Married and Buried: Punk As A Four-Letter Word, Part One

Posted in Music, Retrovirus, We Miss The Nineties |

Cheap Trick’s Tom Petersson

It wasn’t hard to say yes to that proposal. Love was stunning, in a gorgeous velvet outfit and hair she’d recently colored black. All my misgivings about her vanished: she was incredibly nice, charming, funny, and happy to indulge us with gossip about Redd Kross.

Eventually, she and Frances moved out of New Orleans. I never did get that interview.

I saw The People Vs. Larry Flynt and thought Courtney was outstanding. I was less impressed with Hole’s Celebrity Skin album, which I thought was soulless and disappointing. And not long afterwards, insanity took hold of her once again: charges of assault, drug possession, breaking and entering, and public drunkenness seemed ubiquitous in the press. She flashed her breasts at David Letterman and let some stranger suckle at them in a fast food restaurant. And cameras caught it all.

Even though I was horrified by these public displays of crazy near the start of this new millennium, I felt bad for her. In fact, I agreed with her stance against the RIAA. I defended her whenever she came up in conversation, much to the annoyance of Nirvana fans who had always hated her. I scoffed at the notion she’d hired El Duce of the Mentors to kill Kurt Cobain (and knowing of her twisted sense of humor, I wouldn’t be surprised if she created that story to screw with people’s heads).

However, as her descent into oblivion continued, I began to think she was destroying any credibility, intelligence, or talent she once had. Still, I defended her during the controversy that ensued when she held onto the unreleased Nirvana track “You Know You’re Right.” And I defended her when she lost custody of Frances Bean.

Although much of her 2004 album, the ironically titled America’s Sweetheart, was totally intolerable, I actually liked some of the songs. I was baffled by the collaborations with Linda Perry (not to mention the thanks she gave to Kirstie Alley and Scientology), but in my opinion, there was no denying that there was talent lurking behind the copious drug use.

I even defended Courtney when I saw her on a Canadian television interview, looking like an overweight drag queen, talking about practicing Buddhism while she name-dropped celebrity friends. I had no idea how much I’d change my mind about her in the very near future.

Read Part Two of this article here.

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