“Norman Fucking Rockwell” is the first song and the title track of the sixth studio album by the same name by Lana Del Rey. The song released along with the album release on August 30, 2019.
Before the release of the album, Del Rey teased this song on her Instagram in June 2019. Later on, in an interview with Vanity Fair, Lana Del Rey explained the inspiration behind the song and the song title;
It was weird how that actual title came to me. I was riffing over a couple of chords that Jack was playing for the title track, which ended up being called “Norman Fucking Rockwell.” It was kind of an exclamation mark: so this is the American dream, right now. This is where we’re at—Norman fucking Rockwell. We’re going to go to Mars, and Trump is president, all right. Me and Jack, we just joke around constantly about all the random headlines we might see that week, so it’s a slight cultural reference. But it’s not a cynical thing, really. To me, it’s hopeful, to see everything as a little bit funnier. The chaos of the culture is interesting, and I’m hopeful that there’s room for there to be some movement and excitement within it.
Popular music producer, Jack Antonoff has assisted on the lyrics and the production of this track along with Lana Del Rey. Listen to the song below.
The lyrics to the song speak of a distressing situation in a relationship where Lana is contemplating all the reasons to leave him. She calls the guy a “man-child,” suggesting that although he is a grown man, he might be acting like a child, especially when it comes to love and relationships. Lana Del Rey sings that this ‘man-child’ messed up her head so bad, now that her entire aura is ‘blue.’ The colour blue is often associated with emotions of sadness, depression and moodiness.
Even in the second verse of “Norman Fucking Rockwell,” Lana blamed the guy for acting like a child even though he stands stall at 6 feet 2 inches. These go on to say that the physical traits of a person do not define their maturity.
On two occasions, Lana calls this guy a ‘poet,’ but not in a good way. In the first verse, Lana tells him that his poetry is flat out ‘bad’ and he blames everyone else for his lack of talent. In the second verse, Lana calls him a ‘self-loathing poet,’ possibly tying up to the previous statement made about him.
Despite everything, what Lana must be hating most is that she still finds him to be the “best,” or even better than the best.
Update:
On December 20, 2019, Lana Del Rey dropped a 16-minute long music video for three songs off the album; “Norman Fucking Rockwell,” “Bartender” and “Happiness is a Butterfly.” Watch below.
Check out the lyrics below.