The Next Best American Record

[YUNGATA 14,955]

So the consensus is that tnbar is about Barrie too right?

 

@@evilentity wrote a great post a while back about why he thinks (the demo) is a Barrie song

http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/8539-best-american-record/?p=415161

 

I think it's safe to assume if BAR is a Barrie song TNAB is too just with revised history/reflection on Lana's original feelings at the time.

[picturebook 900]

Just again realized how much better the original version is. Not only are the lyrics better and more melodic, but also her vocals sound sooooooo much better. Like why did they have to change it?     

[evilentity 13,343]

Wrote this as part of a multi-song discussion in the NFR Post-Release discussion thread, but thought I'd quote the part relevant to TNBAR here.

 

 

evilentity wrote a great post a while back about why he thinks (the demo) is a Barrie song

http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/8539-best-american-record/?p=415161

 

I think it's safe to assume if BAR is a Barrie song TNAB is too just with revised history/reflection on Lana's original feelings at the time.

I'd actually kinda forgotten I'd written these thoughts out. But re-reading them and then comparing the "demo" lyrics side-by-side with the album is both striking and eerie. Gone are all the lyrics that I said I thought sounded harsh or unfair, replaced by more complimentary lyrics expressing regret, acknowledgment of her own role in things, and wanting him back. (Incidentally, I agree with the consensus that the new lyrics are inferior despite probably being more fair and true to how she feels now.)

 

One further thought: If I'm right that this is about Barrie, I wish she'd left the name just "Best American Record" because that has an appropriate acronym.

[longtimeman 8,918]

This is a slightly idiosyncratic reading of the this, so I won't be surprised if people don't agree with me, but I think of the album version as not being a 'rewrite' of the demo, but a 'reprise' of it. In other words, the original version still exists in the grand narrative of Lana songs, but it's been extended by the album version. If this is right, and if, as seems almost certain, it and a couple of other songs on the record are about Barrie, it signals a change in how she feels about her relationship with him, five years down the line, which is fascinating.

[expandableclitoris 9,091]

The new lyrics are trash, we've been knew, but at least they fit the album imo

Also i agree with longtimeman and evilentity.

 

 

Yall can stone me to the death but sonically i think its her best song. The bridge strikes me so much, I love the melody, to me it has the same energy of the outro of Bjork's Pagan Poetry. The demo is obviously even better but this version makes more obviously to me that the song is also about part of her that wanted fame at all costs and now regrets it.

[Ultra Violet 18,959]

This is a slightly idiosyncratic reading of the this, so I won't be surprised if people don't agree with me, but I think of the album version as not being a 'rewrite' of the demo, but a 'reprise' of it. In other words, the original version still exists in the grand narrative of Lana songs, but it's been extended by the album version. If this is right, and if, as seems almost certain, it and a couple of other songs on the record are about Barrie, it signals a change in how she feels about her relationship with him, five years down the line, which is fascinating.

 

I had this thought too. I thought maybe she's acknowledging that it takes 2 people to ruin a relationship, and it's not scrapping the original lyrics but coming back to them with a clearer head. 

Except when she was asked in a recent interview, she only said she changed the lyrics to make it fit on the album more, and didn't say anything about a change of heart or changed perspective.

[takeitdoen 10,627]

I had this thought too. I thought maybe she's acknowledging that it takes 2 people to ruin a relationship, and it's not scrapping the original lyrics but coming back to them with a clearer head. 

Except when she was asked in a recent interview, she only said she changed the lyrics to make it fit on the album more, and didn't say anything about a change of heart or changed perspective.

Oooh I was hoping someone would ask this. What interview?

 

As a demo I thought this song was my favorite piece by Lana. "Fuck you" songs, like Positively 4th Street by Bob Dylan are so delicious, and the vitriol was so cutting.

 

OH WELL.

[cherryblossoms 10,415]

The ambiance of this song during the verses is literally one of my favorite things ever. Such a mystic and desert like feel to it.

[Ultra Violet 18,959]

The ambiance of this song during the verses is literally one of my favorite things ever. Such a mystic and desert like feel to it.

 

Yes  takes me back to her Honeymoon and Paradise vocals

[Beautiful Loser 48,799]

Listening to the older version for the first time in a long time, and the lyrics really sound incomplete or like a first draft compared to the released version. I prefer the theme in the older version, but I still think some lines repeat themselves too much and I’m glad she changed the lyrics for the released version. But, that version doesn’t have the same feel of a continuous theme like the “demo”, I can barely put the story together - it’s like as if the verse and chorus tell different stories, whereas the demo has one story to tell.

I loved the song when I first heard of it in 2017 when I joined LanaBoards but grew tired of it a few weeks later, mostly because the lyrics were so repetitive. But I don’t prefer the Norman version either, because it’s hard for me to see the story she wants to tell, and because the instrumental sounds too much like it belongs to LFL. (And it’s a shame the ending is different, it was so perfect in the demo). I don’t know, it’s not a bad song, but I just can’t like it enough. I almost always skip it when I play Norman.

[takeitdoen 10,627]

Every now and then I think about how she fucking ruined this amazing song. It's so shit now. Literally everyone's least favourite track on NFR.   

[house of balloons 12,792]

4 minutes ago, takeitdoen said:

Every now and then I think about how she fucking ruined this amazing song. It's so shit now. Literally everyone's least favourite track on NFR.   

it's not even the lyrics I've got a problem with, it's how they heartlessly removed the outro even though it had those psychedelic instruments that would've made the album even more cohesive. the way she sang 'record' in the demo sounds way prettier too. 

 

[Negative Nancy 107]

ive replaced TNBAR with Architecture on my phone and computer xo

but i did buy the CD xo

[saith 1,185]

I've got a new theory about the rewriting of the song.

 

I never really understood how BAR and Yosemite could be sister tracks with the BAR demo and the few lyrics we have from Yosemite. But now that I compare the new BAR lyrics with Yosemite it makes much more sense. They both talk about doing things together and enjoying it. Maybe Lana rewrote BAR for LFL not for NFR! She wrote Yosemite almost as a fantasy of how she wanted to see things. Maybe it helped her view her relationship differently and decided to rewrite BAR as a sister track.

After all, she said she rewrote BAR for the album. Maybe she ment LFL not NFR!. I mean she rewrote Beautiful People for the more positive theme of LFL, why not do the same for BAR ?

 

Spoiler

Possible timeline :
- She writes the first version of BAR
- She shoots the BAR video (the shots she reused for White mustang seem to fit those original lyrics)
- She writes Yosemite and Rewrite BAR making the video unusable because it doesn't fit the lyrics anymore
- She scrap both songs because it doesn't work for her anymore
- She uses the second version of BAR for NFR! Because it fits the theme

 

 

Spoiler

 

We were so obsessed with writing the next best American record
'Cause we were just that good

 

We did it for fun, we did it for free, I did it for you, you did it for me, we did it for the right reasons

 

Or maybe I'm just wrong and they were supposed to be perfect opposites. BAR being how she thought things actually were, and Yosemite was the fantasy of how she wanted things to be.  

[xcxb0y 687]

I know this has probably been asked before, but what’s the highest quality we have for the demo? did the og file ever leak?

[Let the Light In 18,642]

It is coming right after California, so I don't think the lyrics are random. If you look at it in that perspective it adds a lot more meaning to the song.

 

California: We'll have a party, we'll dance 'til dawn/I'll throw a party all night long 

TNBAR: Whatever's on tonight, I just wanna party with you 

[Veinsineon 76,782]

This poor song has no moment to shine on NFR, and its truly one of her best - in either form.

 

Its true
all the roads lead to u

like the 405 i drive through

every night and every day

[13beachess 7,614]

TNBAR was one of my NFR favs. Then, last year I listened to BAR (for the first time) and was like "oh "  It kinda ruined my appreciation for the released one.
 I wish I'd never listened to the demo version bcs yeah, I haven't felt the same about the NFR version ever since.  Imo it's not a bad song, but I don't listen to it often at all, nowadays. 

[Alison by Slowdive 26,146]

I see you for who you really are
Why the thousands of girls love
The way Bill plays guitar

 

Is Bill Barrie? or is "Bill" a john doe-y name she uses to keep real names private?

[revadece 1,435]

after change from the demo lyrics, people categorise this song as ‘happy’ or ‘fun’, but personally i think it still has some melancholy to it. she does sing about relationship that she views as fun and not painful, but it’s still only a reflection of the past. and from perspective of someone who has found the same beauty and life in their relationship that has ended, it’s really heartbreaking to reminiscent those happy times when they are gone. this was my partner’s favourite lana song and i remember listening to it with them and me being so happy, that song being our song. and today it makes me cry so much.