Lana Del Rey’s “Blue Banisters” Lyrics Meaning

As noted later in the post, a large part of the composition of “Blue Banisters” is credited to an artist from Nashville. And lyrically, to some extent, it does feel like a country tune, especially at the beginning, i.e. one that is set in the outback, not the big city.

But that noted, the subject it is actually dealing with romance, and not necessarily in the love song sense of the word. That is to say that yes, there is a male romantic interest, as illustrated by the chorus. And he is someone who, most simply put, has pledged to become a spouse to the singer, ‘giving her children’ and all.

Or as the titular sentiment puts it, he has vowed to assist the vocalist in ‘painting her banisters blue’. And apparently the color blue, against its conventional symbolic usage, is rather something which Lana Del Rey regularly uses in a positive connotation. So the titular “blue banisters”, most simply put, are symbolic of something like a living happily married life.

Primary Theme

Indeed the featured narrative doesn’t appear to center so much on the relationship between the singer and her lover, although that is one important aspect of it. Instead its premise is more along the lines of being indicative of this type of romantic frustration that the vocalist and her sistren experience.

There’s a lot of namedropping and such going on throughout. And what most of it seemingly points to is, once again, this notion of such ladies being available alright yet being devoid of adequate partners. And the first pre-chorus suggests that such may be the result of “most men” being intimidated by their success.

Whereas such may be true, even beyond that, “Banisters Blue” appears to speak to the general notion of a common phenomenon in the modern world, which is singleness amongst eligible women. And the ladies mentioned throughout apparently serve as a seasonal support system to help each other get through this less-than-ideal ordeal.

But that being noted, the vocalist herself has apparently met someone who may well, finally, fit the bill. Or at least that is what she is hoping, as there is an underlying sentiment of her being tired of romantic disappointments.

“Said he’d come back every
May Just to help me if I’d paint my banisters blue
Blue banisters, ooh
Said he’d fix my weathervane
Give me children, take away my pain
And paint my banisters blue
My banisters blue”

Blue Banisters

Lana Del Rey has gone 2020 Taylor Swift on us, by setting about dropping two full-length albums (thus far) in a single year. Her first, “Chemtrails Over the Country Club”, came out in March of 2021. It proceeded to top the UK Singles Chart in addition to peaking at number 2 on the Billboard 200, as is pretty much her standard.

And the song we’re reviewing today, “Blue Banisters”, serves as the title track for Lana’s second studio album for 2021.

Whereas it is still too early to tell how “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” will do in the long run, by the looks of things, despite being a critical and chart success, it may not be as much of one commercially as far as Lana Del Rey is concerned.

In fact whereas she is still one of the top female soloists in the game, it may be that her commercial heyday has already passed earlier in her career. But boy what a heyday it was, with her most-successful album, her sophomore release “Born to Die” (2012), selling some 7,000,000 copies around the world. And to note “Blue Banisters” will actually be her eighth full-length album.

Singles of “Blue Banisters”

“Blue Banisters” (the album) actually boasts of three lead singles. Besides this title track, there are also two others entitled “Text Book” and “Wildflower Wildfire“. And all three of them were released, “without social-media fanfare”, on the date of 20 May 2021.

More Facts

The first time Lana teased this project overall would have been on 11 April 2021, not even a month after Chemtrails officially came out. And the first time she teased this song in particular was a couple of weeks later, on 28 April.

Lana co-wrote “Blue Banisters” (the song) with the track’s producer, Gabe Simon. Gabe is a musician who is based in Nashville.

Meanwhile Del Rey herself came up in NYC. As of the release of this track, she is a ripe 35 years of age.