What are your favorite Lana Del Rey Demos?

[Dark Angel 201,023]

Ya'll got taste 

 

I love the BTD demos as well. 

 

I can't wait to hear the UV demos.

[13bitches 6,176]

Beautiful People

National Anthem (The Nexus)

Diet Mountain Dew (The Flight)

Black Beauty

Tomorrow Never Came (what we’ve heard)

Mermaid Motel

Brite Lites (Mertens)

Best American Record (assuming what we have is a demo)

This Is What Makes Us Girls (Larcombe)

[Off To The Races 2010 demo pls 19,335]

Fuck My Way (It's unleaked but the two snippets that leaked slayedT my existence)

[Fingertips 72,034]

BP and the original bridge of TNC was heartbreaking

[Doll Harlow 12,366]

Lolita, Mermaid Motel, Diet Mountain Dew, Beautiful People, Tomorrow Never Came, and probably the LFL demo if we ever get to hear it

[evilentity 13,341]

[iNSERT OBLIGATORY PEDANTIC COMMENT THAT THE TERM "DEMO" IS USED INCORRECTLY HERE AND PROBABLY NOT EVEN IN A CONSISTENT WAY]
 
Take it away @Monicker...
 

Re: demo: With some notable exceptions (ex: the Video Games demo) the LDR fan base tends to misuse the term demo. I think people just view demo as interchangeable with unreleased. Most of her recordings that are labeled demos are fully arranged, full studio productions, i.e. not actual demos as the term is generally understood and used. They are simply early or alternate versions--different arrangements and productions--of either songs that were later released on an album or unreleased songs. She just tends to record several versions of songs is all.

This is a topic that has and continues to come up a lot, so i want to give some of my thoughts on the matter.

It’s pretty much all semantics when it comes to the term demo because its definition is open-ended and it has changed some throughout the decades, from the early days of record production to today. More importantly, the meaning changes from artist to artist. Consider the following variants and contradictions:

-Demos are not intended for commercial release, yet they make it onto albums all the time. So what does this mean? Can something exist as something but then suddenly, without actually changing, be something else just because of where it winds up?

-A demo can be described as an audio “sketch” of sorts, yet the final version of a song can end up being more stripped down and bare than its demo. Having a fuller arrangement or being more “produced” is not always the approach taken for the final product.

-Demos are typically recorded cheaply with more “primitive” equipment and means, but a demo can also very well be recorded in a professional studio, while on the other hand, album tracks can be recorded in a bedroom.

-Similarly, demos are usually defined by their quickly-recorded nature, but it can also take a good amount of time to put together a demo, and yet there are countless albums that contain songs that were cut in just a few hours.

-Contrary to the inherent meaning of the term demo, a fairly polished performance can indeed show up on a demo recording. Conversely, rather rough performances often show up on studio albums.

-Additionally, it is not uncommon for different elements (tracks/“stems”) of a demo to be “flown in” to the final album version (look at how many of Lana’s “demo” vocals were used on the final record).

So, as you see, the qualities that define a demo recording and set it apart from a studio recording aren’t really set in stone. It’s really defined by those who create the recording, as well as their intent (which we often don’t know). All this said, i myself don’t classify a lot, or even most, of LDR’s "demos" as demos per se, but rather as fully arranged studio productions (so: alternate versions). One of the exceptions, just to give an example, is Video Games, a demo that actually does fit the more traditional description of the term, given it’s minimal arrangement, its use of cheap keyboards that stand in for real instruments, and the quality of the recording. Everything about it has the sound and feel of a demo recording.

It seems that, in the LDR fan community, the term demo often (not always, because we have gotten files from within her team that were labeled as a demo) gets applied after the fact, once an alternate version of a previously released song has leaked. Ultimately, though, i don’t think it’s that big of a deal because of all the aforementioned difficulties that exist in concretely defining the word. The important thing is that we, as a fan community, come up with these designations and labels in order to easily identify stuff to each other, to make discussion possible, something that is very useful.

As for the chronology of the various versions of these songs, these numbers that we sometimes assign them (ex: Dum Dum v.1, v.2, v.3; Lolita 1, Lolita 2, etc.) obviously correspond, not to the order in which they were created (given our limited resources, how can we know that sort of information?) but to the order in which we obtained them/they leaked. It is merely a simple and effective identifier/labeling system for us so that we know what the hell we’re talking about when we bring up all these different versions in conversation. This, too, is very useful.

Sorry 4 rambling.

 

:monicker:

[beautifulandbad 692]

That one Lolita demo with the bass riff in the beginning (don't know what it's called)

 

Andddd BPBP demo. So good

[baddisease 17,654]

Beautiful People (Demo)

Tomorrow Never Came (Demo)

Pawn Shop Blues (Demo)

Mermaid Motel (Demo)

Brite Lites (Mertens Demo)

Yayo (Demo)

[Ultra Violet 18,851]

That one Lolita demo with the bass riff in the beginning (don't know what it's called)

 

Andddd BPBP demo. So good

I believe that's demo 1 ?

The one that she had a video for under Lizzy?

[beautifulandbad 692]

I believe that's demo 1 ?

The one that she had a video for under Lizzy?

Oh, I dunno. I couldn't find a video for it if it had one.

[Dark Angel 201,023]

Oh, I dunno. I couldn't find a video for it if it had one.

 

I think the one you are talking about is either demo 1 or demo 4

[Chocolate Eyes 548]

Lolita

This Is What Makes Us Girls (demo 2)

National Anthem (demo 2) and I Want It All

Money Power Glory

Alternate version of Summer Bummer

Put Me In a Movie/Little Girls

[LonelyLolitaMotel 1,088]

brite lites steve mertens version FOR FUCKING EVER

[Cloudbusting 5,383]

Beautiful People and Black Beauty (I like the final more but the demo is so calm and kinda sadder somehow)

[sparklrtrailrheaven 9,036]

Mermaid Motel - GODLY and probably her best demo imo but i love both versions so much for their totally distinct vibes

Lucky Ones and Without You - both WAY preferable to the finals, which ended up totally overproduced

Money Power Glory - demo is much more listenable than the final to me

 

honorable mentions are the Lolita demos (song sucks in general but the demos are slightly better), National Anthem demos (not I Want It All tho, she can choke), Mertens' Brite Lites, and probably the rest of the UV demos if we ever hear them 

[Dark Angel 201,023]

reviving this very old thread of mine...

 

- mermaid motel (demo)

- queen of the gas station (demo 1)

- oh say can you see (demo)

- for k, pt. 2 (demo 3)

- off to the races (mix 9)

- million dollar man (demo)

- freak like me

- lust for life (demo 1)

- disco (demo 3)

- trash magic (demo 1)

- neon palmmm