Born To Die

I've been meaning to do this post since I bought Lana Del Ray's debut album about a month ago and have been listening to it almost non-stop ever since. Her voice is beautiful and the songs are a lot more interesting to listen to than many current musicians, dripping with imagery of Old Hollywood glamour and elegance. She descibes herself as a "gangster Nancy Sinatra" and despite personally not knowing much about Nancy or her music, I think this description or 'persona' suits Lana's music as it does suggest a more retro and sultry image. I can also imagine this style of album fitting in at that time in the music industry. What really captured my imagination about Born To Die though, is the creative lyrics. The songs are almost like cinema in sound and the emotion in Lana's voice adds to this and makes the album really unusual and dramatic. Listening to her sing is like a visual experience and I think she is a more original artist. The other thing that I really like about her is that I can imagine various characters from movies and books listening to and indentifying with her music. Maybe it's just me but have a read of my list of people whose lives are like Lana Del Ray songs and leave me a comment if there are any songs that make you think of movies.

• Juliet Capulet - Born To Die

Romeo & Juliet

I think this song really suits Juliet's character, and the emotions she would be feeling in the story, of love and anger and confusion. This is such  beautiful film, and although everyone knows the story, whether they have read the play or not, I feel that you can watch it so many times as it's so visual and there is so much to see in it. Shakespeare's original writing is spoken by the actors and the film just reduces me to floods of tears. I know Baz Luhrman is criticised a lot for changing classic books too much but this version of Romeo and Juliet is just incredibly moving and an amazing film in it's own right.

"Baby, you and I. We were born to die."

• Daisy Buchanan - Blue Jeans



The Great Gatsby

 This song uses so many American images, and the mood of the song, longing for someone and it all going wrong reminds me of how I felt reading this book. I think it also makes me think of the scene with the shirts, as it's about another iconic piece of clothing.

"Blue jeans, white shirt. Walked into the room, you know you made my eyes burn. It was like James Dean, for sure ... and I know that love is mean and love hurts but I still remember that day we met in December. Oh baby I will love you 'til the end of time. I would wait a million years. Promise you'll remember that you're mine. Baby can you see through the tears? Big dreams, gangster, said you had to leave to start you life over."

Summer Crossing by Truman Capote.

• Grady McNeil - Diet Mountain Dew

I am obsessed with this book. It's brilliant and brought this whole world of New York in the summer to life for me. It's the story of a girl who falls for the wrong boy and the questioning in the song lyrics, where Lana is asking: "Do you think we'll be in love forever?" is so similar to Grady's story. It's just a perfect book.

"Diet mountain dew, baby, New York City. Never was there ever a girl so pretty. Do you think we'll be in love forever? Let's take Jesus off the dashboard, got enough on his mind. I'm not gonna listen to what the past says, I've been waiting up all night."

• Holly Golightly - National Anthem



Holly's character is all about money and despite trying to make herself happy through other things' her motivations are always financial which ultimately lead to her unhappiness. The song is about recognizing that although we may not like it: "Money is the reason, we exist. Everybody knows it; it's a fact. Kiss, kiss." This just makes me think of Holly and her "super-rat" men and her denial that money is important to her because it would mean admitting that she is in a cage.

"Um, do you think you'll buy me, Lots of diamonds?"

• Bella Swan - Dark Paradise

This one is weird as I really don't like Twilight or Stephanie Meyer, but I did watch New Moon recently and this song is how Bella feels in her depression when Edward leaves her. Lets not get me started on how crazy and needy Bella's dependency on Edward is and her inability to have her own life and in fact the creepiness of the whole franchise but these lyrics are basically the plot of New Moon.

"Your soul is haunting me and telling me, that everything is fine. But I wish I was dead. Every time I close my eyes , it's like a dark paradise."

• Vivi Walker - Carmen

I've loved this book ever since I first read it about two years ago and it's one of my favourites to reread, especially in the summer. It's the story of these hilarious and mad Deep South women and the lives of them and their children. The song Carmen reminds me of the character Vivi. She's not a very lovable person, she beats her children and is an alcoholic, like the girl in the song but there's something wonderful about her that draws people to her.

"Darling, darling, doesn't have a problem. Lying to herself cause her liquour's top shelf. It's alarming honestly how charming she can be, fooling everyone, telling them she's having fun."

Thank you so much for reading. Don't take this post too seriously, I decided I needed to let my imagination go a bit crazy so if I have insulted anyone by comparing their favourite book/film to a song they hate then please forgive me! I know Lana Del Ray has been Miss Controversial recently but personally I love her music.
Let me know what you thought of this post - if it works out then I might do music inspired posts more often.
Lots of love, Jessica
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