Lana Del Rey released “West Coast” in 2014. It appears on Ultraviolence, her third studio LP. Though she was born in Manhattan, Del Rey seems to embody the spirit of Los Angeles. Perhaps it’s the old Hollywood signals, or the rawness of her homemade videos, like the entire aesthetic is slowly coming in and out of focus.
And in “West Coast”, Del Rey appears to be California dreaming.
Dream of Californication
Del Rey’s California song begins with the Los Angeles locals and spirit that inspired much of Ultraviolence. The city has a way of pulling people toward it—chasing a dream, escaping a hometown, or getting lost in its density and proximity to the ocean has dragged many away from deep roots.
Down on the West Coast, they got a saying,
“If you’re not drinking, then you’re not playing.”
But you’ve got the music,
You’ve got the music in you, don’t you?
Down on the West Coast, I get this feeling like,
It all could happen; that’s why I’m leaving.
You for the moment, you for the moment,
Boy blue, yeah, you.
Perhaps Del Rey is singing about her roots in New York City. Los Angeles may pull one away from home, but home offers its own kind of gravitational pull. You miss it. You want to go back. And maybe someday, you will.
You’re falling hard, I push away, I’m feeling hot to the touch,
You say you miss me, and I wanna say, “I miss you so much.”
But something keeps me really quiet; I’m alive, I’m a lush,
Your love, your love, our love.
Brooklyn Baby
She hangs with a lover here while he smokes. It’s ordinary and poetry all at once with echoes of Charles Bukowski’s dry realism. (Bukowski, too, adopted Los Angeles as his home.)
I can see my baby swinging,
His Parliament’s on fire, and his hands are up.
On the balcony, and I’m singing,
Ooh, baby, ooh, baby, I’m in love.
The Black Keys’ leader, Dan Auerbach, produced the track. The groove is deep, and it brings to mind the seedy corners of Los Angeles. The dark, mysterious corners where great wealth seems to find the street. The place that inspired Jim Morrison to write a farewell letter to it before he split for Paris. And then eventually, he split for good.
But this song is all about movement. It follows “Brooklyn Baby” on the album and also shadows Del Rey’s travels from east to west. And like some lazy-day California dreams, the events appear to move in slow motion.
You got the music in you, don’t you?
Photo by Chelsea Lauren/WireImage