Blue Banisters (song)

Lana Del Rey
Writer(s)	Lana Del Rey
Producer(s)	Lana Del Rey Gabe Simon
Recorded	2020
Released	May 20, 2021
Length	4:52

"Blue Banisters" is the title track from Lana Del Rey's eighth studio album and seventh major-label studio album. It was produced by Del Rey and Gabe Simon and was released as a single on May 20, 2021 along with "Text Book" and "Wildflower Wildfire".

Background

Del Rey first teased the title in an Instagram post on April 10, 2021. On April 28, 2021, Del Rey announced that her eighth studio album would be called Blue Banisters. Later that day, she posted a clip of the song and its accompanying music video to Instagram with the message: "Sometimes life makes you change just in time for the next chapter", and to Twitter with: "I'm writing my own story. And no one can tell it but me"

Music video

Background

A clip of the music video was teased by Del Rey on April 28, 2021. The music video features Del Rey with her partner Clayton Johnson. Clayton first posted a photo of him in his music video costume back in November 2020.

Lyrics

There's a picture on the wall
Of me on a John Deere
Jenny handed me a beer
Said "How the hell did you get there?"
Oklahoma, hmm

There were flowers that were dry
Sittin' on the dresser
She asked me where they're from
I said "A place I don't remember"
Oklahoma, ah

Jenny jumped into the pool
She was swimmin' with Nikki Lane
She said "Most men don't want a woman
With a legacy as her vain"
She said "You can't be a muse,
Be happy til you can't
Blacken the pages with Russian poetry
And be happy"
And that scared me
'Cause I met a man who

Said he'd come back every May
Just to help me if I'd paint my banisters blue
Blue banisters, oh
Said he'd fix my weather vane
Give me children, take away my pain
And paint my banisters blue
My banisters blue

There's a hole that's in my heart
All my women try and heal
They're doin' a good job
Convincin' me that it's not real
It's heat lightnin', oh-uh

'Cause there's a man that's in my past
There's a man that's still right here
He's real enough to touch
In my darkest nights
He's shining, ooh-oh

Jenny was smokin' by the pool
We were writin' with Nikki Lane
I said "I'm scared of the Santa Clarita Fires
I wish that it would rain"
I said "the power of us three
Can do absolutely anything
Except that one thing
The diamonds, the rust and the rain"
The thing that washes away the pain
But that's okay, 'cause

Now when weather turns to May
All my sisters come to paint my banisters green
My blue banisters grey
Tex and Mex are in the Bay
Chucky's makin' birthday cake
Chickens runnin' barefeet, there's a baby on the way
And now my blue banisters are green and grey, ah

Summer comes, Winter goes
Spring I skip, God knows
Summer comes, Winter goes
Spring I sleep, Heaven knows

Every time it turns to May
All my sisters fly to me
To paint, paint