Pop Culture in Lana's Songs

[SissyReed 577]

So few months ago I made this list of popculture roots in Lana's songs. I've decided to share it with you, hope you like it

 

link to the reference // the reference is repeated (the link is above) or there's no need for a link
("Lana's lyrics")

"Thank you" to all the people helping me to complete this list
 

1949 - “Lolita” (“Lolita” is happening in 1949; "We ’re in the pontiac from July to July” - Dolly’s and Humbert’s car journey lasted for a year)

American  - Bruce Springsteen (“Springsteen is the king”); Elvis Presley (“Elvis is the best”) and “Play house, put my favourite record on” - “Baby Let’s Play House” is Elvis’ song; The Crystal Method ("Get your crystal method on")

Angels Forever - “Easy Rider” (“Is the sun in your eyes, easy rider?”); "Lolita" quote - "A paradise whose skies were the color of hell flames" ("Paradise is a hell coloured flame sky")

Axl Rose Husband - Axl Rose

Baby Blue Love - Axl Rose (“Looking so good like an Axl Rose”)

Back To The Basics - Asics shoes (“Wearing them ASICS”)

Beautiful Player - The Crystals - “He Hit Me and It Felt Like a Kiss” (although Lana said she didn’t know about this song when she was writing her lyrics)

Bel Air - Axl Rose probably (“Mon amour, sweet child of mine, you’re divine” // “Idol of roses, iconic soul”); Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" ("So I run like I'm mad to heaven's door")

 

Best American Record – Led Zeppelin’s album “Houses of the Holy” (“My baby used to dance underneath my architecture to the <Houses of the Holy>”)

Betty Boop Boop - “Betty Boop”

 

Big Bad Wolf - Charles Perrault's fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood"

Big Eyes - song for a movie about Margaret Keane

Blue Jeans - James Dean(“It was like James Dean”)

Body Electric - Walt Whitman - the title is his poem and “Whitman is my daddy”; Elvis Presley - (“Elvis is my daddy”); Marilyn Monroe - (“Marilyn’s my mother”) and (“Diamonds are my bestest friends”); Jesus - (“Jesus is my bestest friend”); Mother Mary - (“Mary prays the rosary for my broken mind”); Grace Kelly- (“Monaco’s my mother”); Bruce Springsteen's song "I'm on Fire" ("I'm on fire"); Joker's quote from "Batman" movie - "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?" ("Dancin' and grindin' in the pale moonlight"); Snoop Dogg's "Drop it Like It's Hot" ("Drop it like it's hot in the pale moonlight"); Grand Ole Opry ("Grand Ole Opry, we're feelin' alright")

Born to Die - Lou Reed(“Come and take a walk on the wild side” - the verse from the most popular Reed’s song - “Walk on the Wild Side”); Cat Power -  “Metal Heart” (”I once was lost but now I am found, was blind but now I see you" // “Lost but now I am found, I can see but once I was blind”)

 

Breaking My Heart - Valentino ("Seeing Valentino stars tonight") - I think it's about fashion desginer because later in the song she mentions Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier ("Jean Paul Gaultier, Versace and yayo") but she could also mean Rudolph Valentino

Brooklyn Baby - Lou Reed (“While I sing Lou Reed”) + one of Reed’s songs is “Coney Island Baby” - Lana could change the lyrics for Brooklyn because Reed himself was born there; Beat Generaion (“I’m talking about my generation, Talking about that newer nation, And if you don’t like it, you can beat it, beat it, baby” // “We get down to beat poetry”) or song "My Generation" by The Who; Woodstock festival ("We could go back to Woodstock")

Burnt Norton - T.S. Eliot poem

 

Butterflies part 2 – “Lola” by The Kinks song (”I puts on <Lola> by The Kinks and he dances ‘round”)

 

Carmen - Lou Reed - “Coney Island Baby” (“Eating soft ice cream, Coney Island queen”); "Twin Peaks" ("Her mind's like a diamond"); Carmen opera; "A Streetcar Named Desire" quote ("That's the little story of the girl you know, relying on the kindness of strangers")

 

Cola - The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" ("Ah, he's in the sky with diamonds and he's making me crazy")

C U L8 Alligator - “See You Later Alligator” song by Bill Haley

Children of the Bad Revolution - James Dean (“Where the bad boys roll hard dressing like James Dean”); Marilyn Monroe (“Girls blow kisses just like Marilyn”); T. Rex - "Children of the Revolution"

Cruel World - “Clockwork Orange” quote from the book - "Suddenly, I viddied what I had to do, and that was to do myself in; to snuff it, to blast off forever out of this wicked, cruel world. One moment of pain perhaps and, then, sleep forever, and ever and ever"

 

Diet Mountain Dew - Jesus (“Let’s take Jesus off the dashboard”); “Lolita” (“Baby put on heart-shaped sunglasses”)

 

Driving in Cars with Boys - "Riding in Cars with Boys"; Cyndi Lauper - "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" ("Girls just wanna, just wanna have fun"); "Knock on Any Door" quote: ("Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse")

 

Dum Dum - “Gone with the Wind” (“I belong to a bygone era like the Scarlett O'Hara”); “Bugsy Malone” (“I belong to a bygone era like the Bugsy Malone”)

Elvis - Elvis Presley

Every Man Gets His WIsh - “Lolita” - (“We’re gonna party like it’s 1949, We’re in that Chevrolet from July to July”) and (“He loves my heart shaped sunglasses”)

Flipside - Bruce Springsteen (“Springsteen on the radio”)

Florida Kilos - “Scarface” probably

Fordham Road - Mother Mary (“The stone Mary in the garden”)

Freak - “Easy Rider” (“Sun reflecting in your eyes, like an easy rider”)

Gangsta Boy - “Betty Boop” (“Boop-boop-boopty-doo”)

 

Girl That Got Away - Summer of Love ("Back the way it was, a summer of love, love"); "Lolita" (""Dreaming 'bout your Dolly, sweet Dolly dream")

 

Go Go Dancer - Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot" ("I drop it like it's hot, on the pole, on the pole")

God Knows I Tried - “Hotel California” by The Eagles ("Put on that <Hotel California>”)

Gods & Monsters - Jim Morrison ("I’m living like Jim Morrison”); Oscar Wilde (“Life Imitates Art”); Friedrich Nietzsche ("God's dead"); "It's innocence lost" is a reference to John Milton's "Paradise Lost"

Greenwich - Ray Gillen (“And your leather looking like Ray Gillen?”)

Guns and Roses - Guns and Roses

Hollywood - Walt Whitman (“Body electric”); Jim Morrison (“And I dance like Morrison”); Jesus (“I walk on water”); Janis Joplin (“And I dance like Joplin”)

Hollywood’s Dead - Elvis Presley (“You were 50s cool in blue suede shoes”) - one of  Elvis’ songs is “Blue Suede Shoes” and (“Elvis is crying”); Sid Vicious (“Vicious in flames”); Frank Sinatra (“Sinatra aloof”); Marilyn Monroe (“Marilyn’s sad”); Jimi Hendrix (“Hendrix is lying there”); John Lennon (“Lennon wake up”); Kurt Cobain (“Cobain stop lying there”)

 

Hot Hot Hot - Josh Brolin ("You are Brolin hot")

Is This Happiness? - Hunter S. Thompson (“You think you’re Hunter S. Thompson”)

JFK - John Fitzgerald Kenndy

Jimmy Gnecco - Jimmy Gnecco

Last Girl on Earth - Jay-Z and Jared Leto (“I ride with Jay-Z, Jared Leto”); Cleopatra (“Cleopatra used to rule”); Julius Casear (“Casear said he’s fall in love with me if I was older”)

Live or Die - “Bugsy Malone” (“You’re my Bugsy Malone”); “Scarface” (“You can be my Tony Montana and I can be your Pfeiffer”); Bonnie and Clyde (“Are we gonna be Bonnie and Clyde?”); Sylvester Stallone (“You’re Sylvester Stallone and I can be your Adrian”); Mariah Carey (“You can be my Tommy Mottola and I can be Mariah”); probably Sid and Nancy (“Are we gonna be true love suicide?”)

Lolita - “Lolita”

 

Love - “Scarface” (“The world is yours and you can’t refuse it”)

 

Mermaid Motel - Van Halen (“Or see Van Halen at their reunion show”); Diamond Dave (“Heavy metal hour on T.V., Diamond Dave and Ray Lee”)

Million Dollar Man - Elvis Presley (“One for the money, two for the show” - the verse from Elvis’ “Blue Suede Shoes”)

Moi, Je Joue - Brigitte Bardot‘s most popular song has the same title

 

Money, Power, Glory - "The Sun Also Rises" book by Ernest Hemingway ("The sun also rises")

Music To Watch Boys To - R. Frost’s poem (“Nothing Gold Can Stay”)

National Anthem - JFK and Jackie  // Marilyn Monroe as we know from the music video

Never Let Me Go - “Scarface” (“All the world is ours like they say in <Scarface>”); CBGB (“Singing at CBGB’s have a real good gig”); Sid and Nancy (“I can be your Nancy, you can be my Sid”)

 

Noir - "Lolita" ("I'm his little Dolly")

Oh Say Can You See - Nirvana (“The voice of Nirvana says come as you are and I will”) - the verse from “Come As You Are” song

Off To The Races - “Lolita” (“Light of my life, Fire of my loins") and cars chasing after her - (“Bacardi chasers chasing me all over town ‘cause he knows I’m wasted”); Cipriani's Basement - famous Italian restaurant in New York City ("Cipriani's basement ,love you, but I'm going down"); Rikers Island ("Facin' time again on Rikers Island and I won't get out")

Pretty Baby - “Pretty Baby”

Puppy Love - Cher and Sonny Bono (“We’re Cher and Bono”); JFK and Jackie (“You’re the class president without Jackie O”); Marilyn Monroe (“I’m singing 'Happy Birthday like Marilyn Monroe” // “I’m singing for the soldiers like Marilyn Monroe” // “I’m strong but I’m lonely like Marilyn Monroe”); “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” (“Everyone knows I’m like Jessica Rabbit”); probably Arthur Miller - last Marilyn Monroe’s husband and Bobby Kennedy - brother of JFK (“Promise I’ll never see Arthur or Bobby”)

Put Your Lips Together - scene from a movie “To Have and Have Not”

 

Radio - "The Streets Were Paved with Gold" ("I heard the streets were paved with gold")

Religion - Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” (“All I hear is music like <Lay Lady Lay>”)

 

Sad Girl - "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me" ("He's got the fire and he walks with it"); Bruce Springsteen's song "I'm on Fire" ("I'm on fire, baby")

 

Salvatore - Pablo Escobar's drug cartel ("I was so wrong not to tell, Medellín, tangerine dreams")

Scarface - “Scarface"

She’s Not Me - Elvis Presley had a song called "She’s Not You”; Gilbert Ryle's Ghost in the machine ("I'm the ghost in your machine")

So Legit - Lady GaGa (“Stefani, you suck” // “Baby, have we all gone Gaga crazy?”)

Summer of Sam - “Summer of Sam” // Summer of Love

 

Summertime Sadness - Bruce Springsteen's song "I'm on Fire" ("Baby, I'm on fire"); Bruce Springsteen's song "Dancing in the Dark" // Joker's quote from the "Batman" movie - "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?" ("Dancing in the dark in the pale moonlight")

 

Swan Song - The White Tennis Shoes syndrome by Ayn Rand ("Art of Writing Non-Fiction") - "Put your white tennis shoes and follow me"

Teenage Wasteland - Cleopatra (“You used to say that I was beautiful like Cleopatra”); “The Godfather” (“You used to call yourself <The Don> ”); Princess Diana (“Call me Queen Diana”); Nirvana (“My first Nirvana song”); Biggie Smalls ("You play me Biggie Smalls")

Terrence Loves You - David Bowie, whose half-brother Terrence introduced David to jazz music and commited suicide (“And I still got jazz when I’ve got those blues”) + the verse from Bowie’s song “Space Oddity” (“Ground Control to Major Tom”)

The Blackest Day - Billie Holiday (“All I hear is Billie Holiday”)

Tired of Singing the Blues - Saumel Johnson's quote "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man" ("Man who makes a beast out of himself got nothing to lose")

 

Trash Magic - in demo version we can hear Marilyn Monroe and Jesus (“All that’s real to me is Marilyn and Jesus”)

Ultraviolence - “Clockwork Orange”; The Crystals - “He Hit Me and It Felt Like a Kiss”

 

Velvet Crowbar - "Lolita" quote - "A paradise whose skies were the color of hell flames" ("Flame colored paradise for you, darling")

 

Video Games - Belinda Carlisle - "Heaven is a Place on Earth" ("Heaven is a place on earth with you")

 

West Coast - The Golden Gods (rock and roll award event) - ("Their Golden Gods and rock 'n' roll groupies")

 

Young and Beautiful - song used in “The Great Gatsby” movie but in the demo version the lyrics are - “Channeling Joplin, Jimmy Page now” - Janis Joplin and Jimmy Page

[Just Cherry 3,717]

"Honey, put on that party dress" from American is like directly lifted from Mary Jane's Last Dance by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. Not sure if that's good for the list or not, but I've always noticed it.

[Thunder Revenant 20,695]

"Honey, put on that party dress" from American is like directly lifted from Mary Jane's Last Dance by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. Not sure if that's good for the list or not, but I've always noticed it.

It's a pretty normal sentence so I doubt it's taken from that particular song.

[SissyReed 577]

"Honey, put on that party dress" from American is like directly lifted from Mary Jane's Last Dance by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. Not sure if that's good for the list or not, but I've always noticed it.

totally good! i just had no idea about it thanks! <3

[reputation 6,315]

Would big bad wolf be pop culture since its based off such an iconic story?

[SissyReed 577]

Would big bad wolf be pop culture since its based off such an iconic story?

you mean the fairytale about Little Red Riding Hood?

[reputation 6,315]

you mean the fairytale about Little Red Riding Hood?

I mean yeah she has a song titled that. But idk

[Lauren Bacall 767]

"mind like a diamond" is a line from twin peaks

[reputation 6,315]

"Girl Next Door" (Go Go Dancer)

[SissyReed 577]

I mean yeah she has a song titled that. But idk

well i think it could be a pop culture thing

"mind like a diamond" is a line from twin peaks

i still haven't seen 'twin peaks"... :/ thanks!

[reputation 6,315]

I find Coca Cola and Mountain Dew to be apart of pop culture. She uses it in UATW and DMD

[GodBlessMe 2,141]

Sad Girl: "He's got the fire and he walks with it" is probably a reference to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

 

And the "talking 'bout my generation" line in Brooklyn Baby is a reference to the song 'My Generation' by The Who.

Oh and she also mentions the summer of love in Summer Of Sam

[SissyReed 577]

I find Coca Cola and Mountain Dew to be apart of pop culture. She uses it in UATW and DMD

yeah, yeah, she also has a song "Coca-Colla" but I've decided to not put the drinks on that list, IDK why tbh since I added ASICS shoes lol

Sad Girl: "He's got the fire and he walks with it" is probably a reference to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

 

And the "talking 'bout my generation" line in Brooklyn Baby is a reference to the song 'My Generation' by The Who.

Oh and she also mentions the summer of love in Summer Of Sam

<3

[reputation 6,315]

"Sweet 16 & we had arrived" -TIWMUG

When she says 'the streets were paved with gold' I beielve she was talking about this book,

 

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRs2U7kDxdAvoYz-uQWUyL86wlNrzoJ7kQuOBRONhG4g-yzL688

[SissyReed 577]

"Sweet 16 & we had arrived" -TIWMUG

When she says 'the streets were paved with gold' I beielve she was talking about this book,

 

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRs2U7kDxdAvoYz-uQWUyL86wlNrzoJ7kQuOBRONhG4g-yzL688

I haven't heard about that book! Thank all of you for adding more and more info! <3

[Just Cherry 3,717]

"Honey, put on that party dress" from American is like directly lifted from Mary Jane's Last Dance by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. Not sure if that's good for the list or not, but I've always noticed it.

Also, "get your crystal method on" is a reference to the band, The Crystal Method.

 

Ugh, American is so good.

[reputation 6,315]

'Cipriani's Basement' (Off Tto The Races)

 

Cipriani's Basement is a famous Italian restaurant in New York City.

 

"Heaven is a place on earth with you' (Videos Games)

 

'Baby let's stop at 7/11' - DMD

 

7/11 is a convience store located in the US.

[SissyReed 577]

'Cipriani's Basement' (Off Tto The Races)

 

Cipriani's Basement is a famous Italian restaurant in New York City.

 

"Heaven is a place on earth with you' (Videos Games)

 

OMG HOW COULD I NOT THINK ABOUT THIS SONG?? THANK YOU SO MUCH <3

and thanks for the name of the restaurant, i had no idea that it exists

[reputation 6,315]

'Facin' time again on Rikers Island and I won't get out' -OTTR

 

Rikers Island is an Island in New York in which is a prison.

 

"Love casinos, Indian reservations " - QOTGS

 

Indian reservations are areas in the US in which prodivde land to Native Americans and are managed by them and not the government.

 

"Their Golden Gods and rock 'n' roll groupies." - West Coast

 

The Golden Gods is a rock and roll award event.

 

"V is for my valiant Valium baby"- Beautiful Player

 

Valium is a drug in which can treat anxiety, muscle spasms, and seizures, but also cause paranoid or suicidal ideation and impair memory, judgment, and coordination. Combining with other substances, particularly alcohol, can slow breathing and possibly lead to death.

[SissyReed 577]

'Facin' time again on Rikers Island and I won't get out' -OTTR

 

Rikers Island is an Island in New York in which is a prison.

 

"Love casinos, Indian reservations " - QOTGS

 

Indian reservations are areas in the US in which prodivde land to Native Americans and are managed by them and not the government.

 

"Their Golden Gods and rock 'n' roll groupies." - West Coast

 

The Golden Gods is a rock and roll award event.

 

"V is for my valiant Valium baby"- Beautiful Player

 

Valium is a drug in which can treat anxiety, muscle spasms, and seizures, but also cause paranoid or suicidal ideation and impair memory, judgment, and coordination. Combining with other substances, particularly alcohol, can slow breathing and possibly lead to death.

OMG THANK YOU! I know what Indian reservations are but idk if that's a "pop culture thing" lol and Valium is a drug so i didn't add it, but i totally had no idea that Rikers Island is a prison & THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ADDING SO MANY INFO TO THAT LIST :*