is Courtney Love the last great muse?

I have written a bit about the great muses of rock and roll.  There aren’t many.  Well, there are probably thousands… but ones who turn up over and over, across different artists?  There is two.  Joni Mitchell, and Patti Hanson/Bod/Harrison/Clapton.

In my piece on Joni Mitchell, I lamented we just don’t see the muse like we used to.  I also lamented that sweet beautiful hippy Joni Mitchell has turned in to an insufferable meanie.

There just might be a third great muse.  This muse is closer to our generation.  She is also way more fucked up that Joni Mitchell.  Who is the third?  Stay with me, because it is going to hurt at first.  I submit Courtney Love is the next great muse.  This is according to, of course, Courtney Love herself.  She didn’t say she was the next generation muse.  Those are too many big words for her.  She did say that Siamese Dream was written about her.  Siamese Dream is the super important and influential Smashing Pumpkins album.  Courtney recently said those songs were all written about her.  Her story absolutely checks out.  No one knows more about the Pumpkins and that album than me.  It was my all consuming passion through most of college.

Before Courtney met Kurt, she was with Billy Corgan.  They were damn near married.  They lived together for years.  Rumor goes that after they broke up, they went to small claims court to fight over custody of their cat, Lily.  Sounds dumb, but true.  You may recognize the name ‘Lily’ as it turns up on Mellon Collie.  The track is here.  Plus, Billy is a BIG cat rescue advocate.  He was literally on the cover of the Chicago Humane Society newsletter.

Here is what Courtney said.  Though she is a crazed narcissist who is nearly as unlikable as Kanye… her point is valid.

"Billy stopped writing about me, and then he stopped having hits"

This is beyond self involved, but likely true.  Why do I think her story checks out?  Because of this tiny comment.

"There's so many of them that are about me," Love croaked. "Most of Siamese Dream is about me," she continued, explaining that while "Spaceboy" was about Corgan's brother

You don’t know who Billy's’ brother is, but I do.  His name is Jesse.  He is Billy's step brother.  He is special needs/developmentally challenged.  Billy grew up with him, and has always looked out for him.  The other possibly of the inspiration for those songs is ‘Chris’, whom the album is dedicated to.  This gal was his other great tormentor, and was also a very brief marriage.  The liner notes in Siamese Dream only mention ‘Chris’, but being the obsessive fan I was, I know they are talking about Chris Fabian.   She is purty.

What else do we have for Courtney?  Well… Nirvana.  It is safe to assume much of what Kurt wrote was about Courtney.  Not just because they were married, but Courtney is a colossal pain in the ass.  She is larger than life in so many aspects.  She is our generations’ Yoko Ono.  Being the class act she is, she explained the nature of ‘Heart Shaped Box’.  The song was recently covered by pretend chanteuse Lana Del Ray (this again represents the allure of the muse… her story is told over and over again).  Court (I can call her that, you can not) told ole’ Lana what the song is really about.  It’s funny, and it’s likely true.

You do know the song is about my Vagina right? 'Throw down your umbilical noose so i can climb right back,' umm," wrote Love to Del Rey. "On top of which some of the lyrics about my vagina I contributed. So umm next time you sing it, think about my vagina will you

Wanna see it for yourself?  Why not, right?  Click here – NSFW.  To finish the tri-fecta, we need only a story of her sleeping with Eddie Vedder.  Sadly, no such story has surfaced… yet.

Here is another interesting note about Billy and Courtney... he kind of wrote all of her hits, too.  I have talked before about my effusive praise for Hole's 'Celebrity Skin'.  It's a goddamn great fucking record.  Now I know why I love it so much.  Billy wrote it for her.   He and Erlanson (Hole's norse viking ghost guitarist) wrote the album... not her.  It's ok, it's still great.   Don't get all high and mighty about her not writing her own stuff.  She does write some.  I can also tell you of the top ten songs on any given day... 7 of them were written by people other than the guy singing it.  Country music, surprisingly, uses the most ghostwriters.

I have written here before about Courtney… both in praise, and in disgust.  This piece fits somewhere in between, I reckon’.  Jesus, I went back and I a obsessed with this woman.  It's true.  

Ø  Courtney Love caught trying to sing and play guitar (and doing neither)

Ø  In praise of Celebrity Skin - a masterpiece!

Ø  Courtney needs a publicist, badly!

*** go ahead, just try and tell me that the excellent Eric Erlandson is not a norse - zombie - guitar player -  bond villain.