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Taylor Swift · S4 E1
Writing Alone
The decision to write Speak Now entirely by herself — no co-writers — and what she is trying to prove.
In a Nashville apartment in 2009, Taylor Swift sits cross-legged on the floor with a guitar and a notebook, completely alone. She is writing her third album, and there is no co-writer in the room.
"I Can See You (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault)" -- Taylor Swift, official music video (2023). Written during the original Speak Now sessions in 2009 and locked away for thirteen years before Taylor re-recorded it. The music video turns the vault into a literal set piece, with Taylor breaking in to rescue the songs she left behind.
I Can See You (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault)
"I Can See You" was written during the Speak Now sessions when Taylor was twenty, but it never made the album's final fourteen. The lyric is brasher and more flirtatious than anything on the standard tracklist: whispered confessions, hidden glances, the thrill of something nobody else knows about. Listen for the way the melody climbs in the chorus, each line reaching higher than the last, creating the physical sensation of something you cannot hold back. It is the sound of a twenty-year-old writing alone, proving she had more songs in her than any single album could hold.
The Solo Album
After the Fearless era, critics question how much of the writing is really Taylor's. Liz Rose helped shape the biggest songs on the first two albums, and industry voices wonder if the teenager can carry an entire record alone. Taylor decides to answer by writing every single word of Speak Now herself: all fourteen tracks, no co-writers, no exceptions.
TAP TO REVEAL: What hidden code did Taylor bury inside the Speak Now liner notes?
How many co-writers does Taylor Swift have on Speak Now?
Last Kiss -- Taylor Swift (Speak Now, 2010)
A six-minute breakup ballad and one of the most devastatingly detailed songs Taylor has ever written. The final verse counts time backwards from the hour to the month to the day everything ended, and the specificity is the point: no co-writer could have written these details, because no co-writer was in the room when they happened.
She has proven she can write alone. But the most dangerous song on Speak Now is about a thirty-two-year-old man who dated her when she was nineteen, and the moment it drops, he goes public with his reaction. Next: "Dear John," and the fallout that follows.
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