Lana del Rey - Born to Die: The Paradise Edition

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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. Since then, Lana has delivered a flair unlike any other artist of her generation, praised for its cinematic sound and references to various aspects of pop culture, particularly that of the 1950s and 1960s Americana.

During the “Body Electric” portion of Tropico, Lana presents herself as Eve and actor Shaun Ross as Adam in an off-kilter Garden of Eden. The short film opens with a voice reading, “And the spirit of John moved upon the face of the waters; And John said ‘Let there be light’ and there was light; And John saw that it was good.” The opening lines echo the Book of Genesis, but instead of God, there’s John Wayne – and Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Jesus soon appear by his side. Lana Del Rey Releases New Poem". PAPER. April 12, 2019. Archived from the original on April 24, 2020 . Retrieved January 4, 2020. Del Rey explained her process for writing poetry turned out to be notably different from her process for writing music. She said:a b "Lana Del Rey Chart History - Vinyl Albums". Billboard. Archived from the original on May 1, 2022 . Retrieved October 26, 2020.

At the end of “Body Electric,” Lana eats the forbidden fruit, just as Eve does in Genesis, and the two characters soon find themselves in a postlapsarian Los Angeles, AKA “the garden of evil” and “the land of gods and monsters.” But, as the Adam and Eve figures are expelled from Paradise, Lana reads “I Sing The Body Electric,” celebrating rather than condemning the physicality and sensuality of the human body. I was interested in God and how technology could bring us closer to finding out where we came from and why https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/lanadelrey/images/5/52/Digital_Booklet_-_Paradise_3.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20161120085454

saw the arrival of Honeymoon which Lana described as being “a tribute to Los Angeles”. The album became the subject of much critical acclaim, garnering the most praise of all of her projects before it, with some even calling it her best work yet. Before using Del Rey, she initially chose the alternate spelling Lana Del Ray and released an album under that name, but ultimately chose the latter moving forward.