Sitar

Sirens
- For K/Sirens (In my opinion, the most telling song in her whole discography, and really informs a lot of the other songs here. Something to consider—the only places she’s lived with death row are California, Connecticut, and potentially Florida.)
- Bad Disease (While I think this definitely references alcoholism, I think it also talks about one of K’s major crimes. I do think there are more than one, because she seems to witness this one, but is left at home in “For K” and “Blue Jeans”)
AKA
- Kill Kill (I’m in love with a dying man—we learn in “For K” that K is on death row. Further references to death will be safely categorized here, because nothing has implied that she has also been in love with a terminally ill dude)
- For K Part 2 (Although this doesn’t specifically reference any criminal elements and was in fact originally called “Rehab”, it’s hard to ignore the title in relationship to this lyric of the often considered “part 1” to this song: K is a friend of mine. It’s anyone’s guess as to why this was once titled “Rehab”, but I have some theories later...)
Born to Die
- Off to the Races (The prisoner references are thick on this one. From Ryker’s Island to my old man is a thief to they would rue the day I was alone without you--”they” being the authorities.)
- Blue Jeans (He headed out on Sunday, said he’d come home Monday versus “For K” –It was a drive-by Sunday night. [see the section on the BJ/BTD/VG trilogy towards the end for a fully developed theory on this.])
- Dark Paradise (I wish I was dead, dead like you. It also ties nicely to the ocean references in “Kill Kill”—thinking of it as a sequel to that song seems appropriate.)
- Lucky Ones (Careless con.)
Unreleased
- Backfire (Some key lyrics: Mafiosi rock ‘n’ roll high; You say trouble follows you / It’s been like that since the day you began [as in began drug-dealing?]; and the bit about Officer Brown. CRIMINAL. Although what the fuck, does K suddenly have a name? Salvatore?)
- Elvis (The only thing that keeps this from being a forlorn song of losing a different boyfriend is the “Florida native” line, which justifies a former title of “Kill Kill”, “Florida Dark”.)
- Gangsta Boy (I don’t care if you’re going to prison—more mafia, gangster business. Also long hair, as crooned about in “For K Part 2”.)
- Live or Die (Possibly the most chock-full of mafia and criminal references of any of her songs. Dropping the Bonnie and Clyde name is already a loaded comparison, even if you ignore the Scarface references and talk of robbing a checkout counter and hands “where I can see them, put them in the air”)

Here's something "juicy"...

Some time ago I was reading this interview and wondered if the teacher she mentions was a teacher at her boarding school.


If you do a little digging, using archive.org you can find that there was a Mr. Campbell that was an English teacher at her boarding school when she attended there, though he doesn't teach there now, and that they follow/friend each other on various social media platforms.

I subsequently discovered "Prom Song (Gone Wrong)" which is a love song in a high school setting, which notably has the following lyrics: "You played me Biggie Smalls and then my first Nirvana song."

More recently, in preparing for the covers-themed LanaDelReydio show I'm working on, I was looking up interviews where she mentions Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, or "Heart-shaped Box" and noticed this in one of the interviews I found:


I nearly did a spit take. But then I found something really weird. In another interview published just a couple days later, she changes the story:


Suddenly, Mr. Campbell turns into a she. WTF is that about? Is she trying to hide something?


Now I'm not necessarily saying I think she fucked her teacher. But I think she at least fantasized about it. (Perhaps the fact that it's her teacher is what "Gone Wrong" refers to.) And I think "Lolita" is about him too. Consider that in Nabokov's novel, Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged literature professor.

All of which just makes this serendipitous:

Biggie: This album is dedicated to all the teachers...

Therefore:
Born to Die
- Lolita
Unreleased
- Paris (A tentative placement, being that Mr. Campbell is the only man listed who might conceivably be sitting in [his] office, dreaming of a different life--"office" being the operative word.)
- Prom Song [Gone Wrong] (For all the astutely stated reasons above)
- Boarding School (Two incriminating lines in this gem ~dedicated~ to said boarding school: Let’s take drugs, make love with our teachers and Get down like your tutor taught you to and do it. Oh, behave, Lana.)

AKA
- Brite Lites

- Yayo (We have no proof that Jimmy is a cocaine addict, but we do have proof that he has a big ol’ blue dragon tattoo across his torso and that she posted a link to this song on his Facebook. One important thing to take away from the lyrics: ‘50s baby-doll dress for my “I do” / It only takes two hours to Nevada / I wear your sparkle, you call me your mama. This implies that they were engaged and eloping in Vegas. Her earliest performances of this song were in 2006-2007—right around the time she recorded “Jimmy Gnecco”.)
Born to Die
- Born to Die (Foremost, she cast Bradley Soileau as her leading man in the music video based on his resemblance to a former boyfriend, and it’s kind of hard to deny that they share some long-haired, tattooed elements. [see the section on the BJ/BTD/VG trilogy towards the end for a fully developed theory on this.])
Unreleased
- Back to tha Basics

- Daddy Issues

- Hundred Dollar Bill (Jimmy pulls up in his blue Chevy Nova— Jimmy is our Chevy dude, yes sir. Also: he knows that I be selling the body. I think she was at her poorest after K left, living in a trailer park and go-go dancing.)
- Jimmy Gnecco (It uses his name, of course. It leaked as “Jimmy Necco”, but it’s not registered anywhere under either name and, what with prior evidence, assumptions are almost irrefutable)
- On Our Way (Kiss me in your Chevrolet– Lana’s got a thing for them cars, and we already know Jimmy has a Chevy. You found me when I had lost my way—she was hard-up, go-go dancing and recovering from her alcoholism. Perhaps this song is about their elope previously hinted at in “Yayo”)
- Put the Radio On (Uses two previous Jimmy song titles in the lyrics—match made in heaven and yayo, not to mention the line so rock ‘n’ roll, sold your soul)

- Velvet Crowbar
- You’re Gonna Love Me (Jim I’mma dedicate this whole album to you)

Unreleased
- Get Drunk (Of course this song really focuses on her alcoholism, but it opens with I am sleeping with your best friend--knowing that, we shouldn’t overlook that Lana dated both Reeve Carney and Jimmy Gnecco, who have a public friendship. Too coincidental to be coincidental.)
- Never Let Me Go (Love me like your best friends did--likely the same story from “Get Drunk”, only the flip side of it. If you take into account lyrics from one definite Jimmy song “Hundred Dollar Bill”--I like it when you treat me mean--then it’s easy to believe their relationship paralleled that of another rockstar, Sid Vicious, and his wife Nancy--I can be your Nancy, you can be my Sid. However, I’m not assigning it to him because this particular story could go either way.)

Born to Die
- Diet Mountain Dew (Arthur founded the unofficial label Diet MTN Dew in 2006, “showcas[ing] the top unsigned acts in New York City”--one of which was probably our Elizabeth. They were musically involved, that much is certain, and she also happened to write a song named after his defunct MySpace page. This interview reveals how much deeper it goes than just a name: the chorus came as a result of a boyfriend’s words. A boyfriend who likes Diet Mountain Dew and has ties to Greenwich, Connecticut. Which brings us to...)
Unreleased
- Axl Rose Husband (An unlikely companion to "Diet Mtn Dew"? Perhaps, but the lyrics tie together oh-so-well. Take, for instance, the line Greenwich, I need you--as in, the same Greenwich from that interview talking about “Diet Mountain Dew”? The same Greenwich that Arthur Lynn lived for some period of time, perhaps still? And what of the phrase white Pontiac heaven, which appears in both songs? Now consider Record executive, I need you to live--perhaps Arthur wasn’t technically a record executive with his Diet Mtn Dew label, but couldn’t he have been close enough in Lizzy’s eyes? Isn’t the rest of the evidence enough?)

- Motel 6

- You Can Be the Boss

Sirens
- My Momma (Jimmy, Reeve, and Arthur are all under 40, long-haired, and might have enticed her with a “pretty song”. Compare this to her current boyfriend for fun--might Lana have a type?)
AKA
- Smarty (She refers to the subject as the dirty heavy metal king, which is a sufficient description of old Jim and Arthur--perhaps not the outwardly prissier Reeve. Consider this, as well: Neccos are a kind of candy, as are Smarties…I think that’s a definite stretch, though, but we can have fun with that one. Anyway, nothing too definitive.)
Unreleased
- Ghetto Baby (My local rockstar – They’re all rockstars, and all decidedly local.)
- Match Made in Heaven (My local rockstar – See above.)
- Push Me Down (You’re my Mr. Rock ‘n’ Roll King)

Born to Die
- Video Games (Lana herself has said this song is about two different relationships--the way things were with one man in the verses, and the way she wished they were with another in the chorus. I think it’s her life with Mike in the verses, although the chorus is up for interpretation. [see the section on the BJ/BTD/VG trilogy towards the end for a fully developed theory on this.])

- Without You
Unreleased
- Afraid (Mike is much older than her, so I take issue with them meeting when they were teenagers. However, the verse including You should never come between a woman and her dream fits with statements she’s made in interviews on “Video Games”, saying in this relationship she wasn’t focusing much on her career. Then again, there’s a common belief that Mike was controlling her career. Either fits, really.)
- American Dream (Obviously heartbroken, but this differs from other such heartbroken songs in that now there’s another woman to be royally pissed about. This fits best with Mike because, well, he’s currently married)
- Butterflies (I think her mak[ing] the decision that [she] can’t be with [him] goes back to “Afraid”, but the uncertainty of this song is an essential bridge between that one and some of the more heartbroken songs associated with Mike.)
- Dum Dum (Here I am assuming that all songs in what I refer to as “The Saga of Scorned Lana” are about Mike. Maybe that’s not accurate, this is the only song presenting that now you want me even more point-of-view)
- Kinda Outta Luck (I was born bad, but then I met you / You made me nice for a while, but my dark side’s true. He’s a normal guy and they had a normal life. But she lost him, for no reason that’s especially clear)

- Noir
- She’s Not Me (Another woman, a pretty straightforward “fuck your wife”)

Probably none, but we oughta talk about him, hmm?

Unreleased
- Fake Diamond (Stop laughing and hear me out. If she wrote this in 2011 and also shot the “Born to Die” video in 2011, it’s plausible. Perhaps they did have a fling. This song comes across as Lana being accustomed to being treated like a trophy girlfriend to parade around in front of people. You’re like my ex-boyfriend, kissing me when the camera’s on. I think this is a reference to Mizrahi interfering with her career, treating her like a trophy, all the things we’ve just completely assumed about him. But the subject isn’t Mizrahi, it’s a new romance. Who the fuck has she dated since then? That’s the difficult part. But all the elements here add up to Bradley. They did happen to kiss while the camera was on, and both Bradley and the subject of the song seem immature. And wouldn’t a romance between the two really justify his Twitter rant when she did eventually abandon him for A$AP Rocky? She belongs to nobody—he didn’t like that.)

BTD: The Paradise Edition
- American (I can’t just justify this by just saying it’s the happiest current song she’s ever written, can I? Well, if you need to be convinced, Barrie is Scottish--perhaps describing him as having the spirit of an American without actually being one is apt. We can certainly say he’s the first non-American we know of her dating.)

- Body Electric
- Gods & Monsters (Allow a personal interpretation: “Gods & Monsters” is a song written in response to her fame and her resulting mindset. The land of gods and monsters perhaps being the limelight/Hollywood/fame in general? I don’t know. But there is a love interest here, one who seems to alleviate her pain. Barrie is the first public relationship she’s taken up after garnering so much fame.)
- Ride (This song is almost certainly about Lana’s current life, as opposed to her tradition of singing about past loves. We glean that it’s her reaction to the backlash that came with her fame based on the monologue in the music video and statements she’s given relating the song to touring. But while this song is deeply personal, the first verse invokes a “full-time daddy”. Barrie is her current boyfriend. For her, singing blues has been getting old and she’s rather just be happy with him.)

Sirens
- Try Tonight (As a drug dealer, it’s plausible that K had a drug addiction. What with “Yayo”, the same goes for Jimmy. He’ll try tonight to not get high, but he will)
AKA
- Queen of the Gas Station (Utah love could be worth investigating. [see “1949” for a decent theory tying this song to some others])
- For K Part 2 (I know I already put this under K, and I’m confident with that, but think about this: she met a rockstar type in rehab, certainly implying Jimmy Gnecco. The demo to this song was titled “Rehab”. Knowing that, maybe K isn’t a name? But a state of being, concept, etc.)
- Pawn Shop Blues (I think, after boarding school, she abandoned parental income and left with K, so when he was imprisoned, she really was left on her own. Then again, the “higher consciousness” verse might imply that she gave up this relationship, rather than having it taken from her. This best man I knew could be Arthur or Jimmy, as well)
Born to Die
- National Anthem (As far as the actual song goes, it’s a pretty simple LDR love song, as opposed to a depressive break-up song. It’s the monologue in the music video that is telling. Based on it, it would appear this man left her, he was struggling with some past addiction, and everybody loved him. This could reflect a charismatic older man, a local rockstar, or a drug dealer)

Paradise

- Bel Air
Unreleased
- Dangerous Girl (Has some Gnecco elements, i.e. referencing Italian heritage and her time in a trailer park, relating back to “Hundred Dollar Bill”. Those are arbitrary, though, so here it shall stay until evidence surfaces.)
- Every Man Has His Wish (Curiously, everything I have to say about this song has already been said under the “1949” header--I think it’s the same subject matter, just a little less specific.)
- Heavy Hitter (The only thing supporting that this might be K is You’re the king mafia baby, suggesting criminal history. Or she legitimately fucked a mobster. That would be awesome. Do I consider that enough evidence for either? No)
- Lift Your Eyes (This songs references a relationship with an alcoholic man—shoulda let me know I’d lose you to the drink. This could be about Mizrahi, Gnecco, or another man entirely—not K, though. The demise here is focused on alcoholism, a former girlfriend, a work schedule...not prison.)

- Us Against the World

- You & Me
- 1949 (Companion to “Queen of the Gas Station”. Evokes a grand, escapist road trip already fetishized in the aforementioned song as well as “On Our Way”. That could conveniently put these two songs under Jimmy’s header, but this theory is a little too far-fetched to instantly settle on that. Consider: you say we’re gonna run away…flying around on the highway versus It’s a motel flower nation / Day and night on our last vacation, we gonna see it all; and the references to small-town Americana throughout “Queen of the Gas Station”. On the other hand, this includes the lyric big jail break--might this roadtrip be a final hurrah before getting locked up? Hey, you tell me how that works.)

BILL:

Conclusion: Bill could be an alternate or fake name. Bill could have no meaning. Bill could be a regular at her go-go bar. Bill could be a type of alcohol. Bill could be a fucking frog. Bill could have some ties to drugs. Bill could be a drug dealer. The “Bill” songs don’t immediately implicate either anyone in particular, and in fact remain the most difficult to relate to anything, so under the "Other Dudes" section Billy goes.

THE REST:
Sirens
- Next to Me (A married man. Not necessarily a committed relationship she had. Thoughts of prostitution/go-go dancing are a-teeming in my mind.)
- Westbound (I don’t think this one is about either Jimmy or K. An earlier relationship, which I believe a lot of Sirens is about)
- I’m Indebted to You (A really mysterious song that I believe to be entirely fictitious/about someone else’s life)
- Find My Own Way (Possible companion to “Westbound”)
- Pride (Definite companion to “Find My Own Way”, possible companion to “Westbound”)
AKA
- Mermaid Motel (We don’t know how serious she ever was with Reeve Carney, but they’re certainly been pictured together more than others and he’s rumored to be in some of her homemade videos. Reeve is a musician himself, with a song on his album called “Lavender”—that’s right, as in You call me lavender, you call me sunshine. The lyrical content references Delilah a lot, a traitorous woman in the Bible, so it seems that any love connection they had may have ended on Lana’s terms [see “Get Drunk”]. On the other hand, heavy metal hour implicates Jimmy and Arthur, and the song’s really not that specific to begin with.)
- Raise Me Up (The demo is known to be called “Rayse”, an intentional misspelling of the original word which points right back to a lyric from “Kill Kill”—tell me about Ray and his girl. Let’s not forget the “ray-ray” in the chorus, which could be intentional. Furthermore: What is this Mississippi South business? She lived in the Alabama south!)
Born to Die
- Radio (This is a curious one. She’s the most candid about this song in this interview, claiming it’s a song about a recent relationship--a man returning to her life after she started playing on the radio. It could be about anyone, although I have some far-fetched theories.)
Unreleased
- Butterflies Part 2

- Hit & Run

- Playing Dangerous (Disclaimer: This song very well could be fictitious. Basically she seduces herself out of an arrest. What a badass. Did she continue dating this policeman? I mean I’m in love in a hurricane is quite the grand statement. Is he Officer Brown? Is it relative to any other song she’s ever done? Lyrical evidence will have us believe “no”, but I retain hope)

Sirens
- Out With a Bang (A lot of answers could be hidden in this song [consider: Benny Mason lying in a coma], but nothing relationship-wise. I’d guess K because it details a relationship between two people who are really, darkly fucked up)
- All You Need
- Pretty Baby
- Birds of a Feather (This is a weird-ass song, but I’m hideously proud of myself because, after getting caught up on the lyric You were sorting pictures and you gave me one of a nun who was playing the drums / She was crazy, her name was Katie, I found this:

AKA
- Oh Say Can You See
- Jump (What with his hair thinning in the wind, I think it’s at least safe to say this isn’t about the long-haired Jimmy, Arthur, or Reeve)
- Put Me in a Movie (I'd love to say this song is about Mike Mizrahi because he makes short films, but alas it was written in 2007 at the latest and they had not yet met. Jimmy, on the other hand, is old enough for her to feel that Lolita complex coming on. I shudder to think this might be about Mr. Campbell.)
Born to Die
- Million Dollar Man
- Summertime Sadness (The parts that actually talk about a guy are pretty generic “lost love” type stuff. COULD BE ANYONE, THANKS FOR THE HELP, LANA.)
- Without You (It's lyrical parallels to "Afraid" and "American Dream" would normally have me happily putting this under Mizrahi, but the first demo was recorded around 2008--which isn't to say later versions with updated "dark side of the American Dream" bridges might not be about him)
BTD: The Paradise Edition
- Bel Air
- Body Electric
- Burning Desire
Unreleased
- Big Bad Wolf
- Come When You Call Me America
- Delicious

- Dynamite
- Hollywood’s Dead
- I Don’t Wanna Go
- Methamphetamines (Although it does reference the ocean, similar to “Kill Kill” and “Dark Paradise”, that’s just not enough to go on)
- Moije Joue (A song that tells us more about Lana than the men in her life. Sigh.)

- My Best Days
- Paradise
- Puppy Love (Elizabeth, this is more about Marilyn Monroe than you. You've got to meet me halfway.)
- Ooh Baby
- Serial Killer (Along with “Summer of Sam”, this song is more about Lana than the man in question, even if it is about love. It’s about her femme fatale, killer attitude towards relationships)
- Summer of Sam (Companion to “Serial Killer”)
- Trash Magic [“The Man I Love” demo] (I’ve been convinced that this song is about her first love, alcohol. I can’t be with the man I love, I can’t be if he treats me rough, I can’t see him, I can’t call him up, with none of the verses implying a real man)
- You Can Be the Boss

Lana has gone on record saying that her first three singles--"Video Games", "Born to Die", and "Blue Jeans"--are a trilogy. As a fanbase, it's our job to read really far into this. A safe point to jump to is that these songs are a trilogy in the sense that they're all about the same love story. I readily accepted this for a while and assigned this trilogy to her criminal love story, K. "Blue Jeans" has the most detail of any of these three songs, specifically relating back to "For K", so this as a logical jump of intuition. But if you think about it, really think about it, these songs don't have any particular details in common. Sure, they're all mournful. But it ends there.

Just recently, some stalkers insiders made it vaguely apparent that they were positive "Video Games" is about Mike Mizrahi. Mike's story doesn't cohesively fit with the mysterious K's, so we're all left in the dust of that trilogy theory. But that's how Lana herself described it--a trilogy. So what if these three songs aren't a trilogy in the sense that they all connect back to one guy, but that they connect to three separate things she holds dear. For instance, what if this trilogy is about the three most important loves of her life?

It makes sense, doesn't it? She cast Bradley Soileau in "Born to Die" based on his appearance, which bears some striking similarities to Jimmy Gnecco's. And just reading this thread, it's impossible not to get the sense that these were Lana's most important relationships--held above Bill and possibly Chris and whoever she dated as a teenager. "Video Games" being about Mike, "Born to Die" being about Jimmy, and "Blue Jeans" being about K.

Problems with this:
- Born to Die. Very K, right? Wrong. Who's to say that she means die in the literal sense? She sings last thing I saw before I died, and lo and behold, she's not dead.
- Bradley Soileau, the model equivalent of Jimmy Gnecco, is also in "Blue Jeans". So that song must be about Jimmy, right? Wrong. See, she was already in a professional relationship with Bradley at that point, and maybe even a less-than-professional one. People were fascinated with his image. Business-wise, casting Bradley was a natural move. She originally cast him for "Born to Die" based on his looks--but did she ever say the same for the decision in "Blue Jeans"? As far as I know, the answer is no.

Sirens
- A Star for Nick (I don’t think Nick is a romantic interest, and if he is, this isn’t about him. It’s about her dreams—being bigger than Nick’s junkie pride? Oh snap!)
- Aviation
AKA
- Gramma
Unreleased
- Fordham Road (Interesting song--it’s certainly telling, if not in a romantic sort of way)
- Money Hunny
- Motel 6
- Last Girl on Earth (Sort of a romance story with the entire world. But only sort of.)

Born to Die
- Carmen (Only seventeen but she walks the streets so mean)
- This is What Makes Us Girls (Sweet sixteen and we had arrived)
Unreleased
- Boarding School (She was sent to boarding school at age 14)
- Driving in Cars With Boys (Mommy’s Mercedes, not to mention discussing future plans and emphasis on “boys” over “men”)
- Children of the Bad Revolution (“Children”)

AKA
- Brite Lites (This is a really vague song. I think it’s about go-go dancing, I really do. Perhaps she took off the engagement ring she received from Jimmy to seem more available while dropping it like it’s hot on the pole, on the pole)
Born to Die
- Carmen
- This is What Makes Us Girls (Baby’s table-dancing at the local dive)
Unreleased
- Daddy Issues (Having “daddy issues” is a common way to describe women who get their validation from men because they didn’t have it from their father—i.e., every stripper ever. Also consider: rock rock baby, throw money come and save me)
- Disco (Disco, go-go dancer so rare / Move down, up slow / Prostitute stare. Dancing without making a sound. A simple object of lust)
- Gogo Dancer (The most straightforward song on the topic, I mean the chorus is pretty blatant: I’m your go-go dancer)
- Hundred Dollar Bill (Selling the body, and let’s not forget the strippers from the homemade music video)
- Pin-Up Galore (Dance at night back in Alabama. Oh now, did we just learn a fact about her much-questioned sojourn in the South?)