White Dress

[Elle 113,360]

Sun stare

Don't care with my head in my hands
Thinking of a simpler time
Like Sun Ra

Feel small but I had it under control every time

When I was a waitress
Wearing a white dress
Look how I do this
Look how I got this
When I was a waitress
Working the night shift
You were my man
Felt like I got this

Down at the Men in Music Business Conference
Down in Orlando, I was only nineteen
Down at the Men in Music Business Conference
I only mention it 'cause it was such a scene
And I felt seen

 

Mmm

Summer sizzling

Listening to jazz out on the lawn
Listening to White Stripes
When they were white hot
Listening to rock all day long

When I was a waitress
Wearing a tight dress, handling the heat
I wasn't famous
Just listening to kings of Leon to the beat
Like look how I got this
Look how I got this
Just sing in the street
Down at the Men in Music Business Conference
I felt free 'cause I was only nineteen
Such a scene

Summer, summer's almost gone
We were talkin' 'bout life, we were sitting outside till dawn
But I would still go back if I could do it all again, I thought
Because it made me feel, made me feel like a god
'Cause it made me feel, made me feel like a god
Somehow it made me feel, made me feel like a god

When I was a waitress
Wearing a white dress
Look how I do this
Look how I got this
When I was a waitress
Working the night shift
You were my man
Felt like I got this

Down at the Men in Music Business Conference
Down in Orlando, I was only nineteen
Down at the Men in Music Business Conference
I only mention it 'cause it was such a scene
& I felt seen

 

Mmm

When I was a waitress
Wearing a tight dress
Like look how I do it
Look how I got this
I was a waitress
Wearing a tight dress
Like look how I do this
Look how I got this

Made me feel, made me feel like a god
It kinda makes me feel like maybe I was better off
'Cause it made me feel, made me feel like a god
Kinda makes me feel like maybe I was better off

[COCC Destroyer 131]

Because it made me feel, made me feel like a god
'Cause it made me feel, made me feel like a god
Somehow it made me feel, made me feel like a god

 

 

Kinda makes me feel like maybe I was better off

[American Whore 47,321]

Okay i need to say something. 

 

Lana starts NFR as "your head in your hands as you color me blue" but on COCC she starts it as "Sun stare, don't care with my head in my hands"

 

Has she herself become Norman Fuckin Rockwell, looking back at herself?

 

 

[nxtlvl 38]

white dress by kanye west

[Rico25 6,993]

4 hours ago, Elle said:

You were my man
Felt like I got this

I hear felt like a goddess 

 

[mrdrk89 33]

I don't get the meaning of 'Like Sun Ra, feel small' - I know he was a musician but why is she equating him with feeling small? I'm not that familiar with Sun Ra.

[Kommander 3,260]

29 minutes ago, mrdrk89 said:

I don't get the meaning of 'Like Sun Ra, feel small' - I know he was a musician but why is she equating him with feeling small? I'm not that familiar with Sun Ra.

 

He was an eccentric jazz artist with a small but cult following which allowed him to pursue a lifelong career despite all his idiosyncrasies. So maybe she harkens back to her Lizzy Grant days : yes it felt small (the budget, the scope, the audience), she had a very specific aesthetic which made her an original but it was on her plane, she had it under control every time...

[Venice 6,933]

The cut sound during “it was such a sceeene” sort of annoys me, like I wish they blended in the different recordings better. But overall, I’m in love with White Dress!! Amazing and amazingly experimental, too. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any more unique and alternative with her ? I’ve listened to this non stop since the leak and by the next morning it was basically burned in my mind. Nostalgic, relatable and beautiful.

[hlxon 2,443]

her best song on the album YUP YUP YUP 

[Kandidate 242]

*grabs time machine*
*heads to the men in music business conference*

[Churchome Rep 3,173]

The whole album is about the burden of fame, but this song is the only one that talks about her singing (in the street). This reminds me of the Rolling Stone interview she did with Elton John where she reminisced that there was a freedom starting out as a musician because it was fun, nobody really judged you. 

 

In her Lizzy Grant, early BTD days, she leaned into the whole image of a tragic, Lolita/Marilyn Monroe type figure. Critics thought it was a persona, and the backlash was intense, perhaps in a white hot way. But her fixation with these women is tied to how she thought it was thrilling to be the object of the male gaze. I read “look how I do this/ look how I got this” as a subversion of the fragile female trope because she turns it into a performance that she controls. 

 

Lana is older now. She probably looks back at these days wistfully, and maybe she still wishes she could tap into that although it’s no longer part of her current singer-songwriter “street cred.” Maybe that’s what QFTC was about, wishing she could reclaim a freedom of performance that was taken away from her. 

 

But this song was like done in one take, so this could be an over analysis or projection 

 

 

[longtimeman 7,831]

I haven't seen anyone talk about the central setting of this song, and how there's never been a 'Men in Music Business' conference. The very idea of it is absurd, because men are considered the default in this sort of thing, and it's only minorities/less recognised groups that the industry occasionally remembers.  What there have been, of course, are numerous 'Women In Music' conferences, which pretend to be about showing off, for that one day, the talents of women performers, but are actually just another chance to ogle them.

So it's pretty funny how she flips it around from what it probably was - a patronising event at which the music executives were, I'd imagine, made up almost exclusively of men, so that it reflects what it must have felt like to nineteen-year-old Lizzy. A circus where she was the one who was looked at, by people who forgot or didn't care that she was looking at them at the same time. She did the same with flipping 'Music to Watch Girls By', too.

[daphnedinkley 12,389]

am I crying listening to this? maybe

[theviolence 5,828]

Tl;dr: "I'm 19 and I'm on fire" 

[Venice 6,933]

WHEN I WAS A WAITRESSSSS

 

 

The nostalgia and memories of stuff that never happened in my life  is so strong with this song

[BlueJeans 2,603]

I'm taking my time with this album, but this is definitely one of its stand out tracks for me. 

[x VB 12,512]

Is she singing about having sex with the men in the music industry or what?

[BluebirdXO 7,677]

9 minutes ago, Redhydrangeas99 said:

Is she singing about having sex with the men in the music industry or what?

 

I thought about that, but I don't want to project or put words in her mouth. I guess it's free for interpretation

[Venice 6,933]

 

DID U MAKE THIS @plastiscguy

I've been falling in love for days and just noticed the username, was it you did you do itttt  I love it!! 

[plastiscguy 57,756]

4 minutes ago, Venice said:

 

DID U MAKE THIS @plastiscguy

I've been falling in love for days and just noticed the username, was it you did you do itttt  I love it!! 

Hi! yeh it was me sjdjsjdj