Off To The Races

Album: Born To Die (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • This piece of pulp fiction finds a hell-raising Lana singing of her love for her bad boy boyfriend. "He doesn't mind I have a Las Vegas past. He doesn't mind I have a LA crass way about me/He loves me with every beat of his cocaine heart," she sings. The relationship between the Bonnie & Clyde couple however, is doomed.
  • Lana namechecks LA's legendary Chateau Marmount Hotel on this song: "Likes to watch me in the glass room, bathroom/Chateau Marmont/Slipping on my red dress, putting on my make up." Built in 1927, The Chateau Marmont is located at 8221 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood and has served as the backdrop for a number of events in the lives of well-known rock stars and actors - John Belushi, for instance, died of a drug overdose in one of its garden bungalows. Footage of the hotel can be seen in the music video for Lana's debut single, "Video Games."
  • This quotes the opening lines of Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel Lolita: "Light of my life, fire in my loins." The controversial book is about a middle-aged literature professor's obsession with his underage stepdaughter, whom he nicknames "Lolita" and describes her as a "nymphet." Lana, who once described her style as "Lolita got lost in the 'hood," envisions herself in a similar scenario as a provocative young woman trapped in a toxic romance with an older man.

Comments: 3

  • Maddie from MississippiMy best friend got me into this wonderful song, thanks!
  • Rich from Portsmouth, NhWhenever we would be pulling out of the driveway (W. Burke Vt), my grand dad would exclaim "off to the races!"
  • Sarah from Yuba City, Cai love all the Lolita references..."Light of my life, fire of my loins" are seriously the first words of the first chapter. i really like how she tells the story in the song. this is probably my favourite song from her album. Well, this is the best of the more upbeat, playful ones... i think "Video Games" is the best of the slower songs on Born to Die. :)
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