LANALYSIS: Relating Songs To Known/Assumed Relationships

[delreyfreak 5,341]

So what do y'all have to add to this thread since the release of Honeymoon?

All I can think of is that Salvatore is sort of inspired by Francesco, but certainly isn't biographical. I think Francesco may have influenced Lana to write another Italian mafia-inspired song. Like, the song combines Lana's reality with Fran with a fantasy element, placing her lover in the mafia and writing a song based around that.

[delreyfreak 5,341]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/19/lana-del-rey-s-trailer-park-days-my-time-with-lizzy-grant.html

 

This has some interesting bits in it

Ooh, interesting read! Thanks for the read

[SwayTokyo 867]

The Blackest Day is most likely about Barry IMO. 
His favorite color is black, etc. I honestly don't think she's so torn up about him in the long run, but when it was happening it might've been traumatic.

[renaissance 8,329]

The Blackest Day is most likely about Barry IMO. 

His favorite color is black, etc. I honestly don't think she's so torn up about him in the long run, but when it was happening it might've been traumatic.

I agree. I don't think she's so torn up because she moved on to Franny very quickly.

[Valentino 885]

I want to compare Butterflies Part 2 with Money Power Glory. I think MPG is an evolution of the theme in Butterflies Part 2. An inversion, if you will.

 

"You're hot for God, but we all got a,

Hunch that maybe you've gone astray.

Control yourself, but it's so hard,

When you can look so good on Sunday."

 

Right off the bat, we're talking about a religious man. He talks about God a lot, but everyone suspects he's not on the straight and narrow. Lana notes that he's trying not to give in, but it's just so tempting to look good on Sunday, when everyone sees him.

 

"I know he knows,

That I know what he's thinkin',

I know he knows

That what he's doin' is wrong,

But I just tell him "go on,

Sing a sad song." "

 

She knows what he's doing, and he is aware of this. He is also aware that what he's doing is wrong, but Lana doesn't berate him, and just tells him to sing a sad song.

 

"My baby has an eye,

For pretty things, pretty things.

He thinks that little girls,

Are butterflies and cuts their wings."

 

Well, here's his crime. He's a ladykiller. Hopefully he's not chasing after actual little girls and this is one of Lana's turns of phrases. Having sexual relationships outside of marriage is generally considered unacceptable in Christianity.

 

"Sicko, psycho, sicko,

But he's my beau."

 

She knows he's a sick mofo, but he's her sick mofo. They're dating (or maybe she's okay with being "one of many," like in Shades of Cool?)

 

"Puts them on a rollercoaster,

Lures them in with Coca-Cola!"

 

He uses sweet nothings to lock these girls into a crazy ride they can't get off of until he's done with them.

 

"Boy, you've been, catchin' butterflies,

All the girls believe your lies, don't they?"

 

Just more on the girls = butterflies stuff, and him using lies to get these girls.

 

"Boy, you can pin, me up if you like,

A pin-up in a lonely sky, baby.

You give me butterflies,

You're catchin' butterflies.

I'm fluttering, fluttering high."

 

Insect collectors pin up dead butterflies to show their wings. Lana wouldn't mind being one of his conquests, one of his pinned butterflies, and sexualizes it by comparing herself, the pinned butterfly, to a pinup girl. She's unlike the other girls, hence the "lonely sky," because she went into this willingly. But she's just so in love~

 

"You're hard to trap but boy you got,

A secret that you cannot betray.

He likes it hot, you're burnin' up,

But baby boy your secret is safe."

 

Nobody's been able to call him out yet, but he knows that it would ruin him if his sexy secret got out. Don't worry, Lana's got your back.

 

"I know he know,

That what he's teachin' is wrong,

But, honey, this preacher's song,

Has got me too far-gone."

 

It seems he's using his influence as a preacher to get these girls to do him favors, which would be even worse than simply getting around. Lana doesn't care - she's too in love with him. Maybe "this preacher's song" is the same "sad song" she asked him to sing in the beginning, metaphorically.

 

"My baby has an eye,

For girls who sing, girls who sing.

He's lucky I'm the type,

That's his thing, that's his thing."

 

He seems to like singers. He's lucky that the girl who fits his type is also someone willing to stand by his sick actions.

 

"Dresses up in rings and rollers,

Poses as a Holy Roller!"

 

Looking good on Sunday while pretending to be possessed by religious fervor.

 

"These butterflies are in a,

Golden cage, safe and bound."

 

Lana's saying nothing really bad happens to these girls. Alternately, she may be saying her own 'butterflies' are safely controlled by her.

 

"I puts on "Lola" by The Kinks,

And he dances round.

And he's so happy that his

Feet don't even touch the ground.

I'm in love 'cause I was lost,

And now I'm finally found."

 

Lola is supposed to be a song about meeting a transvestite or something, not sure how it relates? It's probably just a song Lana likes. "Lost, but now I was found" she claimed in Born To Die. I guess he found her.

 

"You say that you wanna go

To a land that's far away

How are we supposed to get there

With the way that we're living today?

You talk lots about God

Freedom comes from the call"

 

'A land that's far away' sounds like heaven. Lana counters that that's not going to happen with their current sinful lifestyle. He talks about how freedom comes from the "call," presumably the call of being chosen by God to spread his message or good word or whatever.

 

"But that's not what this bitch wants

Not what I want at all.

I want money, power and glory

I want money and all your power, all your glory

Hallelujah, I wanna take you for all that you got

Hallelujah, I'm gonna take them for all that they got"

 

Lana is not interested in the call at all, and makes it clear that she wants money, as well as his power and glory. So he is powerful and glorious! Would it be a stretch to say he may even be a preacher? Lana mocks his religion by shouting hallelujah while declaring her intention to not only rob him of everything he has, but everyone else, as well.

 

"The sun also rises,

On those who fail the call

My life, it comprises,

Of losses and wins and fails and falls"

 

She counters that failing the call is not the end of the world - you can continue after having fallen from your podium of holiness. And indeed, if your moral standards are too high, it's almost inevitable. Lana says her own life is full of failures, as well as wins, listing herself as an example of someone who failed the call.

 

"I can do it if you really, really like that

I know what you really want, b-b-b-b-baby

I can do it if you think you like that

You should run, boy, run"

 

It's hard not to think of this line in a sexual context. She's offering to do something for him, but only if he's willing to admit that he really wants it. She teases him, saying that despite all his talk of God and the call and the far-away land, she knows what he really wants. 'Baby' makes it sound like they might be in some sort of relationship. Nevertheless, Lana doesn't particularly care for him and only wants his power and glory, and mentions that it would be a bad idea to actually take her up on her offer to "do it."

 

"Dope and diamonds, dope and diamonds, that's all that I want."

 

Gimme them, gimme them dope and diamonds. Arthur Lynn is the guy in MPG confirmed. Just a Lana-ism about that money, power, glory.

 

So, in summary, what?
Butterflies Part 2 is about a powerful, religious man who, against his own religious code, uses his influence to get sexual favors from girls. Lana doesn't care about this because she's in love with him.

Money Power Glory is about a powerful, religious man who, against his own religious code, lives a sinful life with Lana. Lana doesn't care about this because she also fails his moral standards, and because she's using his influence to get money, power, and glory.

We went from a hypocritical, powerful religious figure using girls to a hypocritical, powerful religious figure being used by a girl. ~*eVoLuTiOn~*

 

Maybe the Butterflies Pt.2. guy dumped her or something. 

[Goddess 224]

I think Preacher guy is probably the same as Cult Leader guy, as Butterflies has always made me think of the Cult Leader. But I do see the resemblance of MPG now that you point it out.

[fantascinate 9]

I don't know if anyone has said this yet, but I feel like Million Dollar Man is about K. Since we can assume K is a criminal, and the man in Million Dollar Man is someone Lana describes as "screwed up and brilliant", it seems to make sense. Just a thought though.

 

EDIT: Just read through all 73 pages of this and discovered this has already been covered lol.

[annedauphine 35,879]

Ok so bear with me, I've looked for it and I don't think this has been discussed yet, but I've been listening to A$AP Rocky a bit more these days and then relistening to Velvet Crowbar the other day I had a stretched thought: what if Velvet Crowbar has been written with Rocky in mind and not just a generic guy? I don't mean that he's the subject or anything or that it's real, I just can imagine Lana listening to him and thinking wow he's dope and being inspired to write a song about a figure that reminds of him.

 

Things that could relate to Rocky:

_ "your golden grill", obvs, he is very well known for often wearing some

_ "your purple dreams" apparently Rocky and his friends fancy purple drank very much, and Purple Swag is on Lana's Spotify playlist along with Peso

_ "you're bleeding syrup", the drug again

_ "you were a dick with your crew", possibly referring the mischievous A$AP mob

 

BUT:

_ it apparently was recorded in 2010 and Rocky only got Live. Love. ASAP in 2011?

 

So the conclusion is that this probably means nothing at all but now everytime I listen to Velvet Crowbar (which is often) I immediately picture Rocky as the guy and I love it

[AngelHeadedHipster 2,838]

In Mermaid Motel Lana sings

 

"Heavy metal hour on T.V.

Diamond Dave and Ray Lee"

 

So I googled Ray Lee and discovered he is Raymond Lee "Ray" Luzier, drummer of KORN.

I was wondering whether she was singing about him in "Raise Me Up"?

Anyone know whether she dated him?

[nevada darling 541]

^ Ray Luzier worked a lot with David Lee Roth (aka Diamond Dave), so my guess would be that she's just seeing them on tv during "heavy metal hour". She's mentioned being a fan of Roth before, so I guess it makes sense that she might be a fan of Luzier as well.

[essiductonto 170]

This is a huge thread, did we ever talk about that interview from a few years ago, on the radio, where she was asked if blue jeans, born to die, and video games were all about the same guy, and she said yeah, and then the interviewer asked if he knew they were about him and she said "no but his mom knows." Doesn't that only make sense (I mean unless she is lying, which is quite possible) if the guy they're about is dead?

[PinUpCartoonBaby 1,017]

In Mermaid Motel Lana sings

 

"Heavy metal hour on T.V.

Diamond Dave and Ray Lee"

 

So I googled Ray Lee and discovered he is Raymond Lee "Ray" Luzier, drummer of KORN.

I was wondering whether she was singing about him in "Raise Me Up"?

Anyone know whether she dated him?

 

This made me immediately think of this Ray guy I wrote about some time ago. Because when stalking looking at his facebook profile I noticed that he liked KORN. Ok, nothing speacial so far but I also stumbled upon profileengine.com which basically mirrors an older version of peoples facebook profiles. Ray's "profile" there is full of KORN videos. I know it doesn't have to mean anything...it just came into my mind and yeah...as this thread is 90% speculations I thought I'd contribute a bit lol.

 

Sidenote: profileengine does also show a page called "Lizzy's got a show" which seems to be something like an info page for fans about forthcoming performances Lizzy/Lana did. It's also how I discovered Ray's page there as he is listed among the members of this group.

[MahaMaha 1,111]

This is a huge thread, did we ever talk about that interview from a few years ago, on the radio, where she was asked if blue jeans, born to die, and video games were all about the same guy, and she said yeah, and then the interviewer asked if he knew they were about him and she said "no but his mom knows." Doesn't that only make sense (I mean unless she is lying, which is quite possible) if the guy they're about is dead?

or he's in prison/death row #bringbackK

[evilentity 13,343]

This made me immediately think of this Ray guy I wrote about some time ago. Because when stalking looking at his facebook profile I noticed that he liked KORN. Ok, nothing speacial so far but I also stumbled upon profileengine.com which basically mirrors an older version of peoples facebook profiles. Ray's "profile" there is full of KORN videos. I know it doesn't have to mean anything...it just came into my mind and yeah...as this thread is 90% speculations I thought I'd contribute a bit lol.

 

Sidenote: profileengine does also show a page called "Lizzy's got a show" which seems to be something like an info page for fans about forthcoming performances Lizzy/Lana did. It's also how I discovered Ray's page there as he is listed among the members of this group.

I could be wrong of course, but I think his name is just a coincidence. I'm also pretty sure all the profilengine information is just mined from other sources. "Lizzy's got a Show" was a Facebook group set up to notify people about some of her early shows.

[BeautifulAnywhere 5,417]

SO is anybody going to talk about honeymoon

[annedauphine 35,879]

I've searched in the topic but I don't think it has been speculated before - I rewatched Let's Get Lost (side note - I think it's becoming one of my favourite movies) and I'm really really starting to wonder if Jump isn't, purely and simply, about no one else but Chet Baker. 

 

_ First and foremost she used the documentary a lot in the video for it (not even to mention West Coast) and we know her love for him.

_ "Palm trees in black and white, last thing I saw before I died": there are a lot of occurrences in the documentary where you can see shots of palm trees in black and white, especially in the beginning, from where most of the references in the song as well as West Coast seem to point forward.

_ "Right mixture of cocaine and heroin": there is a memorable moment in the movie where he explains the mixture of cocaine and heroin and how you have to be careful not to put too much cocaine because the first blow is devastating.

_ "Hair thin and in the wind, Cadillac convertible with him": Lana was HEAVILY, not to say she copied, inspired by the scenes at the beginning of Let's Get Lost of Chet and others in the convertible where he is presented as already, "a very old man", and is laughing.

_ "You are a junkie on your window smiling wide": his death, if I understood correctly, was from falling from the window of the hotel he was staying in, at night, and he was found in the morning, with traces of drugs in his body. He, literally, may have jumped. "Last fight, fuck them, last words".

 

I don't know, it really makes sense to me. I would prefer this song to be about Chet than Mike!

[HawaiianTropic 566]

I've searched in the topic but I don't think it has been speculated before - I rewatched Let's Get Lost (side note - I think it's becoming one of my favourite movies) and I'm really really starting to wonder if Jump isn't, purely and simply, about no one else but Chet Baker. 

 

_ First and foremost she used the documentary a lot in the video for it (not even to mention West Coast) and we know her love for him.

_ "Palm trees in black and white, last thing I saw before I died": there are a lot of occurrences in the documentary where you can see shots of palm trees in black and white, especially in the beginning, from where most of the references in the song as well as West Coast seem to point forward.

_ "Right mixture of cocaine and heroin": there is a memorable moment in the movie where he explains the mixture of cocaine and heroin and how you have to be careful not to put too much cocaine because the first blow is devastating.

_ "Hair thin and in the wind, Cadillac convertible with him": Lana was HEAVILY, not to say she copied, inspired by the scenes at the beginning of Let's Get Lost of Chet and others in the convertible where he is presented as already, "a very old man", and is laughing.

_ "You are a junkie on your window smiling wide": his death, if I understood correctly, was from falling from the window of the hotel he was staying in, at night, and he was found in the morning, with traces of drugs in his body. He, literally, may have jumped. "Last fight, fuck them, last words".

 

I don't know, it really makes sense to me. I would prefer this song to be about Chet than Mike!

Although I've never watched that film, judging by your comments it seems you may have figured it out, so great analysis!

 

I've always seen Jump as a song about suicide. The music is relatively upbeat and there are clapping sounds yet the lyrics seem to reference suicide ("Do you wanna jump? jump? jump?") For me the song has always resembled the idea that depression and suicidal thoughts are very difficult to recognize in another person. The music sounds happy but if you look at the lyrics it's much darker than that. I feel like the song is supposed to show how people can be struggling and contemplating suicide, and it can be right in front of your face, yet it's still so difficult to really notice. To me that's what Jump has always been about, but I think your analysis also makes a lot of sense. The best thing about Lana songs is that everyone picks it up and derives a different interpretation which is fantasic!

[kristinaj 1,168]

i'll write a song with some words to sing

no one will listen but you, you sing back to me, every word

you're standing there in your pink underwear

smiling at me like a child, you tell me to come, over there

 

"so much stronger, stronger here today

they can't push me down, turn me around

now i'm whole again, so much stronger today

 

music would heal me but not like you, songs used to kill me but now i'm immune, nothing matters, only you

the prettiest girl in the whole wide world, tell me you love me again, would you be, be my wife

 

don't need no money

don't need no friends

i just need you by my side"

 

Stronger by Angiescreams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebJpBccLqlI

on Arthur Lynn's youtube channel 

 

These lyrics remind me of several Lana songs, the video was uploaded Nov. 3rd 2008

 

Could it be that Terrence Loves You is meant to be about Arthur Lynn? She references Bowie's Space Oddity in that song and it seems like Arthur Lynn is a fan of Bowie. I'm just assuming because of the 'be my wife' line (Bowie has a song by that name) and on his youtube account he has uploaded a video of Carlos Alomar who played on many Bowie albums

[BeautifulAnywhere 5,417]

Okay we should start discussing Roses and Caught You Boy

 

 

Roses: I believe that this song is about MM though I am conflicted b/c I'm basing this off the fact that in the other posts say that she tried to get in between him and his then gf later wife " I stole your girlfriend's keys, and kicked her out of your place cause I want you more than I did before." I would believe that this quote means that once she left him she soon regretted the decision and also got jealous that he had a new boo she also missed him the longer she was away. But proven by the rapper's singing U can infer that she was the one that wanted him still and he who probably had moved on was shocked that she still wanted him as Lana had left him in a bad way she tried to seduce her way back into MM's life as I believe Lana's singing represents her view of the situation and what she wishes while the rapper's part is describing what MM felt and how he viewed things. I can't think of anything for CYB currently

[Valentino 885]

I've searched in the topic but I don't think it has been speculated before - I rewatched Let's Get Lost (side note - I think it's becoming one of my favourite movies) and I'm really really starting to wonder if Jump isn't, purely and simply, about no one else but Chet Baker. 

 

_ First and foremost she used the documentary a lot in the video for it (not even to mention West Coast) and we know her love for him.

_ "Palm trees in black and white, last thing I saw before I died": there are a lot of occurrences in the documentary where you can see shots of palm trees in black and white, especially in the beginning, from where most of the references in the song as well as West Coast seem to point forward.

_ "Right mixture of cocaine and heroin": there is a memorable moment in the movie where he explains the mixture of cocaine and heroin and how you have to be careful not to put too much cocaine because the first blow is devastating.

_ "Hair thin and in the wind, Cadillac convertible with him": Lana was HEAVILY, not to say she copied, inspired by the scenes at the beginning of Let's Get Lost of Chet and others in the convertible where he is presented as already, "a very old man", and is laughing.

_ "You are a junkie on your window smiling wide": his death, if I understood correctly, was from falling from the window of the hotel he was staying in, at night, and he was found in the morning, with traces of drugs in his body. He, literally, may have jumped. "Last fight, fuck them, last words".

 

I don't know, it really makes sense to me. I would prefer this song to be about Chet than Mike!

 

Very cool discovery! Haven't seen the documentary, but this makes a lot of sense. (I need an updated thread about Lana's inspirations (books, movies, music, e.g.), because I keep discovering new things about her.)

 

I'm kind of glad Lanalysis has moved on from "literally every song is about K/Jimmy Gnecco/Mike and Lana was a drug-dealing/taking go-go dancer." The mystique is gone, but hopefully the image we have of her is slightly more accurate - or maybe it's better to say less inaccurate. I think the most accurate post in this whole thread was the one where that guy said "when Lana says her songs are 100% inspired by her life she means her watching Netflix." Of course, that doesn't mean none of her songs can be tied to known exes, but I think maybe we're a little less outrageous in our suggestions.

 

I really want to do a Lanalysis post but from the perspective of detailing the "characters" that show up in the Lanaverse. Some of these are real people, many (most?) are not. One of the compelling/annoying things about Lana is how she reuses a lot of tropes and imagery. I don't have a lot of time now to make this sort of mega-post I'm thinking of but I really want to do it some day.