"Pawn Shop Blues" (originally titled "Bread and Oranges") is a song written by Lana Del Rey and David Kahne. It was produced by Kahne for Del Rey's debut studio album, Lana Del Ray, which was officially released in January, 2010.
Live performances
Del Rey performed the song live four known times during the early days of her career. The first three known performances were during September, 2006, as part of her participation in the Williamsburg Live Songwriter's Competition. One of these performances was recorded and compiled onto a CD of 11 live recordings from the competition finalists. The fourth known performance of "Pawn Shop Blues" was on June 14, 2007, at Union Pool in New York.
On November 23, 2017, Del Rey sang a snippet of the song acapella for fans outside her pop-up store in Los Angeles, California.
Music video
Music video | Information | |
---|---|---|
Released | N/A | |
Length | 3:27 | |
Director | Lana Del Rey | |
Producer | ||
Filmed | Unknown | |
Location | Unknown | |
Vevo views | N/A |
Music video | Information | |
---|---|---|
Released | February 13, 2021 | |
Length | 3:26 | |
Director | Chuck Grant | |
Producer | ||
Filmed | February 23, 2017 | |
Location | Los Angeles, California | |
Vevo views |
Background and description
Del Rey created her own homemade music video for the song. Like most of her old music videos, it featured clips of Del Rey herself and clips she gathered from miscellaneous films and videos.
The second music video was filmed on February 23, 2017 by Chuck Grant as part of a project for Kodak. Chuck posted it to her Instagram Reels on February 13, 2021.
Cross-references
- References to God can be found in "Gods & Monsters", "You're Gonna Love Me", "Disco", "Live Forever" and "Starry Eyed", among others.
- The song melody is similar to Del Rey's song "Disco".
- The phrase "God knows" is also used in "God Knows I Tried", "Blue Banisters" and "Tulsa Jesus Freak".
Official versions
- Album version — 3:26
- Instrumental version — 3:32
- Demo version — 3:07
Lyrics
Album version
Well, I didn't know it would come to this
But that's what happens when you're on your own
And you're all right with letting nice things go
Well, I pawned the earrings that you gave me
Gold and metal flowers dangling
And I almost cried as I sold them off
And I don't mind living on bread and oranges, no no
But I gotta get to and from where I come
And it's gonna take money to go
Oh no, oh oh, oh oh, oh oh, oh oh
In the name of higher consciousness
I let the best man I knew go
'Cause it's nice to love and be loved
But it's better to know all you can know
I said it's nice to love and be loved
But I'd rather know what God knows
Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no
I can't do this once more
No man can keep me together
Been broken since I was born
Well, I didn't know it would come to this
But that's what happens when you're on your own
And you're all right with letting nice things go
Demo version
Well, I didn't know it would come to this
But that's what happens when you're on your own
And you're all right with letting nice things go
Well, I pawned the earrings that you gave me
Gold and metal flowers dangling
And I almost cried as I sold them off
And I don't mind living on bread and oranges, oh, oh
But I gotta get to and from where I come
And it's gonna take money to go
Oh oh, oh oh, oh oh, oh oh, oh oh
In the name of higher consciousness
I let the best man I know go
'Cause it's nice to love and be loved
But it's better to know all you can know
Yeah, it's nice to love and be loved
But I'd rather know what God knows
Oh no, oh no, oh no, no, no no, oh
Well, I didn't know it would come to this
But that's what happens when you're on your own
And you're all right with letting nice things go
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