analysis of Ultraviolence: Jim Baker & The Source Family.

 

First of all, this doesn’t mean that Lana sings about Jim Baker/Father Yod or thinks of herself as a Source Family member, but she relates to them, Lana is a storyteller and she gets into the character she’s writing about, the characters she writes about are the people that influenced her in any way, or experienced things in life like she did, and weaves her songs about them! – the record Ultraviolence was inspired by so many people like Jim Morrison, The Beat Generation, the 70s, rock n’ roll, Charles Manson, the hippy movement in the Hollywood scene, a Clockwork Orange, Jim Jones and so many other inspirations, Jim Baker and his cult is one of those inspirations, but after all Lana’s first muse is her life, and in Ultraviolence she sings about herself and her darkest experiences while she’s connecting it all to other people’s experiences!

            

-         Father Yod and his wives also known as The Source Family, and we can see that they give a similar vibe to the aesthetics of Ultraviolence, not to mention that the hippy folk-ish style of his wives is similar to what Lana started to wear when she started to write Ultraviolence, also Lana’s love interest in the music videos of the era is portrayed by an old man, Jim or Father Yod is an old man.

Who is Jim Baker a.k.a Father Yod and what is this Source Family?

 

Jim Baker was very handsome, very charismatic, and very religious and studied philosophy but a notoriously violent guru that ran away from his wife and child to LA, the Hollywood hills and founded his cult, known by The Source Family under the name of Father Yod, had many beautiful young men and young women that were also his wives join him to live in "peace, love, drugs and rock and roll". He was popular within Hollywood and was very rich and even robbed banks to fund his vegan restaurant in the Sunset St, The Source Family was heavily influenced by the teachings of Yogi Bhajan and the astrological Age of Aquarius.

 

“It was an embrace of god in rock n’ roll” 

– the source family documentary

 “They transformed drugs and rock n’ roll into the genuine religious formation”

 - the source family documentary

 

How is this similar to Lana’s experiences?

 

Let’s take a look on something related to Lana:

 The singer allegedly used to be dominated by a Guru.

Since he wanted to "break" his girls she left the sect.

Lana Del Rey has a past in a sect behind her.

"I used to be a member of an underground sect who was reigned by a guru, He surrounded himself with young girls," she told the magazine,

 She as well couldn't resist his "insane charisma". She was longing for "love and safety" in this group. But the guru turned out to be a bad person.

"He thought that he had to break people first to build them up again. At the end I quit the sect." – Lana in an interview with Grazia Magazine.

 

 This sounds so similar to the source family, Lana exaggerates sometimes when describing things, but this also can’t be just a coincidence?

 

let’s talk about some of the purple colored words in the Jim Baker description!

1. - Jim is the same name Lana mentions in the song Ultraviolence, who is described as a violent man that raised her up and was a cult leader too, this is more than similar to Jim Baker, a violent guru that was a cult leader, and married very young women, not even half his age! The Jim in Ultraviolence is inspired by so many men (Jim Morrison, Jim Jones and Jim Baker) and of course Jim Beam the alcoholic drink, Lana has said before that she has a habit of writing about several things in a song and tying them all together. – and I’ll post about each one in other analysis later- 
2. - Jim Baker studied philosophy and so did Lana.          
3. - Sunset St is a place Lana mentions often in her songs!           
4.   - Age of Aquarius, or the new age is a term Lana used in the song Young & Beautiful! The song was released in the time Lana was writing the record Ultraviolence.        

Isis Aquarius, one of Jim’s wives, she had a similar life to Lana, she ran from her home to have the freedom she wants, lived in so many cities like Florida, Washington and Newyork, and then L.A where she met Father Yod and became a member of the cult, in the lyrics of the Ultraviolence album, there are many times where Lana related to Isis. Lana too, lived in many cities across the U.S.A before she settled down in L.A

Robin Baker was Jim’s first wife, when they married she was only 19 while he was in his 50s, Lana relates to Robin in some lyrics too.

Now let’s break down some of the lyrics from Ultraviolence:

1-   Cruel World:

We’ll be taking the song from the prospective of Robin, there are some lyrics in the song that have nothing to do with the source family, but there are some lyrics that are similar too.

                            

Jim and Robin spent the first years of the cult traveling around the world, visiting many different gurus and gathering the knowledge of many different sects to make up their own version of a religion. Robin most definitely shared her body with Yod as well as her mind, stating that on the Source's first official family meditation, she was finally seeing into Yod's mind. When Father Yod became well known in Hollywood and more and more people began joining them is when he decided that he would take 13 additional wives. "You're so famous" line could indicate that she knew she couldn't get through to him anymore; he wouldn’t care about her or listen to her with all the fame and women he earned.

He was a religious man (bible), but he was also a violent guru that killed people, and robbed banks (gun), with all the women he had and his hippy mindset he definitely liked to party with his women.

                

The source family lived in the suburbs of L.A, and they way they were living especially Jim was a crazy.

 

2-   Ultraviolence:

The whole song could apply to the source family, and it could be taken from Robin’s prospective.

                

All the members of The Source changed their names to hippy names that described their personalities like Sunflower, Galaxy, Heaven, Isis, etc. Lana relates to them too, Jim is a significant name to her as well, she thinks that Deadly Nightshade (name of a flower) suits her.

                         

And he hit men and it felt like true love, Could be reference to Jim Baker's previous violent nature, which he shared with Robin when they were married. despite knowing all the bad things he did in his life and how violent he could be, how he basically cheated on her with 13 other women right in front of her and told her she couldn't do anything about it, her love for him never faltered.

Or could be a reference to his philandering ways, he's hurting her but not in a physical way. When Jim took 13 wives Robin said it felt like "he had skinned me alive", yet 40+ years later she says she has never loved another quite like Jim.

 

He was a cult leader, and their music was heavily influenced by jazz, blues rock and roll! Ultraviolence is also influenced by Jazz, blues and rock n roll!

 

3-   Shades of cool:

Honestly the whole lyrics of the song fit Jim so well! And it also can be taken from the prospective of all of his wives!

         

                            

He had 13 wives, so there would a competition between them, when he calls anyone of them, she’s the lucky one! He lived for women, for love, for drugs for peace and for fun!

                                                                           

He surely was a strange unfixable man that lived in a world of his own, a spiritual cool world that nobody could break through.

He lived for women, and she is just one of them!

  

4-   Brooklyn Baby:

This song is a response from Lana to the people that criticized her, but it also has some reference that could relate to The Source Family and according to Wiki- this song is steeped in nostalgia for an earlier period in American history, Lana is simply comparing the people that mocked her to the people that mocked the hipsters during the 70s, now the hipsters are considered as a part of culture.

                            

All of Jim’s wives were young, so much younger than him, they looked for freedom, and all of this takes place in the 70s.

                              

They were all in a band called Yo Ho Wha 13, Lou Reed peaked during the 70s, feathers in hair and Beat poetry were very common among the hippies during the late 60s, early 70s.

The boyfriend line can be also a reference to James Barrie, as he was in a band during the time Lana wrote the song! But Lana’s love interest in this song is an old man as she mentioned that people say she is too young love him! Also the boyfriend lines in Brooklyn Baby were not supposed to be in the song, but they were kept anyway.

 

5-   Fucked My Way Up To The Top:

This song is also a response from Lana to the people that criticized her, where she explains how she made her way to the top; it could also have some references:

Linen is what Jim’s wives wore all the time; they left their hair natural and curly.

                  

Every one of them would like to be his favorite one!

                                     

"I became like (Jim's) bull-dog. Every group has one, and I very quickly earned the name Dragon Lady. I loved the name, I always resonated to it and I loved it and I still love it. I still love being the dragon lady." – Isis Aquarius – Jim’s wife.

 

+ Lana mentioned being a mistress and a bonnie in Sad Girl once again, Hollywood hills in Is This Happiness, and the concept of being a mistress to a married man in her cover The Other Woman, and all of Jim’s wives were basically mistress and other women to his original and first wife Robin, because even though he considered them and called them their wives, they were not his wives on paper like Robin, there is no reference in Black Beauty, but the term black beauty itself was used to describe the wives of Jim Baker in the source family documentary.

  

Robin Baker vs. Lana in the music video of West Coast

 

The “IFMUTTP” picture from the Ultraviolence booklet vs. a picture of Jim’s cult.

There is undeniable resemblance between the two pictures as they give the same vibes. Those trees are the same from the place where Lana filmed Summertime Sadness!

And the Summertime Sadness MV was filmed in Santa Clarita, and Santa Clarita is 40 minutes from Nichols Canyon (where the family’s second house was located).

 

  

Lana and the girls including her sister Chuck for Freak music video, the footage used for Freak was originally shot for an Ultraviolence music video, but the project was not finished, Lana used the footages again for the Freak MV, where FJM portrays a cult leader, it is not known if he’s portraying Jim Jones, Charles Manson, Jim Morrison or Jim Baker, the MV is definitely inspired by the four of them even though Morrison was not a cult leader, the uncanny resemblance between Lana, the girls with her and Jim Baker’s wives in clothing, hair and lifestyle can’t just be a coincidence.

And let’s take a look back, while they were shooting these footages, Chuck posted a selfie of her and Lana with the caption “sister wives”

They were wearing the same clothes as Jim’s wives, same hairstyle!

 

once again, in the Love Music Video Lana posted in 2017, at the end there’s a picture on the drums:

Fans first thought, it was an unseen footage of Lana and FJM from the freak MV, because of the matched color grading!

 

 

But it was an actual picture of Jim Baker and his wife Isis Aquarian!

                   

Why would Lana use them in her work out of the sudden, if she was not influenced by them earlier?