jaimes : Tag Archive : Tabernacle

Tag Archives: Tabernacle

my history with courtney love

28 Jun

I watched the VH1 Behind the Music with Courtney Love, and it got me thinking about my history with Hole and the sometimes described, cockroach of rock music, Courtney Love. She is sober now and talked openly about her decade of screw-ups and her marriage to one of the greatest songwriters of our generation, Kurt Cobain.

While Kurt Cobain is still loved and revered by many, his widow has one of the worst reputations of any rock star, and definitely the worst if you add the modifier female. Courtney Love is a phenomenon, her own worst enemy, narcissistic, an addict, and also so charismatic on stage you barely realize there is a band behind her. In short, she’s the perfect rock star, which by definition, means not the best person, and definitely not the best mother.

But think about it, do you know many rock star dads who are great role models? Why would we expect the female ones to be any different? I mean if our musicians are meant to be upstanding citizens who abstain from all that is unholy, they wouldn’t be much fun to listen to or watch.

I was a fan of Hole back in the riot grrrl days, which mixed punk and feminism. While my friends were Hole fans, plenty of my peers were not, based largely not on the music, but on the antics of Courtney Love. And while I also questioned the actions of Hole’s frontwoman as a young feminist, I couldn’t help but LOVE her band. Pretty on the Inside is a GREAT punk record. Loud, angry, and totally on-point lyrically. Live Through This is an incredible rock record. The songs are melodic, catchy, and again the lyrics are smart and poignant. Violet, Doll Parts, and Olympia are seriously good songs. When I saw Hole play on Saturday Night Live in 1994, I literally grabbed my guitar to learn how to play Violet. (more…)

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