“West Coast”

A change from her usual work, “West Coast” from Lana’s third studio album, Ultraviolence, includes a guitar and drums. Her voice is raspy and low, then, it is high and clear in her description of the West Coast of the United States. I would place this song during Willy’s flashback with his older brother Ben. As Ben describes his experiences in Alaska, Africa, and the Jungle, the following verse would begin to play as an interpretation of Willy’s failure to take risks “Down on the West Coast, they love their movies; Their golden gods and rock and roll groupies. And you’ve got the music, you’ve got the music, In you, don’t you?” In this case, the “West Coast” is the song’s version of Africa or Alaska. To Willy, these places represent a faraway place where men can make their fortune quickly, though that isn’t always the case. The “golden gods and rock and roll groupies” are symbols of wealth and status on the West Coast, just as gold, oil, and other resources are in those lands. The “music” is Willy’s inner desires to take risks that he keeps suppressing, thus, the last part of that line would get gradually quieter, but repeat, until Ben leaves the scene and Willy transitions back to reality. The song also references Hollywood, which can be compared to “the jungle” as both are places riddled with uncertainty that can lead to someone getting rich or getting absolutely nothing at all.