Happy 51st, Courtney Love
Ever since I was called to testify against Courtney Love in her “twibel” trial last year (long, LONG story), we’ve sort of become friends. Text conversations can happen at any hour of the day or night and I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with her a number of times since then.
Yes, the pleasure.
I really, really like Courtney. What everyone sees in the media isn’t the whole story, which is too bad. The woman has a genius level IQ (spend some time conversing with her on any subject and you’ll come away with the same impression) but, unfortunately, has no filters on what bangs around in her brain. None. That’s what gets her in trouble.
Pamela Chelin (a writer friend in LA who has also had many encounters with Courtney) forwards this article from The NME written by Ryan Jarman of the Cribs. It’s called “Why It’s Disgusting And Wrong To Demonise Courtney Love.’
Even as a kid you knew who Courtney was. I don’t know how, she just seeped into your consciousness. We had no money to buy magazines and there was no internet or anything to learn about her, but she felt like a presence. The first record we got was ‘Live Through This’. When I first heard it we were at some all night party and I thought it was totally rad. It was exactly what I wanted them to sound like. There was so much venom in the vocals; it just rocked really hard. Later on, they became one of my favourite bands. Courtney is definitely one of the best lyricists I’m aware of and I don’t think she gets too many props for that.
When people insinuate that Kurt wrote some of Hole’s biggest songs, it’s so gross and so lame. The only reason why people would take exception to her is because she was a threat to everyone, and the reason she was a threat is because she was the smartest person in the room and people don’t like that. They don’t like it if there’s someone with a large and brash personality who’s also smart. That’s a terrifying combination for people, but that is who she is. There’s definitely misogyny involved. Things started to change for the better thanks to bands like Hole, but females in the 1990s had to be a little more confrontational about it because they were really having to fight for their position. I imagine a lot of people identified that the biggest insult that they could pay her would be to say that her boyfriend wrote her songs.
Long before there were, Girlschool, L7, Doro, even Suzy Quatro…not to bother with hundreds more…u say she’s clever…i gotta give that to you. To do what she has done and getaway with it for so long….cobaincase and Soaked in Bleach are ghosts that will haunt her for a while.