Lana Del Rey has covered Daniel Johnston's 1990 single, "Some Things Last a Long Time" as part of the forthcoming short film Hi, How Are You Daniel Johnston. The film stars legendary pop singer and songwriter Johnston himself and is out November 11th to rent or buy via Vimeo. You can hear a brief clip of Lana Del Rey's cover in the film trailer, below.
As Spin points out, Lana Del Rey's cover is featured in the trailer as well as the 16-minute film alongside Daniel Johnston's original orchestral score. In the words of the film's creator, Gabriel Sunday, the psychedelic short is about "an aging artist coming to terms with the dreams of yesteryear." The film offers a glimpse of the icon's life in 1983 when he was working on his groundbreaking release, Hi, How Are You: The Unfinished Album. As Sunday explains, "reality and fiction blend as Daniel reveals bitter-sweet truths, tales of unrequited love and advice for artists everywhere."
French singer-songwriter and actress Soko plays Johnston's long-lost love, Laurie, in the film. Also starring in the flick is Jeremiah the Innocent, Johnston's googly-eyed alien character, who is animated and voiced by The Brothers McLeod. Jeremiah is almost more famous than many of the tracks on the 1983 album thanks to Kurt Cobain rocking his "Hi, How Are You" tee-shirt regularly throughout his career.
Lana Del Rey and Mac Miller are financially invested in the short film. In 2013, both artists contributed $10,000 each to Sunday's Kickstarter campaign when the project was still just a series of interviews and a script. As Pitchfork reported at the time, the Kickstarter campaign boasted a pretty awesome host of thank you gifts to donors: Miller received a signed chord organ while Del Rey got a "signed Smurf ukulele." Apparently the donations also earned both artists spots in the production credits.
Listen to the original version of "Some Things Last a Long Time" below.
