Jake Gyllenhaal and Taylor Swift had a whirlwind romance. Which songs from the album “Red” are about their relationship?
When Taylor Swift released her re-recording of her second studio album “Fearless,” listeners were thrown back to her previous relationship with former teen heartthrob Joe Jonas (that ended in a 27-second phone call). “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” featured previously unreleased songs that were also about her relationship with Joe.
The Grammy-winning singer announced her next re-recorded album would be “Red” — best known to be about her ex-boyfriend, Jake Gyllenhaal.
“Musically and lyrically, ‘Red’ resembled a heartbroken person. It was all over the place, a fractured mosaic of feelings that somehow all fit together in the end. Happy, free, confused, lonely, devastated, euphoric, wild, and tortured by memories past,” Taylor wrote in her announcement of the re-recorded album. “And I’m not sure if it was pouring my thoughts into this album, hearing thousands of your voices sing the lyrics back to me in passionate solidarity, or if it was simply time, but something was healed along the way. Sometimes you need to talk it over (over and over and over) for it to ever really be … over.”
But which albums in her discography are about her relationship with Jake? We have an almost comprehensive rundown — though some of the new tracks “from the vault” could be about her former love.
“All Too Well”
Arguably one of Taylor’s best-known hits, “All Too Well” is the song your friend who just went through a breakup scream-sings in her car. Fans still want to know if Jake’s sister has that scarf she left at her house. On “Red (Taylor’s Version),” we’ll even be getting the full, 10-minute version Taylor originally wrote.
“The Moment I Knew”
Because of “The Moment I Knew,” fans still comment on Jake’s posts asking why he didn’t go to her birthday party — which she says was a catalyst for the end of their relationship.
“And it was like slow motion / Standing there in my party dress / In red lipstick / With no one to impress / And they’re all laughing / As I’m looking around the room / But there was one thing missing / And that was the moment I knew,” Taylor sings in the lyrics.
“State of Grace”
The opener to “Red,” Taylor largely suggests it’s about her relationship with Jake with the lyrics “Just twin fire signs, four blue eyes.” The pair both have blue eyes and are Sagittariuses (which is a fire sign).
“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”
In an interview with USA Today, Taylor revealed she wrote this pop single specifically to spite an ex who often tried to make her feel inferior to the music he listened to.
“So I made a song that I knew would absolutely drive him crazy when he heard it on the radio. 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,” she said. “Because that’s fun.”
“Sad Beautiful Tragic”
Another sad breakup song, Swifties are convinced this one is about Jake because the hidden message in the CD booklet was “WHILE YOU WERE ON A TRAIN,” and Jake supposedly went with Mumford & Sons on their train tour in 2011.