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It’s only been out for two and a half weeks, but Taylor Swift’s Red has already sold more than 1.5 million copies. That makes it the second highest-selling album of the year, topped only by Adele’s 21. Not bad… especially when you remember that 21 was released in January 2011, giving it far more time to pick up steam.
Matt Nathanson is unimpressed, though. According to the songwriter, Swift’s album includes some lyrics stolen from his 2003 single “I Saw,” which contains the following line: “… and I’ll forget about you long enough to forget why I need to.” The controversial song in question is “All Too Well,” Red’s first sweeping power ballad, in which Swift sings: “… and I forget about you long enough to forget why I needed to.”
It’s a thorny issue. Swift, a Nathanson fan who’s been known to perform shows with his lyrics written along her arms, is certainly familiar with “I Saw.” Was this an honest mistake, though, or was Swift caught Red-handed? Nathanson is going with the latter. In a tweet that he later deleted, he called the country queen “ a thief,” and a more recent tweet reads, “So far, my favorite thing about today is the wave of @taylorswift13 fans calling me a prick on twitter for writing “i saw” in 2003.”
Come on, @taylorswift13 fans. Why ya gotta be so mean?
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