The Lana Del Rey song that quotes David Bowie
Lana Del Rey’s music is a goldmine of literary, cinematic and musical references. Since the beginning of her career, the musician has painted her songs with allusions to iconic figures, such as Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe, helping to evoke a distinctive vintage Americana aesthetic.
Although it is clear that 1950s Hollywood and the tragic glamour of the period significantly influenced her earlier work, Del Rey has also paid homage to other influential cultural periods, nodding to Beat poets, 1970s classic rockers, 19th-century writers and existentialist philosophers, to name just a few. By creating an aural collage of her influences, Del Rey’s music pays tribute to great thinkers and pioneering artists that shaped her into the creative she is today.
During an interview with NME in 2012, Del Rey stated that she is a big fan of “the masters of every genre”. She cites Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley as some of her all-time favourites. Another figure she greatly admires is David Bowie, who was undoubtedly a master of his craft. Del Rey incorporated lyrics from Bowie’s 1969 hit ‘Space Oddity’ into her track ‘Terrence Loves You’ to honour the musician.
Released in 2015, less than a year before Bowie’s passing in January 2016, ‘Terrence Loves You’ appears on Del Rey’s 2015 album Honeymoon. Whereas her previous album Ultraviolence was drenched in hazy guitar solos, made in collaboration with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, Honeymoon blended classic jazz instrumentation with hip-hop-influenced beats.
‘Terrence Loves You’ is an underappreciated track that Del Rey referred to as her favourite from the album. Accompanied by delicate strings and saxophone, the loungey ballad is a tender slice of soft jazz that spotlights Del Rey’s heavenly vocals. Lyrically, the singer reflects on a recently ended relationship, coping with the aftermath of abandonment.
The name Terrence is presumed to be a reference to Bowie’s half-brother Terry Burns, who introduced the musician to significant influences such as Beat poetry and Buddhism. Discussing his brother’s indelible impact, Bowie once described him as “the greatest serviceable education that I could have had.” Detailing further, he continued: “He just introduced me to the outside things. I saw the magic, and I caught the enthusiasm for it because of his enthusiasm for it. And I kinda wanted to be like him.”
Del Rey parallels Bowie and Burns’ relationship with her own experiences of an inspiring relationship. Lines such as, “For when you are crazy/ I’ll let you be bad/ I’ll never dare change thee/ To what you are not” could refer to Burns’ respect for his eccentric brother. But the song hints that whilst Bowie had the whole world, Burns had no one. Spending much of his time in psychiatric hospitals due to schizophrenia, Burns led a life miles away from Bowie’s. Sadly, Burns took his own life in 1985.
As part of the chorus, Del Rey alludes to Bowie losing his relative (who introduced him to jazz music) while hinting at the deterioration of her romantic relationship. She sings: “But I lost myself when I lost you/ But I still got jazz when I’ve got those blues”. However, toward the end of the track, Del Rey makes her allusions to Bowie concrete by lifting lines from ‘Space Oddity’. “Ground control to Major Tom/ Can you hear me all night long?/ Ground control to Major Tom,” she sings.
These lyrics reference Bowie’s astronaut persona, Major Tom, who, in ‘Space Oddity’, slowly floats away from the moon and even further away from Earth, where he is destined to die in space. Therefore, Del Rey uses this imagery as a metaphor for a relationship that has slowly broken apart and cannot be repaired.
The relationships between Bowie and Burns and Del Rey and her subject are clearly very different, yet similar in how they helped shape their identities. Grappling with the loss of a romantic or familial relationship often means reconsidering who we are without them in our lives.
