why do people on ILM hate "live through this" ?

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (340 of them)
has Chuck Eddy been possessed by Neil Strauss?

shookout (shookout), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:00 (twenty years ago) link

I think part of the problem with the whole debate as it's now eternally framed (here and elsewhere) regarding her work is that you can't simply say you're not too impressed the results without a lot of people -- not everyone, mind you -- saying you're either a bigot of some sort or in agreement with them that she's living off others' work (or whatever).

I can hum the chorus to "Miss World" and I've heard a really great arrangement of "Malibu" once. Saw Hole twice live. And I just don't think much of her beyond any of that.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:00 (twenty years ago) link

Hm,looking over the song titles, I do have a lot of good memories. Unfortunately it's not due back for a couple days.

I really don't see the relevance of the 'who wrote it?' debate either.

sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:01 (twenty years ago) link

Have any of her "fuck buddies" ever come out and said Courtney doesn't write her own lyrics?

Allyzay Science Explosion (allyzay), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:03 (twenty years ago) link

I mean, IIRC, the Elvis songs and Shangri-La songs in questions were, like, actually credited to other people and not co-credited to Presley or whomever.

Allyzay Science Explosion (allyzay), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:04 (twenty years ago) link

and mrs. einstein came up with e=mc2 big fucking deal

I really don't see the relevance of the 'who wrote it?' debate either.

The question being mooted since this thread heated up (in my pea brain, at least) is Chuck's claim that she is a better songwriter than her husband.

xpost:
Have any of her "fuck buddies" ever come out and said Courtney doesn't write her own lyrics?

That would be debating her lyricism. Chuck brought up songwriting.

frankE (frankE), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:06 (twenty years ago) link

dunno, listening to Pretty on the Inside, followed by Live Through This, followed by Celebrity Skin (let alone America's Sweetheart), they sure *sound* like they were written by multiple personalities at the very least.

You could say that about a lot of artists, though.

Leon Czolgosz (Nicole), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:06 (twenty years ago) link

Chuck's claim that she is a better songwriter than her husband

Should I say something about radical subjectivism now?

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:07 (twenty years ago) link

Should I say something about radical subjectivism now?

Isn't that what ILM is all about?!?

frankE (frankE), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:08 (twenty years ago) link

and mrs. einstein came up with e=mc2 big fucking deal

Yes, actually, that would be a big fucking deal. And not just for women wearing lab coats. Oh fucking hell, it's neither here nor there. (But I do get your point, Blount.)

Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:08 (twenty years ago) link

oh so what you're saying is the tenth generation classic rock riffs she wrapped herself in weren't as good as the tenth generation classic rock riffs her husband wrapped himself in?


and celelbrity skin and live thru this sound very much like they were written by the same person (at different points in the market cycle)(fwiw gimme the best parts of celebrity skin over the best parts of live thru this ANY DAY)

cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:10 (twenty years ago) link

I'm just waiting for that two-album greatest-hits Interscope/Geffen cash-in budget comp.

CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:12 (twenty years ago) link

cuz Hole sounds great on the radio but I haven't really been moved by either album being played on a friend's stereo (and haha nobody's talking about Pretty On The Inside).

CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:12 (twenty years ago) link

I really should give her solo album another try but I think I'm allergic to Linda Perry & Jim Barber.

CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:15 (twenty years ago) link

It's pretty meh, even most people I know who like her aren't really into it.

Leon Czolgosz (Nicole), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:20 (twenty years ago) link

It was a Pick Hit for Xgau. Supposedly it's Tonight's The Night 2K.

CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:28 (twenty years ago) link

like we needed a new rod stewart

cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:31 (twenty years ago) link

chuck e. so completely otm all the way through this thread.

this -- gimme the best parts of celebrity skin over the best parts of live thru this ANY DAY -- is also true, celebrity skin has better singles even though I think LTT is a better album (i.e. has fewer crappy songs).

But I love those two records, and other scattered Courtney stuff. I don't understand the hate either. Not liking her music, being put off by her shtick, OK, I can see that even if I completely disagree. But the nastiness toward her comes from other, viler places.

spittle (spittle), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:31 (twenty years ago) link

the nastiness is triggered by how she she has gone about her career -- what may be wrong is singling her out for actions just as many males have also done -- that said, one has ask oneself if that is relevant to a discussion of her music, which should perphaps be discussed as a discrete entity instead of mixing it together with Love as a person.

jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:37 (twenty years ago) link

my assumptions aside, i had always found hole's music very pedestrian. not that i thought the was music bad necessarily, but there was never anything that really stood out to me.

dyson (dyson), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 17:51 (twenty years ago) link

Oh please. Patty Schemel > Dave Grohl.

Oh do give me a royal break. Je4nne, you know I love ya, but that statement is simply a TOWERING STACK OF FRESHLY SQUEEZED, UNHOMOGENIZED CRAPOLA

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 18:52 (twenty years ago) link

Joan Jett and Lita Ford are fucking awesome.

Hells yeah.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 18:52 (twenty years ago) link

I don't care if Live Through This was co-written by an estimable committee of Ian McCulloch, Julian Cope, Jaz Coleman , Nick Cave and Hugh Cornwell.....Courtney Love's vile presence is all over it....THUS IT IS WITHOUT MERIT!

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 18:54 (twenty years ago) link

Typical white-male sexism.

frankE (frankE), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 18:57 (twenty years ago) link

i'm with dyson

amateur!!st, Tuesday, 31 August 2004 18:59 (twenty years ago) link

Typical white-male sexism.

:::yawn::::

Last time I checked, Courtney Love did not singularly represent every solitary member of her particular gender.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:01 (twenty years ago) link

In case you couldn't tell, I was being sarcastic.

See upthread...

frankE (frankE), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:02 (twenty years ago) link

that was to read:
>homer<In case you couldn't tell, I was being sarcastic.>/homer<

frankE (frankE), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:03 (twenty years ago) link

June preliminary Pazz & Jop 2004 ballot
Felt like posting what would be my Pazz & Jop list if the ballot were due today.

Answers
ALBUMS:
1. Courtney Love America's Sweetheart
2. Living Things Black Skies in Broad Daylight
3. The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me
4. David Banner MTA2: Baptized in Dirty Water
5. Mahjongg Machinegong
6. Icarus Line Penance Soiree
7. Will to Power Spirit Warrior
8. Country Teasers Full Moon Empty Sportsbag
9. Les Baton Rouge My Body - The Pistol

-- Frank Kogan (edcasua...), June 1st, 2004.

c.e., Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:05 (twenty years ago) link

Last time I checked, Courtney Love did not singularly represent every solitary member of her particular gender.

call this short-sighted, but I kinda wish she did! at least for a day I'd love it if every woman I encountered was stumbling around screaming that Vanity Fair had fucked them over again and nobody in this town has read any goddamn sartre.

CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:06 (twenty years ago) link

What people who like Lita Ford and Joan Jett should really do is stick the new Courtney album in their CD changer, and leave it there until they forget who it's by, and put all the discs on random play. I honestly believe if they get the stupid "oh my god I hate Courtney Love" cobwebs out of their head, they will wind up thinking more than once, "wow, this is a really good rock song, I wonder who's singing it," and then when they look, they'll say, "oh shit, it's Courtney! I guess her record isn't as awful as I thought after all. Oh well!"


ched, Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:11 (twenty years ago) link

And then they should do the exact same thing with the new Ashlee Simpson album (which sounds very similar, and might be even better!!)

chuck, Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:13 (twenty years ago) link

that's a fair challenge. if i ever get a free copy of the records i'll try it.

amateur!!st, Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:15 (twenty years ago) link

Maybe you should put them on your Christmas or birthday list!

ched, Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:21 (twenty years ago) link

I was thinking about this on the way home. A couple of things struck me:

1/the topic question - "why do people on ilm hate 'live through this'"? That's kind of a curious question, really. there's a bunch of views w/r/t courtney on this thread and others on ilm. On a bunch of other boards I read, whenever her name comes up, the responses are much more consistently negative, like "she's going to die ha ha" 95% "actually she's cool" 5%

2/I did used to really hate her whole schtick, and the music and stuff, but it was because of the 100% +ve, gushing praise they got in the music papers. That was kind of annoying. Now I don't give a shit really

3/lita ford and joan jett are indeed fucking awesome, joan jett especially. I wasn't thinking about this on the way home (I was thinking: Lydia Lunch is fucking awesome, babes in toyland were ok, I guess) I just read that on this thread.

Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:22 (twenty years ago) link

For whatever it's worth, given how I'd heard she'd allegedly been shooting up heroin pregnant and all, I totally HATED Courtney around the time of *Live Through This,* which, when I first heard it, I dismissed as a half-assed *Evol*/*Wild Gift* ripoff. (At first, the last track on it, "Olympia" or whatever it was called, was the only song I liked on it!) Plus *Pretty Inside* had just struck me (and still does, last time I checked) as some moronic Babes in Toyland/Bratmobile crap (i.e. -- not even as good as Frightwig OR Raszebrae!) But eventually I guess I just stopped thinking of her as a human being, or celebrity, or whatever. Which helped, somehow.

chuck, Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:41 (twenty years ago) link

I'm not quite sure how one can (arguably) mistakenly see an album as an Evol/Wild Gift rip-off because of the singer's celebrity.

CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:47 (twenty years ago) link

Raszebrae

Did you talk about them in Stairway to Hell? I recognize this name...

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:48 (twenty years ago) link

Nah, that's just how I heard it. I just didn't see what the big deal was, but maybe her celebrity (and her shitty previous album) (and, let's face it, the free ride it was getting from rock critics) was causing me not to listen to it close enough, or give it a fair shake.

xpost

yeah, I think Raszebrae are #499 out of 500, or something!

chuck, Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:50 (twenty years ago) link

I definitely didn't hear Evol in it! Possibly Dirty if I really wanted to stretch things. But even the Kim Gordon songs on Evol are way dreamy/atmospheric/abstract (= "Muzak" in your terms?;)).

I would take her over Ian McCulloch, probably, though.

sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:53 (twenty years ago) link

Positive references to Ian McCulloch is what keeps me from taking a lot of the older male Ilxors seriously.

CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:56 (twenty years ago) link

We're talking about Pete De Freitas and Will Sergant more, ya nutjob.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:56 (twenty years ago) link

I mean at least I admit my goofy-lookin' faves are clowns

CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 19:57 (twenty years ago) link

Word, CeCe, word.

sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 20:02 (twenty years ago) link

I should link to Alex In NYC's "Linkin Park Vs. The Cult" thread as an example but I'm lazy.

Oh woah, and "She Sells Sanctuary" just came on my stereo as I typed this. Eerie.

CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 20:03 (twenty years ago) link

I will admit that Ian Astbury's lobotomized "c'mawn pretty mama, sexy sioux lady drug goddess" inanity is more applicable to happy days than Linkin's Colicky Depeche Mode with a backwards hat shtick.

CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 20:06 (twenty years ago) link

AlexNYC, I serve you my pile of crap on a silver platter, my man. And I'm with Cheddy. I wish people could get the fuck over Courtney and hear the music the same way I wish they could get the fuck over Kurt and hear the music.

Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 20:07 (twenty years ago) link

I rate Courtney's creative output slightly below that of, oh, Puff Daddy. In that they both represent the creative nadir of their respective genres, driven by pathological desires for money/fame, and each rode down the river of success on the corpses of their dead partners.

I find it funny that chuck thinks "Doll Parts" - a prototypical Cobain song if there ever was one; the lyrical imagery, structure, overall sound and vocal delivery are all quintessential Kcurdt - is somehow better than anything Cobain actually issued under his own name. Ever the contrarian...

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 31 August 2004 20:07 (twenty years ago) link

how do you America's Sweetheart fans rate Ryan Adams' Rock'n'Roll album? Jim Barber's golden touch is on that one too.

CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 20:09 (twenty years ago) link

someone asked about any known evidence of Kurt having written any of LTT, and for what it's worth I remember that maybe a couple years after the album, there was a big deal about a studio engineer leaking an alternate version of "Asking For It" that had Kurt singing backup vocals, I heard it on the radio once, it was pretty clearly him.

Al (sitcom), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 20:10 (twenty years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.