Celebrating Courtney Love And Her Band Hole!
I wanted to take a look at some of Courtney Love’s best music – yes, she was married to Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, and is an always-controversial person, but let’s not forge that she starred in several acclaimed films, and her albums with the band HOLE are really terrific!
Their 1994 album “Live Through This” was their greatest achievement, and was included in Rolling Stone’s list of “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. The first song I heard of hers was “Doll Parts”, and
the lyrics are haunting:
Her voice is fragile, raw and perfect for the lyrics.
Here is the music video for the song:
“Rock Star” – AKA “Olympia” by Hole
Another brilliant song from the album actually has two titles!
“Rock Star” is an angry song about growing up isolated, marginalized and homogenized as well – check out the lyrics:
“Well I went to school in Olympia
Everyone’s the same
And so are you, in Olympia
Everyone’s the same
We look the same
We talk the same
We even fuck the same”
Hard to argue with that…Liv Tyler famously sang along to this song in the Bernardo Bertolucci film “Stealing Beauty”. Here is an audio only clip – I want you to hear the mistake at the start, followed by a giggle:
Now, here is a live version from Youtube, thanks to “floppingnoni” – the performance is from 1993, you get a sense of the rawness of the song:
Why “Rock Star” is actually “Olympia”!
Now, some backstory: the song is actually called “Olympia”, whigh is the capital of the state of Washington, about 60 minutes south of Seattle. However, the original song “Rock Star” was supposed to be on the album, but was switched out AFTER the album sleeves were printed – so “Olympia” became known as “Rock Star”!
I found this great live version from Love performed in London in 2014 – listen to the setup and then the raucous energy even now – as the entire crowd sings along!
Their 1998 album “Celebrity Skin” offered a much more muscular sound, as evidenced by the title track, with some very confident opening lyrics:
“Oh, make me over
I’m all I wanna be
A walking study
In demonology…”
Here is the music video:
The album was the band’s most successful, and was full of memorable songs like “Malibu”:
“Crash and burn
All the stars explode tonight…”
A terrific chorus as well, check out the music video:
Let me know if you are a fan of Courtney and Hole!