Lana Del Rey is huge in the music industry. Her style of music is unique with a dark and melancholic vibe in most of her songs. She released a song called ‘High By The Beach’ on 10th August 2015 as part of the ‘Honeymoon’ album.
High By The Beach Song Meaning
Now, the song hints towards toxic romance and her dealing with it through solitude. Lana Del Rey has not had what most of us would consider the best romantic life. She has dealt with toxic people in her life and the abuse that came with it. Lana Del Rey was drawn to controlling and manipulative characters in the past and she eventually realized that it was never worth it. Her experiences like these have been referenced in many songs.
Lana Del Rey is mentioning that it is hard to be with her abusive lover and harder to be without him. Its almost like she is hesitant to leave him because she doesn’t want to be lonely.
She knows heart of heart and in fact has always known it from the start that it is not good to be with a person like that. She is conveying to her lover that being a bad guy will not make him a man. She is determined to leave him eventually and does not mind being alone. She knows that her lover is going to drown in problems and she will be taken along with him if she doesn’t break the connection.
In real life, Lana has spoken about how she was taken advantage of by certain people who likely promised her benefits but she never got anything out of them and how most of her success in the music industry came because of her natural talent. Being rich herself, she doesn’t need her lover’s money to provide for her and she is more than capable to fend for herself not only in terms of possessions but also in terms of career success.
So, she has now become totally independent financially and emotionally. She plans to spend her time near the beach by herself and get high. That is how she intends to cope or possibly find solace in the situation.
High By The Beach music video offers an alternative meaning in which she is in a house that is just along the sea shore. She is being watched over by a person in the helicopter who is clicking photographs of her. Meanwhile, she is spending her time in the house lazing around on the bed and then moving downstairs to avoid the helicopter spying on her but the helicopter doesn’t leave her alone. She eventually reaches the ground floor and gets herself a guitar cover. She opens it and it has a weapon with a grenade launcher attached to it. She aims the grenade launcher at the helicopter and shoots it down.
So in the video, the helicopter probably refers to the media instead of her bad boy lover that is constantly after her. Perhaps the video is signifying that she wants to get rid of the media and enjoy her privacy.
At the end of the video we see a message on a piece of paper that is eventually washed away by the water. It mentions the rest of the lyrics- anyone can start again not through love but through revenge, through the fire we are born again, peace by vengeance brings the end. This is perhaps her saying that she can’t simply forgive the ones who wronged her out of love and that she must have her peace back only after she has gotten revenge on them.
Song Facts
The house featured in the music video is actually owned by Lana Del Rey. It is in Malibu, California.
It started with the chorus. I was driving by the beach a lot. This was probably one of the last ones on the record. Even with the harmonies, it almost sounded monotone. But with the beat, it has this trap influence.
Lana Del Rey told Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe
She has another song called ’13 beaches’ which is about her searching 13 beaches to find one empty. The theme in both songs is a bit similar; it’s about escaping the attention from people and being alone to enjoy privacy.
