Lyrics and Life

By Caitlin Ward

Video Games
By Lana Del Rey

Swinging in the backyard
Pull up in your fast car
Whistling my name

Open up a beer
And take it over here
And play a video game

I’m in his favourite sundress
Watching me get undressed
Take that body downtown

I say “you the bestest”
Lean in for a big kiss
Put his favourite perfume on

Go play a video game

CHORUS

It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you
Everything I do
I tell you all the time
Heaven is a place on earth with you
Tell me all the things you want to do
I heard that you like the bad girls
Honey, is that true?
It’s better than I ever even knew
They say that the world was built for two
Only worth living if somebody is loving you
Baby, now you do

Singing in the old bars
Swinging with the old stars
Living for the fame

Kissing in the blue dark
Playing pool and wild darts
Video games

He holds me in his big arms
Drunk and I am seeing stars
This is all I think of

Watching all our friends fall
In and out of Old Paul’s
This is my idea of fun
Playing video games

CHORUS x 2

I first became aware of Lana Del Rey some time last year when a music journalist I follow on twitter linked to her music video for Video Games. The journalist was singing Del Ray’s praises as the future of . . . something. Probably music. Possibly video games. I’m not too sure.

It was an interesting video, clearly sewn together from random video clips and handycam self-portraits of Del Rey singing her song. There was something about it that reminded me of 1960s films from France and Italy. There was something mournful about the song and her voice and the orchestration. I didn’t know whether the music video was handmade, or if it was a professional job meant to look handmade. Either way, it was quite beautiful.

The song’s lyrics have the same haunting quality that the video and her voice do. Over the course of the song, she questions how far apart a real life and a virtual life are. At the beginning, the speaker’s lover sits down and plays a literal video game, but over the course of the song she starts calling just about everything a video game. It’s as if she’s viewing everything from an arm’s length, including her relationship with this man.

There’s something vaguely unreal about her relationship; there’s something in it that she thinks is a bit of a game. And she’s happy, but she doesn’t seem quite convinced that this is real life.

So when I first saw this video, I thought it was all quite pretty, but I didn’t think of it much beyond that. It’s not really to my taste, so I didn’t pursue the artist or the music beyond that moment.

The funny thing is, though, that a lot of other people seemed very interested in both her and her music. I say “funny” because it wasn’t just a heartfelt love of her songs. Her haunting, pretty videos went viral and many people became interested in this haunting, pretty indie artist.

As time went on, though, there was clearly some confusion about whether or not she was an independent artist. Initially everyone thought she was, but then it turned out a major label was backing her. I think some people felt as if they’d been duped by the fact that she looked handmade when she was apparently processed through some sort of “star machine” to look as if she were. Did her videos go viral on their own, or were they helped along by clever marketing?

This whole thing seems to have gotten even more fraught recently, when she was invited to appear on Saturday Night Live without actually having a full album out. I wasn’t paying particular attention that evening, but apparently twitter was abuzz with just how terrible she was.

After the fact, I looked up the videos of her performing on Saturday Night Live. I can’t say I thought she was terrible; inexperienced and a bit nervous, perhaps, but she sang well and her performance was quite good for an artist who hasn’t been in the spotlight for very long.

Artists who get too popular are often subject to an eventual backlash — people get sick of them or decide if everyone likes them, then they can’t be all that good. It’s not always fair, but it is common. The strange thing about Lana Del Rey, though, is that she’s never been given the opportunity to get genuinely popular, and already a backlash has begun.

People who had said they loved her music suddenly reneged on that opinion because she wasn’t quite as DIY as they’d thought she was.

People who saw a burgeoning artist seemed to have turned on her when she got a spot on SNL earlier in her career than they deemed appropriate.

The trouble with all of this is that, essentially, it has nothing to do with whether or not she’s a good singer, songwriter or performer. It’s entirely about whether or not she’s become known as a singer in the “right way.”

So perhaps it’s fitting that the song that brought our attention to her is a song that’s a bit obsessed with the grey between reality and unreality. At this point, it would be difficult to work out how organic her rise to fame has been. Was she the product of a clever marketing campaign (unreal) or did it all just happen half by accident (real)?

In the end, I’m not sure it matters. The real question is whether or not it’s a good song. Ironically, that’s a question not many people have asked or answered.

Ward is a freelance writer and aspiring documentary filmmaker based in Saskatoon. You can find her short bursts of insight and frustration at http://www.twitter.com/newsetofstrings