Lana del Rey - Born to Die: The Paradise Edition

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A visual artist as well as performer, Del Rey has released a number of music videos, including a short music film that she wrote, directed and starred in, titled Tropico. The piece features dark undertones and haunting scenes of vintage technicolor. I’m churning out novels like Beat poetry on amphetamines,” Lana sings on the dark, nostalgic “Brooklyn Baby.” The Beat subculture of the 40s and 50s embraced new literary forms inspired by jazz, drug use, spirituality, and a desire to defy the norm. Poet Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” – written in Berkeley, California in the mid-1950s – has proven particularly influential on Lana, and she even includes an excerpt in Tropico. Since her musical beginnings, Del Rey has expressed how she has been inspired by poetry, with Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg being instrumental to her songwriting. [6] [7] Del Rey has written several poems which she has used as spoken monologues in her music videos and short films, the most notable being the lengthier, melancholic pieces featured Ride (2012) and Tropico (2013), in the latter of which she also recited poems from Whitman's Leaves of Grass. In their duet “Lust For Life,” Lana and The Weeknd interpolate William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus,” singing, “We’re the masters of our own fate / We’re the captains of our own souls.” It makes sense that “invictus” means “unconquered” in Latin, as Lana and The Weeknd sing about taking charge of their own lives. This is a notable departure from their 2015 collaboration “Prisoner,” during which they sing, “I’m a prisoner to my addiction.” Anthony Burgess

But by the time the second verse of the song rolls around, the story has changed.That is to say that the first half was set in the past and the second the present.And in the present, the two of them are no longer together.And Lana is wondering if it is possible for their relationship to be restored. Primary Sentiment But that does not change the primary sentiment of the entire piece. In other words, it is still her love for him which is at the center of this narrative – her memories of the two of them being together and how he reminds the vocalist of her dad. There's a line of the demo version of This Is What Makes Us Girls if I remember correctly (I don't have my booklet nearby and can't find a scan so I'm not sure). https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/lanadelrey/images/5/52/Digital_Booklet_-_Paradise_3.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20161120085454God’s dead. I said, ‘Baby that’s alright with me,’” Lana sings on “Gods & Monsters.” Lana’s early career was saturated in fatal, nihilistic themes, but this is the only time she directly quotes philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. However, it should be noted that she took a more optimistic turn in 2017 with the release of Lust for Life, even opting to smile on the album cover. Allen Ginsberg

If you listen to the songs (while reading if you prefer that), you will find lyrics error quite fast. For example, I'll write what it should be and link the booklet lyrics underneath:

Mary Shelley and Victorian Literature

Next to Lana’s “Nabokov” tattoo is another in the same cursive font: “Whitman.” Walt Whitman, a 19th century American poet, was known for his sensual verse and mythology of self – qualities that appear in Lana’s lyrics and poetry as well. Specifically, Lana borrows the title and chorus of “Body Electric” from Whitman’s poem “I Sing The Body Electric,” a celebration of the human body and its individual parts. In addition to name-dropping Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, Lana sings, “Whitman is my daddy,” including the poet in her aesthetic of subversive, vintage Americana. Lana Del Rey Held A Surprise Book Signing At Barnes & Noble Last Night". Stereogum. October 3, 2020. Archived from the original on April 22, 2022 . Retrieved April 22, 2022. Before she was penning hit songs, Lana studied philosophy and metaphysics at Fordham University, expressing a deep interest in “how and why we ended up on Earth,” according to a 2017 interview with Vogue. It makes sense, then, that Lana references Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, and the one that tells of Earth’s creation. Lana Del Rey hates personal critics". STV. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013 . Retrieved October 5, 2012. a b c D'Souza, Shaad (July 8, 2020). "Lana Del Rey's "eclectic and honest" new album is out this month". The Fader. Archived from the original on July 9, 2020 . Retrieved June 9, 2020.