Taylor Swift Song Meanings [ON HOLD]

All you had to do was stay

People like you always want back
The love they gave away
And people like me want to believe you
When you say you've changed
The more I think about it now
The less I know
All I know is that you drove us
Off the road

Hey- all you had to do was stay
Had me in the palm of your hand
Then
Why'd you had to go and lock me out
When I let you in
Hey- now you say you want it back
Now it's just too late
Well, could've been easy

All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay

Here you are now
Calling me up
But I don't know what to say
I've been picking up the pieces of the mess you made
People like you always want back
The love they pushed aside
But people like me are gone forever
When you say goodbye

All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay

Let me remind you...
This was what you wanted
You ended it
You were all I wanted
But not like this...

Not like this
Not like this
Oh, all you had to do was stay

All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay

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Taylor's point of view:

This song tells a story of a guy who begged to be back in Taylor's life after they had ended their first attempt at romance.  She says in the song, "People like you always want back/The love they gave away/And people like me want to believe you/When you say you've changed." He kept wanting to get back together with her, and she believed him. But he didn't stick around, wasn't fully committed. He "drove [them] off the road", an allusion to "Out of the Woods" where they ended up at the hospital. The guy got stitches because he couldn't drive the snow vehicle on the road. She then says he was the one that changed his mind wanted to end it, "Let me remind you.../This was what you wanted/You ended it/You were all I wanted/But not like this..."  She wanted him, enjoyed being with him, but he ended it.  She says that in the end even though "People like you always want back/The love they pushed aside/But people like me are gone forever/When you say goodbye".  He said goodbye and she is gone forever. She is not getting back together with him. She tells him in the song that If he really had wanted her "all [he] had to do was stay."

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Documentary:

Who is this song about?
It's about Harry Styles and how he ended their relationship the second time around after he tried and tried to get back together with her. The relationship was a whirlwind, and he could never fully commit.  He was all she ever wanted, but he just couldn't stay around.

One of the interesting parts of this song is story of the high pitched Stay. Taylor told fans in her ask/reply on Youtube, "I think the oddest scenario that I ran in to when I was writing this album was when I woke up from a dream that I was having.  It was kind of one of those social anxiety dreams, where you get embarrassed in front of a person that you don't really want to be embarrassed in front of.  In this dream I was trying to talk to someone and instead of being able to speak normally the only thing that would come out of my mouth was this very high pitched singing, going, STAY, the word stay, but it was sung really high and that was all that would come out of mouth, instead of just normal talking. So I woke up from the dream, I was really weirded out by it.  I decided to incorporate that sound into a song called 'All You Had to Do Was Stay.' I'm very lucky that I had that very weird dream because it's a great song."  I can totally relate to Taylor, I've had some very weird vivid dreams, where I couldn't fly, or I could fly, couldn't read something, or the dream just unfolded and I had no control, but I remember lots of details.  I even had a dream to a while ago that I'm turning into a novel, look for that later.  I'm glad that she was inspired by her dreams, because I sometimes think I am weird that I have such vivid dreams.

This song is similar to "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", but nicer. You can tell she has grown since writing that song. In WANEGBT she told her suitor that she was never getting back together with him. In this song she is tells her suitor (a different suitor) what they should have done to stay together, why she is gone forever. He just had to stay.

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Song meanings:

In this song Taylor is explaining that this guy wants back what they use to have after he gave it away and pushed it aside. However Taylor doesn't want to reconcile with him. She does admit that he was all she wanted and some point, but she doesn't want him like this, she'e also letting him now that he shouldn't have left thinking that he could just come back and pick things up where they were left off.

This song is about a guy that she liked but he left. Now he wants her back but she says 'it's over you ended it, you were all I wanted but not like this, not like this'
Lesson learned don't leave if you want them!
This guy is a jerk and loser. She can do a lot better then him. Who ever he is.