LANALYSIS: Relating Songs To Known/Assumed Relationships

[PinkVelvet 382]

i have always thought that her songs about "K" were more daydreams of hers about Kurt Cobain.

[evilentity 13,343]

i have always thought that her songs about "K" were more daydreams of hers about Kurt Cobain.

I've gradually come around to this position, but this theory is interesting:

 

I'm thinking "For K" is not about a real person, but about Badlands, it involves a character named "Kit" who goes on the run with a girl 10 years younger than him and he kills people and gets sent to death row, where he's put in the electric chair. Sorry if this has already been posted, but I think it is highly likely with the amount of books and films and references in her songs.

I've been meaning to watch this. It's been on my queue for awhile. I'll be curious to see how well it fits.

 

 

It could fit with this general theory of mine about her "autobiographical" songwriting:

we have found a lot of cases where she seems to have been inspired by movies and things like that. At the same time we've so far been unable to match certain details in her songs with real life, like the elusive K. I've been thinking more and more lately that when she says all her songs are autobiographical, they're autobiographical of herself watching TV. Or perhaps Netflix in this instance.

On a coincidental note I'm probably going to visit the Badlands again this summer.

[Bambi Lies 279]

Hi everyone,

It's my first post but I wanted to share what I 'discovered' after I posted it on reddit a couple of weeks ago. It may have already been mentioned and I'm not sure where to put it or if it's even significant but here goes:
 

Okay so it's no secret that Lana was/is a fan of Axl Rose and 'Guns & Roses'. I've been listening to 'November Rain' on repeat and did a little bit of research (I use the term research very loosely) into it's background. Axl said the video (maybe the song too, I'm not sure) was based on a short story by the writer Del James called 'Without You'. It's basically about some drugged up rock star pining after the love of his life who goes onto kill herself after he sends her a song he wrote about her called 'Without You' (about how she is the only thing that matters to him, more than his success and lifestyle) and she shoots herself playing it on repeat. I just wondered if anyone has made this connection before or if it's just coincidence. It became a pretty popular story it seems and was reissued after 'November Rain' made it big.

 

[Valentino 885]

I've gradually come around to this position

 

Could you elaborate on that? I've never understood the K = Kurt Cobain theories. The only song that I would think really matches that is For K Part 2, which is very unlike other "K" songs. It has no relationship to the only other song that mentions K by name (and the only one that mentions him in the lyrics), Drive-by. I don't know much about Kurt Cobain, so forgive me if I'm ignorant, but I don't see anything in the Drive-by song that is reminiscent of him. Do you consider the "double homicide" some sort of metaphor? The song seems very literal and almost country music-like in its storytelling, so I have a hard time seeing it as metaphorical or symbolic.

 

To jump off from that, a tiny essay on my recent K thoughts!

 

K is from her May Jailer era, which is probably the most shrouded in mystery. There are other songs from this period, but I don't think anyone's ever convincingly tied them together or tied them to her post-acoustic stuff. The recurrence of a "nice guy" trying to make money who makes a terrible mistake and is sent to prison/death row is the only reason we even think that, for example, Blue Jeans or Off To The Races or TV In Black & White are about K. We don't have discussions about whoever "Pretty Baby" or "Next To Me" or "Star For Nick" are about because they're too vague to tie to any of her more recent music or the themes don't recur. But her May Jailer stuff was recorded a long time ago... her themes have evolved since. Except for maybe the K thing (which she instigated by renaming Rehad "For K Part 2" and further confusing us all).

 

Moreover, the criminal description changes depending on the song. If For K Part 2 is about the same K as Drive-By, then it seems he was a musician and probably one who played guitar-based music. That'd be pretty different from the urban gangster type Lana also describes. And moreover, there's a third type - some glamorous, rich man who adored her but went under for whatever reason. I used to try and tie these all together as possibly different periods of K, but I think they're just different manifestations of the criminal fantasy Lana likes.

 

Trying to tie this back to interviews where she mentions real people...

 

There's an interview I've been trying to find where she says this about Million Dollar Man:

"It's a song about a man who thought I was one of the most exotic things he had ever seen and me indulging in his appreciation and love. On the outside he was handsome and wholesome, but under wraps he was running an illegal electronic business which ended up taking him and his friends under."

Yeah, definitely Million Dollar Man (and also just like Hollywood's Dead: "you were 50s cool [...] but it was a cover for all of the trouble you got into" + "I always fall for the same type/gangsters in Vegas on game night"). There's a huge difference between running an illegal electronics business and killing two men, though, even if both get you sent to jail.

 

She says this about OTTR, often considered a "K" song:

"Like, you know, I used to live a really crazy life and, like, OTTR is one of those songs were you can tell by the energy of it that I’m right in the middle of, like, a relationship where times were happy but also chaotic. We were travelling between LA and Las Vegas, he- I can’t gamble ‘cause I’m not good, he was gambling, I was just swimming. (ITALIAN FB interview, MAR 12 2012)"

K from Drive-By was a nice guy who somehow ended up killing two people while trying to make money (the actual profit generating action is never elaborated upon). Not rich, not living a glamorous life. Off the top of my head, the song that closest fits the specifics of K's actions is Blue Jeans:

 

There was a drive-by Sunday night ... He headed out on Sunday, said he'd come home Monday

Making money's hard to do right ... He was chasin' paper ... Told you I wanted more, that's not what I had in mind

Now he's in a jail cell for some 30 years now ... Sent him onto death row, not to hang around though ... Then they took you away, stole you out of my life

 

We used to classify most gangsta/criminal songs that did not mention a musician or music as K songs, but it seems to me that this would mean K would have been both a hip-hop head and a punk rocker who was also crazy rich while not having enough money. Recently, the only songs I've classified as K songs (insofar as K is an archetype, a character, an idea, as opposed to a real life person) are songs that mention a lover that is either in prison (TVIB&W) or dead (DP). The guys mentioned in MDM and HD (who I think are the same person) and the one in OTTR (who might be the same one as in MDM+HD) are therefore not K songs. I don't know what this means for Backfire, Dangerous Girl, National Anthem, Golden Grill, etc.

 

One day when I have enough free time, I'm just gonna listen to all her stuff straight through and note different recurring "characters." We talk about her repeated lyrics (daddy, party dress, pale moonlight) but she certainly has repeated characters and they can't all be autobiographical. There are people she mentions in her interviews (frustratingly enough, never by name) that seem to match up with certain personages in her songs, as well, but that's another thing I'd need another day for.

 

This is why I love being a Lana fan, by the way. The consistency in her lyrics makes it so much fun to look at her work as a whole.

[evilentity 13,343]

i have always thought that her songs about "K" were more daydreams of hers about Kurt Cobain.

I've gradually come around to this position

Could you elaborate on that?

Yeah. These days I'm skeptical that K (or any of the criminal boyfriend types in her songs) is an actual person. My current working theory is that K stands for Kurt Cobain and that she has this sort of imagined fantasy life with him that borrows heavily from books, television, and film, almost her own personal mythology. So a lot of the details wouldn't necessarily fit with Kurt Cobain's actual life. That's my current working theory, but it's not anything I'm all that confident in.

[CarcrashBandicoot 760]

You know, if you connect BTD and Honeymoon's lyrics from "Mr. Born To Lose" and "You and I, we were born to die" and the song Jimmy wrote saying "If you think you were born to die, and it makes you not want to try, fall into my hands again" which makes it kind of obvious that those songs are about each other (unless he just so happened to write a song about a girl who claims that she was born to die, and Lana just so happened to write "You and I, we were born to die" into a song and name it her first album, jfc.) So if you connect Honeymoon's lyrics of "Mr Born to lose" and where she says "We both know the history of violence that surrounds you" to Ultraviolence's "Jim told me that, he hit me and it felt like a kiss... Jim raised me up, he hurt me but it felt like true love..." And of course, Hundred Dollar Bill... ("I like your ultraviolent swing, I like it when you treat me mean, you turn my mood from black to blue...")

 

I haven't read the Lanalysis OP in a long time so Idk if this was mentioned there or not, but my point is, the violent theme/connection throughout these few songs leads me to believe "smarty" is Jimmy. "Beat me and tell me that no one will love me better than you do"

[larina 682]

so I'm reading the OP because I once thought that "K", "Jim"/"Jimmy" & "Bill" were the same guy.

But anyway, I love how that on Jimmy Gnecco's Wikipedia page it has Lana listed under "Associated Acts"

 

 

Jimmy Gnecco

Gnecco in November 2014.

Background information Birth name James Francis Gnecco Born September 30, 1973 (age 41)
Teaneck, New Jersey Genres Experimental rock, Acoustic Occupation(s) Musician Years active 1992–present Labels unsigned Associated acts Ours, Lana Del Rey, Reeve Carney, Neverending White Lights, a-ha, Savoy, Weathervane Website jimmygnecco.com Notable instruments Guitar, Drums, Bass, Pian

[delreyfreak 5,341]

I was recently listening to TV in Black & White, wondering who it's about. I've always associated it with K, since she mentions prison, much like every other K song, but then I realised the "Greenwich avenue" line and I now wonder whether the song actually has any association to Arthur Lynn, or whether I'm reading into this too much?

 

Also, who do we think Young & Beautiful is about? I've always thought it to be about K too, since there's the "Dear Lord, when I get to heaven, please let me bring my man. When he comes, tell me that you'll let him in" and the "channeling angels" lines. I've always associated these lines with K's possible death, but now I'm also wondering if this song is not really about K at all either, considering the rock and roll lines that seem to be associated with Jimmy and the other "local rockstars" she sings about.

 

My other theory is that Lana combines imagery from multiple lovers to produce interesting songs. I think sometimes she simply creates a line or an idea inspired by a lover then continues writing the song including other ideas inspired by other lovers. It's almost as if she's just created an aesthetic for herself that she sticks to in almost every song - like she isn't always singing about a specific guy in each song, perhaps an amalgamation of multiple exes. Idk, just a thought… 

[larina 682]

My other theory is that Lana combines imagery from multiple lovers to produce interesting songs. I think sometimes she simply creates a line or an idea inspired by a lover then continues writing the song including other ideas inspired by other lovers. It's almost as if she's just created an aesthetic for herself that she sticks to in almost every song - like she isn't always singing about a specific guy in each song, perhaps an amalgamation of multiple exes. Idk, just a thought… 

 

I read someone else's post somewhere that suggested this. If it's true, I believe that's a very creative way to write, and it also keeps things mysterious, which she oh so loves to do.

[larina 682]

thank you Lanalysis

 

 

We met at rehabilitation, when he was hooked on yayo and I was hooked on Jim Beam and Jack Daniels. We shared our difficulties with each other and helped each other through it. We formed a strong friendship, the kind that eventually leads to romance. We fell in love. It made rehab much, much easier. I didn't even think about alcohol in that time. All I know is that it felt like I was living a fairy-tale. We were madly in love. He distracted me from liquor and I distracted him from cocaine. It was perfect. Because of each other, we managed to get out of rehab. We bought an apartment together and he proposed to me. I can still feel that sudden burst of extreme happiness when he knelt down and pulled that velvet box out of his pocket. Then he opened it to reveal the most gorgeous sparkling diamond ring I had ever seen. And it was for me.

But then, one day, one awful day, I saw this chick's lips pressed against Jim's. It still makes me shudder when I think about it, I'll never forget it. He didn't even like that woman, he admits, but that bitched ruined everything. I couldn't stop replaying it in my mind; it was on a constant loop, playing again and again endlessly on repeat. 

I paced around our empty apartment. Tears escaped my from my eyes as the thought of him possibly cheating on me seemed more and more likely. I'm a horrible fiance, he probably doesn't care about me any more. He's still out with that girl because he'd rather her company than mine. I'm such a bum. My pacing grew faster and my heart was beating at a rapid speed. I couldn't take it any more. Too much stress. Too much pain. My fingernails dug into the fabric of my clothing. No, I thought. I need it. I need it. We had liquor in a cabinet for guests but we promised we wouldn't drink any. But I needed to. I craved it. I grew a thirst for it, a thirst so strong to deny. It was my remedy to forget about this mess. I grabbed a bottle of whisky and drowned in it.

I couldn't remember anything at all that happened after, I just woke up, naked, with Jim standing near the door, furious.

Once he had noticed I was awake, he shouted, "What the fuck, Lizzy?" 

Confused, I just stared at him.

"I want that ring back," he demanded. I didn't understand what was going on at all. All I could remember was that I had the worst headache and I felt like shit.

"What do you mean?" I asked, my words slurred.

"You know very well what I mean, you slut!" he screamed. That knocked the wind out of me. I hadn't even laid eyes on another man...or so I thought. After a round of vicious language and a few slaps, I finally found out what caused this--I slept with his best friend. 

"Why the fuck did you fuck Reeve?" he was furious. 

"I swear, I don't remember anything!" I was now standing naked before him. Then Jim's eyes caught onto something. His eyes widened. He grabbed the object with anger. 

"Why, Lizzy?" he asked, voice cracking, a tear now running down his face as he showed me an empty bottle. "Why, Elizabeth, why?"

The thought of him and that girl returned. "I saw you kissing someone," I sniffed. 

"Who? Oh, come on, Lizzy! She was forcing herself onto me again. I would never betray you!" he said with clenched teeth.

"I-I, I didn't mean to do it, I swear!" I tried, but it was hopeless. I was the cause for all of this. 

"No, just forget it, I need some space."

 

[WhiteHydrangea 4,216]

thank you Lanalysis

 

 

We met at rehabilitation, when he was hooked on yayo and I was hooked on Jim Beam and Jack Daniels. We shared our difficulties with each other and helped each other through it. We formed a strong friendship, the kind that eventually leads to romance. We fell in love. It made rehab much, much easier. I didn't even think about alcohol in that time. All I know is that it felt like I was living a fairy-tale. We were madly in love. He distracted me from liquor and I distracted him from cocaine. It was perfect. Because of each other, we managed to get out of rehab. We bought an apartment together and he proposed to me. I can still feel that sudden burst of extreme happiness when he knelt down and pulled that velvet box out of his pocket. Then he opened it to reveal the most gorgeous sparkling diamond ring I had ever seen. And it was for me.

But then, one day, one awful day, I saw this chick's lips pressed against Jim's. It still makes me shudder when I think about it, I'll never forget it. He didn't even like that woman, he admits, but that bitched ruined everything. I couldn't stop replaying it in my mind; it was on a constant loop, playing again and again endlessly on repeat. 

I paced around our empty apartment. Tears escaped my from my eyes as the thought of him possibly cheating on me seemed more and more likely. I'm a horrible fiance, he probably doesn't care about me any more. He's still out with that girl because he'd rather her company than mine. I'm such a bum. My pacing grew faster and my heart was beating at a rapid speed. I couldn't take it any more. Too much stress. Too much pain. My fingernails dug into the fabric of my clothing. No, I thought. I need it. I need it. We had liquor in a cabinet for guests but we promised we wouldn't drink any. But I needed to. I craved it. I grew a thirst for it, a thirst so strong to deny. It was my remedy to forget about this mess. I grabbed a bottle of whisky and drowned in it.

I couldn't remember anything at all that happened after, I just woke up, naked, with Jim standing near the door, furious.

Once he had noticed I was awake, he shouted, "What the fuck, Lizzy?" 

Confused, I just stared at him.

"I want that ring back," he demanded. I didn't understand what was going on at all. All I could remember was that I had the worst headache and I felt like shit.

"What do you mean?" I asked, my words slurred.

"You know very well what I mean, you slut!" he screamed. That knocked the wind out of me. I hadn't even laid eyes on another man...or so I thought. After a round of vicious language and a few slaps, I finally found out what caused this--I slept with his best friend. 

"Why the fuck did you fuck Reeve?" he was furious. 

"I swear, I don't remember anything!" I was now standing naked before him. Then Jim's eyes caught onto something. His eyes widened. He grabbed the object with anger. 

"Why, Lizzy?" he asked, voice cracking, a tear now running down his face as he showed me an empty bottle. "Why, Elizabeth, why?"

The thought of him and that girl returned. "I saw you kissing someone," I sniffed. 

"Who? Oh, come on, Lizzy! She was forcing herself onto me again. I would never betray you!" he said with clenched teeth.

"I-I, I didn't mean to do it, I swear!" I tried, but it was hopeless. I was the cause for all of this. 

"No, just forget it, I need some space."

 

 

Did you just write a fanfiction?

[larina 682]

Did you just write a fanfiction?

 

yes, it's actually my most recent part. you get a sneak peak of the new chapter XD 

[KillKillQueen 1,298]

  50 Shades of Blue

[shadedfeelings 16]

Has this been posted before? 

 

 

Spacecamp: You know that girl Lana Del Ray? She has about 6,455,290,001 hits on Youtube with her song "Video Games." Well, we were her back up band once cuz her and Steven used to make-out sometimes, for like a year. Well, turns out it wasn't him, it wasn't him, it wasn't all for him cuz she wanted to make-out with someone else one week. I mean look at her. If you had those lips you would want to press them up against a lot of stuff. I would too. So one day Steven comes to practice and tells us he's a bit down cuz he's wondering where she and her mouth had gone off to the night before. I told him he didn't want to know. He agreed and we all started laughing and jamming and we wrote that African influenced song Alibi about Lana and Steven. They're friends now and laugh and joke about where their lips have been.

JK, it's about our friend Lizzy who is a friend of Carly's. She's been looking for an apartment for about three years and her parents are starting to get worried. So we wrote a song for her parents.

[KillKillQueen 1,298]

Has this been posted before? 

"JK, it's about our friend Lizzy who is a friend of Carly's. She's been looking for an apartment for about three years and her parents are starting to get worried. So we wrote a song for her parents."

[Valentino 885]

Potential Arthur Lynn stuff.
 
I was looking for an Arthur Lynn blog post and ended up looking through his posts. I noticed he referred to Van Halen as "kings" and the "band that changed my life and kicked me in the balls." He specifically tags them as "david lee roth, diamond, edward van halen." And that reminded me of Mermaid Motel:
 
'maybe we could go to Suede Tokyo
See Van Halen at their reunion show
Heavy Metal hour on TV
Diamond Dave and Ray Lee'
 
I mean, there's nothing saying none of her other long-haired boyfriends/paramours/whatever couldn't have liked Van Halen, but:

• Arthur Lynn is confirmed as a boyfriend
• we have songs referencing his origins (Greenwich)
• we have songs referencing his favorite drink (Diet Mountain Dew)

It doesn't seem odd that this could be a reference to him.

Lana Del Rey lived in New York City from like 2006 to 2009-ish. Van Halen's reunion tour with David Lee Roth 2007-2008 had a stop in NYC November 13, 2007 and May 23, 2008. Neither of these dates would conflict with her known shows. I don't know when she wrote Mermaid Motel, but she performed it at Arlene's Grocery February 3, 2009, so it's possible for it to refer to the reunion show as a past event (as opposed to a future event).

The weird "I always wanted to name my daughter Lana and my son Ray" post (posted in 'flying' and tagged 'true love') from Lynn's blog is from January 12, 2009, so they may still have been dating at this point. Interesting - Lana first meets Mike Mizrahi January 18, 2009... either Lynn was suffering from Barrie-denial-syndrome or some stuff went down in those 6 days. His Diet MTN Dew page (now password protected) from October 24, 2008 says this:

My favorite drink in the world. I founded the officially unofficial diet mountain dew page on myspace from 2006-2008. It showcased the top unsigned acts in new York city, one being an unknown lady gaga. She kept us in her top friends until I deleted the account (stupidly) after an argument with an ex-girlfriend.

We all know Stefani u suck Lana was not fond of Gaga, and I wonder if that means she could have been the ex-girlfriend he was talking about... although that means they probably wouldn't have been dating in 2009. It could have been some weird on-again-off-again stuff, maybe he was talking to a different ex-girlfriend as a friend while still dating Lana, but for simplicity's sake I'm assuming that was not the case. It does add a wrinkle to the timeline either way.

 
Ray Lee is currently a drummer for Korn but "served as the drummer of the Van Halen frontman’s solo band from 1997 to 2005, performing on 1998′s ‘DLR Band’ and 2003′s ‘Diamond Dave’ albums."
I'm still not sure about Suede Tokyo. There is a band by the name of Suede and they have indeed performed in Tokyo, but I don't know why Lana would refer to that. More educated people, help?
 
So I'm speculating Mermaid Motel is about Arthur Lynn. Which brings me to something else...
 
One site listed Lynn's interests as such (trying to find the site since, like an idiot, I just saved the interests). Pay attention to the bolded ones.
music, girls, guitars, america, diet mountain dew, van halen, ice cream, photography, jersey, angiescreams, indian summer, woods, food, freckles, the sun, the moon, seasons, amplifiers, family, friends, karma, october, yo mama, yo mama's apple pie, and those little people we call doggies
 
JERSEY
Note his blog is subtitled "thoughts from a jersey boy." His flickr lists his hometown as Jersey but "currently" (not sure when screenshot was taken) Greenwich, CT. I was already pretty sure that Motel 6 was about Lynn due to DMD references, but "to Jersey with love" makes more sense now.
 
MORE VAN HALEN STUFF + CONEY ISLAND + YOUR MOM:
This is the most recent screenshot I’m showing – we’re going in reverse chronological order, from ‘last login date.’
In this screenshot from her Lizzy Grant MySpace, url therichwhores, she lists Diamond Dave as an influence (along with Britney Spears and motorcycles, two other lasting influences). Notice she lists her location as New Jersey. Also notice that she describes her music as metal - not a musical genre I would put any Lana Del Rey song in, ever. I wonder if Arthur Lynn, who could conceivably be the one into "heavy metal hour," influenced her calling her music "metal."

 
She's still therichwhores here, but her location is now Alabama. Her genre is glam, blues, experimental. No metal – not yet, anyway. David Lee Roth is one of 3 influences, along with Britney Spears and motorcycles.
 

 
The earliest Rich Whores screenshot I’m showing. In this one, she lists David Lee Roth and Coney Island as influences... along with "your mom." Yeah, just like Mr. Lynn listed "yo mama." Britney and motorcycles remain, but the other influences have shifted. Arthur Lynn is explicitly listed as a member here. She's living in New York now. (aside: pretty things is an influence here. we'll see that again later)

 
 
 
AMERICA
Lana said this about one of her ex-boyfriends:

I once had a boyfriend who talked about all the reasons why he loved flags, Rock-and-Roll, and America. I didn't know much about all of that, but I did love him and I wanted to be just like him. So everything in the videos -- the Vegas pyramid, the brides' smile, the groom motioning "cheers" -- they're all different expressions of the happiness I had when I loved a man who loved me and America.

 
Lynn loves rock and roll, that's perfectly clear. But what distinguishes him from Gnecco or Carney or other musical liaisons? Well, the 4th 'like' listed by Lynn was America. It's a weak connection, but I don't think we've ever tied that comment to any other boyfriend. Lana didn't always talk or sing about America. Her May Jailer era stuff, for example, seems more focused on the details of personal relationships than concepts like America or archetypes like the gangster boyfriend. I don't know when Lana started playing with Lynn, but it'd be curious to see if that date coincides with an increasing number of references to Americana. If we assume Mermaid Motel is about Lynn, then we also have a connection to Coney Island, another interest of hers that you don't see mentioned in the early days.
 
To see how big the change from her May Jailer stuff to her Lizzy/Lana stuff was, let's look at more MySpace pages...
 
Folk, acoustic, experimental! Only one of these genre descriptors survived into the post-May Jailer MySpace descriptors. Her influences are Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Nirvana, Leonard Cohen, Radiohead... only Nirvana is repeated as an influence in the later MySpace page, although Daniel Johnston seems to be in the vein of singer-songwritery stuff.

A year later (according to last-login date) and "Cony Island" (sic) and "pretty things" have been added as influences. She's now experimental, blues, folk - the acoustic part is gone. Another mid-2000s screenshot shows "Bread and Oranges" appearing alongside Money Hunny, Fordham Road, and A Star for Nick. It now has its final name, Pawn Shop Blues, and For K Part 2 has shown up - the LDR album appears to be forming (Jump, Kill Kill, and Put Me In A Movie show up in the Lizzy screenshots above).
 
The last login date for this one is 5/17/2007, whereas the last login date for the earliest Rich Whores page is 12/12/2007. It appears to be a transitional state, not just with regards to her layout, but also her name and influences. The music is less acoustic. Coney Island starts showing up, as well as motorcycles and Van Halen. Metal inexplicably becomes a descriptor.
Would fit in pretty well with Arthur Lynn showing up… just sayin’. 
 
(one last thing... under band members, she lists "TAGS & TIM." Who are these people?)

 
CONCLUSION?
From 2007-ish to maybe 2009-ish, Lana dated Arthur Lynn. Arthur Lynn may be the boyfriend who loved rock-n-roll and America. Before his introduction into her band (and we don't know when they met, so they could have met before Lynn was part of the Rich Whores), Americana references were rare in her music, she made singer-songwritery stuff about people's lives, and she basically had a very different persona. Lynn becomes part of the Rich Whores, she now likes Van Halen, specifically David Lee Roth and the album Diamond Dave, Coney Island (all mentioned in Mermaid Motel), her music is described very differently (metal, really?; and glam), she somehow picks up on his jokes (yo mama)... I think he was an influential boyfriend.

 

Oh, and to tie this back to other boyfriends...

 

According to the Galore interview by Chuck, Lana broke up with Steve Mertens when she was 22. So 2007?

 

Now, I know you don’t love to talk about this because journalists have sort of mythologized your past but let’s talk about the trailer park you lived in for a few years- I shot you there when you were 22 and continued to shoot you there for a couple years while you were writing and entertaining and wrapping up your album with David Kahne. You were so sweet and happy that you had your very own place to write and reside in, and extra money from that $10,000 indie contract. It was also a sad time for you because you separated from Steven Mertens who had originally produced that record and who was your boyfriend at the time. I don’t really have to ask you this because as your sister, I think I already know, but would you say this was your most enriching time as an artist and happiest time in New York (despite the split from Steven.)

Lana mentioned a seven-year relationship with a record producer in the 2014 Fader interview and I think Mertens is the only one who could potentially fit that.

 

 

 

 In a Lizzy Grant-era piece for the Huffington Post, she told a reporter, “Strangest performance: Alone in a basement for a handsome record executive. Strangest [song] ever written: Back at his office while I was making out with him.” When I ask her if she regrets joking like that, given how often people perceived her as a puppet of some executive team, she says, no, the story was true: “I had a seven-year relationship with the head of this label, and he was a huge inspiration to me. I’ll tell you later when more people know. He never signed me, but he was like my muse, the love of my life.” 

 

Which would make the timeline of that relationship 2000-2007. Which means she would have been 15 when she started dating Mertens... If Mertens is the 7 year relationship (and I don't think any of the other ones could be that relationship), then that means she would have had 4 major ex-boyfriends.

Mertens 2000-2007.

Lynn 2007 to 2008 or 2009

Mizrahi 2009 to 2011

Barrie 2012 (?) to 2014

 

Thoughts? It's like early in the morning and I've spent a couple hours doing this, so I'd like fresh eyes.

[larina 682]

Potential Arthur Lynn stuff.

 

I was looking for an Arthur Lynn blog post and ended up looking through his posts. I noticed he referred to Van Halen as "kings" and the "band that changed my life and kicked me in the balls." He specifically tags them as "david lee roth, diamond, edward van halen." And that reminded me of Mermaid Motel:

 

'maybe we could go to Suede Tokyo

See Van Halen at their reunion show

Heavy Metal hour on TV

Diamond Dave and Ray Lee'

 

I mean, there's nothing saying none of her other long-haired boyfriends/paramours/whatever couldn't have liked Van Halen, but:

• Arthur Lynn is confirmed as a boyfriend
• we have songs referencing his origins (Greenwich)
• we have songs referencing his favorite drink (Diet Mountain Dew)

It doesn't seem odd that this could be a reference to him.

 

Lana Del Rey lived in New York City from like 2006 to 2009-ish. Van Halen's reunion tour with David Lee Roth 2007-2008 had a stop in NYC November 13, 2007 and May 23, 2008. Neither of these dates would conflict with her known shows. I don't know when she wrote Mermaid Motel, but she performed it at Arlene's Grocery February 3, 2009, so it's possible for it to refer to the reunion show as a past event (as opposed to a future event).

 

 

The weird "I always wanted to name my daughter Lana and my son Ray" post (posted in 'flying' and tagged 'true love') from Lynn's blog is from January 12, 2009, so they may still have been dating at this point. Interesting - Lana first meets Mike Mizrahi January 18, 2009... either Lynn was suffering from Barrie-denial-syndrome or some stuff went down in those 6 days. His Diet MTN Dew page (now password protected) from October 24, 2008 says this:

We all know Stefani u suck Lana was not fond of Gaga, and I wonder if that means she could have been the ex-girlfriend he was talking about... although that means they probably wouldn't have been dating in 2009. It could have been some weird on-again-off-again stuff, maybe he was talking to a different ex-girlfriend as a friend while still dating Lana, but for simplicity's sake I'm assuming that was not the case. It does add a wrinkle to the timeline either way.

 

 

Ray Lee is currently a drummer for Korn but "served as the drummer of the Van Halen frontman’s solo band from 1997 to 2005, performing on 1998′s ‘DLR Band’ and 2003′s ‘Diamond Dave’ albums."

I'm still not sure about Suede Tokyo. There is a band by the name of Suede and they have indeed performed in Tokyo, but I don't know why Lana would refer to that. More educated people, help?

 

So I'm speculating Mermaid Motel is about Arthur Lynn. Which brings me to something else...

 

One site listed Lynn's interests as such (trying to find the site since, like an idiot, I just saved the interests). Pay attention to the bolded ones.

music, girls, guitars, america, diet mountain dew, van halen, ice cream, photography, jersey, angiescreams, indian summer, woods, food, freckles, the sun, the moon, seasons, amplifiers, family, friends, karma, october, yo mama, yo mama's apple pie, and those little people we call doggies

 

JERSEY

Note his blog is subtitled "thoughts from a jersey boy." His flickr lists his hometown as Jersey but "currently" (not sure when screenshot was taken) Greenwich, CT. I was already pretty sure that Motel 6 was about Lynn due to DMD references, but "to Jersey with love" makes more sense now.

 

MORE VAN HALEN STUFF + CONEY ISLAND + YOUR MOM:

This is the most recent screenshot I’m showing – we’re going in reverse chronological order, from ‘last login date.’

In this screenshot from her Lizzy Grant MySpace, url therichwhores, she lists Diamond Dave as an influence (along with Britney Spears and motorcycles, two other lasting influences). Notice she lists her location as New Jersey. Also notice that she describes her music as metal - not a musical genre I would put any Lana Del Rey song in, ever. I wonder if Arthur Lynn, who could conceivably be the one into "heavy metal hour," influenced her calling her music "metal."

 

She's still therichwhores here, but her location is now Alabama. Her genre is glam, blues, experimental. No metal – not yet, anyway. David Lee Roth is one of 3 influences, along with Britney Spears and motorcycles.

 

 

The earliest Rich Whores screenshot I’m showing. In this one, she lists David Lee Roth and Coney Island as influences... along with "your mom." Yeah, just like Mr. Lynn listed "yo mama." Britney and motorcycles remain, but the other influences have shifted. Arthur Lynn is explicitly listed as a member here. She's living in New York now. (aside: pretty things is an influence here. we'll see that again later)

 

 

 

AMERICA

Lana said this about one of her ex-boyfriends:

 

Lynn loves rock and roll, that's perfectly clear. But what distinguishes him from Gnecco or Carney or other musical liaisons? Well, the 4th 'like' listed by Lynn was America. It's a weak connection, but I don't think we've ever tied that comment to any other boyfriend. Lana didn't always talk or sing about America. Her May Jailer era stuff, for example, seems more focused on the details of personal relationships than concepts like America or archetypes like the gangster boyfriend. I don't know when Lana started playing with Lynn, but it'd be curious to see if that date coincides with an increasing number of references to Americana. If we assume Mermaid Motel is about Lynn, then we also have a connection to Coney Island, another interest of hers that you don't see mentioned in the early days.

 

To see how big the change from her May Jailer stuff to her Lizzy/Lana stuff was, let's look at more MySpace pages...

 

Folk, acoustic, experimental! Only one of these genre descriptors survived into the post-May Jailer MySpace descriptors. Her influences are Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Nirvana, Leonard Cohen, Radiohead... only Nirvana is repeated as an influence in the later MySpace page, although Daniel Johnston seems to be in the vein of singer-songwritery stuff.

A year later (according to last-login date) and "Cony Island" (sic) and "pretty things" have been added as influences. She's now experimental, blues, folk - the acoustic part is gone. Another mid-2000s screenshot shows "Bread and Oranges" appearing alongside Money Hunny, Fordham Road, and A Star for Nick. It now has its final name, Pawn Shop Blues, and For K Part 2 has shown up - the LDR album appears to be forming (Jump, Kill Kill, and Put Me In A Movie show up in the Lizzy screenshots above).

 

The last login date for this one is 5/17/2007, whereas the last login date for the earliest Rich Whores page is 12/12/2007. It appears to be a transitional state, not just with regards to her layout, but also her name and influences. The music is less acoustic. Coney Island starts showing up, as well as motorcycles and Van Halen. Metal inexplicably becomes a descriptor.

Would fit in pretty well with Arthur Lynn showing up… just sayin’. 

 

(one last thing... under band members, she lists "TAGS & TIM." Who are these people?)

 

CONCLUSION?

From 2007-ish to maybe 2009-ish, Lana dated Arthur Lynn. Arthur Lynn may be the boyfriend who loved rock-n-roll and America. Before his introduction into her band (and we don't know when they met, so they could have met before Lynn was part of the Rich Whores), Americana references were rare in her music, she made singer-songwritery stuff about people's lives, and she basically had a very different persona. Lynn becomes part of the Rich Whores, she now likes Van Halen, specifically David Lee Roth and the album Diamond Dave, Coney Island (all mentioned in Mermaid Motel), her music is described very differently (metal, really?; and glam), she somehow picks up on his jokes (yo mama)... I think he was an influential boyfriend.

 

(let's say she dated Linn 2007 to 2009 and Mizrahi 2009 to 2011... when did she date Steve Mertens? Would Mertens be the 8-year relationship? Pretty sure Chuck mentioned him in an interview somewhere. Who else would this leave space for?)

 

omg thank you for this very intriguing! how do you find it all?

[Valentino 885]

omg thank you for this very intriguing! how do you find it all?

The screenshots was simply serendipitous: someone bumped this thread, bringing it to the front page. Unfortunately some of the images beyond the 1st page are broken, so I couldn't use them.

I found out about Lynn's blog and his flickr through Lanalysis. I also got dates for Mizrahi from there, too. And anything else is just looking stuff up. evil's early shows section helped, as well as this list of interviews I had saved.

 

And it's good that I get to make this 2nd post because I want to add some stuff about Steven Mertens. Here's a bunch of interviews mentioning him, plus evilentity's world-class sleuthing:

 

Steve Mertens 1

In a Lizzy Grant-era piece for the Huffington Post, she told a reporter, “Strangest performance: Alone in a basement for a handsome record executive. Strangest [song] ever written: Back at his office while I was making out with him.” When I ask her if she regrets joking like that, given how often people perceived her as a puppet of some executive team, she says, no, the story was true: “I had a seven-year relationship with the head of this label, and he was a huge inspiration to me. I’ll tell you later when more people know. He never signed me, but he was like my muse, the love of my life.” (JUNE 4 2014, FADER)

(the referenced interiew is form May 25, 2011)

2

You could work with outside songwriters. Are you open to that kind of thing a bit more now?

Lana: Yeah, I’m more open to it now, ‘cause personally I’m not really feeling it. (Laughs) Like this guy I worked with eight years ago, Steven Mertens, who made my first record [editor’s note: David Kahne is credited as the producer of her debut, 2010’s Lana Del Ray a.k.a. Lizzy Grant; Mertens is a member of the Brooklyn band Spacecamp]. He knew me really well.

3

Now, I know you don’t love to talk about this because journalists have sort of mythologized your past but let’s talk about the trailer park you lived in for a few years- I shot you there when you were 22 [my note: 2007] and continued to shoot you there for a couple years while you were writing and entertaining and wrapping up your album with David Kahne. You were so sweet and happy that you had your very own place to write and reside in, and extra money from that $10,000 indie contract. It was also a sad time for you because you separated from Steven Mertens who had originally produced that record and who was your boyfriend at the time. I don’t really have to ask you this because as your sister, I think I already know, but would you say this was your most enriching time as an artist and happiest time in New York (despite the split from Steven.) (GALORE INTERVIEW 2014)

4 (the saddest one, imo)

Why did you choose to cover Nina Simone’s “The Other Woman” on Ultraviolence?

[Sings, “The other woman has time to manicure her nails, the other woman is perfect where her rival fails.”] I relate to being the person who people come to for “such a change from the old routine,” but not being the main thing. I had a long-term relationship for seven years with someone who was the head of a label and I felt like I was that change of routine. I was always waiting to become the person who his kids came home to, and it never happened. Obviously I had to seek other relationships, and I felt like that became a pattern. I was younger—24, 25 at the time. I had known what I wanted to do for a long time. I had been serious about music since high school, and I stopped drinking when I was 18. (Complex august 2013)

5

EVILENTITY ANALYSIS

                TrailerParkDarling, 16 Aug 2013: Steven Mertens used to play back up w/ her, I guess at various gigs.    

                He used to w/ Regina Spektor, too

 

http://web.archive.o...ace.com/4026640

SitarHero, Aug 16 2013: But no seriously Sirens was 8 years ago and AKA wasn't...like I think she may have just actually referenced it. Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng

 

I totally overlooked the "eight years ago" part at first (    at a possible reference to Sirens or her other early recordings) but I'd been meaning to contact Steven Mertens for months since @Trash Magic and I put some things together about him (which perhaps belong in Lanalysis). When I saw she mentioned him by name in this article, I got on that immediately and sent him an e-mail. I'll report back any response, but please don't bother him in case it interferes with my attempts to correspond with him.

 

In addition to sharing the bill with her at a Cross-Pollination show, and playing in her backing band as TPD noted (he's the guy that looks sort of like McNulty from The Wire in the Canal Room videos), Mertens has actually been referred to in at least two other interviews with Lana. Remember that Megan and Menace in the Mornings interview?

When I was young, my boyfriend in the city made my first record. His best friend Jack was Regina [spektor]'s longtime boyfriend. They're married now.

 

(You can listen here at around 5:20.) Regina Spektor (who TPD notes Mertens also played for) is married to Jack Dishel who was in a band called The Moldy Peaches. Guess who else was in The Moldy Peaches? Steven Mertens. I wasn't completely convinced at first that that's who she was talking about (I thought it was more likely another Moldy Peaches member, Adam Green, since his initials are AG, likely a red herring) until @Trash Magic pointed out something I'd missed-- in that Mizrahi interview she said:

 

One of the first producers I worked with, Steven Saint, learned a lot from Dick Dale (father of surf music, pre-Beach Boys) so the beginning of the sound was influenced by some sounds from Hawaii and surf guitars, so that’s where the surf comes from.

A little digging shows that Steven Saint = Steven Mertens (see here and here).

 

6 (surf music + Steven Mertens is from LA)

I had a very handsome ex boyfriend from here [interview takes place in California] once. Surf punk rock bands. It was loud all the time in the house, in the car.

(KPRI interview)

(also notice she calls him handsome here and refers to the record executive as "handsome," too. Makes me think of For K Part 2: "how you get so handsome, my boy?")

 

For reference, a pic of Steven Mertens in 2008.

 

That thing where she mentioned feeling like a change of routine... wow. That got me, honestly.

 

And now for some more discrepancies...

 

Who are these people?

 

RADIO GUY

I mean you know people always said you know people will come out of the woodwork and change their mind about you. They’ll start to like you ‘cause you’re on the radio. And it is true but I don’t mind ‘cause I’d rather people be nice to me.

I don’t really care why people are nice to me I just lie it when it’s easier. I just wrote it when this guy that I used to know came back into my life. So now my life is sweet like cinnamon. Cause he came back. (ITALIAN INTERVIEW on FACEBOOK, MAR 12 2012)

 

RICH GUY

"It's a song about a man who thought I was one of the most exotic things he had ever seen and me indulging in his appreciation and love. On the outside he was handsome and wholesome, but under wraps he was running an illegal electronic business which ended up taking him and his friends under." (Unknown interview, about MDM)

 

Like, you know, I used to live a really crazy life and, like, OTTR is one of those songs were you can tell by the energy of it that I’m right in the middle of, like, a relationship where times were happy but also chaotic. We were travelling between LA and Las Vegas, he- I can’t gamble ‘cause I’m not good, he was gambling, I was just swimming. (ITALIAN FB interview, MAR 12 2012)

 

ALABAMA (this could be Mertens since one of the May Jailer pages listed Alabama as a place and that would've been pre-Lynn)

I lived down in Alabama with my boyfriend, I lived here in Brooklyn and in Jersey. I’ve been a lot of different people, I guess.” (FADER JULY 2014)

 

LONG TIME LOVE MAN + EX BOYFRIEND COUCH MAN

What about love and loss, the other dark note in her oeuvre? “I felt the same way for a really long time, and then I met someone who I guess I fell in love with,” she says. “I just didn’t know I could feel differently. That time with him became sort of a place that I fell back to in my memory.” And the breakup? “Well, I mean, the breakup is a part of it in the way that in the midst of loss you try to still look towards the light and not fall to pieces or do self-destructive things.”

[…]

Before she goes, I ask her where she lives. She’s looking to buy a place, but for now is in Williamsburg. “Staying with my ex-boyfriend,” she says nonchalantly, then bursts into nervous laughter and admits, “I live on his couch.”

I give her a look like, You just told me all that about falling in love and breaking up and you’re on the dude’s couch? She pins it on the touring, letting out another embarrassed laugh. “Because no, I’m busy though!” (FEB9 2012)

 

REHAB ROCK STAR (Jimmy Gnecco?)

Which lyric are you most proud of?

There was an older song that you've never heard called "Pawn Shop Blues". [sings] "In the name of higher consciousness / I let the best man I met go / Because it's nice to love and be loved but it's better to know all you can know." Because I remember I'd met someone so special and famous but I knew he wasn't enlightened about how to be a good person. I knew it would get in the way of me becoming a nice person. That's a difficult choice to make.

How did you meet this famous person?

Um, it was in a self-help group. [laughs]. He wasn't that famous. I just thought he was famous…

TV famous or movie star famous?

Rock star famous.  Just middle of the road ish. To me he was famous because I didn't know anyone who was wildly recognisable. I remember thinking it was exciting at the time. (SEP 19 2011)

 

VIDEO GAMES MAN (MEN)

(supposedly VG is about Mike Mizrahi, and he supposedly tried to control her career)

Lana: Video Games was a song that came after I abandoned all ambition of becoming anyone noteworthy in music. It was only ten months ago. I just wrote it when I felt love again. It was about a time when it was nice to focus on a relationship and simple things; watching your boyfriend play videogames. It sounds sad, but it was sort of happy. I’d let go of the idea of being a singer because things had gone so terribly for so long.(SEP 23 2011)

 

 

LDR: A boy. I think we came together because we were both outsiders. It was perfect. But I think with that contentment also comes sadness. There was something heavenly about that life – we'd go to work and he'd play his video games - but also it was maybe too regular. At the time I was becoming disillusioned with being a singer and was very happy to settle with a boyfriend who I loved, but in the end we both lost sight of our dreams. Maybe there's something not-so-special about domestic life. (OCT 4 2011)

 

“The verse was about the way things were with one person, and the chorus was the way that I wished things had really been with another person, who I thought about for a long time,” she says, breaking into an acapella of the song. “‘Swinging in the backyard, pull up in your fast car, whistling my name’. That was what happened, you know? He’d come home and I’d see him. But then the chorus, ‘Heaven is a place on earth with you, tell me all the things you wanna do’ wasn’t like that. That was the way that I wished it was – the melody sounds so compelling and heavenly because I wanted it to be that way. The verse is more matter-of-fact because that’s how it was. It’s a mix of memories and the way I wished it could have been. Just because things happened a certain way doesn’t mean that that’s the way that they are. (Dazed 2011)

(NOTE: She's said in a more recent interview that many of her songs are like this - the verses about one person and the chorus about another. I am pretty sure she said this about West Coast; I need to track that interview down)

 

BTD, VG, BJ - a trilogy about one guy?

 

 

(5:47)

Q: I didn't realize until recently that Born To Die, and Video Games, and Blue Jeans, you said they were kind of a trilogy about this one dude and his effect on you and your relationship and what you thought. Is he, Adele-style, is he aware of that? Have you talked to him about that? Is he aware of the reaction it's getting?

L: What is Adele style?

Q: She's very vocal about this one person. It's about this person and we talk about it and now we can have a laugh about it, but the time there was so much emotion going on.

L: He doesn't know. His mother knows. We're in touch. But no. 

Q: He hasn't pieced it together and gone hey!

L: Not really.

[WhiteHydrangea 4,216]

And I thought Lanalysis was dead! Thank you Jesus and Thank you Valentino

[slayLANAslay 239]

i love this thread and i am fascinated that she listed Morphine as an influence. what a band and so tragically over (lead singer had heart attack on stage at a festival), 3 piece that was bass, sax and drums. assuming that she did't mean the drug, but with 'dope n diamonds' maybe it is...

 

The Devil and Daniel Johnston? anyone seen this documentary yet? off to listen to his tunes