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By *Hai* The Ever Immortal Sparkling Goddess

There have been several interpretations of Playing Your Song, and I only agree with one- and only half-way. Whoever said they thought it was about courtney- i totally agree with everything about how grunge and punk are dead but i don't personally feel thats the whole of what the song is saying. I think its saying that as soon as courtney goes and gets clean, changes her style, and slightly alters her attitude, she suddenly becomes this huge, almost legendary celebrity. "and every note of it is wrong...and now they're playing your song" i think that refers to how courtney doesnt like how she had to reinvent herself just to be taken seriously, and she doesnt like what she has become, and just because shes now "acceptable" or whatever they avidly play her album no the radio and whatnot and rave about how much hole rules. well they have always ruled i guess it just took the media and majority of the public a little longer to realize that, when loyals like us have known it all along. alright i just wanted to post this because i was always a fan of show and tell- please drop me an email i would love it and love to talk to you.
******skittleshouze@hotmail.com******


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By Leslie

Well I think Celebrity Skin is about Courtney. "Oh Make Me Over" I think refers to her new look. And I think the line "You better watch of what you wish for, it better be worth it, so much to die for" is about Kurt because he wanted fame but then he didn't and he died because of it. "Honey suckle she's full of poison she's obliterated everything she's kissed" I think Courtney is refering to her groupie days when she got close to a band it always broke up. "Hooker Waitress Model Actress" is all of Courtney's old professions. Even though I'm not sure she was a hooker but she was a stripper.


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By Mary

I'm writing to give you my interpretation on a Hole song, Northern Star.

I think this song is about Kurt. Sorry, I know that's totally 'uncool', to think a Hole song is about Kurt Cobain, but I do. I think it's about the time immeadiatley following his suicide. 'And I wait, staring at the Northern Star'... If you've read the 'Real Story', the part where Courtney lies in the bloodstain reminds me of this.
Live, this song is full of anger, rage, and utter heartbreak. 'No lonliness, no misery is worth you..' on the Australian 'Awful' B-side her voice cracks and you can almost feel her heartstrings snapping. It's a terribly sad song but one with urgency.. once it's over, the demons are gone, and life continues.


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By Amy

Northern Star - I don't care what anyone thinks, or if it's "uncool" to think Hole songs are about Kurt, this one is. So many people think that, how can it be wrong? When Hole played at Big Day Out here in Australia, Courtney cried while she sang that...it was so sad....
I have a quote from a Hole book I've got....about Celebrity Skin
"We set out to alter the skyline," declares Love, "to build a monument to our past and to the present. And - almost as a joke at first - to redefine the California sound...it was ambitious and silly, but we wanted to redefine everything about the California sound, form the California boy and girl to the beach and sun."

'I think that I would die' to me seems to obviously be about the time after Frances Bean was born where she was taken away because of Kurt and Courtney's heroin addiction..."Where is my baby? I want my baby" etc makes that kinda obvious, I think :)


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By Fiona

This is my lyrics inerpretation of my 2 fav Hole songs- Celebrity Skin & Reasons to Be Beautiful.
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Basically Celebrity Skin touches on 2 subjects. One is something that's happened to me a lot- when people label you various things (usually unfavorable) and then treat you according to that "label", in Courtney's case it's "hooker, waitress, model, actress" because these are some of the things she's been called during her career by people who don't want to understand her as a complex personality and just want to put her into a group and treat her like they would treat all the people in that group. In the end, you just want to "go nameless" because whenever they hear your name, they immediately say "oh, she's this or that, whatever" and refuse to look at you like a real person with many sides and aspects to your personality...and the other subject that evolves from this is that lots of people want you to act like THEY would like you to act..they don't care iabout YOUR feelings and they want you to become just like them and to suppress all your true emotrions..that's why Courtney says "You want a part of me? Well, I'm not selling cheap"..I can really relate to this line because the same has happened to me..the whole song is from two points of view - Courtney's and the "average person"'s (like in lines "Honeysuckle, she's full of poison, she obliterated everything she kissed, now she's fading somewhere in Hoillywood")..because that is how most average people see Courtney..they see her as this evil woman who's nasty and mean and they hope she will go away from show business soon and disappear like many Hollywood stars do...and then Courtney "comes in" saying "I'm glad I came here with your pound of flesh", in a way proving them wrong...the whole song is written in a sarcastic tone and I love it..Reasons To Be Beautiful also touches on this subject especially when she says "Miles and miles of perfect skin, I swear I said, I fit right in, I fit right in your perfect skin, I cannot breathe"..for me, as a teen girl, this is so true because we are expected to act "perfect" and to fit into a specific mold but I find myself being "choked" by the stupid standards set for girls my age (I'm almost 15) and Courtney's encouraging people to be themselves and not to fit society's stupid "labels" and "standards"...that's why she rulz!!
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By Fanny

I found out that there is a Faith No More album from 1992 named Angel Dust. And I thought it was very interesting, since Courtney was in an early incarnation of that band. This is a quote from the real story:

"While waiting for the perfect bandmates to turn up, Courtney danced at Jumbo's Clown Room again, and also the Seventh Veil and Star Strip, places that had refused to hire her when she was heavier. She soon quit, though: the DJs kept playing Faith No More, and she couldn't stand to think of the smirk that would grace Roddy Bottum's chiseled face if he knew that Courtney Love was taking her clothes of to his band."

Of course, when this happened, around 1989, the album Angel Dust weren't released, but by the time Courtney wrote Asking For It, it probably was. So: my conclution, "Angel Dust and my dress just comes undone" is about stripping to Faith No More. Maybe.


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By Willie

I'm gonna make this quick and not go into too much detail but i think that the song "playing your song" is about either an experience she (Courtney) or some one she heard about or somthing like that beeing sold out by a record company "...it's F**kin wonderful they sold you out" and then using the fact that they bought all the rights they can mess around with it however they want ".....now they're playing your song, and every note of it is wrong.." any ways i promised i wouldn't get into too much detail so i'll end it at that. come to your own conclusions.....i'm too lazy.


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By Kathryn

'Use Once and Destory' is a warning lifted from the side of a hypodermic needle. This song is obviously about heroin abuse. As any addict will tell you it is hard to use heroin once and never again and that is why the song title fits the song so well. The narrator of the song makes a point of going down to rescue someone. Down to the terrible place that is drug addiction, to find the remains of what is left after the austerity that is heroin. 'just say you don't care' illustrates my point because heroin brings upon apathy in a person and that is what courtney is finding in the person that she wants to save, even though she should be working on saving herself.
Also, drown soda is similiar in lyrical content but instead of rescueing someone the song is more resentful toward the drug dealer that got her hooked in the first place. i could go on all day about this but i'll stop now and all of this is meant to be questioned. that is the point.


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By D'Arcy Violet

I think Teenage Whore is about Courtney's problems w/her mother.I like it because I can relate. "i've seen your repulsion and it looks real good on you" shows how people are repulsed by her and all she wants is love. "i've seen your repulsion and i know what it can do" shows how it has effected her. it has made her become a "whore" to get some feeling of love and beauty. "Olympia" is about the riot grrl scene,how people said she was in it, how suddenly there was an "influx" of it, how everyone sounded the same, but hole never did.thats what i think it meant to courtney, although we relate to it as being trapped in this hell called highschool. i dont think she purposely wrote it about highschool, espically considering that her whimm of "highschool" was in many different settings and not really what we consider highschool.


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By Miranda

I think "playing your song" is about going to the depths for wanting something that is so bad. Or not really bad, but something that you feel you need and sometimes it ends up turned around on you. However, I think that the song could be about how people treated Courtney when Kurt died. "I went down for loving you....". Then it could be about addiction to drugs and the want for them. Well, that's all I could think of.


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By Rach

i don't think every single hole song is about kurt, but i'm pretty sure, or at least to me, northern star is. a lot of people have already dissected this but i only want to add that i think "and they paid to cry and cry for you, ghosts that haunt you with their sorrow" is about all of the suicides following kurt's death. they cried for him so much that all they could do was die because they saw no other way out and if kurt had known about any of it, it would have haunted him.


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By Claire

I was surprised that, as far as I could tell, nobody has posted about this. "It stands for knife" - what stands for knife? The letter K. What does K stand for? Kurt. If you substitute "K" for "it" (as I seem to remember Courtney doing) you get "K stands for knife for the rest of my life." Well, considering what she's said the song is about (thinking Kurt liked some loser better than her), that makes sense. And live, when she changes it to "the rest of your life" - that's interesting too.


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By Natasza

I think Garbadge Man is about a person who's dying, and he lies on his deathbed, and there's no one next to him to hold his hand or whatever (Hey, where the fuck were you when my lights went out?).
And I think the last two lines are about the funeral.
"And everyone of you looks the same" - all dressed in black.
"And everyone of you feels the same" - everyone's sad, I guess.


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By Edie

I was looking through some of the other interpretations and noticed no one had come up with one for "Petals".

The picture on the back of Celebrity Skin could be an illustration for Petals. I think the picture is of Ophelia, Hamlet's lover in the tragic play by Shakespere. Ophelia goes mad after Hamlet murders her father. She kills herself by throwing herself into a river and is found dead surrounded by flowers.

"Celebrity Skin" is dedicated to anyone who ever drowned. "Petals" is about drowning. Life get too hard and you are overwhelmed.

The song seems to be about the inability to cope. People strip the petals off you until there is nothing left. You lose all that protects you and you are left vunerable. It's a bit like growing up. You lose that protective covering and the world changes. The brightness of childhood disappears and the world can look grim and dark. Changing from spring to winter.

Ophelia was stirpped of al her petals. Hamlet took her as a lover and then betrayed her. She was left vunerable and drowned in a sea of emotions she couldn't handle. Eventually, she went mad and finally drowns again when she kills herself in the river.


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By Simon

After reading what I thought were some incorrect interpretations to Northern Star, I thought I should give you guys my interpretation. Kurt had been suicidal for a long time before he finally decided to go. Courtney knew that "nothing stops it happening", including whatever she could do for him and she "cried because (he was) doomed". She knew that the "misery" that was their love-hate relationship was something she would cherish alone, because who else could understand the life they shared, especially since Kurt was "so cold" and hard to love? Courtney prays to "the worm that swallows all that’s cold and cruel", as she imagines a being that could take away Kurt’s negative emotions. Kurt was so cynical and pessimistic that he couldn’t see the "charity and gratitude" around him and instead choose to "run to the pines", a metaphor for Kurt running away hurt, where he "shivered the whole night through" (from the cover song in MTV Unplugged). Courtney knew the "fire and ashes of his grace" - this is a reference to Kurt’s warning that Courtney would choke on his ashes in All Apologies. "Blessed are the broken" means that people who are deeply depressed have a quality that can be seen as a blessing. "No misery is worth you" is a tricky one. She "cherished all (her) misery alone" and therefore her misery was a good thing, but not as good as Kurt being alive. My take of why the northern star won’t "lead (Kurt) anywhere" is a little sketchy, but I think it has to do with both of them being atheists. In the Heart Shaped Box video, Santa Clause was nailed to the cross; an atheist view that God is a being like Santa Clause, that only simple minded children can believe in. Also, in Gutless she said "I don’t really miss God, but I sure miss Santa Clause". Anyway, Courtney prays to the northern star, a power of the universe that she doubts is a conscious being and therefore she’s afraid this power won’t lead Kurt anywhere. Some of the other songs on Celebrity Skin are about her friend, Drew Barrymore but they’re mostly about Kurt.


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By SiObHaN

i think I Think That I Would Die is about both Courtney and the whole vanity fair/frances bean thing and heroin use..(not insulting courtney or anything) cos u have
'I want my baby
Where is the baby? I want my baby
Who took my baby?'
which to me is frances bean being taken into care..like wheres my baby? and then theres the heroin references
'Yeah yeah
I want some
Yeah yeah
There is none'
this is like herion addiction..needing it but trying to get off of it to get her baby back by going cold turkey on it. and then
'Rose white, rose red
Rose up in my head
Rose white, rose red'
The the rose red is the blood...the white rose is the heroin..mising up and going to your head.. and then
'She lost all her innocence
Gave it to an abscess'
abscess due to heroin use..finally back to the subject of losing her child:
'There is no milk!'
no milk because there is no child...well thats what i think anyways..yeh..


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By Kat

this is wut i think malibu means...
well i think its about both kristin and kurt really, because theres references to death and drug abuse in there , and things like how'd u get so deperate - becoz kristin was fine and then she got into the wrong crowd and got hooked..and how'd u stay aliive is about how they both managed to live 4 so long thru all tehir shit...and help me burn the sorrow from ur eyes is pretty self explanitory. Also malibu maybe being like a metaphore 4 heaven??


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By Chris

Hit So Hard – although the abusive relationship analogy works well here (and as the song was heavily inspired by Carole King’s ‘He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)’, it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the intention behind the lyrics) I think it’s more about an unrequited adoration of someone. Falling completely and utterly in love with someone, even though you know it could never work out or that said love is bad for you (‘... the boy, the one I love I should destroy’). The lyrics in the second verse are particularly telling, definitely about being so entranced by someone’s beauty and everyone else feeling the same way (‘one by one they all fall down, I look at you and drown’). It’s about the untouchable guy of our dreams who we all fall for once in a while and know that we are completely out of our league.

Malibu – The Californian city of Malibu is used as a metaphor for a place of salvation, some sort of sanctuary where the world has become so dependant on illusion and falsity that the harsh biting nature of reality is completely eradicated. Courtney sings about someone who needs saving, who is drowning in their own weakness and/or sorrow. Who it’s about is irrelevant, what shines through on this track is a desperate plea to someone to get away from it all and immerse themselves in a safe (read: false) environment where they can just be happy for a while. The final line ‘I can’t be near you, the light just radiates’ and other lines like ‘go and part the sea’ refers to the amazing qualities this person has – Courts ain’t singing about some deadshit, it’s someone who has fantastic potential and just needs time to themself to realise it.

Heaven Tonight – This song is, to me, about losing your virginity and the mixed feelings most people feel; the metaphor of death is a powerful one, dying and going to heaven because of the orgasmic pleasure of being ‘one’ with someone, and the death of your own purity and innocence. The loss of childhood, and the replacement of childish feelings with the pain of knowledge and confusion of reality.

Miss World – a song about having everything and still feeling unfulfilled. Not difficult to discern Courtney was probably writing about herself.

Doll Parts – like ‘Hit So Hard’, I think ‘Doll Parts’ is about a crush or – if that sounds too fickle – an intense unrequited relationship with someone. Love is the most powerful emotion, regardless of whether that love is returned or not, and ‘Doll Parts’ seems to me to be an unambiguous exploration of the emotions the ‘victim’ of such a relationship can often feel. ‘I love him so much it just turns to hate’ admits Courtney, the love you feel for someone you can’t have eventually manifests into hate towards yourself for falling for someone you can’t have. ‘I fake it so real I am beyond fake’ I think refers to someone trying to change who they are to win the affections of their dream guy, turning yourself into the person you think he will fall for. The metaphor of being doll parts is about feeling flung about, broken, disconnected, partial when you give everything you have to someone who’ll never want you in the same way. ‘I want to be the girl with the most cake’? I want to possess all the qualities which will make you love me. The repetition of the line ‘someday you will ache like I ache’ is a knowing admission that unrequited love is a universal feeling, and everyone at some stage in their life will love someone you can’t have.


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By Natalie

Violet-- i think this song has multiple meanings. first of all, the line "and the sky was made of amethyst"; a) amethyst was a symbol of royalty because of its color around the renaissance era (thus symbolizing hollywood, all the celebrities) b) it was also used in religious services, which could have to do with hollywood and celebs being worshiped, or with her worshiping kurt which brings me to c) amethyst is the pisces birth stone, and kurt was a pisces, which ties into the second line "and all the stars look just like little fish." courtney also hinted at it being about billy corgan in interviews. not only this, but if you watch the video you can see that during the bridge her clothes are being ripped off by the audience, which actually happened to her on stage. i see it as a reference to her whole life in general: she wanted to be a rockstar, an actress-- for her and kurt to be the "new sid and nancy"... and she got it all. "when they get what they want, then they never want it again.... when i get what i want, then i never want it again." although all of this seemed glamorous on the outside, it was all just rotting from within. she was picked apart by the media, and even raped by her own audience, and her personal relationships were deteriorating despite the effort she put in to create those relationships. so they and she all got what they wanted, but they never want it again.


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By Paola

Reasons To Be Beautiful - This song for me is about sex-love relationships. You can see that on the first two sentences. How sex is a part of us that can make us feel beautiful, to find a reason to be like that just for pleasure. Anyway the last sentences, when courtney begins to whisper is another lyric-song. Those lines for me are perfectly for kurt, is just obvious. The pain that you can feel on courtney's voice and a kind of giving up phrase at the end.


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By Nata

Ok,we all know that the whole album "Celebrity Skin" refers to the loss of Courtney's husband and intimate Kurt. Although not everyone agrees, I'm insisting that if you penetrate deeper in the lyrics and words, I may assure you you'll see the main idea and the main... feeling.. Just read it and think. Think of her not as Courtney Love but as a girl who has a suffering soul and bleedig heart. That's it.

So,i'd like to mention "Northern Star" where you can clearly notice all the depth of her feelings and thoughts, i presume.. It's full of tears, sorrow, pain, wails and anguish... It's also clear what does she mean by such words and lines like (i can explain you every single line, cuz i've spent a lot of time thinking over it) "And I cry and no one can hear" - of course noone!, cuz courtney didn't show up anyone her feelings! She's so fucking strong! She entreats to be pitiful to her... And then "And I wait staring at the northern star I'm afraid it won't lead me anywhere". Yeah, she was always staring at the sky, stars, she knew he'd become an angel.. Angels are always above. But the stars didn't show her anything and they didn't lead her anywhere - the emptiness..... "it won't lead" - it's all vain! "I cry and cry for you" - it speaks for itself. She tells that it's so cold and dark.. without a sun.. without a light.. sparkle.. Yeah, sure, i guess she lost her light and sun for a while!!! It's not the only thing she lost... She lost part of herslef! "I want you" - how she misses him... "No loneliness, no misery is worth you" - what an asshole! She cries and prays for him, she feels low after he'd just taken a gun and shot himself.. and left her alone.. fuck.. We have to add those words she used at her concerts, u all know them "We r terrified, we r naked... all died.... I will see you.. on. the. other. side.."

She's praying.. yeah.. he's an angel. Nothing else is left but praying.. to an angel.. I guess it doesn't need any further explanations cuz the point is clear.

Don't you dare blame her in killing kurt! She loves him even now cuz angels never die... in the depth of the heart..

I hope there's noone who disagrees..!


There's one more lyrics i'd like to talk about. It is MALIBU .You know, from the first time of listening, nothing shows you that this song is rather sad than gleeful, because of its liveliness of the rythm. But afterwards, you just wonder "What is she singing about?" And that is the point. You read the lyrics and you are like "Oh my..it's so desperate.." Right you are.

This song likewise the most implies Kurt.. "Help me please. Burn the sorrow from your eyes" - she can't stand the sorrow and the misery.."Come on,be alive,don't lay down and die.." - she's calling him. I remember one expression "While there's a life,there's a hope." She wants him back. Unlike "Dying" where she losing all her hope finally gives up, realizing he's gone... forever. "Get well soon" - honey, i'm still waiting for you (remember Northern Star ). "CRY TO THE ANGELS, I'M GONNA RESCUE YOU IM GONNA SET YOU FREE TONIGHT BABY POUR OVER ME" - COURTNEY's still fighting, she doesn't admit anything yet. She just can't believe (maybe doesn't want to..?) and she swears that she'll rescue him from all the pain "pour over her!" "And the sun goes down i watch you slip away... and the sun goes down i walk into the waves.." - she's sitting by the bay watching him away. While she's watching she wanna/eager to be nearer.."I can't be near you" but unfortunately she can't... cuz he's already gone, and she realizes she can't reach him and be with him anymore....


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By EANORVAL

doll parts
ive heard that this song was written way back before kurt died, she sat in her friends room and wrote the song doll parts about kurt not noticing her and that she couldnt get him to look at her. i think the doll reference basically means she thinks shes just simple and nothing special so why would he like her?. the 'they really want you' means that loads of girls were trying it on with him, and she didnt think she stood a chance, i think its just a very self indulgent song about love and how it hurts people and makes people do the weirdest things but thats what makes it so personal to people and moving


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By MissUtero

Jennifers Body
I think this song is Courtney's way of talking about her relationship w/ Kurt..she talks about how his emotions and actions make their life like a rollercoaster, When she says "you're hungry,but i'm starving" its like, hey i've got it worse than you, you react dramatically over small things...shes also talking about how even though shes outspoken and everything, she lets kurts life control hers in the way because he's the love of her life, and she partly hates herself for being weak of her own accord. i think its partly about this girl jennifer who does the same thing, but Courtney's meaning is more subtle. Also when shes says "Kill the family save the son." Son or Sun in her lyrics are most of the time a referrenc to Kurt, its what she calls him,its like saying i only want to be w/ Kurt-get rid of everyone else, and if shes too tired too handle it then "Just relax just relax just go to sleep..."


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