Ultraviolence

[FoxieLana23 3]

Also, the weird vocals during the final chorus sound like "lay me down tonight, in my linen and curls". Anyone else hear that??

Literally about to say this. I'm convinced it's exactly the part from Fucked My Way Up To The Top. Every time I get to it, I sing that instead of the UV lyrics.

[bummersummer 2,218]

just read a post about how UV (song & video) could have been inspired by Jim Morrison & Pamela Courson's relationship, and a lot of it does make sense... other than what's mentioned there - getting together when she was 18 / 'Jim raised me up' + their complicated & often violent (due to his drinking) relationship / 'he hit me and it felt like a kiss' + her futile attempts at getting married / the lone bride theme from the video / 'loving him is never enough' - a few other things also fit:

- 'Jim brought me back' / 'I could have died right there' : hinting at her heroin dependence & overdoses?

- 'I can hear sirens, sirens' : she famously called the fire fighters & the police after founding him dead in the bathtub in their apartment in Paris

- 'yo soy la princesa' : Jim wrote many songs dedicated to Pam & in the most notable one, 'Queen of the Highway', he called her a princess

- the 'white lines' reference : they snorted heroin (China White) together, which was reportedly the cause of his death

- the only thing i can't quite figure out is the Woodstock reference, because The Doors never performed there & afaik Jim and Pam never attended

 

anyway, i also think the Source Family & other Manson-like cults theory makes a lot of sense, but i thought this was interesting nonetheless.

[cheaptrailertrashglm 3,536]

it's so funny reading everyone fight over the lyrics trying to figure them out. lolol

 

does anyone else hear 'we can go back to where it's dark/where they don't know who we are'???

that's honestly what I think she says. Woodstock doesn't make sense. Going back to New York is saying she wants to go back to being an unknown artist and then being in the dark clubs or dark areas of New York and plus she makes alot of references to meeting men in the dark, and then again pleading to go back to not being known.

 

Sorry, this is going to be a long one lol bear with me here.....

 

So I was watching a documentary about this hippie cult in the 70s in LA called the Source Family. While watching I couldn't help but be slapped in the face with how well it fit in with Ultraviolence. I was connecting dots like a motherfucking pro. I recommend watching it to see what I mean (it's on Netflix USA), or you could read these reviews here to get the gist:..

 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/2013/05/09/movie-review-the-source-family-crunchy-cult-story/YAGpjim%202kJkLXDVZSE1xeD29L/story.html

http://thehairpin.com/2013/05/the-source-family

 

Basically Jim Baker was a very handsome, very charismatic, but notoriously violent man that ran away from his wife and child to LA and founded this cult as Father Yod and had many beautiful young men and women join him to live in "peace, love, drugs and rock and roll". He was popular within Hollywood and was very rich and even robbed banks to fund his vegan restaurant, psychedelic band and his "family"..."He basically turned Sex Drugs and Roll and Roll into a religion" is a quote (paraphrasing) from the film. Kinda sounds like the same church Lana would subscribe to...

 

From the doc, the first things that popped out at me were:

 

1) "He used to call me DN that stood for Deadly Nightshade" sounds just like the people in the documentary talking about their hippie names and what they were called in the commune. Names like Galaxy, Orbit, Harvest Moon, Sunflower etc...

 

2) All the references to violence, hitting, etc fit with Jim Baker's history of violence, although I don't know if he was inclined to hit women...

 

3) Quite obviously.... "You're my cult leader" = Father Yod

 

4) The way she's talking about her Jim in the song is nearly identical to former members of the Source describing what it was like to be around their Jim, saying it was like they felt like they were kids again with him being their really cool rich foster dad who smoked a lot of drugs and lived a hedonistic and open lifestyle. The conditions they lived in despite the cult having lots of money, was near squalor with people living in cubby holes and in some instances being denied medical attention and treatment as it went against their beliefs. A child even reportedly died after being denied treatment for an infection. Jim was very strict with all of his commandments despite all the love he had for his "children". He even broke his own commandment of one woman for every one man when he decided to be polygamous and his original cult wife Ah-Om (aka Robin) said she felt as if he "had skinned her alive" when he took 13 wives. His treatment of Robin was very poor but even now she speaks highly of him and that her love for him took on an otherworldly dimension that was out of her control and listening to her talk about him is very similar to how Lana sings about her Jim in UV.

 

I think the inspiration from the Source Family could also bleed into the rest of the album, lending to the Southern California psychedelic surf twang throughout, even referencing the polygamy that was going on in SoC:

 

"And when he calls. He calls for me and not for you"

 

and what Father Yod was all about:..

 

"He prays for love, he prays for peace.And maybe someone new"

 

There might be connections in other songs, I'm still slowly working my way through the album and to be honest I still have the first 5 songs on repeat, so I'm not as familiar with the rest of the album. Oh and I know it probably doesn't mean anything but they reference taking "Black Beauties" in the movie about 10 minutes in.

 

And with this recent instagram selfie with Chuck with the caption "Sister Wives" the Source just fits a little too well:

 

http://instagram.com/p/pF6jVgiZvj/

 

Not only is Sister Wives a polygamy term, they're even dressed like Father Yod's wives. In fact I'd say Lana's really leaning towards a 70s flower child look this era, wouldn't you? Oh and not to mention... Yod/Jim fits Lana's Daddy type to a tee. Heck they even called him that!  (lol Barrie and his beard actually look like a member of the cult tbh)

 

Some pictures....

 

Jim Baker aka Father Yod

 

13 Wives......

 

More promo for UV? No just some more sister wives!

 

More gorgeous pictures of the Source family here

 

I don't think all songs are necessarily related to the Source but I think Lana may have been heavily influenced by them along with Jim Morrison, Kurt, Chet Baker, Jim Jones, Jim Beam, etc, and from her own life. Especially since the documentary came out in 2012 when she probably would have started to conceive what her next album would be.

 

I also believe that she took influence from her own experience with Atlantic Group and how she relates that to the 70s cult experience. To be honest, sometimes I feel like Lana writes songs like she's posting to Tumblr or Pintrest or some shit. Just name checking all the things that influence her and weaving a story around them. Like she's writing her own fan fiction through songs. Actually I still think all the songs written around "Every Man Gets His Wish" are about Lana's life as if it were blended with the movie True Romance. She even took a picture of her and Mike M. compared to Clarence and Alabama so clearly she is identifying with the Character there. It's basically her own blend of reality and fanfiction. But that's a post for another thread lol... 

 

Anyway before I go on and on, because I could with all these "connections" I found in this doc...Has anyone else seen The Source and what are your thoughts on this?

I honestly always thought about Jim Jones when hearing this song, but this Jim makes more sense. I think Lana's creative enough to have this be true lol.

 

I knew there was something about that photo of Chuck and Lana 

Lana, like a lot of artists, draws from a whole range of sources, including real life, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Source was one of those (if you'll excuse the pun). My first thought, like a lot of people, was that Jim = Jim Jones, but nothing else in the song has anything to do with the People's Temple, except possibly for the violent end, and mass murder isn't really Lana's scene.

I'm pretty sure Jim Jones did drugs though. I haven't read about Jim Jones in a while and I can't even remember the basics...but he violent not just because of the mass suicide. (raping men for example). He also threatened people who wanted to leave (not physical violence but still violence).

 

^ Agreed on both points. Lemonade actually works perfectly here, as it may not make literal sense but it works in relation to the "tears of gold" lyric before it, plus it's evocative of summertime and youth, tying it to the earlier lyric, "reminded me of when we were kids".

 

On another note, one thing that always confused me was the "like I was poison ivy" lyric, because there's a little vocal tic in there that throws it off a tad. After listening more closely I've come to the conclusion that the multi-tracked vocals say two different things. The main vocal says "like I was poison ivy", as we all hear, but I'm almost certain the secondary vocal says, "that guy was poison ivy". Give it another listen, once you notice it, it's pretty clear. I could be wrong but, I dunno, I don't think so. Sorry if this was already discovered and discussed btw, if so I didn't see it.

i really don't understand why people don't hear clearly lemonade. for a while that's the only word of that whole lyric i heard lol.

 

and i'm pretty sure it's "like I was poison ivy" and not "that guy was poison ivy" cause why would she say that he calls her poison and then say he's poison ivy? it makes more sense that she says "he used to call me poison, like I was poison ivy." i mean come on....let's be logical about that lyric lol

 

just read a post about how UV (song & video) could have been inspired by Jim Morrison & Pamela Courson's relationship, and a lot of it does make sense... other than what's mentioned there - getting together when she was 18 / 'Jim raised me up' + their complicated & often violent (due to his drinking) relationship / 'he hit me and it felt like a kiss' + her futile attempts at getting married / the lone bride theme from the video / 'loving him is never enough' - a few other things also fit:

- 'Jim brought me back' / 'I could have died right there' : hinting at her heroin dependence & overdoses?

- 'I can hear sirens, sirens' : she famously called the fire fighters & the police after founding him dead in the bathtub in their apartment in Paris

- 'yo soy la princesa' : Jim wrote many songs dedicated to Pam & in the most notable one, 'Queen of the Highway', he called her a princess

- the 'white lines' reference : they snorted heroin (China White) together, which was reportedly the cause of his death

- the only thing i can't quite figure out is the Woodstock reference, because The Doors never performed there & afaik Jim and Pam never attended

 

anyway, i also think the Source Family & other Manson-like cults theory makes a lot of sense, but i thought this was interesting nonetheless.

this makes alot of sense too, and I wouldn't put it past her to write a song about Jim Morrison.

 

 

also could be about K but she says jim instead

[bummersummer 2,218]

just read a post about how UV (song & video) could have been inspired by Jim Morrison & Pamela Courson's relationship, and a lot of it does make sense... other than what's mentioned there - getting together when she was 18 / 'Jim raised me up' + their complicated & often violent (due to his drinking) relationship / 'he hit me and it felt like a kiss' + her futile attempts at getting married / the lone bride theme from the video / 'loving him is never enough' - a few other things also fit:

- 'Jim brought me back' / 'I could have died right there' : hinting at her heroin dependence & overdoses?

- 'I can hear sirens, sirens' : she famously called the fire fighters & the police after founding him dead in the bathtub in their apartment in Paris

- 'yo soy la princesa' : Jim wrote many songs dedicated to Pam & in the most notable one, 'Queen of the Highway', he called her a princess

- the 'white lines' reference : they snorted heroin (China White) together, which was reportedly the cause of his death

- the only thing i can't quite figure out is the Woodstock reference, because The Doors never performed there & afaik Jim and Pam never attended

 

anyway, i also think the Source Family & other Manson-like cults theory makes a lot of sense, but i thought this was interesting nonetheless.

 

Lana strengthening my theory with her insta pic of Jim & Pam, ha.

[cartoon eyes 2,540]

mess nvm

[LanasPhilosophy 21]

[loleetah 4,084]

The sirens/violins juxtaposition is one of the most interesting of Lana's lyrics, it brings such an image to mind: someone (Lana) getting hurt badly enough for the cops or ambulance to be called (at the hands of Jim) and hearing police sirens while fading in and out of consciousness, but the sweet but melancholy sounds of violins represent her romanticizing their relationship, so she stays- "give me all of that ultraviolence"

[ultrababy 3,445]

I still hear “This is Ultraviolence” instead of “with his Ultraviolence” to this day when the chorus starts and it makes more sense to me that way. What do you guys hear?

[Fingertips 72,042]

This song has been hitting me right in the feels lately. The bridge is absolutely divine

[Elle 121,284]

Different bridge lyrics in the newly leaked demo:

I'll be your princesa

You give me my white lines

[Ultra Violet 18,984]

So in the Fader interview, it says:

 

We could go back to the start, she sings on the title track, but I don’t know where we are.

 

I'm so confused. Did they hear this wrong? Or was that an original lyric that got changed?

[Dark Angel 202,360]

5 hours ago, Ultra Violet said:

So in the Fader interview, it says:

 

We could go back to the start, she sings on the title track, but I don’t know where we are.

 

I'm so confused. Did they hear this wrong? Or was that an original lyric that got changed?

 

i'm pretty sure they just misheard it, the full lyric is "we could go back to woodstock, where they don't know who we are"

[Ultra Violet 18,984]

18 hours ago, Surf Noir said:

 

i'm pretty sure they just misheard it, the full lyric is "we could go back to woodstock, where they don't know who we are"

Wow another misheard lyric from me then! I never heard Woodstock either 

[Super Movie 51,697]

2 minutes ago, Ultra Violet said:

Wow another misheard lyric from me then! I never heard Woodstock either 

I didn't hear it until about a year ago. I always thought the lyric was "we could go back 'til it's dark" lol 

[Cherry Blossom 21,547]

this song actually disturbs me. in the best way

 

every version of this song is haunting. her yearning vocals, the instrumentation, the lyrics, everything. it terrifies me to my core

[Ultra Violet 18,984]

11 minutes ago, Super Movie said:

I didn't hear it until about a year ago. I always thought the lyric was "we could go back 'til it's dark" lol 

Yeah that's what I heard too for years, but then one day I think I saw someone write "to the start" and thought that made more sense 

[drugstorecowgirl 7]

okay so i've been up reading trying to figure out who Jim from UV is and i have read like the entire discussion of it on here and i could be wrong but i don't think anybody brought up the point that i wanted to make. so i just rewatched it to make sure, but in the 2008 Index Magazine interview she does very briefly talk about a Jim saying, "and i had some good friends, Bill and Jim who come and pick me up and drive me around if i *need a new* 7/11 to go explore". now i know Jim is a common name but if he is indeed a real person it would make sense that he is from the 2007-2008 timeline. i mean she finished a lot of the songs for UV in november 2013 i think it was and she was with Barrie 2011-2014 and then apparently dated a producer or whatever for about 7 years who people speculate is K. ik some believe Jimmy Gnecco but he says they didn't meet until 2014... but i do think she references multiple Jim's like Morrison and Jones. however, i don't think its who shes singing about directly because i think her cult leader line is a nod to Jones and how she felt about her own Jim. she was his follower and admirer and it's impossible to believe he really cared for her if he hurt her so much. just my thoughts if anyone has a better idea lmk but i also am really interested in the Jim Boch, what a story that would be! 

[WhiteHydrangea 4,216]

"I used to be a member of an underground sect which was reigned by a guru. He surrounded himself with young girls. He thought that he had to break people first to build them up again. At the end I quit the sect"

 

I just remembered that quote

[Cherry Blossom 21,547]

On 3/25/2022 at 10:02 PM, Cherry Blossom said:

this song actually disturbs me. in the best way

 

every version of this song is haunting. her yearning vocals, the instrumentation, the lyrics, everything. it terrifies me to my core

I was so extra. Sis smoke a blunt

[sourheart 16]

<3