The Girl I Knew

Lana Del Rey “Buddy’s Rendezvous”

I’m at Buddy’s Rendezvous
Telling the losers and old timers
How good I did with you
They almost believe me, too

I knew this song for the better part of a year before finding out that Buddy’s Rendezvous is a pizzeria in Michigan and not some miserable dive bar in Los Angeles as I had assumed given the context and the song already mentioning Canter’s, which is in LA. This detail changes the song for me. It’s funny but also amps up the pathos, picturing this guy chatting up some old guys eating pizza stings a lot more than if he’s just doing the same thing at a bar after his third well whiskey.

The other thing I didn’t quite pick up on for a while is that this isn’t about a failed romance but rather a song from the perspective of an absent father who’s been released from prison and is trying to reconnect with his daughter who has had some measure of success as a singer in Los Angeles. It’s not some big ironic switcheroo, as Father John Misty’s arrangement, lyrics, and vocal all play the scenario exactly the same as if it was addressed to a long-lost ex, which I don’t think is necessarily meant to be taken as some incestuous thing but more that his regret, lingering possessiveness, and nostalgic affection for her is probably not that different from a bunch of actual exes he could be singing about in other songs. He’s not reaching out because they have a genuine connection – he’s been out of the picture way too long for that – but because he needs her success to validate his existence. At least something good came from him being alive, and he wants to get as close to that feeling of having value as he can.

It was an inspired choice to have Lana Del Rey sing a version of this song. Lana Del Rey and Father John Misty, born only a few years apart, are kindred spirits as songwriters. Their music largely draws on mid 20th century sounds and archetypes but their lyrics are squarely focused on the present tense, and everything in their lyrics that look back to the past is presented with irony as it’s always from someone living in America’s decline reaching for something they think was probably better and more pure. They’re both bitter and damaged but mostly because as romantics they’re always setting themselves up for disappointment. They’re each other’s truest peer and so it’s a treat to hear her interpret one of his songs.

Lana’s presence changes the implied perspective – is this now Lana inhabiting the voice of the daughter, is this her impression of her father’s words? The way she plays it feels more like this is her father imagining his daughter singing his words, but in any case there’s some cold disconnection. It’s only just “her.” I think this might have worked better as a duet with Father John Misty singing the parts that she sings a little too low in her range. Her vocal performance is very good, particularly on the choruses, but I do get the sense that this song was a challenge for her, and the variations in her phrasing were made in large part to just stay in tune and not push her to an uncomfortably high register on the chorus. Misty shows up for backing vocals in the final third of the song and I love hearing them together, particularly as it sounds like he’s the one singing with a ghost, just trying to soothe himself with this idea of her.

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