Lana Del Rey discusses her lyrical regrets on ‘Ultraviolence’
After the success of 2012’s Born to Die and follow-up EP Paradise, Lana Del Rey got to work on Ultraviolence, a record which incorporated a much darker atmosphere. Made in collaboration with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, the album takes influence from soft rock and jazz, compared to Born to Die’s pop and R&B sounds.
Del Rey’s second major label release was teased with a string of singles, including ‘Brooklyn Baby’, ‘Shades of Cool’, ‘West Coast’, and ‘Ultraviolence’. Upon the release of the title track, certain critics were quick to criticise Del Rey’s lyrics, claiming that she glorified domestic violence. Lorde even criticised Del Rey’s early writing, stating: “This sort of shirt-tugging, desperate, don’t leave me stuff. That’s not a good thing for young girls, even young people, to hear.” There has long been debate over Del Rey’s early lyricism, seemingly romanticising abusive, codependent and destructive relationships.
The release of ‘Ultraviolence’ only added fuel to these arguments, with Del Rey singing the lyrics, “He hit me and it felt like a kiss/ I can hear violins, violins/ Give me all of that ultraviolence.” However, the track quotes the controversial song ‘He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss) by The Crystals, which Del Rey had also heard covered by Hole. The 1962 song was penned by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, inspired by their babysitter, who told them about her physically abusive boyfriend.
Discussing the work, Del Rey shared with Grazia magazine that her song was inspired by a cult-like figure she surrounded herself with in the past. “I used to be a member of an underground sect which was reigned by a guru,” she said. “He surrounded himself with young girls, and he had this insane charisma I couldn’t resist as well. So I was in this, I’ll call it sect, because I was longing for love and security. But then I found out that this guru wasn’t a good but a bad person. He thought that he had to break people first before he could build them up again. At the end I left the sect.”
The title ‘Ultraviolence’ is taken from a line in Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange, which, in turn, was possibly inspired by a Del Rey favourite – Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Del Rey stated that she liked the dichotomy between the “ultra” and “violence,” telling Complex: “I like that luxe sound of the word ‘ultra’ and the mean sound of the word ‘violence’ together. I like that two worlds can live in one.”
However, in 2017, Del Rey revealed that she felt uncomfortable singing the controversial lines whilst performing. Speaking to Pitchfork, she shared: “I don’t like it. I don’t. I don’t sing it. I sing ‘Ultraviolence’, but I don’t sing that line anymore. Having someone be aggressive in a relationship was the only relationship I knew. I’m not going to say that that [lyric] was 100 per cent true, but I do feel comfortable saying what I was used to was a difficult, tumultuous relationship, and it wasn’t because of me. It didn’t come from my end.”
