Best American Record

[reesedelrey 576]

Could she be talking about herself?

[Constantine 4,074]

"My baby used to dance underneath my architecture" is like so witchy or whatever. She's insinuating he was under her spell and did whatever she wanted. She made him "dance" like the master puppeteer she is  

[PARADIXO 32,940]

I feel that this song is directed at herself. Like that she was the one who was writing the next Best American Record (aka Born to Die) she was the one that ruined the relationship

 

This is the only theory I will accept.

[bummersummer 2,218]

Love disappointed me, but this song is everything i could've ever hoped for - Cruel World all over again, in a way. can't wait for the album.

[jazzsingrcultleadr 1,708]

ugh i hate "cool as heck"

[trailertrash 75]

Are you even a stan

 

 

Its Bill Clinton

She has mentioned him before in "Trash Magic" as well.

 

It's Bill Murray Jesus. Everyone knows that Lana used to date him

 

Y'all are funny 

[July 21 fam 280]

ugh i hate "cool as heck"

 

besides me, you are the only one that i've seen mention it...i thought maybe it's just me because i'm from the country where everyone says "heck" and it makes me cringe bc i hate being from the country

[jazzsingrcultleadr 1,708]

besides me, you are the only one that i've seen mention it...i thought maybe it's just me because i'm from the country where everyone says "heck" and it makes me cringe bc i hate being from the country

 

like i cringe when people i know IRL say it. it just makes me think of a 10 year old lmao. say hell!!!

[July 21 fam 280]

like i cringe when people i know IRL say it. it just makes me think of a 10 year old lmao. say hell!!!

 

exactly!! what the heck lana

[reputation 6,321]

I like how Lana says he's lost 'the game' but he went after 'fame', stating he never got the game he wanted but there was a gfgfame he could not obtain. Queen of grammar

[bummersummer 2,218]

i interpret "dance underneath my architecture" pretty literally, to be honest.

 

from the Billboard mag interview, which that line immediately made me think of:
 

Lana Del Rey and I were first introduced at an Architectural Digest pimped manse off Pacific Coast Highway during a party

I meet her for the interview at a John Lautner house she rents in Los Angeles. Lautner was a seminal Southern California architect, and Del Rey says her choice of lodging was deliberate. She production-designs her life.

 

i kinda think she's simply referring to one of her design houses (a lower floor, or outside directly beneath a part of the house), either this or the Malibu one.

[evilentity 13,343]

Not sure whether we should be doing this here or in Lanalysis instead, but whatever...

Sorry guys, I'm with @@longtimeman on this. I think this is primarily a song about Barrie (and kind of a harsh one, maybe even unfair). Let's break it down:

"My baby used to dance underneath my architecture"
Barrie was not only living in the shadow of her metaphoric architecture, her career and fame as @Lona Delery noted, but he was living with her under her roof, probably on her dime, in her fancy houses. Literally under her architecture. (@bummersummer made a similar point above.) And he's the only significant musician other she had during her post-fame period where she was rich enough to live in fancy houses.

"Houses of the Holy"
See @@longtimeman's post about that.

"He was cool as heck"
Potentially a callback to "Yeah, my boyfriend's pretty cool/But he's not as cool as me" in "Brooklyn Baby", a Barrie song, and perhaps "Shades of Cool". The repetition of the line almost seems to emphasize this.

"But you were so obsessed with writing the next best American record
But there was nothing left by the time we got to bed"
This is consistent with the picture she painted of Barrie in interviews and "Is This Happiness" (@SissyReed alluded to this) as someone focused on their art, more than she, perhaps to the detriment of everything else. (Ha, I'm amused just thinking about how blasphemous the idea of neglecting Lana in the boudoir probably seems to most of her fanbase.)

"How does that taste cumming out"
As @Sjp1988 suggested, perhaps a sly reference to Barrie being the origin of her saying "My pussy tastes like Pepsi-cola"?

"You did it all for fame
Baby, how's life treating you now
It's over"
Alleging that he did it all for fame seems harsh, perhaps a little unfair (and projecting to some degree), but Barrie did quit Kassidy to move to LA and pursue a solo career and live with his famous significant other. No part of that worked out.

"He was '70s in spirit, '90s in his frame of mind"
Definitely describes Barrie well, as he's heavily influenced by classic rock and Nirvana.

"Baby, how you feeling now
That I told you
We're through"
Lana was the one that broke things off. (Although it's questionable if she actually did tell him or just ghosted.)

"All the roads lead to you
Like the 405 I drive through
Everynight and everyday"
Not dispositive, but suggestive of her time living in California post-fame which points towards Barrie. Also, if taken semi-literally Barrie continued to live in LA for a time after they broke up.

"I see you for who you really are
Why the thousands of girls
Love the way Bill plays guitar"
Barrie is an accomplished guitarist. And "thousands of girls" instead of millions is fitting for Barrie/Kassidy.

 

OK, now to deal with some of the Barrie counter-arguments:
 

I would be 99% sure this is about Barrie if he wasn't still living in a basement smoking cigarettes all day lol
I know this must've been discussed a lot, but who is this person she's always talking about that got famous ??

As @Vonn pointed out, she never says the person actually achieved fame.
 

Could it be that producer that was like the love of her life, but never produced a record of hers?
I remember her mentioning some man who was on-and-off with her and he was like the biggest influence on her life
 
it would make sense. Maybe he didnt think she was good enough for him to produce, cause he wanted someone who was a legend, but now lana is famous and is gonna be a legend without him.
 
BAR could be the title of the new album too, to catch his eye and make him listen to it and realise how over it really is and how much hes missing out on. (not to mention the song is actually about him and is gonna DESTROY)
 
EDIT!!: 
K nevermind, apparently that was Steven Mertens. his name aint Bill. could be a code name tho?

I really don't think I could buy a producer theory for this song unless the line was "You were so obsessed with making the next best American record", but the line is "writing".

I think Mertens is too much of an artistic polymath to fit this. I don't see him having a single-minded focus on music, let alone "writing the next best American record".
 

I dont think anyone knows for sure who Bill is, but I'm just gonna copy + paste what I posted in the post-release LDR5 thread:
 

"Yes Bill, I will" -> trash magic
"Billy's pick-up truck" -> Driving in cars with boys
Hundred dollar BILL! (im starting to speculate about Bill being him, not a $ note)
And every mention of a pick-up truck possibly being this Bill guys truck. (Kinda Outta Luck, Raise Me Up, Motel 6) cause these songs were recorded all around the same time right? 2007-2010


Hmmm if they were the years she was with Bill, B.A.R. is a pretty damn emotional song cause that's been 7 years.
And maybe Ur Girl is about him too, "I've been gone for 3 years, is that enough for you boy?" And Ur Girl was probably written in 2013, so...... 3 years after 2010

 
I think I'll stop trying to figure this out cause im not going off very much evidence anyway :')

I've been preaching about Bill being an important figure for 3 years omg

I'm reaching but the first time she mentions Bill is in Trash Magic which was recorded around 2007/2008. The Rich Whores / Lizzy Grant and the Phenomena formed around the same time with Arthur Lynn on guitar. We know Lana and Arthur had some kind of fling, so maybe "Bill" is just the name she gave him.

I think that Barrie should get out of any theory about who the song is about, because even though he does play guitar Barrie isn't named Bill

Absent a specific candidate-- like Jimmy Gnecco, Lady Gaga, Chuck-- I'm inclined to believe that names she likes to reuse like Ray, Bill, Salvatore are just that: names she likes to reuse. Just because she likes the names. (I'm not even sure all her Jim mentions refer to Jimmy Gnecco, though perhaps Jim Morrison.) That said, like K, they could be invented pet names that do refer to a specific person. (I think there's a good possibility Ray at least began as a name for Arthur Lynn.)

I do think there is a case here for this being about Arthur. I'm sure he's into Led Zeppelin. The "American" part fits better. Based on his website and old Instagram posts I'm sure he's a studio rat. But this really seems like it's about a more recent relationship, post-fame, and overall screams Barrie to me.
 
And wouldn't it be a little too on the nose to put Barrie's name in the song? (Or Arthur's?) I'm not sure Lana would be as quick to namedrop in song these days as she was when she tossed off "Jimmy Gnecco" and "So Legit". This might be a deliberate way to obscure.
 

The verses are about the guy, whereas the chorus is directed at herself.
Interesting structure

I don't think some of the lyrics really fit the theory that it's about herself. But I am sympathetic to this theory in the sense that there's some amount of projection going on here.
 

Not to mention any record of Barrie's would not be American

Mmm... I think people are making too much of this. Barrie moved to the US and (I think?) recorded his album in the US, has a lot of American musical influences, and stayed in LA for awhile after they broke up trying to get his solo career going. Plus consider Lana's comments at the Brits suggesting she really didn't think of herself as an "international" artist because she lived in the UK while recording BTD there. Never underestimate Lana logic.
 

It seems like no matter what other men she writes about, all her title tracks are about the same magnetic man--who she was engaged to (Honeymoon), whose sect she was involved with (Ultraviolence), who did it all for fame (BAR, lots of other songs). Despite treading old territory, I like this continuity.

Really? I'm not necessarily convinced all those songs are exclusively about one guy or about a specific guy, let alone the same guy. You know, back in 2011, 2012 when she was saying stuff to that effect in interviews she wasn't consistent. One interview she'd say they were mostly about one guy, the next she'd say two guys. Taken with other interview comments she's made about songs written about past lovers becoming about the person you're with now, I think Lanalysis is inherently a fool's game (that I nonetheless enjoy playing).
 

           

[COLACNT 5,178]

i kind of love the 'heck' line, because its so retarded, but purposefully so. there's an 'aw shucks' innocence to it, and the hardness of the 'k' sound really adds something to it

 

"No I'm just -- I'm that uncool that I think it's cool, yeah." - swedish radio interview 

 

 

"Tell me was it 'cause I wasn't platinum and jewels?

That perhaps you thought I was a little bit of an uncool

kid, was that it?"

 

 

 

[July 21 fam 280]

 

i kind of love the 'heck' line, because its so retarded, but purposefully so. there's an 'aw shucks' innocence to it, and the hardness of the 'k' sound really adds something to it 

 

"No I'm just -- I'm that uncool that I think it's cool, yeah." - swedish radio interview 

 

 

"Tell me was it 'cause I wasn't platinum and jewels?

That perhaps you thought I was a little bit even uncool.

Kid, was that it?"

 

 

 

 

 

that's what i keep telling myself

[jazzsingrcultleadr 1,708]

Idk if it's been said already in this thread but I took the architecture line as having a sexual connotation. 

[BlueBambi 26]

Idk if it's been said already in this thread but I took the architecture line as having a sexual connotation. 

Same, I feel like "my architecture" might mean her body, that she is a work of art or she had someone under her spell with her charms ,

 

that sentence also gives me sublte' my pussy tastes like pepsi cola' vibes and i dont know why

Edit: oh a lot of people think so

[FLL 1,234]

I don't think this song is about whoever "bill" is.  Because why would you go from using direct speech (i.e. you) to using indirect speech (i.e. Bill), and then go back to using direct speech?  It doesn't make any sense grammatically.  Why not simply say, "thousands of girls like, the way you play guitar....."  Bill doesn't serve any rhyming purpose that you cannot replace.

[longtimeman 8,918]

I started to write an essay on this, but remembered that nobody needs to read that, so here's the short version.

 

Lana has a lot of songs about different types of self delusion (or, if we're being kinder, extreme overconfidence). Whether it's Carmen thinking she's made it ("Lying to herself 'cause the liquor's top shelf"); the narrator of National Anthem suddenly discovering her mojo ("I said to get real, don't you know who you're dealing with"); or the unfortunate object of Is This Happiness ("You think you're Hunter S Thompson, I think you're fucking crazy as they day's long"), the only way to succeed in the world of fame is to start by believing you've already succeeded. But, in LA, if you take this delusion too far, you end up like the central character in Mulholland Drive, living in a fantasy world. Whoever she's singing to in BAR has fallen victim to this.

 

The title of the song echoes the idea of the Great American Novel, which a long time ago was something that authors would try to write, but now is generally used ironically as a put down about somebody who is writing a book that will never see the light of day, but who, in their own mind, is going to write "the greatest American book on American culture which could ever be written". The "You did it all for fame" is the icing on the put down cake - not only are you wasting your life, "you're not even doing it in the name of art, but just to get from all of those girls in the audience, what you could be getting from me at home". In that way, it's an extension of her put down for the guys in Video Games/Blue Jeans - she's asking them "why are you getting lost in fantasy when I'm right here?" 

[BlueBambi 26]

wow never heard of that (not american) but that's refreshing

 

 

The title of the song echoes the idea of the Great American Novel, which a long time ago was something that authors would try to write, but now is generally used ironically as a put down about somebody who is writing a book that will never see the light of day, but who, in their own mind, is going to write "the greatest American book on American culture which could ever be written". 

[analwinterofmylife 2,644]

i also think its fair to say the song is sort of an amalgamation of multiple points of lana's view.. perhaps a criticism of an ex lover, while also a criticism of herself. 

it may also be about multiple men.. i get the feeling she sort of writes about a man, who is sort of an archetypal concept formed out of all her ex lovers..