Courtney 1994 vs. Courtney 2005

Courtney Love from Spin magazine, October 2005:

When was the last time you listened to Live Through This?

I haven't. It was so easy to make that I get surprised by the effect it had on people. But, you know, all good rock is easy. The riffs just came, and they were fresh from chords that I'd learned from [Billy] Corgan and Kurt. I wrote "Doll Parts" in five minutes.

Do you think that it still resonates with people?

I can't even go to a club without running into a 19-year-old who's really, really affected by it. It pisses me off - it would piss off anyone to have their one record [that affects people] be ten years old. What about America's Sweetheart? It's not exactly [Liz Phair's] whitechocolatespaceegg, fuckers.

I remember getting into Hole around May 1994 after hearing "Miss World" on the radio (boy do I miss WDRE, Philly's alternative station at that time) and I bought the Live Throught This CD and fell in love with the album. I was drawn into the themes that Courtney was singing about, that many women (and quite a few gay men like myself) identify with--the strong undertow that urges one to debase her/himself with drugs, destructive relationships, or unsafe sex, the struggle between self-loathing and narcissism, and the desire to be driven by one's sexuality and the horror that this desire might ultimately end up being that person's degradgation and downfall. The fact that she would be going through all that mess and survive really impressed me. And this was written before Kurt's suicide, which would only add new layers of interpretation.

If Courtney is wondering why people are not drawn to her most recent album America's Sweetheart like they were with Live Through This, I might offer an explaination. As much as I think there are some great songs on AS, it just doesn't have to the same universal appeal that LTT had. In LTT Courtney discusses a lot of issues and emotions that strike a cord with people. AS doesn't have that; here she comes across as self-absorbed, wondering about her fame and her place in rock music and her drugs. Not as many people can identify with that. Plus when Courtney made Live Through This she had more focus and self-control during the making of that album. She didn't have that when she was recording America's Sweetheart, thus it wasn't consisent as LTT.

BTW you can read bonus material from Courtney's Spin interview here.