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Lana Del Rey · S6 E5
Doin' Time
A Sublime cover that shouldn't work but becomes one of the songs of the summer
May 2019. Lana Del Rey releases a cover of Sublime's 1996 ska-punk anthem "Doin' Time," and nobody expects it to work. It becomes one of the most-streamed songs of her entire career.
"Doin' Time" (Sublime, 1997). The original: a laid-back, sample-heavy ska-punk track from Long Beach, California, featuring Brad Nowell's unmistakable drawl. Press play and hear what Lana heard every single day before she decided to make it her own.
The Cover Nobody Expected
Nobody expected Lana Del Rey to cover a ska-punk song. But "Doin' Time" makes perfect sense when you remember that Lana lives in the same Southern California that Brad Nowell was singing about. She takes a lo-fi party anthem and turns it into something slow, dreamy, and cinematic, which is basically her career described in one sentence.
Sources
The Fader
Rolling Stone
Stereogum
“Not a day goes by that I don't listen to at least one Sublime song. They epitomized the SoCal vibe and made a genre and sound totally their own.”
— Lana Del Rey on Sublime, 2019
Doin' Time, Sublime (1997)
The original "Doin' Time" samples George Gershwin's "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess (1935), filtering a jazz standard through a ska-punk lens. Brad Nowell's vocal is relaxed and almost spoken, sitting on top of a beat that borrows from reggae, hip-hop, and surf rock simultaneously. Listen for how the bass line carries the entire groove while the guitar stays deliberately loose. Lana's version keeps the Gershwin melody but replaces everything else with reverb, synths, and a vocal that turns Nowell's lazy afternoon into a midnight drive.
Sources
Pitchfork
WhoSampled
TAP TO REVEAL: Why was the cover released on May 17, 2019?
The Giant Woman
The music video features Lana as a 50-foot woman walking through Los Angeles, stepping over buildings and palm trees, inspired by the 1958 sci-fi film Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. It's absurd, playful, and nothing like anything she's done before. The cover proves what NFR! already argued: Lana Del Rey can do anything she wants.
Sources
NME
The Guardian
Doin' Time: The Facts
Bartender, Lana Del Rey
From Norman Fucking Rockwell! (2019). After the spectacle of a 50-foot woman walking through LA, "Bartender" brings you back to earth: a simple, sun-warmed track about the quiet magic of everyday people. It captures the same laid-back SoCal energy that drew Lana to Sublime in the first place, just filtered through piano and soft drums instead of ska-punk.
Bartender, Lana Del Rey (2019)
"Caught up in my dreams and forgetting, I've been acting like armageddon" she sings, and the lyrics treat a bartender's kindness with the same reverence other songwriters reserve for grand love affairs. Lana has always found beauty in small places.
Which producer handled Lana's 'Doin' Time' cover?
NFR! has given Lana critical acclaim, a Grammy nomination, and her biggest streaming hit. But the album's final track is its most naked: a voice, a piano, and a Sylvia Plath reference that puts everything on the line. Next: "hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have, but I have it."
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