The 1970 song that means 'everything' to Lana Del Rey

The 1970 song that means 'everything' to Lana Del Rey Like many of her peers, Lana Del Rey has always drawn inspiration from folk singer-songwriter 'unicorns' Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez. However, unlike many of her peers, Del Rey has had the pleasure of working closely with her heroes, bridging the gap between two worlds that were always destined to collide. After all, there's a reason why Del Rey resonates so heavily with their music – particularly Mitchell's, which often takes her personal experiences and recollections and transforms them into startlingly delicate pieces of art, recentring her position as an oftentimes misunderstood folk artist and allowing her to take greater ownership of her own position in an increasingly chaotic industry. Del Rey followed a similar path to stardom. Before receiving her breakthrough in her late 20s, the singer was a frequent performer because she genuinely loved it – no frills, no gimmicks, no underlying agenda that people often associate with her complex artistic persona. Back then, she simply adored to sing, just as much as she does now. Once she'd made a name for herself following the release of her 2011 single 'Video Games', Del Rey faced much of the same scrutiny and criticism as some of her peers, mostly around authenticity and whether she was actually honest in the words she was saying and the worlds she was building. The most obvious talking point eventually centred around her supposed glamourisation of complex relationships, something she has defended time and time again as a matter of artistic expression. It only makes sense, then, that Del Rey would relate to someone like Mitchell, who might have attracted criticism for different reasons, but who still took pride in the material she created and always remained true to herself whenever people took issue with how she expressed herself or the different artistic directions she took to explore her own artistic capabilities. In 2021, Del Rey also covered Mitchell's 1970 classic 'For Free' for Chemtrails over the Country Club, enlisting help from fellow vocal powerhouses Weyes Blood and Zella Day. She late explained her reasoning behind the cover, saying that the song means 'everything' to her because it's like a reflection of her rise to fame and all the meaningless chatter that came with being constantly subjected to others' negative opinions. 'The way things started off for me in the way I was portrayed was that I was feigning emotional sensitivity. I really didn't like that,' Del Rey told Mojo. 'Because I didn't even get famous 'til I was, like, 27 and until then, I sang for less than free. And I loved it. I really was that girl who was pure of soul. I didn't give a fuck.' In the same interview, Weyes Blood argued that 'For Free' is Del Rey's 'story too', and that the line, 'Me, I play for fortunes' is particularly telling of her attachment to the song's message because she 'understands the ephemeral quality of music and that it can't be completely commodified, even though she's done such a great job of doing that.' Mitchell, of course, wrote the book on writing for yourself and not for commercial gain, and often said as much in interviews whenever she felt the need to give her two cents on the modern music industry and her growing ostracisation from it. Playing music because she loves to play music is all that has ever mattered, which is something she also alluded to once when she introduced the song at the 1969 Newport Folk Festival. 'There's a young man in New York City, I don't know his name, but he's blind, and he sits on the street and plays his clarinet for whatever money people will give him,' she said. 'I've often ridden past him and wondered about his life, and I've written this song for him.'