Lana Del Rey’s favourite lyric of all time
Lana Del Rey is subject to a dizzying amount of public fascination because she seems like something of an anachronistic oddity. Having cycled through various influences, from Old Hollywood starlets to iconic 1970s songwriters, her well-maintained image leaves fans wondering how much the reality matches up, which is something the singer-songwriter is surprisingly sympathetic to.
When asked if she thought fans cared too much about her personal life, Del Rey responded: “Hell no. I care about what Bob Dylan is doing right now. I’m curious to know if he’s wearing a hoodie or a blazer – I get it.” Her reverence for the equally mythic songwriter continually shapes her sound, writing, and approach to musical celebrity.
Dylan’s influence on Del Rey can be traced to his 1963 track ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’. She not only performed the song on her Norman Fucking Rockwell! tour in 2019, but also chose to perform its New York stint at the Jones Beach Theater, where Dylan often gigged, instead of a larger venue more befitting the calibre of her fame.
As part of the HMV ‘My Inspiration’ exhibition, Del Rey cited: “And it ain’t no use in turning on your light, babe / That light I never knowed / And it ain’t no use in turning on your light, babe / I’m on the dark side of the road,” as some of the lyrics that profoundly shaped her own writing. She references him directly in ‘Religion’ and indirectly in her introspective, often searingly specific writing.
Where Dylan looks to historical figures to make up the characters in his folk tracks, Del Rey turns to pop-culture icons. Both are anchored in the universally familiar but tied to searingly specific narratives. Del Rey can make JFK and Jim Morrison stand-ins for toxic lovers, and likewise, Dylan could involve F. Scott Fitzgerald in counter-culture symbolism. There’s also the inescapable fact that Del Rey finds appeal in the period Dylan rose up in and is often compared to some of his greatest peers – Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell.
While they share many similarities, Del Rey’s songwriting has often been accused of lacking the political awareness Dylan’s protest anthems did. In her early Born To Die years, the obsessive explorations of Americana have been accused of being tone-deaf, and she’s since retired from draping herself in an American flag. It’s the same with significant political moments in American history. Dylan spun the JFK assassination into a 16-minute odyssey on ‘Murder Most Foul’, and Del Rey seized on it for the visuals to ‘National Anthem’.
While their tone can often differ massively, part of the nostalgia Del Rey is continually reaching for is directly informed by Dylan’s dutiful cataloguing of the ups and downs of his era.
