Timeline of NFR Songs

[Say Yes to Heaven 27,089]

Much like my old Timeline of LFL songs thread, I will be attempting to create a very rough and questionable (at times) list going in chronological order of the creation of songs on NFR. Of course, we only know about when a handful of songs were written so this is kind of messy.

 

Early 2015 - November 2016:

• The Next Best American Record [Lana mentions "you did it all for fame" being the title track of the album to a leaker in November 2016, putting the songs recording to about early to mid 2016.]
• Sylvia Plath [Lana talks about the history of this song in an interview saying she fine tuned it's lyrics over 3 years, giving a rough estimate of the song's beginnings around this time.]

March 2017 - July 2017:

• Mariners Apartment Complex [Pure speculation, but Lana talked about this song noting it was written after a guy she was seeing made a comment she didn't like. We know she's been with Chase since early 2018 meaning the guy before that would've been G-Eazy, which puts this song around the time of their fling. Would also make sense since it contains a Yosemite lyric]

 

December 2017 - January 2018:

• Bartender [Lana first mentions having done this track at an awards show but not having an album to stick it to at that moment. It was recorded with Rick before Jack's entrance into the album]
• Love Song [Lana spoke about going to record this song with Jack at his studio the day after reconnecting with him (January 29th, 2018)]

January 2018 - February 2018: 

• Sylvia Plath (First Recording?) [Lana has also mentioned recording a song with a Jack that she had written. It's unknown if this was the first time Hope was recorded]

March 2018:

• Norman Fucking Rockwell [Lana mentioned in September 2018 that she got the title track of the record down in March.]
• Happiness is a Butterfly [Lana posts the first very rough sounding snippet of HIAB in late March, giving a good estimate of the recording happening either that day or that week.]

October 2018 - January 2019:

• How to Disappear [Lana first teased this track on her Instagram with it's piano demo in October, which gives it's recording date around that time. The song can then be heard being worked on in a livestream done by Del Rey which featured Jack in January 2019. Lana also stated it was the last song recorded for the album in an interview taking place in December 2018, though that was before she went back and added more to the record.]

February 2019 - April 2019:

• Fuck It, I Love You [The last song recorded, we know it was around this time due to the information  below on Doin' Time]
• Doin' Time [Recorded around this time, Lana has said it was done just as the album was finished. To which she went back and re-did the tracklist to include it.]

Tracks I really can't determine:

California [since it was with a different producer, we really have nothing to go off of to determine it's recording date.]

The Greatest [Anytime after January 29th, 2018. Since that was the first day she worked with Jack. Mentions of Hawaii missing the fireball could denote it's writing taking place around January 2018, though the Kanye west fiasco didn't happen until October.]

Venice Bitch [Anytime after January 29th, 2018. Since that was the first day she worked with Jack]

 

Again, this is based on loose information. We know how Lana is with dates and stuff, plus songs can go through many many different variations and demos and could've been sat on for years, like Hope was, until it gets re-done.

Here's the LFL timeline thread if you wanna check that out:

http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/9444-lust-for-life-timeline-of-song-creations/&do=findComment&comment=555930

[WaitForLife 5,069]

I wonder when the others were made.

[sweetie 6,615]

Could California be December 2016 - March 2017?

https://www.coupdemainmagazine.com/lana-del-rey/13033

[Ocean Boulevard 39,473]

Could it be that Venice Bitch was recorded in March. I remember that she said something that she wrote it in a lighter mood like Nfr title track. I think it is from the interview last September. But I will check it out tomorrow bc I'm busy listen to NFR!

[James Dean 948]

You miss Cinnamon! probably was in oct 2018

http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/10345-cinnamon-girl/

 

(the lyrics section could help us a lot in this case)

[cartoon eyes 2,221]

she said that she got the album title while writing Venice Bitch iirc, meaning that predates the actual title track (so in between January and March 2018 i assume). I'd also guess that HIAB was written at least before January 2018, as Rick co-wrote (doesn't seem like he and Jack crossed paths physically). 

[IanadeIrey 61,192]

Could California be December 2016 - March 2017?

https://www.coupdemainmagazine.com/lana-del-rey/13033

I guess this post from Zach Dawes confirms it was somewhere between February and April 2017 based on her appearance!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1zGvAUH7sH/

[Beautiful Loser 46,652]

.

[Elle 116,160]

Lana shared in her livestream that Cinnamon Girl & How to Disappear were written during the same time period while she was in an apparent sadness slump when she "got back to New York from Boston" after being "fucked up in Boston."

I'm estimating she wrote How to Disappear & Cinnamon Girl at the beginning of October, as that's the only evidence I found of her being in New York - she attended Jack's show in New York October 5th, the same day she shared the first snippet of How to Disappear when it was still a stripped-back piano track along with a now-deleted video of her dancing to CamelPhat & Elderbook's 'Cola' captioned "pre-recording dance." Also, she was in Rhode Island on October 3rd, which could've been a stop during her Boston/New York travels. Then, Lana live-streamed Jack working on HTD on October 27th, with the first performance of the song being at the Apple event on October 30th. First Cinnamon Girl snippet was shared October 12th (my birthday!) x

 

 

Update: @@Nick Del Rey just reminded me that there was that rumour going around that Lana was going to Boston to watch her boyfriend coach, which originated on October 3rd from a girl who worked at a store she met Lana in. So, the timeline must've been:

 

Okay so the timeline was definitely

Rhode Island - Oct 3 (traveling there)

Boston - Oct 4 (meltdown happened w this guy)

New York - Oct 5 (wrote HTD)

& Cinnamon Girl followed that

[LanaBoi 1,810]

Theres a YouTube video of Jack going through the production of 'The Greatest' and he shares his screen of Logic Pro or whatever he's running and the filename is visible - "TheGreatestV2.02.13.2019.MultitrackDelivery - so I *assume* 13th of February 2019 was the day it was finished? 

 

 

[Roll With me 5,642]

 

1 hour ago, LanaBoi said:

Theres a YouTube video of Jack going through the production of 'The Greatest' and he shares his screen of Logic Pro or whatever he's running and the filename is visible - "TheGreatestV2.02.13.2019.MultitrackDelivery - so I *assume* 13th of February 2019 was the day it was finished? 

 

 

I hadn't noticed that detail, thank you. Now I think we pretty much have the entire timeline for this album since TG might have been the only song I wasn't sure when it had been done

[Coloringbooks 12,972]

I'd love to see song timelines like these for more projects, especially for Lana Del Ray and Born to Die.