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The Source Family, Ultraviolence & Lana Del Rey

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From IMDB: The Source Family was a radical experiment in '70s utopian living. Their outlandish style, popular health food restaurant, rock band, and beautiful women made them the darlings of Hollywood’s Sunset Strip; but their outsider ideals and the unconventional behavior of their spiritual leader, Father Yod, caused controversy with local authorities.

Before we journey down the rabbit hole that is the Source Family, their leader Father Yod and the influence all of this may have had on Lana Del Rey and her album Ultraviolence, here is some background information of who they were and what they did:

 

sourcefam.jpg

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There are also many excellent articles on Jim Baker, Father Yod and the Family available online. While I will be linking some of them here as references, I will mostly be focusing on the Family and their own personal interpretations of what was going on during the time they were active as I believe this is where Lana gathered most of her inspiration from. There are a lot of negative articles written about what actually was going on behind closed doors at the Family homes and while I'm sure some may be accurate, and will lend support to some theories, the writers of the articles were not a part of the Family and did not experience first hand what went on. While most former Family members do have criticism toward Jim Baker, the man, they speak very highly of Father Yod as their Earthly Spiritual Father, enough so that I don't doubt they would embellish. I recommend reading all evidence and articles with a grain of salt as all of it is personal anecdotes and there is no solid facts to back up any claims made.

I encourage every member of Lana Boards to dig in and discover any other pieces of evidence you may find regarding this topic. I will add to this post as new evidence is found with credit to the finder!

Here is the original post that I made in the Ultraviolence lyrics thread so please have a look at that for an idea of what started all of this:

http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/4684-ultraviolence/?p=198053

So hopefully now you have an idea of the Family, we'll jump into the evidence we have. Some of it will be stuff that I and other users have already posted on the UV thread, some will be new. Please note, this section will be updated as more info is discovered.

The Source Family and their Influence on Ultraviolence

General Evidence

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Lyrical Evidence
While I believe some songs on UV are inspired by the Source Family, I don't think that all songs were inspired by them. So you won't see Old Money on this list for example, as it is clearly written for the Great Gatsby, inspired by the character of Daisy and written as an epilogue to Lana's Young and Beautiful.

I also believe Lana is inspired from many different things and she weaves them into her own story, either by becoming who she is writing about or imagining herself in a similar situation. She has said before that is in the habit of writing about several things in a song and tying them all together. For example, Video Games being about two different men, etc. So while some lyrics fit the Source theory, others will not as they are probably influenced either by her life or something else.

Cruel World

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Ultraviolence

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Shades of Cool

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Brooklyn Baby

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Aesthetic Evidence
This section is about the pictures used for Ultraviolence vs pictures from The Source Family Archives as well as the soundscape Dan Auerbach and Lana came up with. Lana had stated that her new take on the UV album was "Unlistenable" with many different sounds, tempo changes, etc. Some of the Ya Ho Wha recordings sound very similar to how Lana re-did UV with the layered sounds, experimental vocals and tempo changes.

Sound

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Visuals

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As I stated above I will continue updating this post with more evidence as I find it. Please feel free to post any similarities you might find and I will happily add it with credit to you!

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So happy to read it! These theories are awesome and I will try to do some researching about it. The FMWUTTT picture in the booklet it's from the same place of many scenes of the Summertime Sadness music video. That made me curious. That place mean something to Lana...

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  On 7/7/2014 at 12:08 AM, laladelrey said:

So happy to read it! These theories are awesome and I will try to do some researching about it. The FMWUTTT picture in the booklet it's from the same place of many scenes of the Summertime Sadness music video. That made me curious. That place mean something to Lana...

 

I thought the same.

 

All those theories about Lana singing about old sects and occultism are so creepy, but they make sense. I had never heard of the Source Family before. It was interesting to read about it, tho.

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  On 7/7/2014 at 12:21 AM, longtimeman said:

This is great stuff - I'd heard about Father Yod, etc, but had not thought of him being an influence on Lana. Very nice research @@Lanakai

 

Thank you my dear!  :kiss:

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  Quote

You say that you are documenting or dreaming something in your songs. Now you’re approaching more serious things like living in a cult…

You want to know if it’s true?

 

That would be a bit flat. Maybe I should ask it like that: How much did this period of your life influence your artistic evolution?

I prefer this question too. It was a period. I was looking for people who were like me but also people who seemed to be connected with bigger things like supernatural. I was influenced by visionary people. I wanted more than just writing and live from one day to another. But I found out that this didn’t work for me. I thought I could live together with others as an idealistic artist’s commune, so that you inspire each other.

 

http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/5010-ldr-i-always-want-to-experiment-interview-with-dpa

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Original:

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UV Booklet:

 

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Might be farfetched, but there's something going on with those damn long trees and that filter. On other hand, I do recall seeing them in the music video for "Summeritme Sadness" as well... But that's a thing I've been picking up a lot lately. Another visual aesthetic move? Or just my paranoia?  :toofunny:


EQFO7rX.png

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If we could discover the name of the place with the long trees (Summertime Sadness music video/FMWUTTT booklet picture/Some The Source Family pictures)... It would help a little bit, I think. We all know Lana is obsessed with places (Chateau Marmont, Coney Island, New York, LA...). Idk

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Guest Dot

OMG this is so interesting! Makes so much sense in the context of the songs you mentioned above. britclap26eaf.gif @@Lanakai

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  On 7/7/2014 at 10:53 PM, ULTRAVIOLENCE said:

OMG this is so interesting! Makes so much sense in the context of the songs you mentioned above. britclap26eaf.gif @@Lanakai

 

Thanks babe! You da bestest  :blush:

 

  On 7/7/2014 at 10:34 PM, laladelrey said:

If we could discover the name of the place with the long trees (Summertime Sadness music video/FMWUTTT booklet picture/Some The Source Family pictures)... It would help a little bit, I think. We all know Lana is obsessed with places (Chateau Marmont, Coney Island, New York, LA...). Idk

 

100% this! Do we have a resident Los Angelian that could do some super sneaky reconnaissance for us? I would but Canada is pretty fuckin' far and I don't know when I'll be in Cali again (probably a long while boo!)

 

I also realised that the lyrics "Lay me down tonight in my linen and curls, I'm your favorite girl" is in Ultraviolence too so those trees could be significant to either FMWttT or UV. Funny that most of the ladies in the Source family wore either linen or velvet and left their hair au natural in curls (when they had them, Robin especially).

 

I wish we could get a hold of one of the former members and ask their opinion on all of this... 

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I was searching about the SS music video and found out it was set on Santa Clarita, CA. I've searched about the place and found nothing interesting. It might be weird to stuck on this place with the trees, but i was watching the Tropico teasers and one of them show Lana like in the SS video, of course some cuts from the video... About these line of FMWUTTT, you done very well by noticing this! It really fits! Sorry if i don't quote you guys or anything else, I'm always on the mobile mode of the forum

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  On 7/7/2014 at 10:34 PM, laladelrey said:

If we could discover the name of the place with the long trees (Summertime Sadness music video/FMWUTTT booklet picture/Some The Source Family pictures)... It would help a little bit, I think. We all know Lana is obsessed with places (Chateau Marmont, Coney Island, New York, LA...). Idk

 

  On 7/8/2014 at 12:39 AM, Lanakai said:

100% this! Do we have a resident Los Angelian that could do some super sneaky reconnaissance for us? I would but Canada is pretty fuckin' far and I don't know when I'll be in Cali again (probably a long while boo!)

 

I also realised that the lyrics "Lay me down tonight in my linen and curls, I'm your favorite girl" is in Ultraviolence too so those trees could be significant to either FMWttT or UV. Funny that most of the ladies in the Source family wore either linen or velvet and left their hair au natural in curls (when they had them, Robin especially).

 

I wish we could get a hold of one of the former members and ask their opinion on all of this... 

 

So, I was doing a LOT of research (lmao) and all I could discover is that the video was recorded in Santa Clarita, CA, nothing else  :defeated:

There's a waterfall in the beggining, maybe some canyon. Eternal Valley Memorial Park and the William S. Hart Museum in Santa Clarita have those hedges trees, but it's not the right place. In the video she stands in front of a ornamented gate, maybe some mansion/museum?

 

And yes, she sings those verses from FMWUTTT in UV.

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  On 7/8/2014 at 1:25 AM, laladelrey said:

I was searching about the SS music video and found out it was set on Santa Clarita, CA. I've searched about the place and found nothing interesting. It might be weird to stuck on this place with the trees, but i was watching the Tropico teasers and one of them show Lana like in the SS video, of course some cuts from the video... About these line of FMWUTTT, you done very well by noticing this! It really fits! Sorry if i don't quote you guys or anything else, I'm always on the mobile mode of the forum

 

 

  On 7/8/2014 at 1:33 AM, Angel Forever said:

So, I was doing a LOT of research (lmao) and all I could discover is that the video was recorded in Santa Clarita, CA, nothing else  :defeated:

There's a waterfall in the beggining, maybe some canyon. Eternal Valley Memorial Park and the William S. Hart Museum in Santa Clarita have those hedges trees, but it's not the right place. In the video she stands in front of a ornamented gate, maybe some mansion/museum?

 

And yes, she sings those verses from FMWUTTT in UV.

 

I google mapped it and Santa Clarita is about 40 minutes from Nichols Canyon (where the family's second house was located) and Loz Feliz (the first one). 

 

It's also definitely at Nichols Cayon as you can see the trees in the upper left corner of this picture here:

 

source_father1-thumb.jpg

 

I'm betting those trees and that look is something popular for landscaping in the LA area lol Oh well...

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  On 7/8/2014 at 12:39 AM, Lanakai said:

Thanks babe! You da bestest  :blush:

 

 

100% this! Do we have a resident Los Angelian that could do some super sneaky reconnaissance for us? I would but Canada is pretty fuckin' far and I don't know when I'll be in Cali again (probably a long while boo!)

 

I also realised that the lyrics "Lay me down tonight in my linen and curls, I'm your favorite girl" is in Ultraviolence too so those trees could be significant to either FMWttT or UV. Funny that most of the ladies in the Source family wore either linen or velvet and left their hair au natural in curls (when they had them, Robin especially).

 

I wish we could get a hold of one of the former members and ask their opinion on all of this... 

If you search Isis Aquarian in the facebook search toolbar you can find the first wife of father Yod, on facebook she comes up... And it looks like she replies to random people... *polite* people... Someone should get in touch with her and post it for all of us to see... She looks very welcoming... And she looks like she now resides in Hawaii.. Doesn't look like their are any other Isis Aquarian's.  Just the one on facebook... Anyoneeee?

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