Henry, Come On

Album: yet to be titled (2025)
Charted: 30 90
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Released on April 11, 2025, "Henry, Come On" is Lana Del Rey's first dispatch from the land of broken hearts and Southern humidity since her marriage to Jeremy Dufrene. The song concerns an entirely different sort of man to her husband: one with commitment issues.
  • "Henry, Come On" is a wistful, gently swaying country ballad. Del Rey floats above a delicately finger-picked acoustic guitar, offering her own take on the country tradition of lyrical wounding.

    We meet her midway through an argument with the titular Henry, who seems to be under the impression that the relationship's collapse is her fault. This is not an unusual stance for him.

    Del Rey eventually lands on a theory: she is cosmically doomed to fall for men who are dreamers, drifters, and people with poetic excuses for not being the "settle-down type."
  • The chorus is peak Lana Del Rey: cowboy hats, soft leather, and blue jeans; staples of her ongoing quest to out-Americana America. They're symbols in her personal mythology, standing in for everything tender, rugged, and emotionally unavailable.

    It's the same aesthetic Del Rey has threaded throughout her discography, such as "Blue Jeans," about her blue-jeaned, James Dean-lookalike heartbreaker, and "Tough," Del Rey's 2024 duet with Quavo, which features leather boots and a defiant, dirt-under-the-nails charm you could bottle and sell at truck stops.
  • Although "Henry, Come On" was released after Del Rey's wedding, the song has nothing to do with her husband. The character "Henry" is almost certainly a composite figure stitched together from half-remembered arguments, denim daydreams, and possibly a few lines from a Faulkner novel.
  • Lana Del Rey co-wrote "Henry, Come On" with Luke Laird, whose previous credits read like a who's who of country radio: Kacey Musgraves, Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw are among the names on his resumé.
  • The cover art is classic Del Rey: a portrait of her glancing over her shoulder as if she's just remembered something slightly tragic from 1957. It's all very dreamy, very soft-focus, very Lana. And that, really, is the point.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"They're Playing My Song

Gramm co-wrote this gorgeous ballad and delivered an inspired vocal, but the song was the beginning of the end of his time with Foreigner.

Michael W. Smith

Michael W. SmithSongwriter Interviews

Smith breaks down some of his worship tracks as well as his mainstream hits, including "I Will Be Here For You" and "A Place In This World."

David Sancious

David SanciousSongwriter Interviews

Keyboard great David Sancious talks about his work with Sting, Seal, Springsteen, Clapton and Aretha, and explains what quantum physics has to do with making music.

Joe Elliott of Def Leppard

Joe Elliott of Def LeppardSongwriter Interviews

The Def Leppard frontman talks about their "lamentable" hit he never thought of as a single, and why he's juiced by his Mott The Hoople cover band.

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull

Ian Anderson of Jethro TullSongwriter Interviews

The flautist frontman talks about touring with Led Zeppelin, his contribution to "Hotel California", and how he may have done the first MTV Unplugged.

The Punk Photography of Chris Stein

The Punk Photography of Chris SteinSong Writing

Chris Stein of Blondie shares photos and stories from his book about the New York City punk scene.