "All Too Well" includes a memorable lyric about "dancing in the kitchen in the refrigerator light."

Some fans however, including Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield, think "The Very First Night" sounds like it's "part of the same jet-set rock-star romance as 'Come Back… Be Here.'"

Trivia: This is Swift's first known collaboration with Norwegian production duo Amund Bjørklund and Espen Lind, known professionally as Espionage, who helped write hits like Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable" and Train's "Hey, Soul Sister."

Best lyrics: "We broke the status quo / Then we broke each other's hearts."