(Lana Del Rey art by Stanley Foss. All rights reserved. HideNsneek.com)
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Elizabeth Grant was born to die
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49 Responses to “Elizabeth Grant was born to die”
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Nice photoshop work! You should ask Chris his opinions on LDR–he has a really interesting perspective I haven’t really heard anywhere else.
Posted by Brent Waggoner | February 8, 2012, 08:24I’ll send Chris a link. Thanks Brent.
E.
Posted by clownonfire | February 8, 2012, 08:28Nice artwork and catchy title, it really asks the question how and why we package an artist for mainstream consumerism. She brought it home on David Lettermen though. I know many fans are offended by the lips situation…
Posted by gen13 | February 8, 2012, 10:46Consumers buy brands, not products….
Posted by clownonfire | February 8, 2012, 10:55That they do!
Posted by SummerSolsticeGirl | February 8, 2012, 13:00With the democratization of credit and buying power, people just wanna buy and claim .Brands and products melt tandem into a price tag that is charged to thy credit card for an immediate rush of satisfaction and possesion. Is LANA dEL ray a product? a brand? or a refurbish artist?
Dude, where is my car?
Posted by gen13 | February 8, 2012, 14:16The Bad Press Machine hasn’t stopped since the SNL performance. Rumours of her tour being cancelled aren’t helping either (SXSW confirmed she won’t be playing). Take a look at the comments on these articles:
The Hufftington Post: http://huff.to/Arbjhy
The New York Post: http://nyp.st/xmdKGn
I also strongly suggest reading the comments on The Atlantic article on LDR, where my mental state was questioned for buying into her:
The Atlantic: http://bit.ly/xSwjby
Posted by clownonfire | February 8, 2012, 14:29Even RC cola has more charisma than lizzy del ray. Or is that Lana Grant? Fuck I forget.
Posted by Jack nemrit | February 8, 2012, 12:12I tried my best to convey her energy in my last Lana Del Rey performance: http://clownonfire.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/lana-del-rey-2/
Posted by clownonfire | February 16, 2012, 07:49Ha! awesome
Posted by SummerSolsticeGirl | February 8, 2012, 13:01In a nutshell. The media circus has been about:
1. Her rich daddy.
2. Her fat lip.
3. Her change of name.
4. Her Saturday Night Live performance.
5. Her phoniness.
6. The monstrous marketing machine behind her career.
Little about her music: good pop.
EDIT [09/02/2012]: Lana Del Rey makes a blog shine… which – I’m sure – has nothing to do with the myriad of articles on her recent fall from grace.
Posted by clownonfire | February 8, 2012, 16:35C’est vraiment trop fort cette illustration ! Je suis sous le charme, même si je connaissais tes talents sur Photoshop, là tu m’as vraiment surpris. C’est excellent ! Évidemment le tout sera partagé chez moi dès minuit ce soir …À très bientôt !!!
Posted by magda627 | February 8, 2012, 22:08Merci, Magda. Et je te renvoie la balle. Je le dis à qui veut bien l’entendre… Ton blogue inspire!
Posted by clownonfire | February 9, 2012, 08:08Reblogged this on anteketborka and commented:
C’est excellent !!! À voir absolument !
Posted by magda627 | February 8, 2012, 22:33Exceptionnel…Je viens te voir grâce à notre grande Magda qui n’a jamais froid aux yeux…et là je comprends beaucoup mieux….car toi aussi tu n’as pas l’air d’avoir froid aux yeux….Normal au Canada !!! Bonne journée…
Posted by Armelle | February 9, 2012, 03:46Magda… elle inspire! Content de te lire Armelle… Il y aura d’ici peu quelques posts en français… Question de dénouer mes racines latines.
Posted by clownonfire | February 9, 2012, 07:46Nice work, Eric. I think you’re essentially right on–Lana is not all that different from Lizzy, as the title and temperament of that soon-to-be-rereleased album make clear.
My opinion, which I shared with Brent, is basically this: The complaints about Lizzy’s repackaging into Lana fail to take into account how that transformation is modeled in her lyrics themselves. Yeah, there’s a lot of absurd bluster about drinking “black Cristal” but look at the way that’s balanced out by the titles of the songs: Video Games. Blue Jeans. Diet Mountain Dew. In another song she drinks “Pabst Blue RIbbon on ice.” The gap between those two extremes–the glitzy and the everyday–makes manifest the tension between the LDR persona and the “Lizzy” beneath.
My favorite song, other than “Video Games,” is “Off to the Races,” partly because it does the best job at this. The chorus is cribbed from Nabokov’s Lolita, though you would never learn that from the negative reviews, because it’s not in their interests to suggest LDR is intelligent enough to take literary influences. If you’re familiar with the book, you know that Lolita is the pubescent love object of the pedophile Humbert Humbert, but really, “Lolita” is an imaginary construct imposed on the very real Dolores Haze. “Off to the Races,” and the album as a whole, strike me as coming from the perspective of someone very much like Dolores, willfully rearranging her personality to appease her lover. If lines like “Likes to watch me in the glass room, bathroom / Chateau Marmont / Slipping on my red dress, putting on my make-up / Glass film, perfume, cognac, lilac, / Fume, says it sounds like heaven to him,” were said with a straight face, the detractors would have a point, but I don’t think they are. But don’t they successfully mimic the fantasy of an inexperienced girl playing the “starlet, harlot?” Maybe when LDR sings, “Gimme gold coins, gimme them coins,” she’s being inept, but there’s something about that phrase that expertly straddles the line between ingenue and would-be diva, like the words of a pretend princess.
The ultimate consequence of this transformation is bleak, and Born to Die suggest it leads to crippling codependency. I think this is one of the best things about it. On one hand, the AV Club calls it “shallow,” smugly ignoring the self-destructiveness that abounds throughout, not least in the album title: “Born to Die.” Pitchfork, on the other hand, recognizes it but complains that “she asks that we make no effort to change, escape, or transcend the way things are,” as if the album would be improved by some sort of Lady Gaga “Respect Yourself” type anthem. I think this is LDR’s boldest artistic statement–here is an album by a woman adopting a persona to please her audience, about the destructiveness of that very act. You can deny the irony of a line like “We were sixteen and we had arrived,” or you can click your tongue at it, but I don’t think either of those is a fair response.
Of course, the internet hype machine was all to willing to play the Humbert Humbert role, building up its own image of LDR from scraps of early buzz, and then excoriating her the moment the sex-kitten-mysterieuse act turned out to be artifice. I won’t say that it’s impossible to imagine this playing out the same way with a male musician, but I guarantee it wouldn’t have the same whiff of outraged prudishness.
There are a couple of reviews I’ve read that I think understand this. One is Alex Pappademas’ in Slate: http://es.pn/zi1M9i
The other is by Jonah Weiner in Slate: http://slate.me/w3CpH4
Of the others very little can be said. I read the AV Club’s, and it was, as with most of their music reviews, an exercise in oversimplification. Pitchfork makes an attempt to understand and reject the record’s artifice, but I find its argument unpersuasive and its unwillingness to admit to its role in the LDR hype distasteful.
Posted by Christopher | February 9, 2012, 21:03Chris hate to burst your bubble but in 2010 Lizzy was describing her sound as glam/surf/Hawaiian. In April 2010 Lizzy bought HERSELF out of a deal with her record label at that time [5points] (the estimated cost of the deal well over $150k)
as she had been offered another deal she was going ahead with (this is April 2010). She signed a new contract with 5points that the uploaded album produced with them be removed and all trace of her be taken down from the internet, the label owner David Nichtern had this to say
“They literally insisted. That’s in the contract. We can’t have any reference to it anywhere. They were following up on it weekly, “Oh, there’s an obscure website in outer-Mongolia that still has a reference to it, can you tell them to pull it down.” We did. We took it off iTunes and never released it as a hard CD. When I read that it was shelved, that borders on libelous. It’s annoying.”
So Lizzy pulls out of an expensive deal, (although previously stating she
was so poor she couldn’t buy coco pops (how) as she has another offer on the table in the period of a year or less she has changed her music style from glam/surf/Hawaiian to Hollywood Sadcore and what looks like a major change to her face. This information was also backed up by David Kahne
“I think Lizzy Lana owns it, so [her team] wanted it out of circulation. That’s why they bought the rights from them,” Kahne says. “I think she wanted to be Lana Del Rey and didn’t want to be Lizzy Grant. That was her family name, and she’s very dramatic. She wiped [out] this other person.
I dare say the whiff of outrage was caused by a large accumulation of incidents and lies that M’s Grant had got herself involved in I don’t remember anyone freaking out about any other women in music changing their names and there have been a lot of women who have done it, so you can forget about it being sexist.
The bottom line is ………………………………………………………………………………………..
Posted by ledger | February 13, 2012, 07:42HI Chris or should I call you metacritique123, you know you and clownonfire really need to stop with the Lizzy Grant PR thing you are just making clear to everyone with all those posts you keep on posting that you:
a,are completely biased
b,haven’t got your facts straight
c,clearly have no idea what you are talking about
d,have no life
Posted by orkis | February 13, 2012, 09:20a.) I don’t know who metacritique123 is.
b.) The only facts I’m talking about are the lyrics of the album. Did I get them wrong?
Posted by Christopher | February 13, 2012, 09:30Orkis, so good to see you here. Pull up a chair. In answer to your post:
a,are completely biased – [yes, I rather enjoy her music].
b,haven’t got your facts straight [we welcome facts of all sexual orientations here]
c,clearly have no idea what you are talking about [good thing this is in writing]
d,have no life [then why are you hanging out with us?]
Posted by clownonfire | February 13, 2012, 09:35A) When using letters to itemize or define a list, commas are inappropriate. Brackets or colons are fine, however. The minutiae of punctuation is not easily grasped by everyone, though.
B) Everyone BUT you has presented facts. By all means, please do enlighten us.
C) If losers like us want to discuss anything ad nauseum, why do you care?
D) Ms. Del Ray is just another entertainer. In a celebrity obsessed culture, we fixate on meaningless drivel like lip collagen. We like to chew up those in the spotlight and spit them out for any and every misstep, or, conversely, worship them and hold them to ridiculous standards. You are participating as much as the rest of us, so you can take your self-righteous ass elsewhere, you pompous adolescent.
Posted by saradraws | February 13, 2012, 09:53You make a good point.
Posted by Brent Waggoner | February 13, 2012, 09:55@Brent: yes, good punctuation is essential. Thank you for your support in this matter.
Posted by saradraws | February 13, 2012, 09:59you lot are insane, go for a walk along the beach watch the sunshine sparkle over the dancing waves and breath in the freshest air you will ever know you are alive and yes you are going to die so why are you wasting your time going crazy over this?????????
Posted by charley pierce | February 13, 2012, 04:06I live in Montreal. No beach, only snow.
I hope that answers your question.
Posted by saradraws | February 13, 2012, 09:55Ledger, that may very well be true, but I fail to see what connection it has to the quality of the music on Born to Die. Nor do I think that adopting a persona amounts to a lie. If she wants to eradicate her former self, let her, but I don’t think re-releasing an album with “Lizzy Grant” in the title is going to help much.
You also ignore one important word in what I said about the importance of her gender: It’s not just a whiff of outrage, but a whiff of outraged prudishness. I suppose it’s conceivable to imagine this happening to a male musician, but I can’t imagine that it would cause much hand-wringing about shallowness or sexuality, except among the most strident conservatives. When Pitchfork and AV Club complain about the “sexual politics” of the album, I think they’re applying a double standard, and looking at it from a perspective they would disdain applying to male musicians, especially rap and R&B artists.
Posted by Christopher | February 13, 2012, 09:13In reply to your point on releasing the old album…she had no choice but to release it as Lizzy Grant. They only made the press release about recently buying the rights (which is a lie) to the original album AFTER did you get that AFTER David Kahne had spilled the beans on it. On the 13th January 2012 an interview with David Kahne was published where he made clear LDR had bought the rights to the first album and wanted all trace of it removed…then 27th Jan 2012 LDR makes a press release that she will be releasing the album as she recently bought the rights back from her old record label. David Kahne had already made it clear she bought the rights when she pulled out of a deal with David Nichtern which was in 2010. Jan 30th David Nichtern goes public with the truth about the exit she bought from his label 5points.
Isn’t it more a case of how do I get out of this one.
All theses women and more successfully created a different stage persona without it causing the backlash LDR received: Grace Jones, Joni Mitchell, Sandie Shaw, Tina Arena, Patsy Cline, Enya, Carole King, Peggy Lee, Lulu, Queen Latifah, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Donna Summer, Tina Turner, Bonnie Tyler, Tammy Wynette, Kitty Wells. Gaga has received a lot of backlash http://www.gigwise.com/photos/55922/Lady-Gaga-Backlash—Celebrities-and-Music-Stars-Dissing-Lady-Gaga
It’s more about the time we live in than anything else, everything is a copy of a copy and at some point it becomes very obvious that these people are not stars they are copies (even more so with the internet), clones of what has been before I call it repeats, people dislike Lana for many different reasons (lies about her father/surgery/she’s a rip off/hit n miss live vocalist) but the biggest backlash is against the industry so, hey don’t take it so personally Lana del rey is a post everything repeat and people are just bored of it.
In reply to your point the “quality of the music on Born to Die” it might be worth pointing out that LDR is not responsible for the music only the lyrics
Posted by ledger | February 13, 2012, 10:00For references, links to the Pitchfork and AV Club articles.
Posted by clownonfire | February 13, 2012, 10:04For references, links:
http://www.billboard.com/features/lana-del-rey-the-billboard-cover-story-1005869152.story
http://shorefire.com/clients/lanadelrey/
http://robgrant.com/pressroom.html
http://read.mtvhive.com/2012/01/30/lana-del-rey-first-album-5-points-records-interview/
Posted by ledger | February 13, 2012, 10:23Ledger, thank you for adding to this conversation. I do appreciate reading all sides of this [debacle] debate.
Posted by clownonfire | February 13, 2012, 10:25http://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/page/content.detail/id/510931.html?nav=5050
Posted by ledger | February 13, 2012, 17:30ledger, your argument seems like it would make more sense if LDR’s camp wasn’t rereleasing the original album soon. I guess I’m confused as to why LDR is being attacked while other bands that switched up their genre/image (Alice in Chains, Pantera, to name a couple) are given a pass. Not to mention that the music is good, and isn’t that the real point?
Posted by Brent Waggoner | February 13, 2012, 09:15They only made the press release about recently buying the rights (which is a lie) to the original album AFTER did you get that AFTER David Kahne had spilled the beans on it. On the 13th January 2012 an interview with David Kahne was published where he made clear LDR had bought the rights to the first album and wanted all trace of it removed…then 27th Jan 2012 LDR makes a press release that she will be releasing the album as she recently bought the rights back from her old record label. David Kahne had already made it clear she bought the rights when she pulled out of a deal with David Nichtern which was in 2010. Jan 30th David Nichtern goes public with the truth about the exit she bought from his label 5points.
Isn’t it more a case of how do I get out of this one.
Posted by ledger | February 13, 2012, 09:33What’s your point here? That she was trying to eradicate all evidence of her former life and failed, and re-releasing the album is some sort of spin control?
Posted by Christopher | February 13, 2012, 09:39what do you do when you keep getting exposed…other than come up with whatever you can to counteract it..you say spin control like it’s something new to LDR and her team, they are spin control lana del rey is spin the team is shore fire media http://shorefire.com/clients/lanadelrey/
Posted by ledger | February 13, 2012, 10:18I grant you that, but it doesn’t affect the point I’m trying to make about the older album. The title itself–”Lana Del Rey AKA Lizzy Grant”–already shows proof that she’s narratizing the tension between performer and persona. Disavowing it now doesn’t change that.
I echo Brent’s opinion below: None of this matters terribly much for the quality of the music. Whether the artist wrote it or not didn’t affect us in the Holland/Dozier days–why does it matter now, for the product released?
Posted by Christopher | February 13, 2012, 12:06I think it’s more a case of “I’m embarrassed of this old album and would prefer people judge me by my new one instead, but apparently they’re not going to let it go out of some misplaced concern for authenticity, so here it is.” Artists are routinely praised for re-inventing themselves–Bowie, Radiohead, even dreck like Lady Gaga–so why is LDR taking such hit for doing the same, albeit in a slightly more extreme manner? I maintain that it’s from some sort of authenticity backlash, like Dylan going electric, or The Clash licensing their music for commercials. It doesn’t matter–either the music is good or it isn’t. If you dislike Born to Die, that’s cool, but so far, I’ve heard little about the music and lots about the performer.
Posted by Brent Waggoner | February 13, 2012, 09:45that would be because we know that when Lana says my dad is not a millionaire I can just have a look at his companies net profits online and know she is lying, or when she insists she hasn’t had lip or nose surgery I can google images and videos of her just 2 years ago and she looks completely different……she can insist she is sincere and authentic but I know she isn’t…I guess when you try to keep up the lie and can’t just go okay whatever i’m just being a puppet like everyone else in the industry it starts to grate everyone you know she is basically pretending to be some miracle from God, when basically she just had a really good deal on the table in April 2010 with interscope…i think we just need to move on the days of Bowie are gone…sadly
Posted by ledger | February 13, 2012, 10:12But none of this addresses the music. I’ll be honest–I don’t care about authenticity much if the music sucks, which is why I listen to very little punk. And re: your comment above, it’s not terribly significant to me if LDR creates the music–this same argument could be used to dismiss most rap as well. I also find it a little creepy that someone who wants to know whether or not they should like the new it girl would go investigating her father’s financial records or comparing different eras of her face looking for plastic surgery.
It essentially boils down to this: before the issue of authenticity came out, Pitchfork and the music blogs loved LDR. Now that her back story might hurt their indie cred, they’re dismissing music that they previously championed in order to, I don’t know, save face, maybe? and most of the arguments contra Born to Die have the same ring.
It’s easy to look at Bowie or Dylan now and say we’re comfortable with their reinventions–we have the benefit of hindsight. I’m not putting LDR on the same plane, but I have to admit, I just don’t find these arguments compelling–it feels a lot like a double standard.
Posted by Brent Waggoner | February 13, 2012, 10:31yeah if I was honest which I am I just think she’s a wealthy spoiled bitch with about as much talent as my farts…..I could expand but it would get messy
Posted by ledger | February 13, 2012, 17:28Ledger, I don’t want to censor, but I do not tolerate derogatory, misogynist slurs on this blog. Consider yourself warned. I am happy to have your participation, so long as you can respect this.
Posted by clownonfire | February 13, 2012, 18:00can we move passed the sexist crap it’s not about that, I hate the strokes since when did they have their dicks removed, I actually feel LDR vomits all over women with her femme fatale routine and it’s probably why blokes like it so much it does place the importance with them “I need you, I’ll die with out you”…
so I’m derogatory, oh yes but a misogynist I will leave that to Lana she is doing such a great job of it.
Posted by ledger | February 14, 2012, 03:54a.) Even if you feel the criticism of LDR is not sexist, the term “spoiled bitch” is.
b.) I address your complaint in my long post above. The “femme fatale” act is frequently undermined on the album, and held up not as an ideal but as a painful, destructive tendency. Only someone unwilling or unable to read between the lines could think that Born to Die glorifies that kind of dependency. Nor do I think that reaction sufficiently appreciates the way that such an act is a reaction to male expectations (as I think the Lolita reference makes clear).
Posted by Christopher | February 16, 2012, 15:06Remember Rainbow Butt Monkeys!!? Now Finger Eleven. Total fakers.
Posted by saradraws | February 13, 2012, 10:01What about that Bono Vox guy? Shame on you for dropping the “Vox”, Mr. Hewson.
Posted by clownonfire | February 13, 2012, 10:41Reblogged this on Fansforcharity and commented:
lana del rey singing with her lips = u must sitdown and watch
Posted by iamgeneral | February 15, 2012, 11:18She’s a compelling singer. I do enjoy the performer.
Posted by clownonfire | February 15, 2012, 12:14wow…..i’m late and have no desire to add anything to the conversation, but i am shattered having read all that, and the stuff on the atlantic – some of that was actually hard reading – and you’re right about christopher, he has it spot on, and good luck with your money raising
Posted by sacha1nch1 | November 12, 2012, 20:13