Trash Magic (Miss America)

This is my favorite song by her. When she wrote this, she was living out of a motel right outside of New Jersey. At this point she had separated herself from living at home, where her family is quite wealthy, and she was trying to find herself and inspiration to fuel her writing as well as performing in small venues in New York. The lyrics refer to her being on her own, to do whatever she pleases, do her hair however she wants, decorate her room however she wants with a blue bedspread, silver tinsel hanging, christmas lights strung along the walls, "her heart's delight". Obviously she was involved with a man, he potentially viewed the relationship as just a superficial/sexual relationship, but she loved him. The hook, "Don't you wanna come to my motel, honey?" is almost like a plea for him to come see her, he can do whatever he pleases with her, hold her down, whatever, she just wants him to tell her he loves her. It's definitely a toxic sort of involvement, because of his view of their relationship versus hers. She mentions that they both work at night, so there is an implication that perhaps either she works night shifts at a diner or something, or perhaps something a little more... sexual. Street walker, woman of the night, whatever you want to call it. Lana Del Rey creates stories with her lyrics, she has implied in interviews that she creates sort of a character out of "Lana Del Rey" as a lounge singer with a flat-broke-down life, who's a virtually penniless lounge singer doing anything she can for money. This of course could entirely just be a fictionalized story to create sort of an artistic vision of that classic Femme Fatale character. As far as the relationship with the male, Bill, in this song; it's also implied that she is a mess without him, and all she wants is to be with him and feel good. She's begging him to come back to her, she'll do whatever he wants, as long as she can be with him. Again, it's entirely possible that this is just a fictional story type of thing, with some factual elements thrown in that reference real life experiences she has been through, because as I said she was living out of a motel when this was written, and she has recorded self-shot music videos where her living space is decorated similarly to the way she describes in this song.

The thing about Lana Del Rey that some people don't seem to understand is that she has been creating a character, the lounge singer Femme Fatale, for a very long time and some of the lyrics are sort of a continuation of that character; like writing a novel, or a movie, or what have you. There are definitely real life experiences in many of her songs, but some of the songs are purely to create an aura and further her exploration of this character. It's really interesting and beautiful in my opinion, and a different take on how to develop yourself as an artist.