Best American Record

[reputation 6,321]

Making a song about Barrie? Yawn.

[cashcomesquick 5,381]

Making a song about Barrie? Yawn.

 

 

He's the reason for the masterpiece called Ultraviolence

[reputation 6,321]

He's the reason for the masterpiece called Ultraviolence

How?

[evilentity 13,351]

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

I'd read that. A 5,000 word @longtimeman post is bound to be more worthwhile than 500 typical 10-word posts made around here.

 

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".

Yes, this was another thought I had that I should have included in my essay-length post. It's another reason why I don't think people should get too hung up on national origin in excluding Barrie from consideration here. I think the phrase "Best American Record" is meant more to evoke the same sort of grandiose artistic ambition associated with the concept of the "Great American Novel" than nationality.

[reputation 6,321]

I think she says 'to see who you really are'. I think she's trying to say she drives on the 405 to see him everyday and the 405 always leads to him. If this really is about Barrie, I question their current relationship

What'd she mean by that bed lyric?

[Hundred Dollar Bill 21,809]

Why would the song be about Barrie when she literally name-drops Bill? 

[writtenxrabbits 905]

I think she says 'to see who you really are'. I think she's trying to say she drives on the 405 to see him everyday and the 405 always leads to him. If this really is about Barrie, I question their current relationship

What'd she mean by that bed lyric?

I took the bed lyric as the physical passion being drained out of their relationship because all the passion was being put into the musical project instead.

[reputation 6,321]

Interesting how she says 'next', as if there is already a best record. Anyone know if Lana has said what her fav record is?

[kitschesque 9,884]

"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

 

I have this feeling that it's more about her doing everything she could to make their life together perfect and as easy as possibble and him just fooling around dancing to Led Zeppeling smoking cigarettes carelessly not caring about their future of some sort

[reputation 6,321]

Omg!! Do you guys think the guitar Bill is playing could be the instrumental?

[evilentity 13,351]

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.

Are you familiar with any of Lana's discography?

I wouldn't take cues from Lana about English grammar rules since she routinely does ultraviolence to them. Remember, this girl became internet famous for a song that uses the incorrect superlative "bestest", switches between second and third person object pronouns referring to her lover at least four times (six if "you the bestest" is not a direct quotation), has dangling participles everywhere, and ends with an ambiguous implied infinitive for which it is not only ambiguous what its implied object is, but whether it even has one!

 

#evilenglishteacher

 

Why would the song be about Barrie when she literally name-drops Bill?

Because I don't believe in a literal Bill, Bill. Sorry to invalidate your experience existence.

[reputation 6,321]

Are you familiar with any of Lana's discography?Because I don't believe in a literal Bill, Bill. Sorry to invalidate your experience existence.

Yeah the grammar in her music makes me so uncomfortable. Her participles are triggering

[FLL 1,234]

Are you familiar with any of Lana's discography?

 

 

Because I don't believe in a literal Bill, Bill. Sorry to invalidate your experience existence.

Ad hominem arguments are definitely cues that you have a solid argument to support your own beliefs.  Also most times she makes grammatical errors it's for a lyrical purpose.  E.g. when she says baby you're the bestest she needs it to rhyme with big kiss.  What she does here, like I said, serves no lyrical purpose.

[Hundred Dollar Bill 21,809]

Because I don't believe in a literal Bill, Bill. Sorry to invalidate your experience existence.

 

Bill is Jim, though.     

U ain't writing me outta this yet! 

[Flowerbomb 65,595]

I'd read that. A 5,000 word @longtimeman post is bound to be more worthwhile than 500 typical 10-word posts made around here. Yes, this was another thought I had that I should have included in my essay-length post. It's another reason why I don't think people should get too hung up on national origin in excluding Barrie from consideration here. I think the phrase "Best American Record" is meant more to evoke the same sort of grandiose artistic ambition associated with the concept of the "Great American Novel" than nationality.

This also kinda reminds me of the lyrics in her song 'Is This Happiness'

 

You've been trying to write a novel about your cheap thrills/

You think you're Hunter S. Thompson

[evilentity 13,351]

Bill is Jim, though.     

How so? And who is the literal Bill/Jim then?

 

 

This also kinda reminds me of the lyrics in her song 'Is This Happiness'

 

You've been trying to write a novel about your cheap thrills/

You think you're Hunter S. Thompson

Yeah, that's partly what I was alluding to here in my longer post:

"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.)

[Hundred Dollar Bill 21,809]

How so? And who is the literal Bill/Jim then?

 

It's just a baby theory I've thrown around with Sitar, don't roast me evil I've barely skimmed through Lanalysis.       

[kitschesque 9,884]

 

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?"

 

 

 

 

 

THIS! "He was cool as heck" might be a connection to the thousands of girls loving him and his guitar that she kind of makes fun of. Like she says it half ironically, half with love.

[bummersummer 2,219]

Because I don't believe in a literal Bill, Bill. Sorry to invalidate your experience existence.

 

just a thought - could this Bill be part of a comparison or metaphor, and not the same person she's alluding to in the rest of the song? i'll explain what i mean:

 

i see you for who you really are // why the thousands of girls love the way Bill plays guitar

 

i'm basically dividing this in 2 parts - in the first one she refers to mystery man (it's Barrie, lbr) & in the second she would be equating how she sees him / how he makes her feel to the way these presumably adoring fans feel when they see or hear Bill play guitar. essentially, "you make me feel like a 60s teenybopper". of course my little theory would be a lot more likely if Bill clearly referred to some virtuoso guitarist, but to be honest i don't really see who she could be talking about...

[Kommando 3,264]

She only mentions Bill once in a bridge which is kind of hazy and fast, her driving a car, sorting out memories ; therefore if she name drops Bill in that context, it doesn't mean that the song is about him, I think that it's just some kind of flash from the past, possibly because of the similarities between her lover and Bill or the emotion the image adds to the song.