“Born to Die”

From Lana’s first studio album, Born to Die, “Born to Die” is easily one of her most beautiful and overall best songs she has ever produced. Though there is the characteristic melancholy and sadness found in the vast majority of her works, it has a unique blend of cinematic and modern music that aide her storytelling. This song would start to be played after “In My Feelings” ends, as Linda explains that Willy is planting a garden. The following intro would play as the scene begins to transition from indoors to outside: “Why? (hey, man!). Who, me? (alright!).Why? (hey, man!)”. As Lana is questioning the meaning of life during the intro, the questions asked can be representative of Willy’s thoughts about himself and his life, and the responses can be the voices Willy hears in his mind. As Biff and Willy talk, and as Biff is telling his father that he is leaving for good, the following would play: “Don’t make me sad, don’t make me cry. Sometimes love is not enough and the road gets tough, I don’t know why. Keep making me laugh – Let’s go get high. The road is long, we carry on, Try to have fun in the meantime.” As the lyrics tell a story of how Lana was trying to distract her man from the problems in their relationship by trying to have fun, Willy was so disillusioned of what he and his family’s positions and problems actually were because he was so convinced that he could keep an image of the past as a reality. One final line would play as Biff storms off: “‘Cause you and I, we were born to die.” This line relates both to the death of their relationship as it is a revelation of how this was bound to fail, but also the title itself, as both Biff and Willy are just ordinary men, who, like every other man, is born, then he dies.