I’m going to keep the countdown momentum going for one more week, this time tackling the new Lana Del Rey album, titled Norman Fucking Rockwell.
I’ve been anticipating this album for a year, since the first two singles were released last summer. Since then, Del Rey has trickled out several more tracks, building anticipation, before finally dropping the album a few weeks ago.
Here’s a copyright infringement tale that goes a few layers deep, and one I think is a neat illustration of how similar elements can lead to completely different songs.
In 1972, singer-songwriter Albert Hammond released the song ‘The Air That I Breathe’ on his album It Never Rains in Southern California (the title track of which is his best-known hit). He wrote the song, which is embedded below as today’s SOTD, with Mike Hazelwood.
[Note: No Random Weekend post today… I wanted to get this one out there.]
One of the great benefits of popular music’s streaming revolution is how it has shortened the time and distance between artist and audience.
Rather than jumping through all the hoops (and cost) that come with a physical release, musicians can simply upload a song to social media 20 minutes after completion.
As we enter the dog days of summer, here’s a sultry Lana Del Rey cover of Sublime’s 1997 track ‘Doin’ Time.’ That song was, in turn, a reimagining of the George Gershwin song ‘Summertime’ from Porgy and Bess.
Del Rey recorded this song for a documentary on the California ska band that was released earlier this year. I’m not sure what Sublime has done that warrants a documentary. I’m not a fan of the whole ska thing, generally.
At some point this year, Lana Del Rey will release her sixth studio album, titled Norman Fucking Rockwell. Early word was March, but that clearly didn’t happen. Now it’s looking more like summer.
In the meantime, Del Rey keeps dropping tracks from the album. Today’s track is the fourth, although it is a live performance, not a studio recording. It was actually released back in October, after she performed it at an Apple event with Jack Antonoff on piano, but I missed it until now.
Meet Me In Montauk 