Everybody has their own response to the tragedies in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, where two deranged shooters killed 31 people. Some people tweet political platitudes about gun control. Some people denounce President Trump as a racist. Some people denounce toxic masculinity. As musician Lana Del Rey has demonstrated, some people sing songs.
“Lana Del Rey has written a new song, ‘Looking for America,’ in response to the recent shootings in El Paso and Dayton,” reports Rolling Stone.
On Monday, the singer posted a two-and-a-half minute clip of herself singing “Looking for America” on her Instagram page as she performed it live.
“Came back early from Montecito with my brother this morning and asked Jack Antonoff to come into town because I had a song on my mind that I wanted to write,” she captioned the post. “Now I know I’m not a politician and I’m not trying to be, so excuse me for having an opinion — but in light of all of the mass shootings and the back to back shootings in the last couple of days which really affected me on a cellular level I just wanted to post this video that our engineer Laura took 20 minutes ago. I hope you like it. I’m singing love to the choruses I recorded this morning. I’m going to call it ‘Looking for America.'”
Much of the song focuses on Del Rey’s search for an America in which kids are not at risk of dying by guns, an America where parents only have to worry about their children “after dark,” and an America where the “flag can fly freely.” Lyrics below provided from Genius.com:
[Verse 1]
Took a trip to San Francisco
All our friends said we would jive
Didn’t work, so I left for Fresno
It was quite a scenic drive
Pulled over to watch the children in the park
Used to only worry about them after dark[Chorus]
I’m still looking for my own version of America
One without the gun, where the flag can freely fly
No bombs in the sky, only fireworks when you and I collide
It’s just a dream I had in mind
It’s just a dream I had in mind
It’s just a dream I had in mind[Verse 2]
Took a flight to New York City
I miss that Hudson River line
Took the train back to Lake Placid
That’s another space and time
Where we used to go to drive-ins and listen to the blues
So many things that I think twice about before I do, yeah