See Lana Del Rey Belt Tammy Wynette’s ‘Stand by Your Man’ Live
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Lana Del Rey surprised fans in Rogers, Arkansas, Tuesday night with a rendition of Tammy Wynette’s Number One country hit from 1968, “Stand by Your Man.” The stage was dark when the first chords struck and Del Rey, who’s been dressing a bit more Loretta Lynn than Wynette on this tour, intoned the opening lines, “Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman,” to the delight of the crowd. Her backup dancers swayed and “oohed” and a couple of dancers at the head of the stage pulled off ballroom lifts and dips. For the chorus, she held back a little, wringing emotion from each word.
The performance came between Paradise’s “Ride” and Born to Die’s “Blue Jeans” on the set list. She didn’t introduce the song or offer commentary on her intentions with covering “Stand by Your Man,” a tune many considered an affront to the feminist movement of the late Sixties for asking women to forgive their partner’s indiscretions since, “after all, he’s just a man.” But Del Rey nevertheless sang it with gusto. (“Stand by Your Man” incidentally ranks Number 473 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.)
More from Rolling Stone
The Wynette performance isn’t an unprecedented occurrence on Del Rey’s current tour, supporting her recent Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd album, though it is unusual. The only other time, so far, that she’s gone off book was during her performance at the Newport Folk Festival, when she duetted with Jack Antonoff on a rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “For Free,” which also closed out her Chemtrails Over the Country Club album.
Best of Rolling Stone
