Courtney Love has shared her memories of making Hole's debut album, Pretty On The Inside, and admitted that from the moment she began a relationship with Kurt Cobain, “everything lost control.”
Pretty On The Inside was released on September 17, 1991, and announced Hole as one of the most exciting new bands on the US underground rock scene. Yesterday, September 17, to mark the album's 33rd anniversary, Love posted her thoughts on the record, saying that the 11-song set was born from “25 yrs of repressed rage.”
Referencing the album for an Instagram post shared by Fyeahcourtneylove, a fanpage dedicated to her music, Love states, “POTI’ [Pretty On The Inside] is like an exorcism it felt awesome to scream that loud and be that visceral and primal”, adding that the lyrics are “sick”.
“I never corrected one lyric,” she notes, “I simply scatted what was in my head then and it was 25 yrs of repressed rage”.
Love goes on to say that she considers the album's lyrics “the best I will ever do”, adding, “Rimbaud stopped young”, a reference, we're assuming, to French poet Arthur Rimbaud, rather than anarcho-punk icon Penny Rimbaud from Crass.
“I know im one of the best,” Love continues, “but ‘poti’? It can’t really be topped lyrically for feminine lyrics, feminine rage it was my first time letting go of all sense of proportion, whats ‘nice’.”
Love adds that she knew very quickly “the exact impact” that the album would have, “no more no less”, and writes, “it was awesome.”
She also notes that her best laid plans were thrown into chaos after she began her relentlessly-scrutinised relationship with Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, her future husband.
“I like being in total control like that, then I hooked up with Kurt Cobain at some point and everything lost control,” she states. “He-lovely, but the nonsense? well I’m still battling Kurt’s dammed demons. When do I get to battle mine? ‘poti’ differentiated me and gave me a ‘brand’ that I’m still trying to shed off of myself. I’m not 24 and spitting bile anymore! Damn!”
Love also admits that, although she had already written the brilliantly melodic Doll Parts at the time her band recorded Pretty On The Inside, she made the conscious decision not to include the song on the record: it would subsequently become one of the stand-out tracks on Live Through This, Hole's second record.
“The concept of that record was to totally deconstruct, utterly, no song songs,” she points out. “At least [Nirvana's debut album] Bleach had [Cobain's Beatles-esque] About A Girl’. I didn’t.”
