Dealer

Album: Blue Banisters (2021)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Lana Del Rey slamming her worthless lover. He takes her money and does nothing in return, making Del Rey regret the relationship.
  • Del Rey sings only the song's chorus. Miles Kane of The Last Shadow Puppets croons the two verses from a different perspective, addressing someone who is trying to contact him. He has disassociated from society and warns this person it's a waste of time talking to his family or associates. His father has been absent from his life for years, and neither his weed dealer nor doctor will pick up the phone.
  • Del Rey originally recorded the song in 2019 for a collaborative album with The Last Shadow Puppets. When they scrapped the project, she considered the track for inclusion on Chemtrails Over the Country Club. It didn't make it onto that album, but eventually landed on her Blue Banisters set.

    Other tracks from Del Rey's aborted project with The Last Shadow Puppets include Norman F---ing Rockwell's "California" and Blue Banisters' "Thunder."
  • During the chorus, Del Rey breaks into a wild wail, screaming with anguish: "I don't want to liiiivvveeeeeeEEEEE." Speaking in an interview with Jack Antonoff for the September 2020 issue of Interview Magazine, the singer discussed her tormented vocal: "I'm just screaming my head off. People don't know what it sounds like when I yell. And I do yell."
  • Del Rey wrote the song with:

    Miles Kane and Zach Dawes of Last Shadow Puppets

    Kane's collaborators Tyler Parkford, and Loren Humphrey. They co-penned three songs on Kane's solo Coup de Grace album, including the title track.

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