Blue Jeans

    This weekend I was just relaxing with my sister listening to music and while we were doing this I began to complain because I had absolutely no idea what to write my post about! Then, a sweet orchestra sound began to build through the speakers and my most recent obsession, Lana Del Ray, started singing her song Blue Jeans.  We had listened to about half of the song when I yelled, startling my sister, "Wait! This song is exactly like the "Great Gatsby"!”, I now had my inspiration.

    The song Blue Jeans has so many similar themes in comparison to the "Great Gatsby".  The only difference is that Lana Del Ray is a girl and you have to imagine Gatsby singing this about Daisy. The song begins with "walked into the room, you know you made my eyes burn". This describes the first meeting between Gatsby and Daisy. Gatsby instantly falls in love with her liveliness as well as her money.  The next line goes "it was like James Dean, for sure", which I interpreted as Daisy being this celebrity among the men in Louisville. Gatsby saw her as a jewel he must possess just as many women saw James Dean.  Lana also sings "You were sorta punk rock, I grew up on hip hop, But you fit me better than my favorite sweater". I interpreted this line as Gatsby and Daisy coming from two separate social classes, poor and wealthy, but Gatsby realizing that Daisy fit him "better than his favorite sweater".  

   

     The most true lines to the novel is the chorus where Lana sings, "I will love you till the end of time, I would wait a million years, promise you'll remember that you're mine".  Gatsby was always in love with Daisy, even while away at war; the chorus relates to Gatsby's waiting for Daisy and his strange belief that Daisy will remember their love and leave Tom.  Gatsby also wants Daisy to remember all the fun they had, especially the past. The lines “I just want it like before, we were dancing all night, then they took you away – stole you out of my life, you just need to remember”, plays off of Daisy and Gatsby’s separation during the war; Daisy was “stolen” away by the other men she began to date while Gatsby served. The next line in Blue Jeans goes "Love you more than those b*t*hes before, Say you'll remember". Though a bit strongly worded, you feel as though Gatsby is telling Daisy to forget anyone that she has ever loved because his love is greater than them all.

    As the song plays out the lyrics mention "Big dreams, gangster" which implies Gatsby's illegal means of getting money. The lyrics also talk about "but he (but in this case Daisy) headed out on Monday, said he'd come home Sunday, I stayed up wait'in, anticipat'in and pac'in"; this relates to the episode where Daisy and Tom quickly leave town, but Gatsby remains in New York just in case Daisy comes back.  Another example of the great similarity is when Lana sings "But when you walked out that door, a piece of me died", this is just how Gatsby was throughout the novel. When Daisy didn't deny her love for Tom and ran away, Gatsby was left in the memories of their past; a piece of Gatsby died.

     Blues Jeans embodies the story of the “Great Gatsby”. The last line of the song is “I will love till the end of time” and Gatsby’s last thought was that he would love Daisy till the end of time.  Lana Del Ray’s song modernizes this epic love tragedy and proves that this type of sad, love affair still happens in the 21^st century.