Author | Courtney Love |
---|---|
Cover artist | Headcase Design (photo by Kurt Cobain) |
Language | English |
Genre | Diary |
Publisher | Faber & Faber |
Publication date | 2006 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love is a memoir by the rock musician and actress Courtney Love, published by Faber & Faber in October 2006. It contains journal entries, letters, poetry, handwritten song lyrics, artwork, collages, school and juvenile hall entries, show fliers, photographs and notes. [1] [2] [3]
Dirty Blonde includes a suicide-note-like apology letter addressed to Love's deceased husband Kurt Cobain and her daughter Frances Bean written on a Sunset Marquis Hotel letterhead: "I love you. Please forgive me. ... You are both too beautiful for me. I love you forever". It also includes a bitter note, realizing that she is "a public figure unhappy with my share of the American dream. There can only be one reason for this. I am on drugs, and have the morals and mentality of a cartoon character. What did I want after all??", and a 1976 rejection letter from The New Mickey Mouse Club for "Coco Rodriguez", a name she adopted while living with stepfather Frank Rodriguez. The show was looking for "youngsters who have exceptional singing, dancing, or musical ability, with a marked degree of performance experience," and, as a consolation prize for not qualifying, a picture of Mickey Mouse was sent to her.
There are also a 1979 report from Hillcrest School which documents Love as screaming and swearing about bugs ("Refused to be reasonable, [...] She became louder and more insistent"), and text about Cobain's suicide. On April 17, 1994, Love wrote: ("Exactly one month ago today was the last time I made love with my husband. I cooked him dinner. We spent four hours in the playroom with Frances. We saw 'Schindler's List.' It made us frightened for life and we saw the value of life. Our convictions we defined until 4 a.m. and we fell asleep in each other's arms and woke up that way in the morning"), plus one note saying that Cobain's 1994 overdose in Rome was a "huge cover-up".
The material contains an e-mail exchange with Lindsay Lohan about negative press coverage, comments about the JT LeRoy's hoax (she exchanged e-mails with "him" for years), lyrics of songs that would figure on her forthcoming album, Nobody's Daughter , and photos from the recording sessions. In a pre-release interview, Love declared that, on the book, she "scrubbed clean the mud and rags of 2000-01-02-03-04 & 05. Five years of hell. Everything runs in seven-year cycles. Well I'm definitely out of my darkness now." [4] The memoir contains a foreword by Carrie Fisher and afterwords by Manifesta's Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards.
In 2019, Love moved to London to focus on writing a new book. [5] [6]
Courtney Michelle Love is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989. Love has drawn public attention for her uninhibited live performances and confrontational lyrics, as well as her highly publicized personal life following her marriage to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. In 2020, NME named her one of the most influential singers in alternative culture of the last 30 years.
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American musician who was the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and a founding member of the grunge band Nirvana. Through his angsty songwriting and anti-establishment persona, his compositions widened the thematic conventions of mainstream rock music. He was heralded as a spokesman of Generation X and is widely recognized as one of the most influential alternative rock musicians.
Hole was an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1989. It was founded by singer and guitarist Courtney Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson. It had several different bassists and drummers, the most prolific being drummer Patty Schemel, and bassists Kristen Pfaff and Melissa Auf der Maur. Hole released a total of four studio albums between two incarnations spanning the 1990s and early-2010s and became one of the most commercially successful rock bands in history fronted by a woman.
Live Through This is the second studio album by the American alternative rock band Hole, released on April 12, 1994, by DGC Records. Recorded in late 1993, it departed from the band's unpolished hardcore aesthetics to more refined melodies and song structure. Frontwoman Courtney Love said that she wanted the record to be "shocking to the people who think that we don't have a soft edge", but maintain a harsh sensibility. The album was produced by Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie and mixed by Scott Litt and J Mascis. The lyrics and packaging reflect Love's thematic preoccupations with beauty, and motifs of milk, motherhood, anti-elitism, and violence against women, while Love derived the album title from a quote in Gone with the Wind (1939).
Frances Bean Cobain is an American visual artist and model. She is the only child of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and Hole frontwoman Courtney Love. She controls the publicity rights to her father's name and image.
Pretty on the Inside is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Hole, released on September 17, 1991, in the United States on Caroline Records. Produced by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, and Gumball frontman Don Fleming, the album was Hole's first major label release after the band's formation in 1989 by vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Courtney Love and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson.
"Do Re Mi" is a song by American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. It first appeared on the band's rarities box set, With the Lights Out, released in November 2004. A second version appears on the deluxe edition of Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings, released in November 2015.
"Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It is the fifth song on their third and final studio album, In Utero, released in September 1993.
"Doll Parts" is a song by American alternative rock band Hole, written by vocalist and rhythm guitarist Courtney Love. The song was released as the band's sixth single and second from their second studio album, Live Through This, in November 1994 to accompany the band's North American tour. It was also the first single to be released following the death of bassist Kristen Pfaff in June 1994.
"Violet" is a song by American alternative rock band Hole, written by vocalist and guitarist Courtney Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson. The song was written in mid-1991, and was performed live between 1991 and 1992 during Hole's earlier tours, eventually appearing as the opening track on the band's second studio album Live Through This (1994). The song was released as the group's seventh single and the third from that album in early 1995.
On April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain, the lead singer and guitarist of the American rock band Nirvana, was found dead at his home on Lake Washington Boulevard in Seattle, Washington. Forensics investigators and a coroner later determined that Cobain had died on April 5, three days prior to the discovery of his body. The Seattle Police Department incident report stated that Cobain was found with a shotgun across his body, had suffered a visible gunshot wound to the head, and that a suicide note had been discovered nearby. Seattle police confirmed Cobain's death as a suicide.
Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain, published by Simon & Schuster, is a collaborative investigative journalism book written by Ian Halperin and Max Wallace purporting to show that Nirvana lead singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain, believed to have committed suicide, was in fact murdered, possibly at the behest of his wife Courtney Love. It is a follow-up to the authors' 1998 bestseller on the same subject, Who Killed Kurt Cobain?. The book is based on 30 hours of audiotaped conversations, exclusively obtained by the authors, between Courtney Love's private investigator, Tom Grant, and her and Cobain's entertainment attorney, Rosemary Carroll, who both dispute the official finding of suicide and believe Cobain was in fact murdered.
Pagan Babies were an American rock band formed by Kat Bjelland and Courtney Love in 1985. Love had initially conceived the band in Portland, Oregon with Bjelland under the name Sugar Babydoll, and the group was joined by bassist Jennifer Finch upon their relocation to San Francisco. The group would go through several lineup and name changes before recording a four-track demo under the Pagan Babies name with drummer Deirdre Schletter and bassist Janis Tanaka.
"Garbadge Man" is a song by the American alternative rock band Hole, written collectively by the band's original line-up. It is the third track on the band's first studio album, Pretty on the Inside, released on September 17, 1991, by Caroline Records. Dealing with religious and personal issues, "Garbadge Man" was Hole's first song to have a music video, which was broadcast on 120 Minutes on MTV several times in the early 1990s.
Kurt & Courtney is a 1998 British documentary film by Nick Broomfield investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Kurt Cobain, and allegations of Courtney Love's involvement in it.
The Return of Courtney Love is a 2006 documentary film by Will Yapp documenting the progression of musician Courtney Love's second studio album, How Dirty Girls Get Clean, as well as her recovery from drug addiction. The documentary was first broadcast on More4 in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 26 September 2006.
Soaked in Bleach is a 2015 American docudrama directed by Benjamin Statler, who co-wrote and produced it with Richard Middelton and Donnie Eichar. The film details the events leading up to the death of Kurt Cobain, as seen through the perspective of Tom Grant, the private detective who was hired by Courtney Love to find Cobain, shortly before his death in 1994. It also explores the theory that Cobain's death was not a suicide. The film stars Tyler Bryan as Cobain and Daniel Roebuck as Grant, with Sarah Scott portraying Courtney Love and August Emerson as Dylan Carlson.
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is a 2015 American documentary film about Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain. The film was directed by Brett Morgen and premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. It received a limited theatrical release worldwide and premiered on television in the United States on HBO on May 4, 2015. The documentary chronicles the life of Kurt Cobain from his birth in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1967, through his troubled early family life and teenage years and rise to fame as frontman of Nirvana, up to his suicide in April 1994 in Seattle at the age of 27.
"Fallen Angel" is a song by American singer and actress Traci Lords. It was released on August 3, 1995 by Radioactive Records as the second single from her debut studio album, 1000 Fires (1995). The Paul Oakenfold remix of the song was also featured on the soundtrack to the film Virtuosity (1995), in which Lords appeared. Written by Lords The chorus IS IT LOVE. Is questioning the role of Courtney Love in her husband’s death. Ben Watkins and Johann Bley, and produced by Juno Reactor, "Fallen Angel" is an electronic dance song with techno and trance influences. It also contains elements of ambient music and features Spanish guitar and castanets. Lyrically, the song deals with suicide and was inspired by the death of Kurt Cobain.
Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings is a compilation of home recordings by Kurt Cobain that were used as the soundtrack to the film Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, released posthumously on November 13, 2015 by Universal Music. The album was released as a standard 13-track CD, a 31-track deluxe album, and an audio cassette. The 13-track standard version focuses on the music found on Cobain's personal cassettes and the 31-track deluxe version showcases tracks from the documentary including spoken word, demos and full songs.