On December 7, 2022, Lana Del Rey returned with a new single, Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd, announcing a new album of the same name, set for release in March 2023. The song is a perfect example of Lana Del Rey’s musical style: a melancholic tune with cryptic, deep lyrics and a hidden meaning worth discovering. In this article, we will discover more about the tunnel referenced by the singer and the song’s message. You will also find the complete lyrics at the end.
You can find the official streaming of the song below.
Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd: the lyrics & their meaning
Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd is a song about the fear of being forgotten. In the lyrics, Lana Del Rey talks about the Jergins Tunnel, a tunnel that existed in the 60s under Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach, California, that was closed to the public in 1967. More than 50 years later, Lana Del Rey is aware that today many don’t know about this tunnel, which was so appreciated in the past, and asks herself: when’s it gonna be my turn?
The song’s beginning is a celebration of that tunnel. The tunnel under Ocean Blvd was carefully decorated, as you can see in the photos in this article. For Lana, it feels like a beautiful thing has been buried and abandoned, forgotten by everybody, and that resounds with the feeling she has that one day she will be forgotten too.
Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard?
Mosaic ceilings, painted tiles on the wall
I can’t help but feel somewhat like my body marred my soul
Handmade beauty sealed up by two man-made walls
And I’m like
The chorus makes this sad feeling explicit: Lana Del Rey needs to feel loved, recognized, and important for someone. She hopes that her existence won’t be just a solitary life accessed only by a few selected people: she needs to know that she lived for a reason.
When’s it gonna be my turn?
When’s it gonna be my turn?
Open me up, tell me you like it
F**k me to death, love me until I love myself
There’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard
There’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard
The line “F**k me to death, love me until I love myself” is full of meaning: Lana Del Rey feels insecure and needs to be loved, hoping she’ll learn to love herself one day. And for her, sex could be a way to share love, a dimension where she can feel loved by someone.
The song’s second verse reiterates the awareness that Lana Del Rey’s life looks like a hidden world, accessible only if you have the key. She mentions Hotel California, Eagles’ famous hit about escaping a superficial world. And she compares herself to Camarillo, another beautiful, isolated place in California, which was also the location of a famous mental hospital.
There’s a girl that sings “Hotel California”
Not because she loves the notes or sounds that sound like Florida
It’s because she’s in a world, preserved, only a few have found the door
It’s like Camarillo, only silver mirrors, running down the corridor
Oh, man
In the song’s second part, Lana Del Rey also pays tribute to Harry Nilsson, whose song Don’t Forget Me represents the melody that inspired her new song. In the original song, Harry sang, “Don’t forget me, make it easy only just for a little while / You know I think about you, let me know you think about me, too” (those are the lines where “his voice breaks,” referenced by Lana’ Del Rey’s song). Lana Del Rey identified herself so much in that song that she wished she had a friend like him. Or like John Lennon, the other musician mentioned in the song, who symbolically tries to encourage Lana Del Rey in the lyrics below:
Harry Nilsson has a song, his voice breaks at 2:05
Something about the way he says “Don’t forget me” makes me feel like
I just wish I had a friend like him, someone to get me by
Lennon in the back, whisperin’ in my ear
“Come on, baby, you can thrive”
But I can’t
Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd is a beautiful song by Lana Del Rey that lets us think about how temporary is our passage to this world, and that’s the real meaning of its lyrics: I don’t want to be forgotten like the tunnel under Ocean Blvd; I wish someone could really love me and remember me, making me feel worth the life I live.
Read other popular song lyrics meaning on Auralcrave
The complete lyrics
Below you can find the complete lyrics of Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd by Lana Del Rey.
Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard?
Mosaic ceilings, painted tiles on the wall
I can’t help but feel somewhat like my body marred my soul
Handmade beauty sealed up by two man-made walls
And I’m like
When’s it gonna be my turn?
When’s it gonna be my turn?
Open me up, tell me you like it
F**k me to death, love me until I love myself
There’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard
There’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard
There’s a girl that sings “Hotel California”
Not because she loves the notes or sounds that sound like Florida
It’s because she’s in a world, preserved, only a few have found the door
It’s like Camarillo, only silver mirrors, running down the corridor
Oh, man
When’s it gonna be my turn?
Don’t forget me
When’s it gonna be my turn?
Open me up, tell me you like me
F**k me to death, love me until I love myself
There’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard
Don’t forget me
There’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard
Harry Nilsson has a song, his voice breaks at 2:05
Something about the way he says “Don’t forget me” makes me feel like
I just wish I had a friend like him, someone to get me by
Lennon in the back, whisperin’ in my ear
“Come on, baby, you can thrive”
But I can’t
When’s it gonna be my turn?
Don’t forget me
When’s it gonna be my turn?
Open me up, tell me you like it
F**k me to death, love me until I love myself
There’s a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard
Don’t forget me
Like the tunnel under Ocean Boulevard
Don’t forget me
Like the tunnel under Ocean Boulevard
Don’t forget me
Like the tunnel under Ocean Boulevard
Don’t forget me, don’t forget me
No, don’t, don’t forget me
Don’t you, don’t you forget me
