Legend has it, Lana Del Rey wrote “Coachella—Woodstock in My Mind” after attending the festival, where she danced to Father John Misty and worried about the state of the world as tensions mounted with North Korea. On the ride home, she pulled over on the highway, “took a moment to sit down by the sequoia grove,” and composed her thoughts into a simple song of hope: one that’s kind of about a music festival, sort of about North Korea, maybe about Father John Misty, and entirely about Lana Del Rey.
Standing in a crowd of people who probably based their outfits on hers, Lana watches a performer with a “voice divine” breaking through to his audience. Of course, Lana maintains her distance: she’s catching the set with his wife and saying things like “hella cool.” She even slips in a little joke about his critical acclaim (all while knowing it’s not fashionable to love her either). After the show, Lana’s mind begins to wander: she worries about the kids, their parents, the world they’re inheriting. She wishes her words could fly like birds but sings them so they drop and drift like falling leaves.
In a brief interview by the portapotties at Coachella 2014, a beaming Lana Del Rey described her “life-changing” experience at that year’s festival. She talked about wanting to stay on tour forever, sounding more like a passionate fan than a weary performer. Throughout “Coachella,” she captures that same energy, spurning her star power for a more intimate perspective (notice, she’s never onstage in “Coachella,” always in the audience). At the end of the song she pleads she’s “got a million things I wanna say,” then settles on just three familiar words—“stairway to heaven.” Alone in a crowd, she’s reaching for the language that brought everyone together, praying it will be enough.
